Upgrading Core Computer Parts

[9mak9]

It's time to upgrade my Motherboard, CPU and RAM at this point. I'm looking to spend around $400-500 for it. I'm looking at this setup to upgrade to (you can see what I have now in my sign) so it seems to be a big enough upgrade. Thoughts?

ASRock P67 EXTREME4 $140 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157265
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge for $220 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072
G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB for $60 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231460

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Can you please fill out sticky?

 

[9mak9]

Gotcha, sorry about that.

1. PC is primarily for gaming and then just normal web surfing
2. Around $400-500 for theses 3 new parts
3. Should be all US, from Newegg
4. Always going to stick with Intel; RAM I've only used GSkill, and MB only used Gigabyte. But not opposed to used another company for RAM and MB.
5. My current parts are EVGA Geforce 8800GT ~ Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA 7200RPM ~ Lite-On SATA 20x DVD Burner ~ Antec TruePower Trio 650W ~ Win7 64bit Premium.
7. No overclocking
8. 1900x1200 res
9. Its already built but anytime in the next few weeks to get the new parts and reinstall.

Does that help? Thanks!

 

[Ken g6]

Edit: You're fast!

I'll add that you generally don't want P67. Look at Z77 (or Z75) if you need a new mobo.

Edit2: I don't see the point of a new CPU for you right now. There are a couple of other upgrades I'd suggest first:

- Radeon 7950 GPU, $310AR (for greatly improved gaming)
- Crucial M4 128GB SSD, $105. (for much faster general tasks, like web browsing)

 

[krnmastersgt]

Edit: You're fast!

I'll add that you generally don't want P67. Look at Z77 (or Z75) if you need a new mobo.

Edit2: I don't see the point of a new CPU for you right now. There are a couple of other upgrades I'd suggest first:

- Radeon 7950 GPU, $310AR (for greatly improved gaming)
- Crucial M4 128GB SSD, $105. (for much faster general tasks, like web browsing)

+1 to this, your 8800 GT is what's holding you back at 1900x1200 more than the CPU is. The 7850 will monster games at that resolution and the SSD will make your system feel fresh, new, and far snappier. Best part is you won't need a new license, just a re-install of the OS or setting up smart cache-ing.

 

[Ken g6]

The 7850 will monster games at that resolution

Note: I actually said 7950. But I just looked at the equivalent 7850, and it's only $210AR! Either one is a good deal, and a huge upgrade from an old 8800GT.

 

[maziwanka]

Note: I actually said 7950. But I just looked at the equivalent 7850, and it's only $210AR! Either one is a good deal, and a huge upgrade from an old 8800GT.

make sure you pick that up today - it's the last day for the rebate to be valid.

 

[mfenn]

Edit: You're fast!

I'll add that you generally don't want P67. Look at Z77 (or Z75) if you need a new mobo.

Edit2: I don't see the point of a new CPU for you right now. There are a couple of other upgrades I'd suggest first:

- Radeon 7950 GPU, $310AR (for greatly improved gaming)
- Crucial M4 128GB SSD, $105. (for much faster general tasks, like web browsing)

Agree. While a Q6600 is certainly pretty tired at this point, it's the least of the OP's problems in a gaming rig.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Note: I actually said 7950. But I just looked at the equivalent 7850, and it's only $210AR! Either one is a good deal, and a huge upgrade from an old 8800GT.

Woops my bad. But in either case both cards will be great at that resolution, I'd only step-up to the 7950 IF you played a lot of modern titles/modded your games with texture mods and wanted everything turned up to max.

 

[9mak9]

Good help on this. I've never actually gotten a Radeon GPU over nvidia. Is it def worthwhile to get that card over this for example? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130604

 

[Ken g6]

My sources say yes. In almost all cases the 7850 is faster.

It so happens that 7850 no longer has that rebate price. But this one does.

If you prefer nVidia, this GTX570 is only $30 more AR, and is generally better than the 7850 unless you overclock the AMD card a lot. But realize that it will use a lot more power, and may impact your electric bill.

 

[mfenn]

If you prefer nVidia, this GTX570 is only $30 more AR, and is generally better than the 7850 unless you overclock the AMD card a lot. But realize that it will use a lot more power, and may impact your electric bill.

The GTX 570 wasn't known to be a cool chip to begin with, and suffocating it like Galaxy has done doesn't really help matters. With the back panel almost completely blocked off on that card, it will wail like a banshee under load. So yeah, get the 7850.

 

[9mak9]

Wanted to upgrade a few parts on my computer. I wanted to really just add some more RAM to get to 8GB but if I do it would be DDR3 and I would need a new MB to fit it. And if I get a new MB then I'll likely have to get a new CPU.

So I would be getting a new MB, 8GB of RAM to fit, new CPU and then probably a new GPU to round it out. Since there are a lot of good deals now, might as well upgrade.

1. PC is primarily for gaming
2. Around $400-$700
3. Should be all US, from Newegg most likely
4. Always going to stick with Intel for CPU and likely Nvidia for GPU; RAM I've only used GSkill, and MB only used Gigabyte. But not sold on only using those 2.
5. My current parts are Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4Ghz ~ Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L ~ G.Skill 4GB DDR2 ~ EVGA Geforce 8800GT ~ Seagate Barracuda 750GB SATA 7200RPM
7. No overclocking and I would prefer something that doesn't run hot since I've had overheating issues.
8. 1900x1200 res
9. Its already built but anytime in the next month to get the new parts and reinstall.

Thanks alot in advance!

 

[mfenn]

So I take it the previous upgrade never ended up happening? All of the same discussion above applies, in other words your GPU is much more in need of an upgrade than your CPU. Luckily, you have the budget to do both.

Xeon E3-1240V2 $245
ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP $80
G.Skill DDR3 1600 8GB $25
7950 3GB $280
Total: $630

 

[9mak9]

Would I be able to utilize the 7950 in my current motherboard?

My MB has a PCI Express x16 but the new card needs a PCI Express 3.0 x16 interface. Not sure if the 3.0 matters. Thanks!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128337
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

 

[mfenn]

PCIe is forwards and backwards compatible, so the 7950 should work. Obviously it will only run at PCIe 1.1 speeds because that's the highest your motherboard supports. That's the same as a PCIe 2.0 x8 slot, so you won't really be bottlenecking yourself.