Time to Upgrade, Looking for Advice/Help.

M

murlo26

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Messages
161
Hey guys I haven't upgraded my rig since college when I built whats in my sig which is this mainly...

Intel Core 2 duo 6600 Conroe
EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i Mobo
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB DDR2 800
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS
Western Digital Raptor 150GB
Antec 900 Case
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W PS

That was 2007...I used to be into the whole OC'ing thing and what not and my rig was all nice and overclocked. Since then I have really only been playing WoW on the computer and really nothing for the past year. The computer isn't OC'ed anymore as it was having a few stability issues and runs way better on stock settings.

Anyway, with Star Wars: The old republic coming out I really want a newer rig...and to graduate to windows 7 and what not (still on XP for gaming and vista for general internet surfing).

Here are the items I am looking at to upgrade to, I have been doing some research online in the past couple weeks, not a ton as I have been busy at work but figured I would ask the people that are more informed than I.

New vid card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130613

New Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145316

New Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131730

New CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

And then Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit and a new zalman fan too.

I have built 2 computers since, one for my bro and one for my buddy, but didn't really research those as much and just went with safe stuff. For myself, obviously I want to double check everything :)

I have used MSI and ASUS before for mobo's besides my EVGA but I am a pretty big EVGA fan now, for sure for vid cards. The new mobo's from EVGA didn't seem as good as the ASUS offering though so that is one of my biggest questions, is that one solid?

I looked at X58 vs P67(z68, not sure if its the same thing or not I think it is???) and with what I am looking to do, just a single vid card and maybe sli later, it seems the P67 is the obvious choice, yes/no?

Also the CPU is pretty much a lock for me I think as it looks like you can OC them to 4GHZ easily...the only thing is apparently the i5 2500's can be oc'ed even more but I am not sure if that is really ideal or not. I'd prefer something I don't need to OC too much so its super stable.

I don't play FPS on comps and more, just xbox so really this will be for Star Wars, but I'd love to run it to the max and I don't think this rig will have a problem.

Is my power supply sufficient, its this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

It's newer as my other OCZ one from the original build crapped out.
Any places I can save money easily or spend a tiny bit more for a lot more power?

Dave
 
If you can try filling this out out. Clears up your budget, any reused parts, when you are building, and most of all resolution.

In regards to what you are looking at already. Go for the 2500K there is virtually no difference in performance between that and the 2600K for gaming. Both overclock with ease due to the unlocked multiplier. Don't bother with that ASUS, no reason for a expensive motherboard when you do not need the features. This board can you do everything that Asus can that you need for way less. That ram is WAY overpriced as you can get a 2x4GB (8GB total) DDR3 1333MHz for $50 currently, no difference between 2133MHz vs 1333MHz in gaming only time you see that helping is synthetic benchmarks. You do not need higher end speed ram as overclocking a 2500K the memory will not limit you due to the unlocked multiplier. The GTX 570 maybe overkill depending on your resolution. Your PSU should be capable for a new build too.
 
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xBanzai89 said:
If you can try filling this out out.

In regards to what you are looking at already. Go for the 2500K there is virtually no difference in performance between that and the 2600K for gaming. Both overclock with ease due to the unlocked multiplier. Don't bother with that ASUS, no reason for a expensive motherboard when you do not need the features. That power supply is overkill too. A quality 600W-650W will be fine for a GTX 570.
Click to expand...

Whoops, sorry I missed that one, my bad. I haven't been on here in a few years, sorry man.

The Power supply I already have in my current rig, I would be reusing it.

200-300 doesn't seem to be too much for a mobo, any other suggestion?
 
Yeah you ninja'd me I missed that and corrected it lol. Check my updated post about the motherboard and ram too. I've heard people have many issues with ASUS's line of P67 boards too, so I would avoid them as there is plenty of options on the market.
 
xBanzai89 said:
Yeah you ninja'd me I missed that and corrected it lol. Check my updated post about the motherboard and ram too. I've heard people have many issues with ASUS's line of P67 boards too, so I would avoid them as there is plenty of options on the market.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will check out your links.

