Upgrade or Build

Squall19

Made a thread earlier, but a Dell xps deal on bargain alerts, game benchmarks for the i core chips and other things, made more sense to create a new thread anyway here goes.

400 to spend on upgrade.

5 year old Rig


Intel QX6700 @ 3.2ghz
8800 GTX x 2 in Sli
4GB 633Mhz DDR2
2* 160Gb 7200Rpm Raid
1TB Samsung Spinpoint
Nforce590 for Intel based BTX Mobo
750 Watt PSU.

Or 900 to spend on a new pc

Total build cost: €844.98 + €30 shipping
LiteOn iHAS122-18 schwarz SATA €16.72
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9 €29.57
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5") €97.64
WD Caviar Green 2TB Sata 6Gb/s €119.90
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX €101.99
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W €54.31
Sapphire HD6870 1G GDDR5 PCI-E DL-DVI-I+SL-DVI-D / HDMI / DP €144.70
Cooler Master HAF 912 schwarz, ohne Netzteil €75.76
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €195.88
Ultron Cardreader 75-in-1, intern, schwarz €8.51

Monitor is 22" 1680x1050

Playing Modern Warfare 3, Fifa, Battlefield 3

Just bought Batman: Arkham City in the play.com sale and going to get Bullstorm, loved the demo and Tomb Raider, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City when they come out.

400 euro upgrade on my old rig would get me

HD6970 294 euro.

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/10816086/art/vtx3d/radeon-hd-6970-2-gb-gddr5.html#consumer-advices

OCZ Vertex Plus Series 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - 60 GB 65 euro

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/10470142/art/ocz/vertex-plus-series-2-5-in.html

Would a HD6970 need a better cpu and mobo then what I have?

Are i core much better than core 2 quad for gaming?

Is a QX6700 @ 3.2ghz enough?

I could get 50 euro each for my 8880gtx, so that's 100 euro straight into the upgrade, I won't need the 2 x 160gb drives either so 15 each for them is another 30 euro.

Would I better off with a HD6950 for 200 euro or HD6970 for 300 euro?

All very confusing, advice please.

Serephucus

To me, it would come down to graphics. I don't think a Q6700 would bottleneck a 6970 - having said that, you're probably very close to choking point there - so you could go with the 6970.

Having said that, the 7970 will be out towards the end of the month, so I'd maybe wait 'til then as prices are likely to drop on the older cards.

Monotype

If I recall correctly, the 8800GTXs were fairly power hungry so a change definitely makes sense. I agree with Serephucus, that the 7000 series are just around the corner, so I'd be hesitant buying a 6000 series now.

Depending on the games you play, the original core platform is starting to show its age, so I'd be looking into replacing it it this year if you have the funds - but you could upgrade your graphics card and see how well your old system carries it for a few months and if you're not satisfied, buy an Ivy Bridge build in the Summer?

Squall19

I will wait for the new cards.

Don't want to spend huge money.If I could get another year or two out of her with a graphics upgrade and ssd it would be great.

When are the cards released?

Nvidia releasing something too?

If I could get a 6970 or gtx 580 for 250 that would be great.

That would surely keep me going for 2 years?

Monotype

The 7950 and 7970 are being released this month and the 7850, 7870 and 7770 in late February. I think.
Nvidia will probably be a bit later - I've seen estimates of first quarter and half of this year.

xtal191

Isnt the 7970 meant to cost around 500?

uberpixie

Tbh in a similar boat. (q6600 @ 3ghz, Radeon 6950, 4 gig ram playing on a 1680x1050 monitor) BF3 plays on high settings.
I would pick up the new gfx card & ssd as this will def prolong the life of your QX6700. SSD is def worth while for any pc.

I would also see if you could clock it up a little as well. (you could do this on some DELL xps?)
After that wait and once you hit a game you are not happy with: upgrade the cpu/mobo/ram etc... and you can transfer over the SSD & gfx card.

Personally I will see how things pan out with Ivybridge then decide.

ShadowHearth

Hmmmm that is hard call m8. I was in similar boat and I went new pc way.

I have Q6600 with 3gb ram and upgraded gpu to 6870.

Then 3 months in I just built 2500k 8gb ram gtx570.

To my surprise new system was not that much ahead of old one. Defenetly not 1000eu faster...

I am still very happy with my build and would have built it again if needed.

The best thing about new builds: 1155 socket. Even now 2500k is overkill for gaming, but with ivy bridge near by using same socket it's a steel! So new built would not be bad idea, if you not worried about spending extra money now.

One way or another I would agree with lads here: wait and see whats the story with 7 series.

Squall19

@ uberpixie

3.2ghz is as fast as she will go.

Motherboard is quite limited in what you can do, its fairly crippled.

All I have in bios is multiplier options of 11.0 and 12.0, bringing the CPU to 2.93GHz and 3.2GHz.

It's set at 10 stock.

I was able to get it up to 3.4 with Ntune, but it wouldn't run stable.

Pity because Dell did a good job keeping it cool, temps are very low on it.

I will get the ssd now.

What do yee think of this one, only 65 euro.

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/10470142/art/ocz/vertex-plus-series-2-5-in.html

What about a ram upgrade.

Is 4gb pc5300 enough for gaming, windows 7?

I'm limited again here to pc6400 as the only upgrade choice, mobo doesn't support ddr3.

The Dell was a great deal at 900 euro when I bought it 5 years ago, but not very upgradeable.

QX6700 and 2 x 8800gtx was some upgrade from my old self build pc, P4 3.2ghz, 6800gt, 1gb ram.

I couldn't have built something anywhere near that power for 900 back then, paying for it now though.

Seen the reviews of the 7970, it looks 40-50% faster than its predecessor 6970.

Would be very foolish of me not to wait, going to put a limit of 20th March on the graphics ( day Resident Evil Raccoon City comes )

Will have a limit of 250 euro on the graphics card.

What you think I will get for that?

ShadowHearth

you dont need more ram, as technicly gaming will use only 2gb ram max anyway. ( limitation of 32bit systems, which most games are coded to now )

if you still want to squize osme life out of it, i would suggest ssd+Good GPU,which you could transfer to new system if needed.

Squall19

Thanks Shadow

What do you think of that ssd in the link Shadow.

Is it cheap for a reason or will it do the job?

That should give the system a bit of zip until I get a new card in March.

Something to look forward to and get my ass into work every morning:D

My dream has always been to max out that Crysis loop benchmark on very high, 8 x AA, 1680 x 1050:D

ShadowHearth

Squall19 wrote: »

Thanks Shadow

What do you think of that ssd in the link Shadow.

Is it cheap for a reason or will it do the job?

That should give the system a bit of zip until I get a new card in March.

Something to look forward to and get my ass into work every morning:D

My dream has always been to max out that Crysis loop benchmark on very high, 8 x AA, 1680 x 1050:D

lads in here dont like OSZ older stuff as it had lots of troubles. now i use corsair SSD and i havent had a a second of trouble.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/60gb-corsair-force-series-3-sata-iii-ssd-sandforce-sf-2200-read-525mb-s-write-490mb-s-80k-iopsanyone in here will recomend you an crusial M4.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/64gb-crucial-m4-slim-7mm-25-ssd-sata-iii-6gb-s-mlc-flash-read-500mb-s-write-95mb-s-35000-iops

the one you linked is sata II so it has slower speeds. on the other hand does your mobo even has sata II or sata III?