Time for an upgrade!

H

hutchwell

n00b
Joined
Mar 14, 2007
Messages
12
Hey [H]. It's been about 2 years since even glancing at hardware, so it's time for some advice from the people who know. I want to upgrade a few things and make the computer beefier, but like I said, I have no clue what's good anymore. For all I know, C2D's aren't the hot stuff anymore and I've got antiquated hardware.

Right now I've got:

Gigabyte P35-DS3L LGA775 motherboard

Intel C2D E6750 (@ 2.66mhz...nothing's OC'ed)

eVGA 8800GTS 320mb video card

2gb Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 PC2-6400

Aspire 520W psu

plus 3 hd's, all crammed into a Thermaltake Tsunami Dream case.


Performance wise, I'd really like to be set for games for another year or two. I use the comp for college, internet, music and movies, but if it can play games well, then it'll run iTunes. Probably won't be overclocking anything.

I'm fine on hard drive space, but if you've got any recommendations for a roomier case, that would be appreciated as well as hardware recommendations.

I don't want to do a whole new build if it can be helped, so budget is probably somewhere between $600-700. Tennessee is a turd for sales tax, but if you guys bump it over budget, $750 is doable. Oh, and probably gonna buy in the middle of January, about a month from now.

Thanks a bunch [H]!
 
The quick and easy way cuz I'm dead tired lol would be to upgrade to a quad core, like the Q6600 or the like. Next would be another 2 Gigs of RAM along with Vista 64 Bit. Last would be a new video card. Either a 4850 or a GTX 260 depending on whats left over. I'm not doing math lol nighty night.
 
Q6600 sounds good. But you HAVE to overclock, you just have to! When you run an application that only uses 1-2 cores, you're stuck at 2.4ghz which is actually below your situation ATM - I'd be QQing :[

Antec 1200 is roomy....actually, it's a Beast.

Ugh, give me your proc+mobo :p
 
If you want to game, you need to buy a new video card. The $160 HD4850 would easily run circles around the 320MB 8800GTS, and you could get a video card that's capable of gaming on a 24" monitor -- either the HD4870 or the GTX 260 -- for under/around $250.

I also suggest replacing the power supply immediately. Apevia/Aspire power supplies have a history of dying often and taking parts -- even entire systems -- with them. A good, inexpensive choice right now would be the BFG Tech LS-550.

To squeeze out a bit more performance, you could also overclock the E6750... but make sure that you have a good aftermarket CPU cooler beforehand. If you need one, a good choice is the Xigmatek HDT-S1283.
 
Okay. With everything recommended except for the Q6600, the bill comes up to $656.59. (That's the cooler, psu, case, video card, vista and ram.)

How much of a difference would a Q6600 make over an E6750?

Has Vista 64bit been cleaned up? I tried it when it came out and was really disappointed. Poor drivers and wouldn't play my games, mostly.
 
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