What to upgrade?

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bcdudley

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Aug 2, 2007
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So I have a little extra $$ for an upgrade. I would like to know where it would best be spent. I mainly play WoWarcraft. I currently play at 16xx x 14xx or whatever the resolution is around there with all settings maxed out and all effects turned on and get between 30-60 fps. Even in Dalaran I get around 20-40 fps. It would be nice to go to 1900xwhatever resolution.

My specs are:
Intel C2D 8400 3.0 Oc'd to 3.6 (Very stable)
Xigmatek HDT S1283 cpu cooler (Keeps it under 50c even under full load)
4GB Patriot DDR2 Viper series 6400 running at 4.4.4.12
Asus P5N-E SLI
Nvidia 8800GTS 320mb
Raid 0 striped drives (1 is 1.5GBs, 2nd is 3.0GB's, no critical data is stored here, only os and programs)
Raid 1 mirrored drives (For data storage)
Vista 64
26" Samsung LCD monitor
I think my power supply is a 650watt, not at home now so I cannot look. It is about a year old.

The system runs very well right now, but I want to keep it current so I am looking into where I should go next. The Vista performance deal shows all my specs are at 5.9. I have not run any benchmarks. I have a couple ideas, but I would like others opinions first.

Thank you
 
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fullmetall
Get a higher graphics card? everything else looks nice. gtx 260. gtx 280 depending on the pins on your psu and probably to get a more stable oc, ddr2 1066.
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bcdudley

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Aug 2, 2007
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Thanks, I was really leaning towards the 260 card as well. I just wanted to make sure. Other options I was looking at was upgrading both of the raid 0 drives to a full 3GBs with more cache and going to 8GB of memory. The power supply should be a decent one. I never buy critical components like that cheap. It will be a Thermal take or Corsair or Antec or something name brand like that.
The OC on it is very stable. I have been running it for 3 mos at that without a single blue screen or application crash. Prime95 and one other similar app ran for 72 hours straight without any problems. The best memory that the Asus P5N-E SLI will support is DDR2 800 so the benefit from upgrading that would be marginal at best?
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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If you upgrade your vga card, make it a largish jump, to a 9800GTX+ or a GTX260 at least. If it is a small jump, you will not see that much difference and be disappointed.

There might be some benefit to upgrading to 8gb. This corsair document has some info:
http://www.corsair.com/_appnotes/AN811_Gaming_Performance%20Analysis_6GB_vs_3GB.PDF
It certainly would be an inexpensive upgrade. On the other hand, 4 sticks of ram can have a negative effect on your ability to overclock, depending on the mobo.


Consider adding a second monitor, I find it incredibly useful.
Or, a larger monitor.
 
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bcdudley

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Aug 2, 2007
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I am going with the GTX260, It seems to be the most logical choice. I think the 285 is a little more than I want to spend right now, but the 260 is right in line. After readign soem of the articles posted about memory, I will just stick with the 4gb I have now. As far as the monitor goes, I have two right now, just never use the second one. My primary monitor is a Samsung 26" which is pretty big. I don't think I want to go much bigger than that.

Thanks for all the input.
 
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