Hello everyone! I’m new here glad to be part of the community
I am looking to upgrade my system and I was curious if you guys could help me on my decision on which part needs the upgrade the most!
What I do: I play video games quite a bit including Crysis, CS:S, WoW, L4D, etc. For those WoW players I only run at 20fps in Dalaran and sometimes skip around. I want it to be flawless with no lag or skips in anything I do.
I’ve heard multiple things from different people and I would like some more sound advice on this. Some people say I should go with the new DDR3 Ram and upgrade my Mobo/ Cpu to i7’s. Some say to achieve better gameplay all I would really need to do is upgrade my Video Card. Any advice on this?
Another question seperately. Would an i7 cpu (Specifically the Intel Core i7 920 Processor BX80601920) + compatible mobo upgrade or would a upgrade to a NVIDIA Geforce 285 GTX net me the best overall gaming upgrade as far as no longer skipping or having any frame rates go down.
Well everything you have right now is near top of the line except the video card.
Your CPU has 4 cores, and you won’t notice and difference in an i7. Also you can not get ddr3 ram unless your mobo supports it.
If you do want a new mobo/cpu/ram, you will also need a new copy of an OS. But upgrading from what you have is just a complete waste of money.
The 1st thing I saw was the power supply, 500 watts in very underpowered for what you have. If you get a new video card, you will NEED a new power supply.
A new video card will increase your FPS in every game 10 fold.
Lets start here, a new video card- GTS250/Radeon 4850 or higher.
Agreed; I have that exact PSU, and I can vouch for its quality. About the video card though, if you ever plan to run Linux you might consider going NVidia instead. Their drivers are about 100x better than ATI right now, so it would save you a lot of heartache.
I picked up an eVGA GTX 280 1GB for under $200, and it’s a very capable card. In fact, it edges out the Radeon HD 4890 by a few FPS in most benchmarks.
If you could get a stable overclock, it would noticeably improve performance – especially in single-threaded games. Stable being the key word… beefing up the PSU goes without saying if you’re replacing the video card anyway, and a new HSF for the CPU wouldn’t go amiss. These guys were able to get quite a lot more real-world performance out of the Q6600 by overclocking it to the 3GHz neighborhood. You may have to replace your RAM with 1066MHz DDR2 to match the FSB to get any real progress, but DDR2 is dirt cheap right now in any case.
OK, but the 285 can be pricey if you don’t get a great deal; maybe $300-$400. The 280 runs warmer, but performs well and you could conceivably SLI 2 of them for about the price of a 285… think about it.
very true i was looking at them right now… like 350…
what do you think about these 2? which would you get… i read the 275 is pretty much the same as the 280 and i like these price ranges a lot more too lol
The 280 has more RAM with more memory bandwidth. It’ll run a little warmer, but it shouldn’t make much difference. Since the 280 is being phased out you can get a bargain right now. Especially since if a card dies and eVGA is out of 280’s, you’ll get a free upgrade. I’d go 280.
Of course the 275 is still a very decent card, and has the same exact core as the 285. If you’ve got a chassis that already runs hot it might be the better option.
those were the 2 ive read around are pretty popular and have good ratings and such. unless there is something else youd suggest. (Planning on going to about 3.0 or 3.2 ghz, no higher than 3.2)
I am still undecided on the cooler. Someone told me that those coolers are meh and the air cooler I posted was kind of outdated and he said this:
“you want one of the heatpipe direct touch mega-coolers. OCZ Vendetta 2, Xigmatek 1283 or Dark Knight, or Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer.”
anyone agree? which of those would best fit my case? sorry for all the noob questions but I really appreciate everyones help here a lot. once i get everything squared off im going to go get them
Whoever told you that direct contact heatpipes are much more efficient was right. Any of those would be a good choice for air cooling, so I’d pick one based on whichever you can get for the best value.
probably the 285…