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Is it worth me getting a HD 5850 on this sytem?

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Hello, im thinking of bringinf my system back to life, i was in a rush to get a pc when i got this so i went out and bout a ready made packard bell 2-3 years back (yea i know :(  ... Anyway i was thinking of 1st getting myself a psu and graphics card (5850), but im wondering how much benifit i will get from the card for now until i can afford to upgrade the rest of my system. Reason i have to do something now is because i just bought myself a new 32" lcd which runs at a native res of 1080p with which my current graphic card/system can not handle while playing games. system goes as follows (copy and pasted from Belrac) I would love some advice from you guys as im looking to upgrade within the next day or so.



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Available only for Windows 2000, XP Pro, and 2003


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Operating System System Model
Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2 (build 6002)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United Kingdom) Packard Bell BV iXtreme X2711 PB81X06201
System Serial Number: 100202650352
Chassis Serial Number: 50424E
Enclosure Type: Desktop
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded Board: Packard Bell BV PT890-8237A
Serial Number: 50424E
Bus Clock: 266 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD PBSFC2MB.P04 06/27/2007
Drives Memory Modules c,d
311.48 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
46.62 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

ATAPI DVD W DH16W1P ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]
EM9337I GOI241K SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
EM9337I GOI241K SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]

Generic- Compact Flash USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 1
Generic- MS/MS-Pro USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 4
Generic- SD/MMC USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 3
Generic- SM/xD-Picture USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 2
ST3320820AS [Hard drive] (320.07 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 6QF1982J, rev 3.AAD, SMART Status: Healthy 2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 1024 MB
Slot 'A1' has 1024 MB
Local Drive Volumes


c: (NTFS on drive 0) 311.48 GB 46.62 GB free
Network Drives
None detected
Users (mouse over user name for details) Printers
local user accounts last logon
Harry 07/06/2010 12:37:41 (admin)
local system accounts
Administrator 16/08/2007 14:43:52 (admin)
ASPNET never
Guest never

DISABLED Marks a disabled account; LOCKED OUT Marks a locked account

EPSON SX510W Series on USB001
Microsoft XPS Document Writer on XPSPort:
Controllers Display
IDE Channel [Controller] (4x)
VIA Bus Master IDE Controller - 0571
VIA Serial ATA Controller - 5337 NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT [Display adapter]
LG TV [Monitor] (52.0"vis, January 2009)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
SCSI/RAID Host Controller
VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller (4x)
VIA USB Enhanced Host Controller ASUSTeK Tiger2 Capture Device
Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000.
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rolli59 said:
Yes! Specially if you can overclock the quad to about 3 Ghz. It might be difficult on Packard Bell though and the PSU might be in question.


Thanx for the quick reply :) 
The PSU is definately in question as its only a poor branded 250 watt :o  , those where the 2 upgrades i can afford atm psu and gpu. i dont think i will be able to overclock the cpu on the motherboard i have ( foxcon PT8907MB-2.0-8ERS2H ) seems a very poor board.
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This is a tough one. The CPU is not going to let the HD5850 run at its full potential but I believe that you are going to benefit from it over HD5770 if you are playing at resolution of 1920 x 1080 or higher (the higher the resolution the more GPU intensive). If your resolution is lower a HD5770 or even HD5830(prices coming down) would be a better choice.
I don't think you will have issues with the ram locks, not even if it touches them.

Thx
Indded the res i play at now since the new tv is 1920x1880 (which has crippled my poor current gpu), what ive been thinking is to get a new motherboard in the near future to enable me to OC my q6600, i read somewhere that my cpu should quite easily run at 3.3 - 3.4 ghz if i purchase a good cooler for it. 2 things with things with this 1st being ill have to get a new operating system as mine is tied to my M-board :(  and 2nd how risky is it to remove my chip from the current board on to a new 1?

Or should i just suffer the 2.4 ghz and wait (quite a bit longer) to get an i7 board and chip?

You will want a new P.S., and I don't see why you can't get a good one now, and just move it to a new system if you desire.

Your CPU cooler should suffice for a mild O.C. if your BIOS will allow any OCing at all (doubtful).

So, if I read that report correctly, you're using:

Q6600
GeForce 8500
2 GB (DDR2?) memory
Vista (32 bit)
generic 250 watt P.S.
320 GB HDD
2 optical drives

That CPU is plenty for games, even more so if you can get it around 3.0 GHZ as clock speed matters more for gaming than more than 2 cores.

Vista is a memory hog, so if you could go to 3GB+ on memory it may help.

I think any card that is 5770 or greater would work well, but if you can I'd get the 5850 since you're playing at 1920x1080 and may be getting a better mobo in the future.

If you get a new mobo (case and p.s. prolly) you'd be able to use a 5850 and install a new CPU cooler that should let you OC to 3 GHZ or beyond. Moving the CPU from mobo to mobo isn't an issue, but you may need a new O.S. if you can't get it transferred over to a new system.

ATI 5850 is a great choice for 1080p gaming.

The Q6600 is a good CPU for gaming, but as others have stated, overclocking to 3Ghz is going to reap rewards. Otherwise it will limit the overall gains from the 5850. It'll still destroy your 8500GT though. LOL

A power supply upgrade is without a doubt necessary. Even if you want to try OC'ing your processor, a PSU upgrade might be needed just for that. 250W is pretty absolute basic. DO NOT settle for less on your power supply upgrade. You'll regret it later. Buy quality, and get more than you need (so you don't replace it again anytime soon).

