Upgrade old computer - $150 budget

Kuo

Gawd
Joined
Jun 7, 2001
Messages
641
Hi all,

Just a quick question for the masses to see if they can help steer me in a direction.

I have an old machine (in sig, copy/pasted here):
Intel Q6600 with XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU HSF | Asus P5Q Pro | Asus Radeon HD 4850 with Zalman VF900 VGA HSF | 2x2 GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 RAM | 520W Corsair PSU | WD Black 1 TB 7200 RPM

that I had retired.. but my girlfriend recently saw me playing Diablo3 and she got interested, so I reformatted the machine, installed Win7 & D3.. and let her play. Two weeks later, she's having fun and enjoying herself.. but after seeing me game on my machine, she's a bit "jealous" that it runs so much smoother and better on my own machine.

It's around Christmas time, and I already have her Christmas gifts, but I thought I'll throw in another $150 and see if there's anything I can do with the old machine to make sure enjoy D3 more.

The two things I was thinking was: SSD and/or GFX Card. My own thoughts is that a SSD would allow the game to LOAD faster, but how much would it help w/ the gaming experience itself? And GFX card... we're talking sub $150, so I'm not sure how much "bang for buck" I can get for that either, before something like the CPU becomes a limiting factor.

Just not sure what will be limiting what in this old setup.. from the CPU to RAM to GFX to HD. My own thoughts focuses on the GFX, but I'm also aware of the general recommendation for old machine: get a SSD (and this is an older machine for her, not me.. so I'm willing to buy a brand like PNY over Samsung/Dell for SSD, saving quite a bit of $).

[edit] The machine is connected to a Dell 2007WFP, so no very high resolution support is needed
 
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Thanks, I actually had just read about the 750Ti from Tom's Hardware in their Dec 2014 roundup, and it received and "honorable mention" in the $140-$200 price range (compared mostly against the R7 260X.

Quick follow up as 750 Ti's go... is the recommendation to get a 750Ti for my quoted price range, or to get THAT specific one (EVGA). A quick follow up Newegg Search shows the following:
EVGA 750 Ti Superclocked - $130 w/ MIR
EVGA 750 Ti (your link) - $120 w/ MIR
ASUS 750 Ti (Tigerdirect) - $130 w/ MIR - $20 Visa Checkout = $110

They're all +/- $10, thus my question on if it was the 750Ti as recommended, or the specific EVGA model. Also, what is "superclock" mean... is that the same as me buying the stock and OCing it myself? Or did they do something special to the card?
 
Get a 120gb SSD for the OS, and a used r9-270 on ebay.

Can't go wrong buying either, and you'll likely come in under budget.
 
Believe it or not, the Q6600 is not really a detriment for the vast majority of games. My wife runs a Phenom II x6 1090t CPU (IPC is in the ballpark of your Q6600) and she runs most games at max detail on her 1600x900 monitor using an older Radeon 6950. Runs perfectly smoothly and fine.
 
If you don't mind buying used, you can get a 7970 for $150 give or take.

Is the Q6600 overclocked at all? On stock voltage, you should be able to bump it up to 3.0-3.2Ghz.

Those two right there will make that system quite a bit faster.
 
Thanks, I actually had just read about the 750Ti from Tom's Hardware in their Dec 2014 roundup, and it received and "honorable mention" in the $140-$200 price range (compared mostly against the R7 260X.

Quick follow up as 750 Ti's go... is the recommendation to get a 750Ti for my quoted price range, or to get THAT specific one (EVGA). A quick follow up Newegg Search shows the following:
EVGA 750 Ti Superclocked - $130 w/ MIR
EVGA 750 Ti (your link) - $120 w/ MIR
ASUS 750 Ti (Tigerdirect) - $130 w/ MIR - $20 Visa Checkout = $110

They're all +/- $10, thus my question on if it was the 750Ti as recommended, or the specific EVGA model. Also, what is "superclock" mean... is that the same as me buying the stock and OCing it myself? Or did they do something special to the card?

Just to be clear: Is power consumption a massive issue for you? I ask because that's pretty much the 750Ti's main selling point. From a price to performance perspective, the 750 TI isn't that good of a choice since you can get the faster R9 270 card for $10 more:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...norebbr=1&cm_re=R9_270-_-14-125-491-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...norebbr=1&cm_re=R9_270-_-14-131-545-_-Product

Here's a quick overview of the performance difference:
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1080?vs=1130

Basically, the 750Ti is really only worth getting if power consumption is a huge factor and performance doesn't matter as much. You have a decent PSU that's good enough for the R9 270.

Believe it or not, the Q6600 is not really a detriment for the vast majority of games. My wife runs a Phenom II x6 1090t CPU (IPC is in the ballpark of your Q6600) and she runs most games at max detail on her 1600x900 monitor using an older Radeon 6950. Runs perfectly smoothly and fine.

It appears that your 1090T is significantly faster than the Q6600:
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/146?vs=53
 
It appears that your 1090T is significantly faster than the Q6600:
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/146?vs=53

Well, then! It appears somebody fibbed to me. I personally never bothered to look because I almost always get AMD processors because I do a lot of heavily multi-threaded work (such as CPU video encoding). I had a friend that swore that my Phenom II was not significantly faster than his Q6600, and I just kind of accepted it as I am used to hearing how my AMD processors perform like shit in comparison to all things Intel. :)

I WILL HAVE TO RUB HIS NOSE IN IT NOW!
 
Well, then! It appears somebody fibbed to me.

No they do have very similar IPC. That part is correct. However if you are comparing stock frequencies the Q6600 runs at 2.4GHz while the 1090T runs at 3.2GHz. Similar IPC means if you run them at the same frequency they should on average perform alike. Also the 1090T has 2 more cores which will help in the few applications that use more than 4 cores.
 
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