P67 boards in general seem to not be perfect yet but I want something that will be future proof.
 
Gigabyte I hear added the 22nm CPU support to some of their boards for Ivy Bridge. That I know will use the 1155 socket, so it sounds like it is up to motherboard makers to do this. MSI is pretty good, so I don't see why they would not do it.
 
Anyone else with some input? It would be appreciated. Also, money isn't a huge deal, well in the range I posted about anyway :)
 
Murlo what is your budget and what resolution are you playing at? Really need to know that before there can be anything constructive towards a build.
 
Budget, maybe 1200-1600 area. I could spend more but i don't want to unless its really worth it to spend a bit more.

Resolution, at least 1080p. I think its 1600x1200 though, i am traveling for work and honestly I can't remember right now haha.
 
And OS, win 7 ultimate 64 bit which is like 175.

I am going to reuse my antec 900 case, my HDD are fine still, dvd drive, monitor and other peripherals are still good too. Oh, also I think I need a new CPU fan, zalman, to fit the new 1155 socket.

But yea I think thats the main stuff, what you said and OS and fan.
 
Do you have to get a Zalman? There is better performing air coolers out there for the money. Are you going to use the features Ultimate has otherwise no reason for it over Home Premium.
 
No, I have just always used their fans, they never seem to let me down. 50 bucks for a fan doesn't seem bad. What did you have in mind?
 
Zalman has not been known lately for good coolers that are priced correctly. I was going to recommend the Hyper 212. Seems to be a favorite around here.

This is what I came up with:

2500K/MSI P67-GD65 combo - $374.98 - GD65 has SLI if you want to do that in the future.I
GSKill 2x4GB DDR3 Memory - $49.99
EVGA GTX 570 - $319.99
Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit - $94.99
Hyper 212 - $29.49

Total = $879.54 with shipping plus $50 in MIRs.

Really do not see any point in putting more money towards the CPU/Mobo/RAM. If you want to burn more money only place you will see a difference is getting a SSD or a higher end card like a GTX 580, which would be total overkill for that resolution.

If you want a SSD I would get either the Intel 510 120GB or the Crucial M4 128GB.
 
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xBanzai89 said:
Zalman has not been known lately for good coolers that are priced correctly. I was going to recommend the Hyper 212. Seems to be a favorite around here.
Click to expand...

Nice, I just watched the vid, looks pretty solid. I'll try it out :) Switched this in for the zalman.
 
Go with xBanzai89's recommendation for parts. If you are indeed playing games on a 1600x1200 resolution, then the GTX 570 is major overkill -- stick with the HD 6870 for that resolution.

Count me as another vote for Windows 7 Home Premium. You can use freeware programs to replicate most of the "must-have" features Windows 7 Ultimate has over Home Premium.

You need a new hard drive if you want to gain the biggest performance boost possible. With your budget, you could grab an SSD as a primary drive -- like the Crucial m4 128GB SSD -- which reduces load times and start-up considerably. Many of today's hard drives like the Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB HDD have also exceeded the speeds of first- and second-gen Raptor drives.

The TX750 is a good power supply, but if it's more than three years old, then you may want to consider replacing it soon.
 
What does Ultimate have that premium doesn't? I just assumed most people went with Ultimate.

My PS is only like 2 year old, should be good I think. I did switch out for the different cooler.

I decided to go with this for a vid card after seeing what you guys said and after talking with a buddy of mine.

GTX 560

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130610

Also, I think a solid state drive is prolly a good idea, put that in.

