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Upgrades for friends PC

B

Boss24

n00b
Joined
May 30, 2008
Messages
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Hello everyone. I'm looking to upgrade a friend's 3 year old gaming PC so he can play Age of Conan. His budget is ~$400. I'm looking to replace the motherboard, CPU and RAM. This is what I suggested to him:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L: $89.99

G. Skill 2x1GB PC6400 RAM: $44.99

Intel C2D E8400: $189.99

He's gonna be buying my 8800GTS 320MB off me for 50 bucks. Any suggestions on what I should change? Basically just looking for your opinions on these parts. Oh, btw, he games on a 17" monitor. I think it's the Samsung 172x. Only 1024x768 resolution if I remember correctly. One last thing, any suggestions on what I should change in my rig? Rig is listed in my signature. Thanks.
 
I would like to tell you to overclock the E6600, but with all of the problems I keep hearing about the 680i boards, that's not such a good idea.

What's your problem? Are you not getting satisfactory performance in a particular game?
 
His sig says he's got it at 3.2Ghz... that should be good enough for most things. He's also got an LT board, and only a dual core chip... those boards can OC dual cores fine... its the quadcores they have more problems with.

@OP: If you'd like an upgrade, yourself, get a Q6600 or E8400 and sell your friend the E6600. :p Too bad you can't get a Yorkfield (not like they're cheap, anyway).
 
enginurd said:
@OP: If you'd like an upgrade, yourself, get a Q6600 or E8400 and sell your friend the E6600. :p Too bad you can't get a Yorkfield (not like they're cheap, anyway).
Click to expand...

You know what, that's an excellent idea. I was looking at the Q6600 or the E8400. I'll ask him and see what he says. Yeah, I have the E6600 @ 3.2 GHz on stock cooling. If I end up selling him the CPU too, I'll have to invest in a better HSF. What do you guys suggest for a HSF? Also, I don't do much multitasking, primarily gaming. Will I still benefit from a Q6600 over the dual core E8400? Thanks for the replies btw.
 
Boss24 said:
What do you guys suggest for a HSF? Also, I don't do much multitasking, primarily gaming. Will I still benefit from a Q6600 over the dual core E8400? Thanks for the replies btw.
Click to expand...

For the HSF: Xigmatek HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle HSF - $37 & Xigmatek ACK-I7751 Rentention Bracket - 7$

If you can overclock the Q6600 to 3.6GHz, which isn't that hard to do, then I think you are better off with the Q6600. While not too many games are multi-threaded these days, that's going to change in the future. The Q6600 will also be better than the E8400 if you have other programs running while gaming, like an open browser.
 
enginurd said:
His sig says he's got it at 3.2Ghz... that should be good enough for most things. He's also got an LT board, and only a dual core chip... those boards can OC dual cores fine... its the quadcores they have more problems with.
Click to expand...

Do you guys think I should upgrade my motherboard? I haven't installed the Q6600 I got yet but I don't want to run into any problems with it, so I'm wondering if I should just upgrade. I like the evga 750i FTW motherboard. What are your guys thoughts on this motherboard?
 
Boss24 said:
Do you guys think I should upgrade my motherboard? I haven't installed the Q6600 I got yet but I don't want to run into any problems with it, so I'm wondering if I should just upgrade. I like the evga 750i FTW motherboard. What are your guys thoughts on this motherboard?
Click to expand...

Install the Q6600 on your current motherboard and see if it works fine and can OC well. If yes, keep the 680i LT motherboard. If not, get a new motherboard. The 750i FTW has been the recommended SLI motherboard around here since it's the SLI motherboard with the least amount of problems associated with it. It's a good motherboard.

However, are you actually gonna use SLI? Your sig doesn't say whether or not you're using 8800GTS SLI or any kind of SLI.
 
I'm in the queue to step up my 8800GTS to a GTX260. Prolly won't run SLI off the bat, and may get another 260 if I need it in the near future. As of right now though, I'll just be running one GTX260.
 
In my experience and from observations, people who buy one card and plan to SLI with another card rarely do so. They're either A) perfectly satisfied with a single card, B) will never have the cash to spend on a second card, and C) end up buying a new card that's faster than their planned SLI setup.

Though you might be different.
 
For gaming at 1600x1200 and under, there is really no need for SLI -- the performance benefit does not outweigh the cost. If gaming at 1920x1080 or higher, then SLI becomes more cost effective, since the performance increase becomes more apparent at that resolution.

If at all possible, avoid SLI boards for the Intel platform, since they're not as stable/reliable as the intel counterparts.
 
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