New build or upgrade?

hare05

I'm considering building a new PC, as my old one, after 3-4 good years seems to be lagging behind in the gaming department.

My old pc was fairly high spec when I built it, E6600 processor, P965 mobo, x1950xtx graphics, but the graphics card is at the end of it's life, both in performance terms and architecture.

I'm thinking of building a new pc, budget about €800.

The question I have is would I gain much of a performance boost if I swapped out for a completely new system (ddr3 ram, etc) or would a DX11 card and Win7 give me enough of a boost to keep gaming another year or two with my current processor?

Any suggestions on what to buy at a budget of €800 (I don't plan to overclock, I want as quiet a system as possible)?

Jonny7

I had something similar which I upgraded..

However, your CPU isnt _too_ bad

I'd say, buy a new graphics card that you would be putting into a new rig anyway and slap it into your current PC (assuming your PSU is decent).. and try it out... quite honestly it should run most games very smoothly, esp. if you overclocked that CPU a little.

The old pc with the core2duo e6400 was left in the corner gathering dust, then I got myself a cheap ATI 4770, and now it really runs everything I can throw at it (22 inch monitor)

You have a better chip in yours, can overclock and buy a better graphics card, e.g. 5770

Could tide you over for a year, just an idea

Mister Man

As said before, you might get another year or so out that CPU if you just upgrade the Graphics for now.

Maybe consider a aftermarker CPU Cooler to overclock the CPU More?

cherryghost

+1 on those two replies. Your CPU can easily hit 3ghz on a stock cooler, albeit a little high temperaturewise. On a decent custom cooler it can hit 3.2ghz without any voltage adjustments, and if you do want to fiddle with that, you can manage 3.6ghz easily.

A 5770 is the sweet spot on the gaming market right now. Nvidia dont have much to offer to compete with it.

hare05

Thanks for the advice.

I have an Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro on mine (At least I think so, might be freezer 7 Pro, tossed the box out 3 years ago ^^) so cooling isn't a problem.
What I'd prefer to do, though, is knock the cpu up to 2.7 or 2.8 and drop the fan speed down in the pc as a whole.

5770 is the sweet spot indeed, but considering my monitor is only 1440x900, I think the 5750 would be good enough.

What kind of power requirements do the newer 5xxx cards have? The 1950 recommended a 450W psu. I have a 500W, but it's an AXP one. They haven't failed me yet, but I doubt they're as efficient as Corsair or Thermaltake (Do people even use the Toughpower range anymore? God, I'm out of date :rolleyes:).

Also, while I'm at it... Would anyone care to recommend a good 1920x1080 monitor in the €150-€200 range?

Thankyouuuu! :rolleyes: :eek: :cool:

Solitaire

Look for the 2ms LG 22" down to €149 on Pixmania. Very nice Full HD monitor from what I've heard and there ain't no beating that refresh.

As for GPU, a cheapie HD5750 would have been more than enough if you weren't upgrading that monitor but as you are a more expensive HD5750 1GB further OCd by yourself (or even better a HD5770 1GB, although pricier still) is more what you'd need.

As for power the X1950XTX was a beast, and just as hot-n-heavy as a last-gen HD4870! If you could run that safely on your PSU then any current-gen card south of the HD5870 should work fine

hare05

Solitaire wrote: »

As for power the X1950XTX was a beast, and just as hot-n-heavy as a last-gen HD4870! If you could run that safely on your PSU then any current-gen card south of the HD5870 should work fine

It ran well, but the damn thing downclocked itself by about 15% and wouldn't run stable at stock speeds. So that's why I'm worried.

Even then, still a beast. Smooth running in Crysis on medium with some settings on high in dx9.

Thanks for the monitor recommendation! I'll check it out.

sebastianlieken

hey man, I was in the same situation as you there a lil while ago, e6600, 775 mobo, etc

first off, the e6600 kicks ass, still. just overclock the balls out of it, I have mine at 3.6 ghz stable since I got it like 3 yrs ago.

replaced my 8800gts (320mb) with a gtx260 (core 216). im running at 1920*1080 and it will take anything i throw at it. Stalker, modern warfare 2, bad company 2, splinter cell conviction, assasins creed 2, crysis, etc.

I havnt had to taper back any settings on any of those games.

If I were you, just spend about 300 quid on a good graphics card, and some more ram. anything more, is complete overkill if you ask me.

sebastianlieken

and do overclock, its great fun!

also, good monitor would be this one http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/16_MONITOR/03_MONITOR/productdetails/10022462/Samsung_24_LCD_Syncmaster_2433LW/LS24CMLKFVA/default.aspx

Just got it a few weeks ago, its epic!

hare05

sebastianlieken wrote: »

hey man, I was in the same situation as you there a lil while ago, e6600, 775 mobo, etc

first off, the e6600 kicks ass, still. just overclock the balls out of it, I have mine at 3.6 ghz stable since I got it like 3 yrs ago.

replaced my 8800gts (320mb) with a gtx260 (core 216). im running at 1920*1080 and it will take anything i throw at it. Stalker, modern warfare 2, bad company 2, splinter cell conviction, assasins creed 2, crysis, etc.

I havnt had to taper back any settings on any of those games.

If I were you, just spend about 300 quid on a good graphics card, and some more ram. anything more, is complete overkill if you ask me.

Need much of a voltage boost to reach 3.6GHz?
I've overclocked before, but never voltmodded.

I think I might bump it up to 3.2GHz and get a 5770 and that 24" monitor. Thanks for the recommendations lads.

Also, still on XP here so... Win7 Home or Pro? XP Home doesn't have access to advanced user management, which I think these days is essential, does Win7 Home?

Thordon

I'll hijack this post since I'm in a similar situation. I'm looking to give my PC a boost, it's starting to show it's age in BC2 and AC2. Could I get away with a new graphics card + a RAM upgrade? I'm not a big fan of overclocking but I'd consider it if my PC needs the extra CPU power to keep up with a new GPU. My current specs are:

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E6750 2.67GHz
Memory: Kingston 2048mb DDR2 PC5400
Graphics: nVidia Geforce 8800GT 1024mb PCI-E
PSU: 600w
Monitor: Samsung 22" LCD widescreen (1680x1050 native res - I'd want to stick to playing at native res)

Ye recommended the 5770, it's only €140 on komplett atm which is less than I was expecting to pay. It's only getting 35 FPS on BC2 though with max settings (according to the charts on tomshardware) which is a bit lower than I would want when buying a new GPU. Any advice?

Thanks