Question about system upgrades

T

Tzzird

Supreme [H]ardness
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May 9, 2006
Messages
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I have a 5850 on order that will be here tomorrow.

People have told me that my fps will still suffer in BC2 with a 5850 because the core 2 will hold me back big time. Does anyone know how valid this is?

It seems that I can get a q9550 for right under $200. I have a few questions before I jump on the purchase though
1) Will this CPU work with my motherboard? Just pop it in and it will run?
2) Will my 520W Corsair cover the necessary power expenditures?
3) Why is Microcenter so much cheaper than everywhere else?

Thanks for the advice.
 
There will be a limitation yes but it's still a substantial upgrade.

1) Update to the F13 BIOs and you'll be set.
2) Yes
3) It's a loss leader item. Mainly they lure you in with a cheap CPU that will be a loss for them BUT hope that you'll end up buying more than you really wanted to from them. I've seen plenty of people go in to buy a CPU from Fry's or Microcenter and end up with a new motherboard, video card, RAM, and PSU in addition to the CPU :) So it does work.

EDIT: LOL! Just realized how similar our current PCs are :) Too bad I have the Rev 1.0 version of the DS3 :(

EDIT 2: As a bit of anecodotal evidence: I generally see 98% CPU usage with BC2 with my rig in sig at 1440x900. For my brother's PC, he sees about 75% to 80% CPU usage at 1440 x900 with the following setup:
AMD Athlon II X4 625
Biostar A760G Mobo
2GB RAM
HD 5770
Antec EA430 430W PSU.

So BC2 is definitely multi-thread aware.
 
Thanks Danny. I think our rigs are similar because I followed a thread with advice from you about three years ago. ;)

You run everything on low as well?
 
OC your E6420 a bit more and see how it performs with your HD 5850. If you're still unsatisfied, grab the Q9550. It's $180 @ Microcenter B&M btw.
 
enginurd said:
OC your E6420 a bit more and see how it performs with your HD 5850. If you're still unsatisfied, grab the Q9550. It's $180 @ Microcenter B&M btw.
Click to expand...

Yeah I just saw that yesterday. My nearest MC is in Tustin, which is 22 miles from my place.

My 6420 used to run at 3.2 and 3.3. But after last summer's heat where I noticed some random crashes, I decided to take it down to a "safer" overclock.
 
I went to microcenter wanting to just buy an i7 930 but ended up with a Gigabyte X58A-UD3R and 6GB of Corsair RAM along with it. :-/
 
Tzzird said:
You run everything on low as well?
Click to expand...
Nah, medium settings. A few dips here and there but this game is too pretty for me to drop down to low. :)
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
onetwenty8k said:
I went to microcenter wanting to just buy an i7 930 but ended up with a Gigabyte X58A-UD3R and 6GB of Corsair RAM along with it. :-/
Click to expand...

Ok?

Tzzird said:
Yeah I just saw that yesterday. My nearest MC is in Tustin, which is 22 miles from my place.

My 6420 used to run at 3.2 and 3.3. But after last summer's heat where I noticed some random crashes, I decided to take it down to a "safer" overclock.
Click to expand...

22 miles isn't too far, you can save some $$ that way.
 
Danny Bui said:
Nah, medium settings. A few dips here and there but this game is too pretty for me to drop down to low. :)
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
Click to expand...

I can't stand to lose in games. At medium, I was definitely losing a lot!
 
If you're going to keep your pc for another 1 to 2 years, I'd get the Q9550....mine is overclocked to 3.4 and it still gets a good hit on all 4 cores, but certainly not >90%....but usually between 45% and 80% on all cores. I have a 5870. See my sig. Running BC2 mostly high, and 1920x1200.
 
dekruyter said:
If you're going to keep your pc for another 1 to 2 years, I'd get the Q9550....mine is overclocked to 3.4 and it still gets a good hit on all 4 cores, but certainly not >90%....but usually between 45% and 80% on all cores. I have a 5870. See my sig. Running BC2 mostly high, and 1920x1200.
Click to expand...

I'm still at work here, but ups tracking says my card is already at my doorstep. Going to see how it runs real soon. If I'm still not happy, I'll definitely pick up the q9550.

And, yes, I do plan on keeping this pc another 1 to 2 years. I would say I'm less [H] than the average guy here. Complete overhauls every 5 or 6 years, rather than 1 or 2. :)
 
Tzzird said:
I'm still at work here, but ups tracking says my card is already at my doorstep. Going to see how it runs real soon. If I'm still not happy, I'll definitely pick up the q9550.

And, yes, I do plan on keeping this pc another 1 to 2 years. I would say I'm less [H] than the average guy here. Complete overhauls every 5 or 6 years, rather than 1 or 2. :)
Click to expand...

There's no shame in doing that provided that you get the right parts.

Speaking of which, you may want to consider getting the Q9550 used, especially if you plan on spending as little as possible on upgrades.
 
tiraides said:
There's no shame in doing that provided that you get the right parts.

Speaking of which, you may want to consider getting the Q9550 used, especially if you plan on spending as little as possible on upgrades.
Click to expand...

I checked ebay the other night. Cheapest q9550 is going for $225 used.

With Microcenter's price, it's pretty much pointless to buy anything other than new.
 
I go my Q9550 used right here on the [H] forum....$155, I think....keep an eye out.
 
So I picked up a Q9550 from Microcenter, along with some Arctic Silver and some 91% rubbing alcohol from a drug store.

Is the correct process to use a cotton ball dabbed in the alcohol to wipe away the old AS that is crusted on the CPU / CPU cooler? Is there anything I should watch out for?

I haven't updated my bios in quite a while. Not sure if it will be the revision F13 that Danny suggested. I'll do this update before switching anything out.
 
Use a lint-free cloth, or some coffee filter paper, to clean the old TIM.

Yes, update the BIOS using a USB bootable thumbdrive, not within windows.
 
enginurd said:
Use a lint-free cloth, or some coffee filter paper, to clean the old TIM.

Yes, update the BIOS using a USB bootable thumbdrive, not within windows.
Click to expand...

Lint-free cloth... got it. Hope I have some left over.

Will the BIOS not update unless you boot with a USB drive? I have an old usb drive but I'm not even sure if it is bootable. Would I be able to burn a bootable CD-R to update the bios?
 
Since I couldn't find a flash drive to update the bios, I used gigabyte's @BIOS utility that allowed me to flash it while in the OS.

After the BIOS, it booted up perfectly, except with one hitch. The fan blows a lot faster than I had it before. Checking with the fan speed utility, it seems that I am running at 2800 rpm. I'm not sure what it was running at before, but it was never this loud. I tried messing with the settings in the bios, but could not find a way to lower the speed. Does anyone have experience with this?

When I popped in the q9550, it worked perfectly. With 4AA, high on everything except shadows on low and effects on medium, I am easily averaging in the high 50s. I did about 8 separate one minute FRAPS benchmarks and the median fps per run ranged from 54 to low 60s. Very rarely does the FPS drop to low 50s. This usually happens during mortar strikes. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

My 3dmark06 score seems really low though. 15537 total, 5811 2.0, 7815 3.0, and 4149 cpu.
 
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