Input Requested on Upgrade

[robbles]

Hey folks,

Going to upgrade my current machine. What I want is better performance out of the gaming end.Crysis-Farcry- and a couple rts i play, also do some reviews on releases. Have a 300-400 dollar budget to improve this machine. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Current Spec's:

Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001257

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133021

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059

Cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

Cooling
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106061

Video
https://www.bfgstore.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BFGE96512GTOCXFE
-could'nt find the card on newegg-

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145214

Storage
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129027&Tpk=lightscribe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136351
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106275

Power
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003

Thermal Compound
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

Memory Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835704001


i keep the machine clocked at 3.0 with the ram running 1066, runs stable and cool.

all suggestions appreciated!

 

[MykC]

The only thing worth upgrading is the GPU and a PSU to support it. Going to a 4850 will be a good match with your CPU. A 4870 would probably boot in your system, but you'd be pushing it. A GTX 260 has a min power requirement of 500W but you have a high quality PSU so that would be fine in your system.

Without upgrading you PSU the only thing I'd really recommend is the GTX 260:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=48&Description=&Type=&N=2010380048&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&OEMMark=0&PropertyCodeValue=679%3A40781 896MB GTX 260 $190 - $30MIR

You'll be able to play Crysis no problem. Flawless at high and probably very good performance on very high.

 

[fullmetall]

The CPU is fine, get a new GPU.

GTX 260 recommended

gtx 260 at $189.99 - $30 M-I-R

Which puts you in at about $200 more.

Could look at a newer Monitor/PSU.

 

[robbles]

thanks for the input

say if i had another psu sitting around already like the 650w corsair.which i happen to have in another machine which is not using it really. what options would i be looking at then?

also, in the Hierarchy chart at http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-radeon,2218-6.html
shows gtx 260/4870 being in the same "class"

seeing a few with 30$ m-i-r on newegg for ~the same price as the gtx, myself I've always been a bfg flunkie, is the ati a viable option?
or will the preloaded physic's capabilities of a bfg version of the gtx override the ati?

thanks again

edit- i ran pcmark on this pc for the first time earlier today and got a overall score of 10970, does anyone think pushing the oc to 3.4 will help that score any?

with 2x orthos open hwmonitor v 1.13 (not sure if this program is actually very accurate but it seems to be) at 3.0 none of the cores got over 44c. been so long since i built this pc cannot exactly remember how hot a q6600 can go but i believe it was around 70ish.

thx again

 

[fullmetall]

Well ATI and GTX are both very close in all resolutions to eachother.

At higher resolutions the ati would probably take over the gts but, in some mid to low they vary off eachother, I would say there basically the same card just different manufacturers.


Since that motherboard is a deactivated item on newegg, hmm. its just a single x16 slot so, it depends on what you would rather do, nvidia or ati.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

If you used the Corsair 650W PSU you could step up to a GTX 285. That's what I'd do since you're looking to maximize the FPS. The rest of the system will push the GTX 285 just fine with the 650W PSU. It's also right in your $300 - $400 budget.

 

[fullmetall]

Yea, nice card, not the 20" monitor though.