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Is it time to upgrade?

M

Mike2007x86

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 27, 2007
Messages
127
I need some help with processor selection.

I use the PC for web browsing, chat, gaming, and video encoding.
I had a Q6600 overclocked to 3.2Ghz solid on an E-VGA 680i motherboard with 4gb of DDR2 1066Mhz RAM.

That PC is now history, so I am looking to purchase new components sometime next month. My old system had watercooling + all the bells and whistles which became more of a hassle than what it was worth. This time around though I want something simple that will perform like my old overclocked pc. I am going strictly air cooling with a cenurion 5 or antec 300 case. I won't be adding new stuff to the case. Only putting a better cooler on the cpu.

The main question I have is which is better for a gaming setup?
Dual or quad when combined with a GTX 460 for $160.00

The games that I mostly play are need for speed series, test drive series, call of duty series, dragon age series, batlefield 2 series, and mass effect series. I don't want my cpu to bottleneck my gaming and video encoding.

My E-VGA 680i reads ---- everytime I boot it up and lately it blue screened often, no matter if the pc was sitting idle.

My budget is less $900.00 so I am avoiding watercooling and fancy cases.

Is it worth upgrading from a q6600 to an i3 i5, i7, or even sandy bridge?

I have a 900w toughpower psu which I will be transfering over to the new case, along with my old 1tb hdd and he dvd burner.
 
No sense in going with dual core anymore.
Click to expand...

Agree. Especially if you had a Q6600. Great chip to have purchased early, if that's what you did you got a lot of life out of it. As far as whether or not it is time to upgrade, if your old system is toast, I guess so. :)

Going to assume you want new, rather than used parts.

If you want to wait for a motherboard for however long it takes for retail availability price to performance the 2500k is hard to beat at $230.

The Core i5 760 at $210 is probably the next best bang for buck.

Source

For $210 trading blows with the Q9650 at $340 is pretty good.

Pick one:

ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $129

GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $139

4 GB DDR3 1600 is running about $50 in 2x2GB config right now

so... you'd be at $399 so far

gtx 460 at $160 makes that $560, leaves $340 for anything else you might need... windows 7 oem perhaps?

i7 870 ... at $289 is $79 more

comparison

or maybe a 560Ti instead at $250 instead of the 460 at $160

hope this helps get the ball rolling for you in thinking out a system
 
At the price of a 2500K I would buy one of those. Just wait a few more weeks and hopefully you'll be able to get a nice motherboard for it.

Otherwise I would buy a used i7 920/930 and a Sabertooth X58 motherboard with some nice G.skill DDR3 1600 ram.
 
That's_Corporate said:
No sense in going with dual core anymore.
543.jpg
Click to expand...

Yeah... get a quad...
 
Sabertooth X58 $188
i7 940 $269
4 GB $50

$507, Really good use of $100 dookey
$250 for a 560Ti
$757
 
Only change I make to the suggestion from exdriver is go with 6gb ram. You want to triple channel on the X58 platform.
 
Which of these two is better technology for mainly gaming and video encoding?
2500K or i7 940.

$757 for a great 940 build sounds good.

Does the brand of RAM matter when it comes to overclocking stability?
What should I look for when selecting RAM stability for 3.4Ghz

edit:
Updated signature to show how I had my old system setup.

I just need the new build to be better or just like my old build.
 
Last edited:
If you are encoding the 940 is better, 8 threads versus 4 threads.

The 940 build suggested will be better than what you have without a doubt. Much better in fact since you are wanting to encode.

I like Corsair and G.skill RAM. Best price is usually G.skill. Be sure to buy 3x2gb RAM set if going X58 route.

This RAM for $70 is excellent:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225
 
If you want to stick Intel, I suggest highly going Intel 1366. Forget 1156 and 1155. Right now the prices on some of the top of the line X58 stuff is low. Core i7 920, 930, 940 are all good - grab any of the an overclock the hell out of it without spending a fortune. Boards, I'm a firm user of Asus ROG when given the chance so pick up a Rampage III Extreme (or Formula) if it fits your budget. If not Sabertooth is "next down" with still a ton of features. RAM, remember you're Tri-Channel now so a 6gb kit would be best (3x 2gb) or if you have a lot of cash left over, grab 3x 4gb for 12! Brands, GSkill is a good value brand but I favor Corsair. They just released their new Vengeance line which has great performance without Dominator prices.

