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InvisiBill
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2003
- Messages
- 2,608
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=5931091 is a list of almost everything in my system, but I'll put the important bits here too.
Abit AN9-32X Fatal1ty nForce 590 SLI AM2
Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz
XFX 9800GT with Accelero
XFX 8600GT XXX now doing PhysX
4x2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800
Olevia 37" 720p LCD HDTV as a monitor
XP x64
I've got a decent chunk of money coming back for my taxes and work bonus. If I wanted to blow it all, I could easily afford a fully decked-out i7 system. I'm a little more practical than that, so I'd rather not spend the whole thing on an upgrade of questionable utility...
WoW is my main game, and most of the time I'm even doing twink BGs as opposed to huge raids. I do occasionally play other games, but I don't have a lot of time to spend on them, so I usually buy budget stuff (yay for the $5 X-COM pack and $20 Bioshock) rather than the latest and greatest. I'm interested in Mirror's Edge, but haven't actually played it yet. Back in the day I played a lot of Action Quake 2, but the newer FPSes just haven't grabbed me like that. I liked F.E.A.R., so I'll probably check out F.E.A.R. 2 as well.
I guess I have a bit more of "money burning a hole in my pocket" and "the grass is greener over there" than actually thinking my system is slow. Obviously it's not top of the line, but it's no slouch either.
I'm not sure I want to spend almost a grand on an i7/x58/DDR3, when I don't know how much improvement it will really be for me. I didn't want to ditch my 9800GT that I just "finished" and it wouldn't really work in the secondary slot with the way I have things now. However, I now think I could replace the SBLive! with a USB soundcard, and the fan on the Accelero should fit behind the 7.1 card. I may have just convinced myself that this is the best way to proceed for now...
Since I have a buyer for my current TV, I was also thinking I may upgrade to a nicer 1080p for all-around benefits too, even if I can't use it for 120Hz stereo input. I'm not sure I'd even end up getting the glasses anyway.
Experts, let me know what you would do if this were your system. If you could upgrade one item, what would it be? Two items? Go on as much as you'd like. I'm all about value, but if it's pretty close, I tend to prefer Nvidia (though it's been a while since I've used ATI). I like AMD, but Intel currently seems like a better buy on the performance end of things.
Abit AN9-32X Fatal1ty nForce 590 SLI AM2
Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz
XFX 9800GT with Accelero
XFX 8600GT XXX now doing PhysX
4x2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800
Olevia 37" 720p LCD HDTV as a monitor
XP x64
I've got a decent chunk of money coming back for my taxes and work bonus. If I wanted to blow it all, I could easily afford a fully decked-out i7 system. I'm a little more practical than that, so I'd rather not spend the whole thing on an upgrade of questionable utility...
WoW is my main game, and most of the time I'm even doing twink BGs as opposed to huge raids. I do occasionally play other games, but I don't have a lot of time to spend on them, so I usually buy budget stuff (yay for the $5 X-COM pack and $20 Bioshock) rather than the latest and greatest. I'm interested in Mirror's Edge, but haven't actually played it yet. Back in the day I played a lot of Action Quake 2, but the newer FPSes just haven't grabbed me like that. I liked F.E.A.R., so I'll probably check out F.E.A.R. 2 as well.
I guess I have a bit more of "money burning a hole in my pocket" and "the grass is greener over there" than actually thinking my system is slow. Obviously it's not top of the line, but it's no slouch either.
- Unfortunately the board is AM2 (and now pretty much unsupported) or I'd get a PII for a little boost and call it good. AM2 and 775 upgrades seem like a dead end and waste of money at this point.
- The stereo glasses thread got me looking at 120Hz displays, but I'm so used to my huge monitor now (despite the low res) and the TVs I'm looking at don't seem to support true 120Hz input. My friend's 22" widescreen seems tiny to me.
- I suppose a GPU upgrade couldn't hurt, but I keep reading about how WoW is CPU-bound anyway, and I just spent a lot of time to get my Accelero setup just perfect.
- I have a SBLive! in the PCI slot below the second PCIe x16, used just for voice chat and modded to hook up to the ports on the case for my headset. The "onboard" 7.1 card is below that, feeding the optical out for my main sound.
I'm not sure I want to spend almost a grand on an i7/x58/DDR3, when I don't know how much improvement it will really be for me. I didn't want to ditch my 9800GT that I just "finished" and it wouldn't really work in the secondary slot with the way I have things now. However, I now think I could replace the SBLive! with a USB soundcard, and the fan on the Accelero should fit behind the 7.1 card. I may have just convinced myself that this is the best way to proceed for now...
Since I have a buyer for my current TV, I was also thinking I may upgrade to a nicer 1080p for all-around benefits too, even if I can't use it for 120Hz stereo input. I'm not sure I'd even end up getting the glasses anyway.
Experts, let me know what you would do if this were your system. If you could upgrade one item, what would it be? Two items? Go on as much as you'd like. I'm all about value, but if it's pretty close, I tend to prefer Nvidia (though it's been a while since I've used ATI). I like AMD, but Intel currently seems like a better buy on the performance end of things.