Need oppinions for upgrade

[BenGH]

Hi,
Ive recently become restless with my overall system set up, i cant put my finger on it but i guess its just that little bit too... meh!

i mean the graphics card runs hot and every thing seems to drag that little bit too much.. as i said i dont know

anywho i was hoping for some suggestions to just make it better (within a reasonable price of course)


my set up is

OS: Windows XP pro x64
Motherboard: Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
CPU cooler Zalman CNPS9700 NT
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2
HDD: BUFFALO External HDD USB Device 300GB
Initio WD3200JB-22KFA0 USB Device 500GB
Maxtor 6 V320F0 SCSI Disk Device 300GB
SAMSUNG HD322HJ SCSI Disk Device 300GB
Seagate Desktop USB Device 2TB
Optical Drive: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H10N
TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S182M

ive recently purchased the Lian Li PC-p50wb case to help with the graphics card cooling issue but i am also considering just doing an entire overhaul

but as i said im here for suggestions over how to improve from overclocking to overhaul

please input you 2 cents here

much apperciated

 

[g048989h]

Have you benchmarked it? I would be interested to know the 3dmark06 results. Initially my thoughts go the the gfx card. Is that an older card, like 2 years old? I think you would see big improvement from and upgrade. Even a 100.00 4850, or if your strickly Nvidia mayve a 9800 gt or a gts250 for a little more than 100, like 110. I bet that would cool down your system and open it up too. I,m not sure about intel cpu's but if the socket on your MB supports and I5 or I7, that would be my next move. Also, didnt see your RAM listed. How much and what speed??

 

[jryan388]

A core 2 quad is still pretty good... a i7/i5 would be better, but that would cost a lot to completely overhaul the mobo too.
Upgrade the 7950gx2 to, say, a radeon 5770, or if you really wanted a good card, a 5850/gtx 470.

If you wanted a full system overhaul, I would say:
i5 750- $200
p55 mobo- $150-200
radeon 5850- $300
windows 7- $100
Then keep the hdd and dvd drive

But mainly upgrading the graphics card would help.

 

[jryan388]

A 9800 gt really won't help... just run cooler, same for gts 250 (maybe a little bit faster)

 

[capt_taco]

Best option for the money is to replace you video card with an HD 4850 ($110) or 5770 ($150). 1GB version if you have a large monitor, 512MB is fine with most that are in the 1600-pixel and under range.

Definitely overclock your CPU -- it's free. Those Zalman coolers are a beast and will easily handle it.

Also -- what are the specs of your power supply? If it's some crappy 350W job that came with the machine, I wouldn't try to run an overclocked quad-core with a pretty hefty GPU. Get one of 500W or so to give yourself plenty of room.