Any of the above will put together a top of the line 1366 build on the cheap, giving you much better price/power ratio than the Intel mainstream sockets at this stage of the game. Of course, if you can wait until later in the year the successor to 1366, socket 2011 is scheduled to launch and its upgraded X68 platform. However, it will be expensive as the 1366 was at launch.
 
Thanks for the info guys. I have decided to go with a laptop, but I want it to have a pretty good intel processor so that it can encode with sony vegas pro 10 and run all of my games such as test drive, test drive 2, assassins creed, need for speed hot pursuit, call of duty black ops, splinter cell series, battlefield 2 series, mass effect series, and finally dragon age series.

I realize that I can't have AA, but I need to be able to run all of the newer games too on my new setup.

I don't know that much about mobile processors, so I need to find the right processor power with a good chipset to play games that won't bottleneck the graphics since alot of people say to buy a budget laptop and overclock the graphics as much as you can. I'm on a budget too so that causes an issue

What intel mobile processor do you recommend for gaming and video encoding on a laptop. Please remember that I am on a budget.

I prefer intel, but if AMD would be better then I would consider switching.
 
Bad choice getting a laptop for $900 to encode with. You won't get much of a processor at that price point. Also, you won't get much in the way of hard drive space.
 
Would have went with a desktop instead of a laptop, especially if you are doing a lot of encoding.
 
I'd say no, wait for the 22nm ivy bridge hex core or better processors with motherboards that have pci express 3.0 and USB 3.0 integrated. I didn't notice a massive difference between a Q6600 at 3.6 and sandy bridge except in the most CPU intensive games. Get a Solid State Drive if you want and upgrade that will improve speeds in a noticeable way.

I also wouldn't buy a laptop anymore period personally. I just upgraded my bedroom computer from a laptop to a PC because I was tired of the sub-par monitor. Really terrible viewing angles even for a TN and the lenovo brand. PC gives more flexibility in upgrade and display choices. . If I need to take it out of the house, I use a netbook now.
 
Considering you can get a i7 920 for ~$200 used, I don't think it's worth it to get the Sandy Bridge. You can easily fit a sexy i7 system within your budget.
$200 -board
$200 cpu
$100 GTX260
$100 Ram ?

That's about all you need IMO.

Mike2007x86 said:
I need some help with processor selection.

I use the PC for web browsing, chat, gaming, and video encoding.
I had a Q6600 overclocked to 3.2Ghz solid on an E-VGA 680i motherboard with 4gb of DDR2 1066Mhz RAM.

That PC is now history, so I am looking to purchase new components sometime next month. My old system had watercooling + all the bells and whistles which became more of a hassle than what it was worth. This time around though I want something simple that will perform like my old overclocked pc. I am going strictly air cooling with a cenurion 5 or antec 300 case. I won't be adding new stuff to the case. Only putting a better cooler on the cpu.

The main question I have is which is better for a gaming setup?
Dual or quad when combined with a GTX 460 for $160.00

The games that I mostly play are need for speed series, test drive series, call of duty series, dragon age series, batlefield 2 series, and mass effect series. I don't want my cpu to bottleneck my gaming and video encoding.

My E-VGA 680i reads ---- everytime I boot it up and lately it blue screened often, no matter if the pc was sitting idle.

My budget is less $900.00 so I am avoiding watercooling and fancy cases.

Is it worth upgrading from a q6600 to an i3 i5, i7, or even sandy bridge?

I have a 900w toughpower psu which I will be transfering over to the new case, along with my old 1tb hdd and he dvd burner.
Click to expand...
 
It would be very difficult getting a laptop to play most of the games you listed at that price point.
 
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