Gaming upgrade recomendations CPU/MB/Video

[motoxguy]

I currently have an Asus P5QPro/wolfdale e8500 3.0ghz 4gb Ram, with crossfired Radeon 4850's. Im going to be using my HAF930 case, and 900w ps.

Its time to upgrade to at least a Quad core. I don't need cutting edge, but I want to be good for awhile. Mainly playing Black ops at 1920 and want to max out. Would like to go with NVIDIA this time, as Im tired of ATI.

What would be a good combo at a decent price point? AMD or Intel fine, as long as it gets the job done. Ready to hit Newegg once I have some info.

1. MB - ?
2. CPU ?
3. Mem currently Mushkin DII800 - do I need new memory?
3. NVIDIA Video card ?

Thanks!

 

[motoxguy]

anyone that can offer some insight?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

how much do you want to spend?

 

[motoxguy]

As little as possible, but I dont want to sacrifice too much. I know thats always the dilmena. 600-700 maybe?

Im actually now thinking about just getting a mb/cpu/memory for now as I think that may buy me some time with my crossfired 4850's until I come up with some more cash for a new Gfx card.

Evga X58 I7, or maybe an AMD Phenom?

 

[englandr753]

On the cheap:

motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128435&cm_re=890_motherboard-_-13-128-435-_-Product

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103871&cm_re=athlon_ii_x4-_-19-103-871-_-Product

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145322&cm_re=ddr3-_-20-145-322-_-Product

Total: 282.96


On the beefier side:

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131644&cm_re=crosshair_iv-_-13-131-644-_-Product

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103849&cm_re=amd_x6-_-19-103-849-_-Product

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231417&cm_re=ddr3-_-20-231-417-_-Product

Total: 529.97

Honestly, you will want/need an aftermarket cpu cooler. The stock ones AMD puts with their processors sound like a B52 hovering in your case.

These are great suggestions (there are many more too besides these)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057

and get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007&cm_re=arctic_silver_5-_-35-100-007-_-Product

I have two of the 2nd one and it works great. You will just need to make sure you have room in your pc case. What case do you have?

If you decide to go with the ASUS Crosshair and you feel comfortable spending a little more, you could get this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131667&cm_re=crosshair_extreme-_-13-131-667-_-Product

I understand you can SLI or Crossfire with this motherboard and that will give you more options on what cards to get when you decide to upgrade...

 

[motoxguy]

CoolerMaster HAF 932, plenty of room.

 

[englandr753]

That case is begging for the beefier hardware, lol!

 

[englandr753]

Sorry, not SLI. It lets you use different cards from different vendors, obviously all ATI. But nonetheless, still attractive...

 

[aznshinobi]

Why buy this now with the launch of Sandy Bridge on the brink. The prices are really great looking as well. An article is on the forum front page and the benches look great. Soo... I think that that'd be your to your benefit to wait.

Also the Hyper 212+ is a great buy, but from Newegg not really since shipping is expensive. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002G1YPH0/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_d3_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1NF4TDNM7W3QKY1H4TA4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

 

[englandr753]

Last night that was free shipping. It obviously changed at midnight. It's not a bad idea to wait if you have the patience. Your system isn't that bad so there's really no reason you have to buy right now but even if you do buy right now you will be good for a while to come.

You can always wait to see whats around the corner but as you know there will always be something better to come out to dwarf your system. You would probably still need to wait even after sandy bridge comes out since they are releasing lower to mid range chips in the beginning anyway.

Its a double sided sword...

Also... the memory just went on sale so they shifted the prices to cover the sale obviously:

http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/jan-0-2011/newyearsale04/index-landing.html?nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL010411&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL010411-_-EMC-010411-Ind

 

[mdd1963]

2500K is/will be $217 or so? GTX570! Plus a mb and mem...

You will be overbudget, but, I think it's a very solid single GPU rig...

 

[motoxguy]

Should I use the AMD (beefier setup) as listed above by ENG, or would this be a better bet for money?
For now I would be using my 2 ATI 4850's, maybe upgrade to GTX570 in a couple months.

EVGA X58 FTW3 132-GT-E768-KR LGA 1366 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188065

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145289

 

[ScrewySqrl]

don't get an i7-950 x58 steup when Sandy Bridge is faster and less expensive

 

[motoxguy]

I cant wait for SB, and no idea when its actually going to be available for me to buy. I really need something now as my current setup isn't cutting it for what I spend 90% of my time doing.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

It'll be availble to buy *monday* Just a week away. you can hang on that long, I hope?

