Hi.
I was thinking of upgrading my currently 2yo PC in light of Bad Company 2 coming out soon. It works fine right now, but I like to have my games run at max settings at constant 60fps, and with a 1920x1200 that's not always easy. One thing to keep in mind is that currently the game uses only 50-60% of my GPU's load (according to GPU-Z) at high settings, which lead me and most other people to suspect that the true bottleneck in that game is the CPU.
I'm currently running a Q6600 which I purchased at the end of 2007, and it appears to me that it might be time to upgrade to an i7-860. I also have a 4870, and since it's not even being used to its limits, I don't see a reason to upgrade yet. I will certainly do that at some point in the future, but for the sake of the budget it's no rush at the moment. Here's the build:
Motherboard Gigabyte P55-UD4P LGA 1156
Chipset: Intel P55 Express $170
Processor Intel Core i7-860 2.80 GHz
4 Cores, 8.0MB L3 Cache $280
Memory 2 x Crucial 4.0GB DDR3-1333 Dual Channel Kit
4 x 2.0GB (8.0GB Total), CAS 9-9-9-28 $168
Case Lian-Li LanCool PC-K7B $90
Power Corsair CMPSU-850HX Modular 850W
ATX12V 2.2, EPS12V 2.91, 80 PLUS Gold $180
CPU Cooler Xigmatek HDT-S1284EE Cooler Plus
Crossbow ACK-I5363 Bracket Kit $47
The intel X25-M G2 SSD: $300
for reference: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-new-pc,2497.html
The total should be around 1300. I have plenty of spare hard drives for storing stuff outside of the SSD, and as I said I'm just going to reuse my Radeon 4870 since it's not an urgent replacement, but eventually I'd like to SLI a couple of cards, if a worthy killer app comes out.
Does that build above sound reasonable, or is there anything out there right now that will give me a bigger bang for my buck and maybe increase the longevity of this system?
Thanks!
I was thinking of upgrading my currently 2yo PC in light of Bad Company 2 coming out soon. It works fine right now, but I like to have my games run at max settings at constant 60fps, and with a 1920x1200 that's not always easy. One thing to keep in mind is that currently the game uses only 50-60% of my GPU's load (according to GPU-Z) at high settings, which lead me and most other people to suspect that the true bottleneck in that game is the CPU.
I'm currently running a Q6600 which I purchased at the end of 2007, and it appears to me that it might be time to upgrade to an i7-860. I also have a 4870, and since it's not even being used to its limits, I don't see a reason to upgrade yet. I will certainly do that at some point in the future, but for the sake of the budget it's no rush at the moment. Here's the build:
Motherboard Gigabyte P55-UD4P LGA 1156
Chipset: Intel P55 Express $170
Processor Intel Core i7-860 2.80 GHz
4 Cores, 8.0MB L3 Cache $280
Memory 2 x Crucial 4.0GB DDR3-1333 Dual Channel Kit
4 x 2.0GB (8.0GB Total), CAS 9-9-9-28 $168
Case Lian-Li LanCool PC-K7B $90
Power Corsair CMPSU-850HX Modular 850W
ATX12V 2.2, EPS12V 2.91, 80 PLUS Gold $180
CPU Cooler Xigmatek HDT-S1284EE Cooler Plus
Crossbow ACK-I5363 Bracket Kit $47
The intel X25-M G2 SSD: $300
for reference: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-new-pc,2497.html
The total should be around 1300. I have plenty of spare hard drives for storing stuff outside of the SSD, and as I said I'm just going to reuse my Radeon 4870 since it's not an urgent replacement, but eventually I'd like to SLI a couple of cards, if a worthy killer app comes out.
Does that build above sound reasonable, or is there anything out there right now that will give me a bigger bang for my buck and maybe increase the longevity of this system?
Thanks!