September 1st - e6600 OC or upgrade time

[dougyfresh]

Greetings...

I am running a Core 2 Duo e6600 2.9 Ghzish on the stock cooler. max temps prob 55 or 65, usually.

550 watt antec neo
Asus p5b deluxe
2 gb g.skill ddr2 800
XFX Ati 5870
raid 0 w.d. black caviar 1TBs
1920x1080 panasonic nuclear powered plasma screen
x-fi 'fatality' pci express sound card (3 years old?)

I'm trying to decide whether i want to upgrade CPU/ram, sell or keep this existing machine (best machine i've owned to date).... I could try to get better ram and a heatsink for this machine to max it out.... then decide if i want to upgrade or not. but when i see these ppl who have 4.20 ghz i7 machines with a 8800 gts it makes me kind of smile.... plus this machine would be stellar as the backup computer for friend use....


Or maybe i should just run it at 3.6 or whatever max on the stock heatsink, lol. is this ram good enough for this system?


Get at me.....


What do you think? I love maximum smoothness on my games and 1080p videos.....is a maxed out Core 2 duo system still too weak for the 5870? Honestly it runs good or great already...maybe I am just bored. But you know....we love our performance...

 

[jsc]

You don't need better RAM. Your existing RAM will take you well past 4.0 Ghz if your CPU would.

If you're relatively happy with your performance, the only thing I would do is get a better HSF. I like the Xig Dard Knight:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029

That is what is limiting your performance right now.

 

[dougyfresh]

i appreciate the advice. any more is still welcome. i still run xp and windows 7, should i get 4 gb...should i double my current ram or try to get 4gb of some faster-than-ddr2-800 ram so that i can overclock my cpu easier? btw it hit 3.6 on day 1 the first time i tried to boot it up years ago. if i could get 4 gb of fast memory and get 3.3-3.6 ghz on the cpu....

 

[dougyfresh]

i hit 3.6 on day 1, but i dont think i could run that stable, and it would get too hot