What makes a killer gamer rig for 2010?

lord_galvatross

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Sep 4, 2008
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Hey everybody!
I've been out in la la land for a while and have no idea what builds a top line gaming rig now a days.

My old rig
Intel Core2 Ext. QX9770 3.2 Ghz
XFX 790i Ultra MoBo
Corsair 1GB DDR3 1333 x4
Corsair 750w PSU
PNY GeForce GTX 280 1GB x2
Creative Labs SB X-Fi XtremeGamer
Vista 64bit
LG 22" x2

It was an awsome rig to build but I'm thinking of upgrading to keep with the times.
What are some of the new parts/ tech that's come out?
And what the heck is the i7 all about?

 
^ IMO your rig is still a killer gamer rig I would say...
You would have to wait for the i7 980x if you ask me...though in games there wont be significant performance difference but in other multi-threaded tasks, would blow away the competition easy...
IMO you should try overclocking your rig and replace the RAM with 2x2GB sets as that would slightly improve RAM performance...

You would have to wait for the next gen to arrive if you want a good upgrade...
Maybe you can check out the DirectX 11 graphic cards from ATI...those might interest you...
 
A top of the line rig would have Two 5970s and an overclocked i7 CPU on an X58 board with 12GB or RAM, two SSDs in RAID 0 to boot from, and a few 1TBs in a Raid 5 array for storage. Of course, unless you're playing at a really high resolution, or want to use eye infinity to play on 3 monitors, I can't say that the immense cost would be justified by the performance increase. If money is no object go for it. If, like the rest of us you have bills to pay, then I say hold off for a while. Well, hold off so long as the performance of your rig in games is something you are happy with.
 
Agree with all of the above.

Your PC wouldn't be an ideal new build, but since it's not a new computer, it's still great. Obviously, once that is no longer the case, you'll basically be looking at a completely new build as the LGA775 socket is dead.

About the only thing it's missing is a DX 11 GPU, but that's not important now, and won't be for a while.
 
Except the OP already has 4 GB 1333 mhz DDR3 in the machine.

I wouldn't bother doing anything for a while. Wait until it stops being able to play the new games (or until it breaks down) to do anything at all.

Windows 7 is a good idea though. It is everything Vista was supposed to be.
 

mavanhel

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Woops, you are correct, I missed the x4 at the end of that line. But yes, Windows 7 is definitely better than Vista. Also, if you are a student (or you know one) you can probably get 7 for virtually nothing.
 

lord_galvatross

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Thanks for the advice!
I have been told Windows 7 was good but I had my doubts.
Also I would like to overclock the CPU but I'm afraid of the damage I could cause trying to figure out the correct combination of variables.

What is a safe way to start OCing?
Should I play with the FSB or the CPU multiplier?
 

Yeah, Win 7 is really good.
Everything Vista was supposed to have been.

Overclocking is quite easy and safe to do.
I would recommend reading the Core 2 Overclocking Guide before attempting anything.
As you have an EE CPU, the easiest way to get an overclock would be to bump the voltage in the BIOS and raise the multiplier.
Once you get comfortable with overclocking, you could probably get your maximum overclock by playing with both the multiplier and FSB together.