Possible Upgrade, Opinions?

plumage1

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Jul 24, 2009
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Hey all, been surfing these forums for a while, finally joined. Awesome site. Anyway, I'm looking to upgrade my computer. I wondering what would be the biggest upgrade in performance. I only game on it, but I notice things slow down when my antivirus scan goes on (using AVG Free). Currently only playing WOW, tried LOTRO for a bit and Assassin's Creed. WOW runs pretty well depending where I'm at, usually 30-70+ FPS, tho the load time in Dalaran is a bit long. I remember AC and LOTRO were a little laggy, but I'm pretty sure it was my vid card. Currently I'm thinking of picking up a Q9550 since they're cheap at Micro Center. I'll also be getting a new vid card...thinking of getting a GTX 260 or an HD 4870. Anyway, here is my current setup:


CPU: E6600 OC'd to 3.0Ghz
Card: EVGA 8600 GT
PSU: OCZ 600W
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2GB DDR2 800
Monitor: 22" 1680x1050
MOBO: EVGA 680i LT
OS: WinXP PRO 32


Thanks for the advice!!
 

ahslan

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Aug 23, 2007
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well most of your gaming performance is going to be coming from your video card so upgrading your video card will have the largest effect...your processor OC'd should be more than enough to handle the games you described...
If you're on a budget, I would upgrade the video card first, and then see how your rig performs...
 

DeeTee_uk

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Jul 17, 2009
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RAM and card. I wouldn't worry too much about your CPU at this point. I have the Sapphire 4870, and I'm very happy with it. They've also come down a lot recently. Not a lot to choose between them and the core 216 260's.
 

neon neophyte

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add 2 more gigs to the ram. you probably have 2x1GB, turn that into 4x1.

videocard. as said. but considering your motherboard chipset, i would suggest an nvidia card. probably would suggest a gtx 275.

your cpu is good enough.
 
Upgrading your GPU would provide you with the biggest benefit right now. Since you have an SLI board I would say go with a GTX 260 if think you mighnt want to add another one latter for SLI. If you're not interested in going multicard then a Radeon 4870 or 4890 would be a better value. Upgrading your CPU to a quad 9550 would be an improvement, it just wouldn't be as much of an improvement as upgrading your GPU first.
 

plumage1

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Jul 24, 2009
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Nice. Thx for the replies. I just picked up a Q9550 from Micro Center E0 stepping. However, I'm going to upgrade my RAM and video card first. If those two make a noticeable improvement, I'll return the CPU, got 30 days :). I do have 2x1GB sticks right now, so I'll get a couple more. Any suggestions on which pair to get? I'm debating on which card to get as well, on the fence btw the GTX260 and the HD4870. The HD is a bit cheaper, so I may go that route. Any suggestions on which brand? Going by Newegg (not limited to), here's what I'm thinkin:

Cards:

GTX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433

HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801 (not in stock now, have to check elsewhere)

Mem:

1. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098


Thx!