To build or to upgrade - help please

[d1m1]

Hi everyone, this is my first post around here. I hope to stick around, and contribute what I can. I've been lurking around for a while and it seems this is a good place to get advice, so, here's the issue I'd like some help with. I'm reposting this because my original post seems to have been lost in the moderation queue (apparently, my username got flagged as spam...)

First off,
Current computer specs:

• Case: Thermaltake Bach VX
• PSU: BFG Tech 800-Watt ES-800 Power Supply
• Motherboard: eVGA nForce 680i SLI [122-CK-NF68-A1]
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (stock 2.66 -- OC'd to 3.3 GHz)
• Heatsink: Zalman CNPS9700
• GPU: eVGA e-GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB PCI-Express [256-P2-N761-AR]
• Memory: 4 x OCZ 1 GB DDR2 PC2-6400 SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel [OCZ2N800SR2GK]
• Hard Drives:
  1. Maxtor STM35000320AS (500 GB) - Storage [SATA]
  2. Seagate ST350410AS (250 GB) - OS [SATA]
  3. Excelstor Technology J880 ( 80 GB) - Downloads [IDE] (old one; couple of sectors damaged but works)
• Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 2253LW (21.6'' LCD -- native resolution: 1680 x 1050)

Of course, I'd like to reuse as much of the hardware as possible -since I figure it'd be cheaper-, but if the best course of action is to build a new PC, at least the M/B (which is already End-Of-Life), memory, and heatsink (?) would have to go. These would serve to upgrade my mom's PC, as it is a 2 GHz Celeron with 1 GB of RAM (ouch). Giving my PC to her would be extremely overkill, though.

I have thought about two things, basically:

1. Upgrade GPU and CPU to the highest my MB -and budget- will allow (that means, no 45nm Quad Core CPUs -- MB doesn't support them officialy), and keep this PC for a couple more years (at best): Thinking about a C2D E8500-8600 and whichever GPU I can find.
   
2. Build a new PC (and, as said before, give this one to my mom, sans case).

For option #1, in addition to the E8500-8600 (I've heard pretty good things about their overclocking abilities), I'm also considering a GTX 260 (I'd like it to be EVGA since I have some EVGA bucks I can use. but it seems they've been out of stock for anything higher than a GTS 250 for quite a while now), but I should probably spend a little more on the GPU since it sould be something less to upgrade in the near future.

Option #2, well... the possiblities are endless...
Except for my budget, which does narrow things a little (bye-bye $599 EVGA Classified SR-2...)
I'm thinking I should upgrade to an i7-930 (just $30 higher than the E8600), get a good motherboard, memory and GPU, and upgrade other components as/if necessary.

So, in either case, this is where you, the reader, hopefully can help me with my choices.

My budget at the moment is around $700, without taking into account a gift card from Amazon and the EVGA bucks I mentioned earlier (60 EVGA Bucks + $34 Amazon gift card). I do, however, have to take shipping into account since I live in Venezuela and all the packages will be sent by courier (approx. $50 per box, minimum). I'm trying to use the EVGA bucks because, as you may or may not be aware, Venezuela has a strict currency control, and we're only allowed to spend $400 per year on internet purchases (it sucks, I know). The other $300 or so come from a sort of black market, which is a good option (considering there's no other), but rather expensive as well (normal exchange rate: $1 = 4.30 VEF. Black market exchange rate: $1 = 7.15 VEF.)
Anyway, moving on...

Things I do usually:
Gaming: FSX + Acceleration, Call of Duty Modern Warfare / World at War / Modern Warfare 2, Sims 3, Need for Speed: Shift, those types of games (in playing order, being FSX the one that I use almost daily).
Working: I use dual booting with Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows 7 Ultimate (both x64). Windows is mostly for games and ArcGIS (I study Systems Engineering and this program is required for a course), and Ubuntu is for everything else. I do programming work in PHP / C++ and other stuff, but that is OS independent. And I fold for the EVGA folding@home team both on Linux and Windows.

Buying/Building Time Frame:
I'm going to be buying all parts as soon as I can, so building will hopefully be around mid-April.

Just for reference, I chose some parts and checked the price on Amazon and evga.com:

• Motherboard: eVGA X58 SLI [132-BL-E758-A1] $299.99 (most people I've seen like the ASUS P6T board though)
• CPU: Intel Core i7 930 $294.99 (Ouch, $600 just on those 2 things...)
• Memory: OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) [OCZ3P1600LV6GK] $189.99

or, if I go the LGA1156 route -I've read around here that unless I intend to SLI/Crossfire (which I really don't for now -- see below) X58/1366 is not really necessary- it would be something like this:

• Motherboard: eVGA P55 FTW [132-LF-E657-KR] $229.99
• CPU: Intel Core i7 860 $274.99
• Memory: CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB [TW3X4G1333C9DHX] $111.14 (already saving ~$170 compared to the 1366 choice)

You might notice that I'm not picking any GPU. This is because, upon reading a review for the "Best cards for the money this month" at tomshardware.com, I read that, for example, the nVidia GTX 275 is already out of the market (that would explain why I cannot find the GTX 260 in stock either), so, I'm lost as to what options I currently have. I've always used nVidia, but won't mind if I have to use an ATI card this time. It's all about performance/price, not brand. Also, since I'm on a budget, I probably won't SLI/Crossfire for now. The 3-way SLI for the X58 is just me future-proofing, in a way, but I fear it will be the same as my current build: no SLI whatsoever, even though that was one of the key factors in mind when I made that build. I'd appreciate any suggestions on this.

