Do I need to upgrade?

[ToejaMz0r]

So at the moment I'm rocking:

Asus Rampage Formula Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 LGA775 'Wolfdale' "Overclocking E0 Stepping" 3.33GHz (1333FSB) - Retail
Geforce 8800 Ultra

Memory:

Crucial Ballistix I think it is without having a look at it, I thought it was 1333mhz I had in there but that says 400?

I've just bought a MSI R5870 Lightning 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card to upgrade my 8800 (did have a 280 but it died )

I was wondering.. seeing as what I have above there, are pretty good.. or at least were back when I bought them 2 years ago.. where do I go next for an upgrade?

I think my processor is pretty ok.. so I'm thinking motherboard and ram? Any suggestions and how much of an upgrade are they?

 

[hunter315]

Its DDR2 so i doubt its 1333MHz, it seems to have specs listed so you can set it to 1066MHz which is good for DDR2. How much memory do you have? If you already have 4GB then dont bother looking there for an upgrade.

The next set of upgrades you are likely going to need to do are a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM which will basically mean a whole new system, but you will still be able to keep your GPU.

 

[delluser1]

Kind of pointless to upgrade it anymore, unless you could find a Quad for cheap.
Moving to socket 775 motherboard with DDR3 ram capability isn't going to be much of an upgrade performance wise and would be a waste of money in my opinion.
I passed my RF along to my son and moved up to Core I7.

 

[ToejaMz0r]

I've got 4gig of ram and sorry I confused myself, the cpu is 1333mhz..

Hunter do you mean that it is capable of being clocked that high (to 1066)?

I used to have a quad core system from alienware but it was terrible for gaming (at least the games I was playing at the time) are they any better? As far as I remember quads really only fully used for rendering/video making and the like.

I cant believe how much of my stuff actually needs updating now lol, I was looking to get the best out of the system I have at the moment.. but the only thing really that can be upped is the ram by the looks of things.

Problem with upgrading all that is cost for something that will be better than what I have right?

 

[loneninja]

Socket 775 is basically dead, your only upgrade route is Core2Quad, they're good processors but horribly priced. Any meaningful upgrade would be a new motherboard/cpu/DDR3ram.

I have no idea how your quad computer before was terrible for gaming, unless it was a 2.0Ghz Phenom or something, most of the quads that have been released have had good enough single threaded performance to game with. Now for the most part, the quads not only have more cores, but match or exceed the clock speeds of similar dual cores. Most new games also use 3+ cores and some show significant gains with those cores while struggling to run smoothly on a dual core.

 

[ToejaMz0r]

Fair enough bud, thats the kinda information I was looking for. It was back in 2007 I had an overclocked alienware, 3.2ghz from 2.93ghz (water cooling) and sli 8800 gtxs (then the month after the ultras were out )

Every game I tried to play was just horrible performance compared to what I upgraded to. Probably all better now with win7 though

 

[hundredislandsboy]

If your games or applications aren't stuttering or being slowed down then there's no reason to upgrade unless you just have to have DX 11 videocard then that would be what I upgrade first.

 

[delluser1]

unless you just have to have DX 11 videocard then that would be what I upgrade first.

Doesn't he already have one ?

 

[das_stig]

Set the ram up manually in BIOS to the EPP1 settings, overclock the living sh!t out of the cpu, keeping a eye on temps and then when you hit the limit , try and get the ram to as close to EPP2.

The MSI R5870 is a DX11, directcompute, multi-threading, hardware tessellation and new shader 5.0 compatible and of course Eyefinity (6 Screens). Will kick a NV260 ass and comes close to a NV295 and ATI5970.

 

[ToejaMz0r]

So is my ram being set to 400mhz or am I missing a multiplier? A quick look on a component site and the only 6400 ddr2s are 800mhz.. so whats it running at?

I really appreciate the help peoples

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Doesn't he already have one ?

My bad. Only read the top half of the post. I stand corrected.

 

[ToejaMz0r]

Any help on that ram question guys/girls?

 

[hunter315]

DDR ram always runs at twice the clock speed because it goes on the rising and falling side of each clock, so 400MHz base clock is 800MHz DDR2, same way 666MHz base clock is 1333MHz DDR3.

 

[ToejaMz0r]

Ahh yeh I thought as much but just wanted some confirmation, ty