I'm having a bit of a dilema lol

Fancy upgrading the PC, with gaming in mind.

Current spec -

Q9300 quad core
6GB DDR3
HD 4870 dual core GPU with 2GB RAM (IIRC)

I know there's little point changing to slightly faster socket 775 processor. So i was thinking about changing the Mobo and going for a socket 1366 i7? Most likely an i7 960 to get me started and probably 12GB of DDR3. Leaves me open to upgrade to a 6 core later on.

From a gaming point of view am i better doing this or spending the same £ on a new GPU?

 

i would be happy with that the 4870 is still a decent card ....

at some stage you will need to go different mobo and processor so might aswell do it now....
mate of mine built a 920 rig a while ago and on games it flies along nicely even with a mid priced gpu ....
so with a 6950 or a 6990 and what your already looking at should work well .. lol.. been looking at the weekend and i think i need a better job or start saving ....

 

Tax rebate FTW

Cheers matey, its always nice to get a second opinion on this stuff!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_RS

Tax rebate FTW

spend it on a live map

 

Spend some of it on an autotrader advert

 

been looking at the asus sabertooth and i7 950 with corsair 12 gig triple channel ... thats £500 gone already ...
add a ssd and 2tb storage ... power supply .. and another 5770 to match the one i got .. and i am looking at a bit more

 

What games you playing?

How much money you got to spend?

 

Most recent is crysis 2, but also fallout NV - Basically anything flashy and 1st person shooter lol.

Want to be able to run BF3 and Deus ex when they are released at quite a high graphics spec.

Thats the mobo i was gunning for, in fact this very bundle lol

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-Core-i7-960-Asus-Sabertooth-12gb-PC-12800-DDR3-/290530257324?pt=UK_Motherboards_CPUs&hash=item43a4 f3e9ac

All i'd need is a new case, my power supply and existing components should be fine for the time being.

 

omg .. lol.. spooky ..some good deals going around on cases and psu's though..
new version of sabertooth about though
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...-G0EAY0KZ.html#

£490 for them bits at novatech ...
£502 at ebuyer....
savastore don't do the same mobo or memory ..

 

Looking at your current spec makes me cry a little and i work in IT so its no excuse for my crappy old PC.

What kind of budget do you have to spend?

Im runnin g a Q6600 system at the moment but im looking around for my options.

 

I'd probably have roughly £600-£700 for a mobo/Processor and i'd like to include RAM in that, but if i can't i'll just wait til next month. I'd like to keep everything future proof, which i feel i'm doing with the spec i'm thinking about as i've the option of up to 24GB RAM and 6 core processors.

All depending on me not buying crap at central day

 

I should think that would get you a very repectable cpu/ram/mobo bundle.

i bought my Quad core Q6600 2gb ram and mobo 3 and a half years ago for under £300 and its lasted me till now, if i had a better graphics card id be fine running new games on med-high.

Unfortunately my last card 880GT sucked in half my carpet and overheated, since then i coudnt be arsed.

 

Ive been building gaming rigs for 10years or so, heres my current pc spec:

i7 920 d0 cpu ( socket 1366 )
Gigabyte ga-x58-ud5 motherboard
6gb patriot viper tri channel ram
asus 4870x2 tri fan gpu
60 gb g.skill sniper ssd
1tb f1 hdd for internal storage and many external hdd's
cm storm sniper case
kingwin mach1 900w psu

I build this around 1.5 years ago now except for the ssd which is a recent addition ( 2 x wd 150gb velociraptors in the for sale section currently ) and i can still run every game ive played inc crysis 2 at full settings, only game id have trouble with would prob be metro 2033. My cpu is overclocked from 2.66ghz to 4ghz on standard voltage on an air cooler.

Unless you do video editing etc you really really dont need 12gb of ram, infact its been proven by people that know alot more than me inc people i know who do reviews and tests for websites that theres no real world gain in having more than 6gb currently and if you plan to overclock which i highly recommend then having 12gb or 24gb will more than likely stop you acheiving a decent overclock.

To be fair your current spec is fairly decent anyway, have you looked into overclocking your current cpu at all just to get the most from your current hardware to prolong its life before having to upgrade. All does depend on what resolution your monitor is set to when gaming as well mate as if you have a low res monitor youll be wasting your money upgrading to high due to the components ie gpu only coming into their own at higher resolutions with AA etc enabled for proper eye candy goodness.

Dave.