Upgrading house computer systems.

[calranthe]

Hi all,
This is my current systems.
My games pc
Q6600 (oc'd 3.8ghz watercooled)
Motherboard DFI DK X38 TR
Memory OCZ 4gb DDR2 800
Samsung F1 1TB Sata
Nvidia 260 GTX (60nm)
X-fi Pciexpress sound card
Windows Vista home premium 64

Wifes Games Machine
Q6600 stock stettings
Asus P5 motherboard
Memory OCZ 4GB DDR2
Samsung 500mb sata
Nvidia 260gtx
Onboard sound
Windows Vista home premium 32

Media pc
Intel duo core 2 e6400 stock settings
Motherboard Gigabyte p965-DS3 rev 3
2gb ddr2 553
Hitachi hd
Nvidia 8800 gts 640mb
onboard sound
Windows xp pro sp3


Now my shopping list for my upgrades end of this month was going to include a gigabyte p55 mb a i5 750, 8gb ddr3 my idea being completely redo my watercooled setup with windows 7 and clock the 750 upto and over 4ghz, my parts would be diseminated to wifes and media pc. (will buy a Nvidia GTX 480)

But i've come to realise my current setups with abit of tweaking should last a couple of more years, I would love your opinions on the below.

For my system: i've tested Mass effect 2, Just cause Demo and Now supreme commander 2 (skirmish 1 player 7AI largest map)
No slow down etc.
Swap the X-fi for a Titanium (wife gets the X-fi)
New F2 1.5tb samsung hd
windows 7 home premium 64bit
(can always take the q6600 to 4ghz atm its at 3.8 and loaded temps never go above 40c)
Still buy the 470-480gtx when it comes out due to upgrading my monitor from a 22" 1680*1050 to a 24" 1920 1200
From checking the perf utility on my G13 even supreme commander 2 is only using 50-60% of my cpu.

Wife gets my monitor a new hd and sound card + windows 7


Media pc well this one hooks into a 37" LCD our livingroom TV its only 1080i but still looks sweet.
I also love to play games on it,
Media pc is getting my GTX 260, 4gb ddr2, Samsung T3 hd, the gigabyte p965 is still awesome for Oc'ing so i'm going to push the e6400 to 3.2ghz atleast.
Thinking of going Windows 7 also but not sure.


I am hoping what i'll be doing will last into the future and that the media pc will be able to handle games like mass effect 2 etc.

 

[warlord1609]

are you asking a question....? if you are then i would like to tell u that even i am running a q6600 on stock settings and have no problems with it whatsoever... i have a radeon 4850 and am gaming on a 22" monitor... i think that the q6600 has a lot of juice left in it and when coupled with a gtx 470/480 it should perform very well... so stay put with you current config and wait for the gtx 470/480...
ps: i heard rumors that the gtx 470 was to be priced at 299$ giving the performance of the 5870..

 

[mindless728]

@warlord
you should really give sources to rumors for thing or else you will look like a fanboi
GF100 (Fermi) previews and discussion - last few pages discuss GTX470 performance from leaks and whether or not the GTX480 would be able to destroy a 5870 (looks like a tad better than it)

@OP
the Q6600 should do just fine, though instead NV your board should be able to support Crossfire for ATI if you wanted to go more than one card

 

[calranthe]

are you asking a question....? if you are then i would like to tell u that even i am running a q6600 on stock settings and have no problems with it whatsoever... i have a radeon 4850 and am gaming on a 22" monitor... i think that the q6600 has a lot of juice left in it and when coupled with a gtx 470/480 it should perform very well... so stay put with you current config and wait for the gtx 470/480...
ps: i heard rumors that the gtx 470 was to be priced at 299$ giving the performance of the 5870..

If new nvidia cards weren't coming out i'd stick to the nvidia ones I have, see when I put together the house pc's I went ati (thats why I have the x38) my games pc was 3870x2 and my wifes was a 3870 within 6 months both died, I replaced them but stability wasn't good (never overclocked graphics cards) so I went back to nvidia and I haven't had a problem since, I don't mind if the new nvidia's are as good or better than ati's newest I just have found personal experience that nvidia drivers are more stable for me than ati.

I love the q6600

But yes Im asking for opinions i'm going to be spending about £1500 I do this about every 2 years to keep the house pc's upto spec, the last time was transfering all pc's from amd to Intel lol

 

[warlord1609]

If new nvidia cards weren't coming out i'd stick to the nvidia ones I have, see when I put together the house pc's I went ati (thats why I have the x38) my games pc was 3870x2 and my wifes was a 3870 within 6 months both died, I replaced them but stability wasn't good (never overclocked graphics cards) so I went back to nvidia and I haven't had a problem since, I don't mind if the new nvidia's are as good or better than ati's newest I just have found personal experience that nvidia drivers are more stable for me than ati.

I love the q6600

But yes Im asking for opinions i'm going to be spending about £1500 I do this about every 2 years to keep the house pc's upto spec, the last time was transfering all pc's from amd to Intel lol

well then wait it out.... intel's gulftown cpu should be debuting in this year... they've got 6-actual core.....!

 

[calranthe]

well then wait it out.... intel's gulftown cpu should be debuting in this year... they've got 6-actual core.....!

I'm waiting on the grafix card but not on the other items just ordered them will arrive on tuesday Yay to a day of messing with computers

Now I need to plan out which pc I take apart first

 

[obsidian86]

what graphics cards?

 

[calranthe]

I'm waiting for the New nvidia either the 470 or 480.

 

[obsidian86]

the gtx 480 is said bout 10-15% better then a 5870 but is set to cost $600 no deal there since a 5870 costs $400

 

[calranthe]

Cost has never mattered to me, its more about personal experience and me trusting Nvida more than ATI these days, i've budgeted about £350 which at current rate is $530
I'll wait till the reviews are up anyway

 

[warlord1609]

I'm waiting on the grafix card but not on the other items just ordered them will arrive on tuesday Yay to a day of messing with computers

Now I need to plan out which pc I take apart first

i would suggest to assemble the other pc's first and then come to yours in the end... cause you'll be able to appreciate and admire the power only then.....

 

[calranthe]

Media pc upgrade is going first, Getting rid of the Generic old case and replacing with a Antec 902 case, removing the 2gb and replacing with 4gb, replacing the dvd drive with a nice samsung bluray then see how high I can safely clock the old e6400 on air also putting in my spare 9600gt should be fine for running games/movies etc on the 37" as it runs at 1024*768 resolution.

That should all happen early tuesday morning.

I spent today vacuming the inside of my case and checking the liquid cooling setup i'm pretty impressed its been running now for over 18 months non of the metal has eroded and there is no discoluring of the tubes etc, topped it up got rid of a years worth of dust lol.