Hardware Current rig, upgrade options?

[Satangel]

Only overclocking if you adequate cooling (e.g a third party cooler) and a good motherboard (e.g. Not from Foxconn or Asrock).

CPU cooler: Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
Motherboard: ASUS P5E

 

[Originality]

Then you should be alright.

 

[Satangel]

Okay, this Easter holiday I'm going to format the PC, and put Windows 7 64bit on it again. It's the first time I'll do this, in about 4 years of usage
But I need tips/answers:

• Should I wait for Windows 8, and install that instead of 7?
• There are some occasional framedrop/weird things that happen when I'm gaming or just using the PC, probably due to the usage of the components. I think I'm going to renew the cooling glue between the CPU and the CPU cooler, and then overclock it. Maybe that'll help. Wouldn't be suprised if there were a few dust particles between the CPU and the motherboard, causing some problems.
• When I format, I can just format the C drive, right? Then I won't need to re-install all my games.

 

[TheDreamLord]

QUOTE(Originality @ Sep 28 2011, 05:36 PM)

I doubt the CPU will be a bottleneck at all. The only reason you may want to upgrade it is to get a Core i5/7 or AMD Bulldozer when it's out and To get DDR3 RAM. The Q6600 is still a very good CPU and over clocks like a dream.

For the GPU, a GTX 560 Ti will cost around or under €200 (based on French prices, but I assume Germany is the same). That's all you need really, especially on a 22" monitor.

Just looked it up, around 220 euros here. Seems like an epic card. Now I'm looking for some benchmarks between my current card and this new card.It is an epic card, I have it. Also,

[b]DO NOT USE A VACUUM CLEANER IN A COMPUTER[/b]

 

[qlum]

Okay, this Easter holiday I'm going to format the PC, and put Windows 7 64bit on it again. It's the first time I'll do this, in about 4 years of usage
But I need tips/answers:

• Should I wait for Windows 8, and install that instead of 7?
• There are some occasional framedrop/weird things that happen when I'm gaming or just using the PC, probably due to the usage of the components. I think I'm going to renew the cooling glue between the CPU and the CPU cooler, and then overclock it. Maybe that'll help. Wouldn't be suprised if there were a few dust particles between the CPU and the motherboard, causing some problems.
• When I format, I can just format the C drive, right? Then I won't need to re-install all my games.

don't go windows 8 as that has that vile metro interface although you could install the consumer preview to try it on a separate partition .

you would still have to reinstall most games if you format the c drive and you would lose your safe games, a solution for this could be to copy your user folder to your other drive and paste it back after reinstalling resulting in most games working again. you could even make a registry dump of the registry files containing the games and add them back after reinstalling this way you would completely retain all the games and saves.

 

[gifi4]

Sorry for thread jacking but, as some of yous know, I have to temporarily use my old GPU (roughly 1 week), long story short, it's really old and incredibly dusty. The temps are above 60c idle, I don't want to get a compressor because I will get one soon enough to clear out dust every 6 months or so and currently can not afford.

 

[yellowsnowcone]

Sorry for thread jacking but, as some of yous know, I have to temporarily use my old GPU (roughly 1 week), long story short, it's really old and incredibly dusty. The temps are above 60c idle, I don't want to get a compressor because I will get one soon enough to clear out dust every 6 months or so and currently can not afford.

Buy some canned air, take the PC outside, and spray problem areas with short bursts.

If you have pets, there may be enough fur holding the clumps of dust together that you can use a vacuum cleaner, instead. If you can pick most of it out with your fingers, you can probably vacuum it. If your vacuum hose does not end in plastic, use a plastic attachment, just in case.

 

[Satangel]

My current mobo is ASUS P5E and I was contemplating of upgrading my GFX card soon, mainly to be 100% sure I can run GTA V.
These 2 GFX cards are interesting at the moment, they are in my budget (250 EUR) and seem a good step up from my 8800 GTS 512.

• MSI GTX 660TI Power Edition
• MSI N660 TF2GD5

I was mainly wondering if these would fit on my motherboard. If that's the case, it's an excellent bargain and for just 250 EUR I've got a top-notch PC again, that shouldn't give me any problems the next 3 years or so.

 

[Rydian]

Go got the 660 Ti out of those (not the second one, which appears to be a baseline 660). It'll be multiple times more powerful than your current card.

 

[Kioku]

Either one of those two would do you just fine, the Ti would have more of a longevity factor over the GTX 660.. Personally I'd pick the cheaper of the two, but again, opinion.

 

[Zalda]

i'm not an expert but youre motherboard says it has these pcie slots:
2 x PCIe x16 (both @ x16 mode) supports CrossFire Technology
3 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI

while you new graphicscard says it needs this slot:
PCI-e 3.x 16x

will that card even fit on your motherboard?

 

[Originality]

PCIe 3.x is backwards compatible with PCIe 2.x motherboards. The only issue is will it fit the case.

