Upgrade some or all major components? opinions appreciated

Hello everybody!

Within the next month or so I will be upgrading my gaming pc (I want to take advantage of black friday/Christmas sales). First I will start with what I currently have:

Asus Rampage Formula LGA 775 Intel X48 Motherboard
Intel Q6600 Processor
G.SKILL DDR2 1066 (total of 8GB) Ram
Antec True Power Quattro 850w Power Supply
HD4850 Video Card
Coolermaster Cosmos Case
Sony Bluray Player
*currently using onboard audio.

So what I need help is deciding if I should upgrade my motherboard, processor, ram etc to something like:

Asus P7P55d-E Pro LGA1156 Motherboard
Intel i7-860 Processor
Corsair XMS3 6GB DDR3
Gigabyte HD5870 Video Card
*also upgrade from 7200rpm HD to SSD
Asus Xonar Sound Card

By doing this I would keep my Case, Power Supply, DVD/Bluray Drives, etc.
Also, price seems to be around $1300 for these upgrades.

Or, should I keep most of my components and just upgrade processor to something such as Q9650 (Newegg price $329.99)
And to a better Video card still considering HD5870 if compatible with my system. This will be about $700 still, I would want to upgrade to SSD and Asus Xonar Sound Card.

I am using a 24" monitor and want to have a better experience with graphics in gaming, and with DX11, I want to enjoy that too.

What should I do? Anything else I need to consider?

I would appreciate all your help.

Thanks

Just upgrade your entire build, it's not worth getting a 329$ processor, that's just unreasonable especially since a 200$ 760 can practically beat it.

I think you should wait, don't decide on the 5870 just yet since the 69xx is coming out next month. And if it does follow the pricing of the 58xx series the 69xx should be around 400$ to combat the 480 GTX and it'll probably have a lower TDP with a 20% performance increase, so look for the 69xx not the 5870.

Another thing, the 870 is the same price practically as the 860. So get the 870, it won't be a huge improvement but you'll be able to OC it a bit further. Also as for the Mobo you could stick with that one its preference but I just perfer MSI, so the MSI Fuzion P55A would be my choice.

Anyway, your RAM choice is good. But.... LGA 1156 doesn't support triple channel so I suggest getting 4GBs of ram, that is the general amount of RAM you need, you really don't need any more than 4gigs. I suggest getting Mushkin Blackline Enhanced that or Mushkin Ridgebacks.

Now This is not really a upgrade it's more like an actual new build. I suggest just picking out a case and drive and psu and just keep this as a back-up computer.

Well I am making an entire build with a great SSD a 1tb back all the things I suggested, at it only puts me at 1364$ so... Yeah. AND OH SSD I suggest getting the S599 It is a really good SSD for a budget build!

http://www.guru3d.com/article/adat [...] d-review/7

I don't know about that Mushkin Callisto, I do like it but for the same cost the S599 keeps up with the Vertex 2 but the Mushkin Calisto doesn't.

Timop: If I do that, then my current ram or processor will not be bottleneck? If I spend on that, then I have plenty of room for Asus Xonar Sound Card.

Also, pardon my ignorance, I'm uncertain what you mean by SB/BD.

Thanks

The cooler is for you to OC the Q6600 to 3Ghz+, in which it would be not much different from a Q9650.
The RAM is even less of a worry, DDR3 isnt much faster than DDR2 contrary to what you think, and the speed of RAM rarely matters for gaming.

On SB/BD, SB is the new series of CPUs from Intel, due in the next quarter, it will use a new socket. BD is the new series from AMD, and should come a little later, around mid 2011.

Well, you are using the review for a 100GB model and test systems are different.
Also, it is noted in the reviews that HD-tune is very inconsistent with SF controllers.

Heres the OCC review, its on par with the Corsair F100, which is another SF-12XX SSD thats almost identical with the Vertex 2.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/re [...] 60gb/7.htm

With Mobos being leaked all over the place and samples already being sent to OEMs at least in August (Anand's preview), Its pretty much set IMO.

I dont think its logical to conclude ones faster than another when the data is labeled as inconsistent; But $13 cheaper for a pretty much identical (its really only 60GB, 64 is marketing BS) drive isnt a bad deal. Its his choice really.

True,

Anyway, If you CAN wait, a good decision is getting the SB i5, it's what I'm waiting for at least. However prices aren't confirmed yet, so don't expect SB to be cheap. But if they do follow the current pricing of the i5 750 then the i5 2400 S should be 200$.

Exactly, it looks like a good plan to me.

In the interim, run these two tests to help assess the value of each upgrade:

1) Run your games, but reduce the resolution and eye candy to a minimum. This will simulate what will happen if you upgrade to a stronger graphics card. If your FPS improves, it indicates that your cpu is capable of driving a stronger graphics card to higher levels of FPS.

2) Keeping your graphics resolution and settings the same, reduce your cpu power. Do this by removing the overclock, or by using windows power management to set a maximum cpu% of perhaps 70%. If your FPS drops significantly, it indicates that your current cpu is a limiting factor, and that a faster cpu would help.

Tell us what you see.

geofelt, I don't know what is best way to benchmark graphics, other than what I already have for benchmark (unigine heaven).

At stock cpu settings, I accomplished 18.6 FPS with Shaders set to high. When I set shaders to low, FPS moved to 22.3.

I will continue to test this way unless you can suggest a better tool I can use to benchmark FPS.

Thanks so much guys!

I will try to find software to do exactly what you suggest. The 2 games I have which demand most of Video Card are Crysis and Battlefield Bad Company 2.

I think I remember downloading Crysis Benchmark tool at some point, perhaps that's my ticket.