What to upgrade?

C

Casper312

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 29, 2008
Messages
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So I'm in a pickle. Paycheck is coming by the end of the week and i have some extra money coming in as well from other parts i have been selling lately. After thats all said and done i am gonna have some money to upgrade my rig a bit more. Probably a budget of $200 for now until i get Christmas gifts sorted out.

Currently here are my specs:

E5200 @ 3.6Ghz / Tuniq 120
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
G.Skill Pi Black 4GB (2x2GB) @ 960 @ 5-5-5-12
Evga 9800GTX @ 815/2025/1245
Creative Audigy 2ZS
OCZ StealthXStream 600W
Seagate ST350041A8S 500GB 16MB Cache
Lian Li PC-A05NB
HP MX703 Max Resolution 1280X1024.

If you are wondering what i use mainly my computer for, its mainly gaming and video encoding, but mostly gaming.I don't mind my current monitor but hey i have seen the difference and i wouldn't mind it :p. That being said i am currently thinking of the following upgrades in order:

1.Upgrade monitor to a 22/24 inch LCD screen which will bump my resolution to 1680 or 1920.
2.Heading over to Mc and picking up a Q9550
3.Picking up a E8400 from these forums and adding another 4GB of ram also from these forums.

What do you guys think? I am really leaning towards the monitor upgrade one thing im wondering is if the rig will hold well with the new resolution? It totally rips apart current games on my small 1280X1024 crt but im also digging the MC deal on the Q9550.

Thanks
Juan
 
you don't need a quad core cpu or 8 GBs of ram for gaming. best path to take is better video card and may be an ssd. But for sure change that powersupply in the near future.

As for the monitor I would suggest looking at 23" to 26" display first and then upgrading rest of parts over time.
 
SSD is probably out of the question due to me getting the seagate about a week ago and im very happy with its performance compared to the old 250GB ide i had.

The Quad/8GB is true and i might ditch the extra ram, although the Q9550 Mc deal might be done sometime down the road. As for the video card, You think my clocked 9800GTX can handle games well on 1680x1050 with high settings with some AA? I have been saying to myself that its basically a GTS 250 or a bit better with the clocks i have it at, and reviews i have seen including that card shows performance that i will be happy with.

I'm checking out some monitors on Mc's site at the moment. :)
 
How often do you encode? Quadcore will definitely help with encoding, but so will a new vidcard, depending on what you're encoding. So, what are you encoding?

I wouldn't buy a new vidcard until AFTER you buy your new monitor, simply to see how you like the performance of your current card with your new monitor. 1680x1050 would certainly be easier for the 98GTX to handle than 1920x1080 or larger, so I'd definitely stick with the lower res. Then if you don't like the performance, I'd suggest the cards shiro recommended.

Sell your old parts to help offset the cost of the upgrades. ;) While the MC deal may not be around much longer, current Q9xxx0 owners may be upgrading soon to i5/7, so there should be ample supply on the used market, if you don't mind used -- in case you miss out on the deal.
 
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