New Computer

[mojotazman]

Ok Ladies and Gents,

I know you've seen this question a million times, but here it goes....

I am trying to decide if I need to invest in a new computer for gaming. I currently play the most popluar FPS games, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Medal Of Honor, Call Of Duty/ Black Ops. The computer I have now runs the games well enough, but I am looking for better.

Current Computer;
intel Q9400
Asus P5N-E SLI
4gb DDR2 800
GTX 250
Soundblaster base card
650watt Antec power supply
2 150 Seagate sata drives in raid 0

I have an itch to upgrade, just don't know if the timing is right and if so, what to upgrade to? I have read so many things about I7's and I5's, video cards, ram, pricing, etc. I know some hardware works better when matched with certain things. I'm not a pc builder, I will have to have this rig build. I just need a little advice...

Thank you in advance,

Taz

 

[sportsfanboy]

Is your computer "pre-made", because if it is you might want to consider, upgrading to Sandy Bridge when they come out soon. That will obviously require a new mother and ram. If you can overclcock that chip, your best bet is to clock it to 3.0 or higher and save your money for a stronger GPU. That will give you another year or two before you will have to upgrade the whole system.

 

[mojotazman]

It's not a pre-made, I've had this rig for a little while. I upgraded the CPU from an E6750, to the Q9400, and the GPU from a 8800GT to the GTX 250. Also upgraded the ram....

Suggestions on GPU's? I have Windows 7 on my system, so it will handle DirectX 11. Do all the cards out there work well on these older boards?

Thanks again...

 

[sportsfanboy]

Yes the pci-e 1.0 running at 16x is plenty for even the current high end cards. Depending on the money you want to spend, I would say a GTX470 or a 6870. If you can wait a little while, grab a 6950 or 6970 if you can afford it.

 

[enzo matrix]

It's not a pre-made, I've had this rig for a little while. I upgraded the CPU from an E6750, to the Q9400, and the GPU from a 8800GT to the GTX 250. Also upgraded the ram....

Suggestions on GPU's? I have Windows 7 on my system, so it will handle DirectX 11. Do all the cards out there work well on these older boards?

Thanks again...

Lol the P5N-e is not old yet.

What I recommend depends on how much you have to spend. since you haven't told us that, I can't recommend anything. But currently the GTX460 768 and 1GB and the radeon 6850 and 6870 are good deals for their price/performance.

 

[sportsfanboy]

^ Exactly, that's why a good healthy overclock makes the most sense at the moment. He can always bring the new GPU over to a future build.

 

[cryogenics]

I'd settle for a GTX 460 1GB from EVGA.

 

[jedi940]

Would definitely recommend a graphics card upgrade and overclock that CPU of you haven't already.

Another option is to grab another GTS 250 on ebay for around 50 and SLI them. Not sure how that would work on a pcie 1.0 at 8x though. you would probably still see an increase in performance. That would be your cheapest option.

 

[mojotazman]

As far as funds goes, I was willing to spend 1450.00 to 1900.00 on a new system, so the higher end GPUs aren't an issue. I use to have two 8800's in SLI, but didn't see an improvement in game play. Some games didn't see the sli and so the game didn't proform as it should....

 

[Embra]

As far as funds goes, I was willing to spend 1450.00 to 1900.00 on a new system, so the higher end GPUs aren't an issue. I use to have two 8800's in SLI, but didn't see an improvement in game play. Some games didn't see the sli and so the game didn't proform as it should....

I would recommend buying a good quality cooler and OC the Q9400. Wait a week until the new ATI cards come out and compare all that is there and see if prices drop a little on what cards are presently out, then buy a nice gpu.


With a budget you stated, I would wait to see the new Intel and AMD cpu's before doing a full rebuild.
Depends on if you want to wait.

 

[duk3]

I would look at an overclock or doing nothing if you can run your games at the settings you want, and then you can upgrade to SB/BD if you want

 

[mojotazman]

Thank you for all the advice!!!

Can someone please explain to me this "SB/BD" please....

 

[duk3]

Sandy Bridge=SB, it is the new processors from intel that are being released at CES on January 5th.
Bulldozer= BD, the new AMD processors that are being released at some point fairly soon

 

[mojotazman]

Thank you...