Also switched to this ram after hearing a few things.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226224
 
Don't bother with that memory. Again it is a waste of money as it isn't going to help with anything. What about the CPU/Mobo? You are just wasting money on the 2600 and that ASUS, since you aren't using them to their potential. Have you thought about getting a up to date monitor with the rest of your budget maybe? 1600x1200 sounds like a old CRT or 19 Inch LCD. Ultimate really only major difference is having encryption for your files I think. Haven't heard anything else, which is why I guess most do not use it.
 
I have a 24" samsung lcd...I don't remember the part number, but its solid. Like I said I am not home right now. I am honestly not sure what resolution its capable of, I will know this weekend when I get home. It's relatively new though, like last few years.

I was planning stay with the 2600 and ASUS.

I plan to play BF3 also on this comp so I don't want to get stuff that is too low on the spectrum of things unless I am really wasting its potential. I had an MSI board before it was just alright. I mean your talking 200 bucks of savings with downgrading to a 2500k and a little bit worse mobo. Am I really not going to get use out of those things?
 
The more I think about it, I think it can handle 1920x1200...like I said it's newer.
 
The 2500K and 2600K perform the same in 99% of the games out there even the 2500K pulls ahead by 1 FPS (lol). Check this review out. You are not missing out on anything with the 2500K or that MSI P67 mobo. If the 2600K offered that much more peformance I would recommend it. The 2600K is only meant for work loads that take advantage of the hyper threading and no games really do.

Regarding your monitor. If it is 1920x1200 I wouldn't go any lower then that GTX 560 Ti you have there. A GTX 570 isn't a bad investment either if you really want one of those for that resolution. Will you be home soon, so you can know for sure prior to ordering all this?

EDIT: Here is a review to show you the memory speed does not effect gaming performance either. Even DDR3 2133 MHz makes no difference.
 
Hate to burst your bubble on EVGA too. Their mobos are the glamor they were back with the X58 series as many of their engineers jumped ship to another company, so I wouldn't bother with their boards. You have an ATX case, so you might as well get a ATX mobo as that EVGA one is mATX (smaller). That EVGA mobo only has a 1 year warranty while the MSI one has 3 years too. EVGA is really only known for their life time warranty on their GPUs doesn't seem it applies to their mobo unfortunately.
 
Hmm, well see this is why I post on the forums, you guys are up to snuff on all this :) I just need a little convincing, I am not going to ignore good logic.

What the hell, I'll try out the MSI one, its cheap enough to risk it :)

Thanks man.

Any one else want to chime in?
 
One more thing. You did see the review with the ram too right? lol
 
I edited my post, so you may of missed it. Its this review. Shows you DDR3 speed from 1333MHz to 2133MHz making no difference whatsoever in gaming.
 
Yea I saw it now. Well I guess I will switch up my memory then for some nice ddr3 1333 stuff.

I am not against saving some dough, if it really doesn't matter I am fine with that.
 
Indeed. If you want something more flashy (something with a heatsink), since I think the 900 is a case window you can check these out. Cheaper after MIR then that value GSKill DDR3 I linked on the previous page. If you want to see how BF3 Alpha is performing on hardware check out some of the BF3 threads in the forum as people are posting their FPS on the current highest settings.
 
In this case, save your money. Many people have easily obtained CPU overclocks of beyond 4GHz using DDR3 1333 RAM -- mainly because they were using their K processors' unlocked CPU multiplier.
 
Lol. I've done enough, so I am not going to try and budge you from that. Its better then you getting that dominator or mushkin memory at least.

Though if you are dead set on DDR3 1600 get this kit right now. Its the same as the kit you are looking at, but $15 cheaper for $50. I didn't want to link it as it ends tonight and I wasn't sure when you were ordering all this.
 
I am not ordering anything tonight....or this week even. Just researching for now. Shit by the time I order this stuff I might have to update this thread and make sure the stuff is still up to date with how fast shit changes in the tech industry.
 
