You guys helped me build my rig a while back, now I'm thinking of making some upgrades. I overclock. Going to stay with my EVGA 680i A1 for now, but here's what I'm thinking:
1. CPU - want to upgrade from a E6600 to a Q6600 with G0 stepping, heard I can get at least 3 Ghz out of this, many people say 3.2. Heard the improvement was great over the E6600, in terms of Windows and multi-tasking. True? Should I be looking at another processor instead, or maybe none at all?
2. RAM - going to add at least 2 Gb more. I have two sticks of the TWIN2X2048-6400PRO, with Cas latency 5, timing 5-5-5-12, and voltage 1.9. They're out of this most everywhere, they stock the TWIN2X2048-6400C4PRO now, with Cas 4, 4-4-4-12, and 2.1 V. I was thinking about buying 2 Gb of this and mixing, but I don't know how that would affect my system. Recommendations? Maybe I can pick up 4 Gb of something new and better if necessary, but I don't want to waste good RAM or spend too much.
3. Miscellaneous - I'm trying to decide between a 1 Tb Seagate Barracuda ES.2 or possibly getting something more reliable, like two tried-and-true 500 Gb drives. I really need a hard drive that's going to work right out of the box and not give me any problems within a few weeks/months. Been reading the reviews at Newegg but no clear winners yet. Finally, I'm trying to decide on a monitor. The Dell 2408FPW is in my cross-hairs. The monitor is perfect for me in every aspect, but I would like it to be a bit bigger. The 2707FPW would be perfect, but has no HDMI inputs. Recommendations on a larger monitor with all these extra connections that Dell puts on their monitors? I need S-video and component inputs. Don't actually need the HDMI inputs YET, but I will soon.
1. CPU - want to upgrade from a E6600 to a Q6600 with G0 stepping, heard I can get at least 3 Ghz out of this, many people say 3.2. Heard the improvement was great over the E6600, in terms of Windows and multi-tasking. True? Should I be looking at another processor instead, or maybe none at all?
2. RAM - going to add at least 2 Gb more. I have two sticks of the TWIN2X2048-6400PRO, with Cas latency 5, timing 5-5-5-12, and voltage 1.9. They're out of this most everywhere, they stock the TWIN2X2048-6400C4PRO now, with Cas 4, 4-4-4-12, and 2.1 V. I was thinking about buying 2 Gb of this and mixing, but I don't know how that would affect my system. Recommendations? Maybe I can pick up 4 Gb of something new and better if necessary, but I don't want to waste good RAM or spend too much.
3. Miscellaneous - I'm trying to decide between a 1 Tb Seagate Barracuda ES.2 or possibly getting something more reliable, like two tried-and-true 500 Gb drives. I really need a hard drive that's going to work right out of the box and not give me any problems within a few weeks/months. Been reading the reviews at Newegg but no clear winners yet. Finally, I'm trying to decide on a monitor. The Dell 2408FPW is in my cross-hairs. The monitor is perfect for me in every aspect, but I would like it to be a bit bigger. The 2707FPW would be perfect, but has no HDMI inputs. Recommendations on a larger monitor with all these extra connections that Dell puts on their monitors? I need S-video and component inputs. Don't actually need the HDMI inputs YET, but I will soon.