This is my first post, I have come here often for advice, I appreciate what you guys do to help people.
Current system (what I was running before I bought new hardware, which is yet to be installed)
E8400 cpu
775 MB with 1 pci-e slot, only 4 power phase, 1600 FSB
radeon HD 6970 2 gb
8 GB DDR2 OCZ titanium 4-4-4-15 2.2v RAM
I need to wait 1.5 years before I spend any serious $ on a new rig, and although my rig is doing 'ok' for me, it is very luke-warm performance-wise, and want to do something to improve my experience. Anyways, it has been on my mind to do some upgrading to carry me for another 18 months before I build a all-new machine (I would like to wait awhile until I am in a position to build something really great) .Then I just happened to get lucky and have a Gigabyte 775 board with 2 true 16x PCI-E slots, 1600 FSB, OC friendly # of power phases- fall into my lap for free...
So, I decided to spend some money and try to get some bang for my buck(I hope) to hold me over until I spend the serious $. I ended up spending about $400 more than I wanted, but mostly that money went to things I can reuse in 18 months, like a corsair H100i cpu cooler, sound reactive lights n such, plus a full atx tower with built in liquid cooling, which I will use purely for my GPUs. I spent $100 on a brand new q9650 core 2 quad (just happened to come across it online). I bought it a little bit on impulse thinking it was the best I could do for my 775 MB, but now I'm concerned it will bottleneck my two radeon HD 6970s and my whole idea here isn't very worth-while. I can return the q9650, and stick with my e8400 awhile longer, but there's no way I can run two 6970s in crossfire, making the second one I just bought to go with the new MB useless (I paid $100 for the 2nd 6970, it's in great condition. I could maybe return that as well).
Was my thinking flawed, should I of just bit the bullet and built a whole new machine early and buy hardware a few notches cheaper then I had planned? Can I use my corsair H100i and overclock the stuffing out of the q9650 and not worry about bottlenecking crossfire'd 6970s? I know I would still be in a bit of trouble with CPU intensive games though.
I only recently have free time enough to play games again, so I'll be picking up a few, but there are no specific games I am wanting to upgrade for.
Current system (what I was running before I bought new hardware, which is yet to be installed)
E8400 cpu
775 MB with 1 pci-e slot, only 4 power phase, 1600 FSB
radeon HD 6970 2 gb
8 GB DDR2 OCZ titanium 4-4-4-15 2.2v RAM
I need to wait 1.5 years before I spend any serious $ on a new rig, and although my rig is doing 'ok' for me, it is very luke-warm performance-wise, and want to do something to improve my experience. Anyways, it has been on my mind to do some upgrading to carry me for another 18 months before I build a all-new machine (I would like to wait awhile until I am in a position to build something really great) .Then I just happened to get lucky and have a Gigabyte 775 board with 2 true 16x PCI-E slots, 1600 FSB, OC friendly # of power phases- fall into my lap for free...
So, I decided to spend some money and try to get some bang for my buck(I hope) to hold me over until I spend the serious $. I ended up spending about $400 more than I wanted, but mostly that money went to things I can reuse in 18 months, like a corsair H100i cpu cooler, sound reactive lights n such, plus a full atx tower with built in liquid cooling, which I will use purely for my GPUs. I spent $100 on a brand new q9650 core 2 quad (just happened to come across it online). I bought it a little bit on impulse thinking it was the best I could do for my 775 MB, but now I'm concerned it will bottleneck my two radeon HD 6970s and my whole idea here isn't very worth-while. I can return the q9650, and stick with my e8400 awhile longer, but there's no way I can run two 6970s in crossfire, making the second one I just bought to go with the new MB useless (I paid $100 for the 2nd 6970, it's in great condition. I could maybe return that as well).
Was my thinking flawed, should I of just bit the bullet and built a whole new machine early and buy hardware a few notches cheaper then I had planned? Can I use my corsair H100i and overclock the stuffing out of the q9650 and not worry about bottlenecking crossfire'd 6970s? I know I would still be in a bit of trouble with CPU intensive games though.
I only recently have free time enough to play games again, so I'll be picking up a few, but there are no specific games I am wanting to upgrade for.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram