What would you do?

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one30eight

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 16, 2004
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I have had the same case going on 6 years. I decided to upgrade it and then decided to upgrade a few more things. Here is where I am at.

As of right now I have a c2d e6550 that runs at 3.2, but can hit 3.4 on air. I have a 4850 and it seems to do just fine for what I play. I usually upgrade every two years and that is about now. In 2 weeks I have a thousand dollars that will be going into my PC, one of the following 2 ways.

1.) Buy a s775 quad, 2 HD for raid and short stroke the one I have now or maybe 1 ssd and one regular. A new GPU when Nvidia releases Fermi, probably a 57/58xx . 1 32" or higher LCD. Maybe a water cooling setup, depending on how much is left.

or

2.) Sell off most of what I have, combine with thousand and start new. I would probably be going with an i5 and the MSI P55-GD65.

I really like option one as what I have now is not that bad. I would like to go to quad core though. I am just not sure I want to do a whole new build. I do want to keep whatever I get for the next 2-3 years. I keep changing my mind, back and forth. I do have a Microcenter within an hour and the deals are hard to ignore. If I go with option 1, I will get the quad used, to save some money and get one I know should OC well.

Option 1? or Option 2?
 
Neither. Sell everything you have EXECPT the 4850, and upgrade to the 1366 socket.
 
I think i5/1156 would be more than enough. I don't really need triple channel and quad core will be plenty for the next 2 years. I would probably want a new mother board by the time I needed 6 cores.
 
The price difference will be less than $100 (closer to $75) for the 1366 compared to the 1156.

and you can get a deal at microcenter to make that even less.
 
Well okay so add i7/1366 to option 2 if you want.... still you do not think a s775 quad has 2 more years of life left? I am eating into my display budget with option 2. If what I have now is not so bad, seems with a new hard drive array and a quad, it would be like night and day. However, if it is not going to stretch out for at least 2 years, if not three, I want to go socket 1156/1366.
 
The cost difference from a i5-750 and the i7-920 at microcenter is very small. the price difference from the MSI you chose and the p6t by Asus or a Msi 1366 board is minimal.

Spending money on a dead socket (775) is crazy. If you are going to spend money on the quad, and you have a MC nearby, go 1366. Upgrade you videocard after the new Nvida cards come out and after the hype has gone down.

A 920/930 (1366) upgrade now can supply basic needs for around 5 years. And it works in your budget.
 
What PSU will you be using with either options? Or is a PSU upgrade part of both options?
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I agree with gwarren007 also. The fact that you have a Microcenter nearby, you can get the Intel Core i7 920 cpu for $199.99 in store. You still spend a little more for the 6GB triple channel ram and X58 motherboard but, I think you should go for it.

You can go with either of these motherboards

ASUS P6T for $223.99

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R for $219.99 ($20 MIR)

RAM if you want to just buy it in store also, consider the Corsair XMS3 6GB(3x2GB) DDR3 1600 modules for $169.99 ($30 MIR)

Or, get the lower voltage G.Skill 6GB from NewEgg for $164.99 w/free shipping

BTW, you should upgrade your OCZ Powerstream 520 power supply also if you are thinking about reusing that. They have the Antec Earthwatts EA650 for $75.44 at Microcenter.

You can easily get the a Core i7 920 build and still have money left over. You can reuse the Case, Video Card, Optical and the HDD
 
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Shadowssong said:
I second everything gwarren has said :)
Click to expand...

+1

4850 is solid till the 5k series drops a little bit more in 3-6 months. maybe OC it a bit with afterburner for some extra FPS

the 920/1366 is pretty much unbeatable with the added option of being current for the next 3-4 years, totaly upgradable to 6 and 8 core cpus as well :)

the LGA 1156 doesnt have that and makes it just a normal midstream system. plus you can get a AMD 965 system that will beat it for cheaper...
 
Okay so here is what I am looking at. Will buy the CPU at Micro Center, will buy the board either used or find the best deal. I want as black as a board as I can get, without any reds. I will just need to add a vid card, but will wait to see what Nvidia does.

Mother Board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188049

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202&cm_re=i920-_-19-115-202-_-Product

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231247

PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...GNEFL030410-_-PowerSupplies-_-LC3A-_-17371025

2 of these in RAID and short stroke the 640 I have now
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

If air cooling
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029
 
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I'd say sell everything and start over. May as well sell the 4850 while you can still get some green for it, you know? Once these new cards come out that might change.

i5 750 is solid. i7 920 is worth it if you live by Microcenter, because of the sale price.

You'll want a Direct X 11 card too, so either wait around for Fermi, or one of the 58xx cards, minus the 5830 that's too expensive for what it delivers IMO
 
Option 2. Sell the old while it has it's value you'll be much better off.

And it will be much more fun building new won't it :D
 
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Since you upgrade your parts quite often, I'd make sure you get at least one SSD and that 32" LCD 1080P right now. So, in other words, fit those into your budget first, then build with what's left (all planning, of course... don't forget to figure in the money you get from selling whatever you replace).
 
Since you upgrade your parts quite often, I'd go for option 1. Then, in two years, upgrade the entire platform. You'll notice the boost in performance from SSDs, as far as the OS responsiveness goes. Off the top of my head...

$500 - 32" LCD
$300 - 2x 80GB G1 Intel X18-M (newegg, check hotdeals)
$180 - Q9550 (Microcenter)
$90 - TP-750 (newegg, check hotdeals)
=========
$1070 + tax and shipping

Since the HD4850 plays games fine right now, keep it until it no longer plays games fine. You didn't mention anything CPU intensive, but the HDT-S1283 should get that quad to 3.8Ghz or so. Sell the E6550 for $50 or so.
 
I can't decide. The monitor just throws the whole thing out of whack. If I went with the s775 upgrade and LCD, I could put another 360 in here also. Decisions, decisions...
 
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