And yes, 3-4GB of RAM in your system would certainly help overall performance. But again, that's more money.

You can overclock Q6600's fairly well even on locked down major manufacturer MoBos using a combination of a pin mod and a program called SetFSB.

- Pin Mod: Google-image "Q6600 Pin Mod". Cover 1 pin on the processor with electrical tape and it will take you from 2.4GHz to 3.0GHz.

- SetFSB requires you to do some research to find the correct configuration settings for your motherboard but you can push past 3.0GHz using a slider bar to increase your FSB speed.

All of this is on stock voltage. The Pin Mod takes about 10-15 minutes and a $2 roll of electrical tape to complete. SetFSB changes are just quick.

I've got a Dell XPS 420 with a Q6600 OC'd to 3.2 GHz on stock voltage using these 2 measures. I have an HD 5850 in it and saw pretty significant performance increases in games like Crysis/Warhead after the OC.

Thanks all for the great advice i certainly made the rite choice to ask here, so taking from your advice and from what i have read im going to certainly buy myself a new psu (thinking of a branded 750 watt incase i crossfire infuture or could i get away with a 600-650 watt considering ill be oc'ing) and the 5850 (kinda thinking of the asus one), ive no idea where to get them yet (online) or not quite sure on which brands so im open to advice there..

Im not sure if im going to go with the pin mod (sounds risky) but very tempting. Instead im thinking of getting a good 775 M board for around £80 as i want to enventually have the 5850 running on a pci-e 2 as meant to be instead of the pci-e 1 slot which i currently have, and ill also have the added choice of going above 3gig of ram (my current boards max). Any recomendations there would also be great. Again thanks again for the great help.

That is the same card I have.

I have to use CCC 10.5 with it though or else I need to create custom profiles to keep the core and memory speeds to 400/1000 or I get screen flicker with my multi-monitor setup.

Other than that, the card is great. I'm currently running it @870/1050 and when ambient is 85F in my room the card still tops out @ 65 degrees with the fan less than 45%.

firebird said:
That is the same card I have.

I have to use CCC 10.5 with it though or else I need to create custom profiles to keep the core and memory speeds to 400/1000 or I get screen flicker with my multi-monitor setup.

Other than that, the card is great. I'm currently running it @870/1050 and when ambient is 85F in my room the card still tops out @ 65 degrees with the fan less than 45%.



Awsome just 1 thing i noticed on these cards (silly question incoming) is that they only have 1 hdmi port, so how would i go about adding a 2nd monitor to my set up (no plans to do this yet but may do in future)

C%$p Ive run into some hiccups, after inspecting the inside of my case it looks like there is no room for a new power supply as they come a little longer than the 1 i have. It looks like im going to need a new case, and ofc my motherboard from packard bell didn't come with a manual and seems impossible to find 1 on the net for it so hooking up the power cables etc from the new case looks like its going to be hard. So im thinking of trying to squeeze some more cash to get myself a new case and motherboard... is the cost worth it considering i have an older 2.4mhz q6600 (i know i can overclock it to at least 3mhz but for how long will that be good enough)

So i have a few questions
to keep costs low for a future machine should i go for ddr3 board as i can then move my ram over to a future i7 board and is there any boards in particular that i should go for?
And are there any decent cases out there that you guys can recommend that again will not break the bank?
I read somewhere that i will need a new OS as mine is likely to be tied down to my motherboard, but im assuming that i should have no problems moving my current hard drive over (packard bell thingy) or will there be problems with that and will i lose all my data/games that i have on the drive?

Sorry too keep hassling you guys but my last build was almost 10 years ago so im way behind on stuff atm and this is beggining to get much more of a hassle/expensive than i originally expected i (just wanted to get a new gpu at 1st till i realised my psu case etc wouldn't handle it)

Some good news atlast, i just ran cpuz and to my suprise i have the G0 (q6600) version, from what i have been reading is that these things OC alot better than the older B3 version. how high can i get this thing to run (safely), or did the 3.0mhz that u guys stated earlier already take into consideration that i had that version?

Depends on if your CPU will fit into that socket. But if you're going to get a CPU, best bang for buck would be an i5-750. Then get a 5770, or 5830. Case should be anything that has proper fans and can fit your GPU. I'd go for a 2x2 4gb ram, and a 500gb HDD.

Think ive decided on what to get and i will order it today ... here goes

Antec 902 case
HD 5850 asus (custom cooling)
corsiar hx 750 psu
Asus p5q deluxe motherboard (will use my current q6600 cpu and hopefully get a nice oc on t)
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 HyperX T1 Memory Kit
windows 7 home premium
CPU cooler undecided on which 1 but leaning towards the corsair water cooled ( h50 or whatever its called)

Total will cost over £800, cosidering i just wanted better graphics for my new 1080p tv it looks like its going to cost me a bucket load to get there. Most parts will be able to go into a new system once i decide to change my cpu, apart from the motherboard and ram (ddr 2) so around £200's worth of this upgrade will end up being wasted. Ill use the same HDD, DVD/CD burner and keyboard etc that came with my packard bell.

So what do you guys think?

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