Help with upgrades

[Reprieve999]

Hello all. I was hoping to get an outside opinion concerning upgrades I am considering. My build is as follows.

Antec 900
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHZ @ stock (Core VID 1.325 Volts)
4 x 2048 Corsair DDR2 800 mHz memory for 8192 MB total
Intel DP35DP Mobo
BFG 9800 GTX+ OC 512 MB
OCZ Vendetta 2 CPU Cooler
Antec 550 w
Seagate 2 TB 7200 RPM total storage
22" Samsung ToC

I generally run at 1680 x 1050 resolution. My first thought is to upgrade my terrible motherboard to an overclockable board and take my stock Q6600 to 3.0 or 3.2 GHZ. I will obviously need a power supply upgrade to go very much further with video cards but was contemplating a GTX 285 for an upgrade with a 1000 watt power supply. Of course, this is LGA 775 which I know is 2 series behind current but my wallet does not allow me to start from scratch with a newer socket. My inclination leans me towards an ASUS Rampage formula so I may overlcock and keep my 9800 GTX in the future for a PhysX card perhaps. In any case, what would all of you think.

Motherboard /Overclock or just EVGA GTX 285 for now. Currently I would like fps upgrades with max settings specifically for gaming. In the end I will get all of it but the motherboard would give the most tinkering enjoyment I would think.
Thanks for any responses ladies and gents.

 

[Guest]

this will be a sweet little gaming rig once you are done. good choice in mobo, but i would get GIGABYTE GV-N275SO-18I GeForce GTX 275 1792MB instead of 285. Its 100$ cheaper and performs 3% better so go with that. Your mobo is bad, but as long as you have decent cooling, you can still overclock it to at least 2.6-2.7ish, and your processor in stock is actually pretty good anyway. If you want better fps, then the main thing you should do is upgrade your video card, because the 9800 GTX isn't that great. You also dont need a 1000 watt psu, more like a 650-850 watt should be plenty. COOLER MASTER UCP RS700-AAAAA3 700W should be good or the SILVERSTONE ST75F-P 750W

 

[Reprieve999]

Thanks very much for the quick input. I am checking out that video card right now as we speak but honestly have no experience with Gigabyte as a video card product. The slight overclock would be good but my bios has zero options for changing of voltages and so a software overclock is my only option. As of right now, I have had no stable software overclocks and have bottlenecked quickly in every attempt. The 1000 watt psu was to try to futureproof the psu somewhat but I could save some money by going less. Once again, thanks for the input.

 

[Guest]

any time , if i were you i would wait for the i7 to drive the price of the core 2 quads down or to just go with a better mobo. The asus is great but might be a bit overkill depending on the overclock you can get with your cooling system.

 

[Reprieve999]

I think your suggestion has inadvertenly shown me an overclocked stock GTX 275 can perform just as well as a GTX285 and so has helped me out a lot. Have to admit though, I am still on the fence about getting the overclockable mobo or the GTX 275. I wonder which would really be the most significant in actual performance.

 

[Guest]

well right now not that many programs use quad core, so the extra MHz would be nice, but if you want better performance in gaming, then go with 275 (oced) all the way.