GTX 660 isn't an overly big design, so it should be fine in most cases. Just double check.

 

[Satangel]

I still have a few questions/doubts:

• I can still run every game on the market. AC3 will run (although in low settings), GTA V uses the same engine as GTA IV so it most likely work too. There are no other current games that I want to play, that I can't run. Meaning basically if I upgrade, it's just a luxury problem and out of graphics whoring, which I totally don't care about.
  Maybe it's better I wait another year, really push it to the limit, and then I can buy an even better card for my 250 EUR. Are there any new technologies/.... on the horizon perhaps?
• I researched a bit and the 660Ti doesn't support DX 11.1? I've found some cards, eg the Sapphire HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB GDDR5, that costs about the same, and does support DX 11.1.
• Any reason why I should/shouldn't pick a Nvidia or AMD based card?

 

[Yepi69]

So my PC is almost 4 years old right now. Just came to the conclusion my graphical card can barely run BF 3. First game that's really going to push it to it's limits, and I don't like it

I know BF3 is a very high requiring game, but I still want to be on the safe side and I'm thinking of upgrading my PC (mainly GPU and maybe CPU, if you guys deem it worthy?)
This is my current rig:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2,4GHz)
CPU cooler: Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
2 x HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 500 GB (7200RPM)
GPU: ASUS EN8800GTS 512MB DDR3
RAM: 2x2048MB Corsair DDR2
Motherboard: ASUS P5E
Screen: Samsung SyncMaster 2253BW (22inch)
PSU: OCZ GameXstream 700W

I think the only things that may need to be upgraded are the GPU and maybe the CPU. To play the newest games I think the GPU is by far the most important thing, I can go another 3 years with the CPU.
My budget is around 250 euros, so it leaves some space. And how much could I perhaps get for my GPU?

update your GPU and ram

 

[Rydian]

1 - It's up to you, just remember that the lower your average framerate is, the worse sudden drops will be. If you're running 60 and drop down to 35 it's no big deal (still playable), but if you're running 30 and drop down to 5 it's an issue, so as time goes on you'll fine the minimum level of performance slowly creeping up on you even on low settings for a game (as that's usually just texture and model resolution reduction, draw distance, and shaders, which aren't the whole story of the draw on your system).

2 - I don't know of any reason to try to jump on the newer versions so soon. DX9 to DX10 was a huge jump in performance (when used properly, meaning not bullshit like Crysis's engine) simply because DX10 was a huge change and dropped a lot of the DX9 crap that was still lingering since like, DX5. Compared to that huge jump, 10-11 or 11-11.1 is unlikely to bring any noticeable benefit, except for the below...

3 - Most of the special technologies deal with GPGPU/CUDA stuff, and even now the majority of it is in specialist applications (like video converters that run on the video card itself instead of the CPU). AMD and Nvidia run competing technologies here, but everybody assumes it'll level out when it settles (like the whole SSE4/.1/X/Hyper-Edition bullshit did), and the difference for the consumer won't be limiting.

 

[Thanatos Telos]

I doubt the CPU will be a bottleneck at all. The only reason you may want to upgrade it is to get a Core i5/7 or AMD Bulldozer when it's out and To get DDR3 RAM. The Q6600 is still a very good CPU and over clocks like a dream.

For the GPU, a GTX 560 Ti will cost around or under €200 (based on French prices, but I assume Germany is the same). That's all you need really, especially on a 22" monitor.

But young padowan, look at the 8120 and 8150, they're bulldozer and already out.

Anyway, I reccomend getting a 6800 series.

 

[Celice]

These might be a bit late for you, but here are two crazy deals on the 560ti at almost 50%. Except them to be gone soon--or at least to price-match Newegg, who just started their Iron Egg price match thingy.

http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=68454
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=64376&vpn=ENGTX560 Ti DCII TOP/2DI/1GD5&manufacture=ASUS

 

[Originality]

But young padowan, look at the 8120 and 8150, they're bulldozer and already out.

Anyway, I reccomend getting a 6800 series.

Your argument fails when you note that the post you quoted was made over a year ago, and was true at the time. It's made even worse when Bulldozer was a letdown, and the numbers you use don't directly tell us what you're taking about.

Go back to Jedi Academy.

 

[Satangel]

So if I buy the GTX 560 Twin Frozr II, and overclock my CPU a little bit, I should be good for another 2-3 years? GTA V also possible?

How about the RAM?

 

[CompassNorth]

So if I buy the GTX 560 Twin Frozr II, and overclock my CPU a little bit, I should be good for another 2-3 years?

For modern games, yeah, but why would you want a 560? There are much better cards in the market. You'd need to OC the CPU though.

GTA V also possible?

GTA V isn't even announced for PC.

How about the RAM?

4GB is good.

Honestly, I'd sell your PC and build a new one