Alright. I've got a $500 budget that I got from my income tax return that I wanted to spend it on upgrading my rig. I looked thru several options and narrowed it down to 2. First, this is the specs of my current rig:
1 - Upgrade the mobo to an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard and buy another BFG Geforce 8800GT 512MB OC and go SLI
or
2 - Ditch the processor and motherboard and buy a EVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Motherboard and a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor.
The first option will enable me to go SLI now but would probably hinder me on processor upgrades in the future, the second option will give me a quad core but I'd have to wait longer to go SLI, due to my $500 budget.
I'd like to hear any opinions on which route should I take.
Well if you go the second option and you want better fps in multi-threaded games like Supreme commander then opt 2 will be the way to go if you do intend on saving again and buying the second card later. You will see a nice boost with just a cpu upgrade.
You'd consider a powerful good quality PSU in SLI and IMO, you wouldn't notice anything better on current games on SLI other than wasting money (new GPU and probably new PSU). But if you are playing games at high resolution, yes you'll see the difference.
8800GT is quite a fast GPU, it's good enough to play even supreme commander or Crysis on 12x10 res or 16x12 res. Combining that 8800GT with your second options will give you a significant boost from your current PC specs.
You can choose a P35 chipset mainboard such gigabyte mainboard GA-P35-DS3L or Asus P5K, it's cheaper than 680i and they perform closely to 680i. But if you still planning on SLI, then 680i is your choice.
I upgraded from a FX60 @2.96ghz runing an 8800GTS 640 to a Q6600 @3.4ghz and the difference was very noticable. My 3dmark scores went from cpu: 2200 to 5300+, SM2.0/3.0: 4600+/4500+ to 5200+/5100+ and that seemed similiar to perceived real world imporvements. You can look around and get a Q6400/Q6600/x3210/x3220 for $190- $260 OEM. Couple that with a good aftermarket cooler (TT120 $55-$60) and GA-P35-DS3L ($90) and your well under $500 for a noticable improvement.
Message edited by Craxbax on 03-04-2008 at 06:31:11 PM
Well I don't have a big screen monitor.... it's a 20" widescreen samsung with native res of 1680x1050, which I don't intend on upgrading anytime soon. My main intent on going SLI, or at least having SLI upgradeability available is to future proof the rig on the cheap side. I say on the cheap side because pretty soon those Geforce 9800 will be out and buying another 8800GT will be cheaper then a 9800... Does this make sense?
I'm almost on the verge of buying the 680i + Q6600, but I just wanted to be positively sure this is the right way to go...
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