 

[englandr753]

When u are on the pc day in and day out, a week seems like forever.

The intel 950 would be a solid choice. I personally prefer the AMD hexacore if you plan to make the system last for as long as possible. The 950 is faster clock for clock but you have more cores on the AMD rig for future proofing. I say this because I remember all the arguments that used to be had about a faster clocked dual core CPU was better for gaming than a slower quad. Now everyone is going quad because more and more games are taking advantage of the third & fourth core. I believe this wil eventually become the norm with 6 or more cores in the near future.

You will be happy either way but I favor more cores even if it's slightly slower clock for clock.

Ultimately you have to decide based on how long u plan to use it and how long u want it to last for multitasking and multithreaded apps...

 

[aznshinobi]

Are you seriously saying that you have no idea if SB will available to you? Your talking about Newegg. SB comes out in like 5 days. I'm suprised your not willing to wait and save some money. =P I mean the 950 is a good choice, but with SB coming with better efficiency and lower power consumption for better performance I don't see how it hurts to wait 5 days? Also your rig can surely run for 5 more days? What on earth are you running that a e8500 can run right now? Other than black ops. The CF 4850 should be plenty of graphics power (or at least enough) and the e8500 isn't a bad CPU.

 

[motoxguy]

a I didnt realize the SB stuff was gonna hit the shelves/sites that fast. I can definitely wait for that. I wasn't even aware of the what SB actually was until yesterday, just figured it would be the newest and most expensive tech that i cant afford. Im totally out of the hardware loop.

What do you guys who know the SB stuff recommend as a good mb/cpu/ram combo?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

hard to say without pricing.

If yuo plan to use an external video card, you wan the P67 series, which comes with 2 PCIe-16 or 3 PCI-16 (16x/4x or 16 solo, 8x/8x duel and a 4x). and 2-4 SATA 3 slots. Places like Superbiiz has the mobos on sale for as little as $96 for the most basic models (1 16x), and $176 up to $326 for one with 8x/8x.

I'd love to see one with 8x/8x and no 4x along the line of the ASRock extreme 3 870 for AMD, but none appear to be on the market right now.

If you plan to do Crossfire, you could get by with that $176 model, and if not, the $96 model

$176: http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-P8P67PR&title=Asus-P8P67-PRO-LGA1155-Intel-P67-DDR3-Quad-CrossFireX-Quad-SLI-SATA3-USB3-0-A-GbE-ATX-Motherboard#

$96: http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-P8H67LE&title=Asus-P8H67-M-LE-Socket-1155-Intel-H67-SATA3-USB3-0-A-GbE-MATX-Motherboard

 

[englandr753]

I see anzshinobis point and agree to wait a few days but you will need to wait a couple of days more after the release to see what people post about their benchmark comparrison results to the current offerings.

Also, bulldozer is coming too. I think you should overclock your CPU to the max and let bulldozer hit the market and see how they force intel to reduce their prices.

It really stinks to pay 299 for a CPU to see it 6 months down the road for 229 after they reduce their prices to counter new releases.

You can easily hit 3.8 to 4.0ghz on your CPU. What speed are you running now?...

 

[motoxguy]

im just running stock, never got into the overclocking. I even thought about getting a quad and fan for my board q6600 or something like that, but the damn chip isn't much cheaper than the much better new ones out there. My main problem is with BO, and its what i do most of the time. Everyone I speak to says moving up to quad core fixed any issues they were having.

 

[aznshinobi]

If you don't OC then a i5 2500 is good enough or a i5 2400 since you don't need the unlocked multiplier specially since your not an OCer. As for GPU's, a single 6950 would be the most cost effective at that resolution. Unlock that to a 6970 (no need to overclock) and you have yourself a great card. Or wait for the 560 and see where the performance of that lands. It should be between a 6950 and 5870. But that's just a guess.

 

[englandr753]

You have a 25% performance increase hidden in your current hardware with only spending apprx 30-50 bucks on a nice aftermarket CPU cooler.

It would be totally wrong not to overclock that chip and see if it can get you by for a bit longer to see what the higher end SB & Bulldozer tech brings to the table.

If you overclock, you could get by another year easily.

 

[goatsword]

Good luck actually getting an SB processor on Monday. They aren't going to last. Especially the i5-2600k

 

[aznshinobi]

^ Go on at 12:01 and buy it. Oh btw Correction it should be i7-2600K. Not i5-2600K. You are thinking about the i5 2500K