Yeah well at least you know. I don't know your specfic plans, but there are rumors circulating that the new AMD GPUs maybe out in September along with their FX series CPUs to compete against Sandy Bridge. That is going to completely redo how builds are going to be setup (crossing fingers the FX-4000 can compete with the 2500K).
 
xBanzai89 said:
Yeah well at least you know. I don't know your specfic plans, but there are rumors circulating that the new AMD GPUs maybe out in September along with their FX series CPUs to compete against Sandy Bridge. That is going to completely redo how builds are going to be setup (crossing fingers the FX-4000 can compete with the 2500K).
Click to expand...

I'll have this stuff ordered by then I think, my biggest deal is getting ready for Star Wars TOR. This build should easily handle that I'd think, MMO's aren't demanding on systems typically even on full settings. It's time for an upgrade regardless though.
 
Yeah I do not think the system you will get will have any problems with the new Star Wars MMO. You have a very strong CPU (good for MMOs) and good performing GPU. I do not see any issues with you running the game.
 
Bumping this, hopefully I get some more good responses like last time to refine my upgrade.

I was out of town for like 2.5 months for work and with my BETA testing of star wars going alright on my current rig I found I really need to upgrade. My FPS drops to 10 sometimes which is unacceptable for pvp etc.

Here is what I am thinking, some of which was from this previous recommendations, some not.

Let me know your thoughts. I'd like to keep it around 900 for the upgrade.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814150550

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835103065

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16832116992

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813130574

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819115072

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820231460

Looking to order in the next few days, maybe even tonight if I get enough feedback quick to make sure I am not getting anything stupid.

Thanks ALL!
 
Keep the Hyper 212 Plus, but go with the following instead:

$375 - Intel Core i5 2500K and Asus P8Z68-V combo
$38 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT 2x4GB DDR3 1333
$270 - XFX HD-695X-CNFC HD 6950 2GB
$80 - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit OEM
$26 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
=====
$789 - Subtotal (not including taxes, shipping, or rebates)

Now that the combo deals are back -- I couldn't find any for Black Friday -- you can grab the i5-2500K and a good Z68 board together for a bit less than a similarly-configured P67 board.

The problem with the G.Skill Sniper RAM is that the tall heatspreaders may run into conflict with the Hyper 212 Plus heatsink (if not the fan as well). You don't really need heatspreaders on your RAM if your case has sufficient cooling, but the "value" RAM would otherwise perform just as well as the more expensive RAM.

Why are you going with Windows 7 Professional? What features are must-have?

I went with the HD 6950 running at stock speeds to shave $10 off the overall price. With some third-party utilities, you could overclock the video card (if you wish) to make up for the "lost" speed. (But I doubt that you'll really miss it, as either card would be notably faster than what you were using prior.)
 
I am a little skeptical about the mobo you posted. It seems to have a decent amount of negative reviews on the first few pages about bad memory slots and problems with on board hardware.

What is the advantage of z68 over p67? I haven't looked into it much at all. And the RAM seems a little cheap, its only like 20 bucks less so I that is a toss up to me.

Thank you for the feedback though, anyone else?
 
murlo26 said:
What is the advantage of z68 over p67? I haven't looked into it much at all.
Click to expand...
From an Intel rep here on the forums:
IntelEnthusiast said:
There are really 3 differences between the P67 and Z68 chipsets.

Z68:
-Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) SSD caching. You can use up to a 64GB SSD.
-Support for IGP (Intergraded Graphics on Processor). There are a couple things that play off from this including the Lucidlogix Virtu software and the ability to overclock the IGP (about half of Gigabyte’s Z68 boards don’t support this feature.
-Intel SATA III controller (better performance)

At least as far as the chipset goes there is around a $6 dollar cost difference.
Click to expand...
murlo26 said:
And the RAM seems a little cheap, its only like 20 bucks less so I that is a toss up to me.
Click to expand...
yes it's cheap but in terms of performance and more than likely quality, you won't notice a difference between the G.Skill RAM you chose and the RAM that Tiraides recommended.
 
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