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PC build help

W

wxkid23

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 17, 2006
Messages
131
Hi,

Im currently in the market to upgrade my system. I currently have an FX-60 AMD at 2.6ghz along with 2gb of ram and 1 7900gtx. I have about a $500 budget to work with right now so I have enough to buy a Q6600, MB, and 4 gigs of ram. Some questions:

1. Am I going to see a very significant performance increase going from an FX-60 to the Q6600 at stock speeds (2.4ghz) even though the FX-60 has a high clock?

2. The Q6600 runs at stock 2.4 ghz... I have no expereience overclocking and a moderate PC know-how. Is it hard to overclock to 3.0ghz and can I do it without cooling? It seems the Q6600 is such a great value due to it's ability to overclock high. I just have a normal black PC case that has a Silverstone fan in the back and it keeps my current rig fairly cool... will this work ok with a Q6600 or will it run even hotter?

3. If I get a 775 MB that means I can upgrade in the future to the Q9450 or Q9550 right? Im guessing the new quads coming out after that won't be 775 socket?

4. Am I wasting my time if I don't get a new videocard (prob 9800gtx) until Christmas? Im guessing the 7900gtx is going to bottleneck me good. They are getting cheap ($300) so I may not wait until then however.

5. I had a friend build my current rig and we don't really talk anymore so im going to be building this by myself. I have decent computer know-how... is it difficult to take current MB out and put in a new chip?

any other input is greatly appreciated.... :)
 
You'll see a difference just in the increase in ram alone, not to mention the difference you'll see multitasking with the quad.... enjoy
 
If you're going to see much (if any) difference with the Q6600 over the FX-60 really depends on what you're going with it. Hard to say. Give examples of intended uses, maybe.

I'd strongly recommend you get the Xigmatech Rifle 120mm HSF for ~$30 if you want to OC the Q6600. The stock cooler simply isn't up to task, though yes, you may be able to get a (very hot running) 3Ghz out of it. OCing is not at all difficult so long as you know the basics of getting around a BIOS. There is a sticky in the OCing forum about OCing C2D chips that will tell you all you need to know. Read that and ask any questions you still have.

Going from the Q6600 to a 9450/9550/9650 wouldn't be at all worthwhile unless you had many applications that made heavy use of SSE4, since that's all they really have (and some extra cache) over the Q6600. Apps using lots of SSE4 don't really exist yet, though, outside of a some for video encoding.

I'd wait until the end of June at very least before getting a new graphics card. ATI and Nvidia are releasing new hardware.

No, building isn't at all difficult, you just disconnect everything, remember where it went (not hard, all plugs are keyed to only go one place one way, just don't force them) and unscrew motherboard. Then reverse with the new stuff.

All new chips from Q1 2009 on won't be LGA775, so yes, you will need to get a new motherboard if you want to upgrade any more after that. If you can hold out until 3 or 4 months in to next year (difficult I realize) and save up, you will likely be able to keep the machine a good bit longer. That's still almost a year off though.
 
Multi-tasking...good amount of gaming (TF2, Crysis, mostly new stuff)...

The main problem with the FX-60 is the complaint from my fiance of a lot of studdering and slowness when having many programs open or myself having some stock trading software open which really bogs things down. Im guessing that going quad and moving to 4gb from 2gb of ram would fix these issues. I think being able to do all this <500$ has me set until sometime next year when the new stuff is out and affordable. Agree?

Do you think if I buy the Q6600 now and buy one of the new Nvidia cards later this year I would be set until at least late next year for the newest games? Also, I notice a lot of the new 9800 cards are fairly cheap in the 300-400 range... are the new cards likely to be significantly higher?

Im going to look into the cooler... is that difficult to install?
 
If you get the Xigmatech remember to get a bolt-through kit for it. It's only weakpoint is the stupid pushpins it uses by default. The Thermalright kit is ~$6, so not a big deal. It's not hard to install -- comes with directions.

Yes, considering your usage the Q6600 should be a big step up.

I think the new cards (at least some of them) will be in the $400 range, so you could probably consider some of them. A month really isn't that long to wait. Just use your current card in the new machine until then.

Nothing guarantees you'll be good to go for any period of time and I'm not going to go out on a limb and make a claim I can't back up. You may be good to go, you may have to start turning things down. I really don't know.
 
at stock you probably won't notice much different in basic everday use. (surfing, email, etc). it will be faster especially if you're doing encoding or anything that can take advantage of those extra cores. In gaming you might not notice much of a difference.

Overclocking it to 3Ghz should be quite easy. You should use an aftermarket cooler, but its well worth the extra $30+ you spend.

Once you're up to 3Ghz, everything will noticeably feel and be faster / snappier.
 
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