So, any thoughts, suggestions? Sorry for the extremely long read, and thanks in advance.

 

[GLeeM]

And I fold for the EVGA folding@home team both on Linux and Windows.

Thought: Depending how important this is to you; and if you fold 24/7, the i7 930 with eight threads can finish the "-bigadv" WUs in time for a bonus. My i7 920 D0 at 3.99 Ghz gets ~26,000 ppd (counting bonus) in a Linux VM on Win7.

 

[M0RPH]

Why do you feel that you need to upgrade/replace your setup? What is it that feels slow to you? If it's gaming, just a new video card will do wonders for you. Something like a Radeon HD5770.

If you can wait another year to upgrade your CPU/mobo there will be some exciting upgrades like Sandy Bridge quad-core, native USB3/SATA6 and PCIe 3.0.

 

[Immortal1]

With your situation I would be doing an upgrade: GPU first, (as that could transfered to the new computer) then towards the end of the year get the RAM, and like Morph said wait for Sandy Bridge and get the CPU and MB. (or whatever will fit in that $400 per year window.) This way no black market and you should be able to reuse the other components.

 

[mfenn]

I would also like to point out that both of your motherboard choices are complete overkill. There is absolutely no reason to buy a $300 X58 board unless you're trying to beat overclocking records. Likewise for the P55 board, there is no reason to spend more than $150 on one.

 

[Davidh373]

Upgrade, a 5770 for $250 will do good for you. Your CPU should be fine unless you want high frames in GTA IV or BF: BC2. You could upgrade your CPU if you want to a Core 2 Quad. That's really all you'll need for the next few years.

 

[d1m1]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the replies.

So, essentially, it would be a good idea to just wait until better options are available, right? To answer M0RPH's (good, I might add) question, I just feel my PC isn't as fast as it once was. I wanted to get a little -or a lot, preferably- more performance out of it, but felt like upgrading it -besides the obvious bottleneck: the GPU- was going to be a waste of money, since the 775 is now a dead end, and there are new sockets/processors with more performance and comparable price (E8600 vs i7-930, for example). Also, since FSX is CPU-intensive, that got me thinking even more about a new build rather than an upgrade.

Although, I am aware that the problem on my rig is not the CPU, and perhaps overclocking it higher and putting a more powerful GPU would be fine for now.

Now, I have some questions:

I see two recommendations for the 5770 (I'm liking the price, by the way -- I might purchase it this week if all goes well) but, would going for the higher (and obviously much more expensive) 58xx series be overkill for the resolution I'm gaming at? Would it make any sense to go higher than the 5770?

For the new build -which would then be at the end of this year- what brand for the MB would you recommend? I do think that the motherboards I posted are somewhat on the expensive side (thus, indeed overkill), but I'm not up to speed on current boards by other brands. I've heard mixed opinions on almost every manufacturer, so I'm lost.

@Davidh373: I was originally thinking about a C2Q Q9550, but it turns out my board doesn't support any 45nm quads, even though there are people using them without problems, apparently. 45nm duos are ok, which is why I mentioned the E8500-8600.

@GLeeM: Those numbers seem very impressive, at least to me (I was getting around 5000 PPD with my CPU + GPU, at least until the GPU started getting EUE + strong artifacts all of a sudden... I'm afraid it might be dying, even though temps are ok and every game I've thrown at it runs fine).
Side question: Is there any way I can test my GPU for faults, something like a memtest for it?

Thanks again for your replies, I appreciate your help. I will hopefully make my decision later this week and post with any updates. Do keep the suggestions coming, please.

 

[mfenn]

All of the big manufacturers (ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA, etc.) make good quality boards. Of course, it is always possible to get a bad board, but I wouldn't say a DOA board here and there is really indicative of overall quality.

Just pick a board from one of above brands that has the features you want. Don't spend more than $150 for a P55 board or $200 for a X58 board.

 

[Davidh373]

Sorry to be so short... but posting hasn't worked the last few times I tried.

Get an i5 with P55, 4GB ram, and a 5770. You'll feel a lot safer with one or two upgrades in the future, and get a good 3-4 years use.

 

[d1m1]

Ugh, I've been having problems getting my credit card authorization for internet purchases (yes, the government has to clear it first before we can spend our $400...), because the programmers for their site suck (reading their source code makes me cringe).

Anyway...
I hope I don't get any DOA boards; it's really difficult as it is to purchase something outside Venezuela. But I will take the price limits into account, since I am on a budget after all.

Also, the 5770 is $164.99 at Amazon right now. I wish I could buy it right away, but I'll probably have to wait till the end of the week.