Upgrade cpu, MB and Ram or Video card

strikerty

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Jun 14, 2003
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Well tax time is approaching which means christmas for papa, the kids had thier turn. Im thinking of upgrading something in my desktop but not sure what because im not sure what will give me the most benefit. Currently running a Q6600 with 4 gig of DDR2 and a Geforce 250 GTS 512 .

I dont know if I should 1. upgrade to the new 2600k with mobo and ram . 2 upgrade the video card to a 300 dollar plus video card, or three go with a mid range 200 dollar video card and a mid to higher range amd processor. I only plan to spend between 4-6 hundred and if its not enough of a perfomance increase i dont see the point in doing it.

I play wow. ALOT . I was great on Ultra before the last patch with the graphics upgrades. Now not so much even tho i cant bring myself to lower the graphics so i lag in heavy spell casting or heavy traffic areas. Especially around flames . Done alot of reading and to tell you the truth , it just doesnt seem to be as plain and simple as it used to be. It used to be you had pretty straight forward setups for your low range mid range and high performance gaming builds. .. not so much anymore . Could I get some opinions on where I would do best at upgrading? would a higher performance video card help ? or would my cpu and ram just bottleneck it .

I would like to try to get into a Directx 11 cards as wow has directx 11 support in testing now and toms hardware reported a decent fps increase just from switching to dx 11

Thanks guys I hope i spelled that out as plainly as possible and I really appreciate everyone input
 

strikerty

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Ok, just to tidy up the post into a format all are more comfortable with:

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next couple weeks


Budget Range: 500 - 600 USD

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Primarily gaming (World of Warcraft , Rift)

Parts Not Required: keyboard/mouse/monitor/Windows, case, PSU, HDD, DVD Drive

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Country of Origin: US

Parts Preferences: None


Overclocking: Very Possible

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1680X1050


Additional Comments:
This is an upgrade to the current PC which is showing its signs of age. As shown in the first post the main items I am looking to replace are:
Geforce GTS 250 512
Q6600
4gb RAM DDR2

Im just interesting in bringing the machine up to par with the performance impact wow's recent upgrade has had, and to play newer games like Rift and Blackops without breaking the bank


I hope that helps malmental Sorry I rambled in my first post
 

Grove

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Zenthar

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If your main goal is really just to give WoW a boost, I would suggest you just get a 5850 or even a 6850 (~200$) and OC your Q6600 if you didn't already do so (a 3rd party cooler and thermal paste could be required). I would keep the extra $$$ and save it to complete Grove's Intel build with an i5-2500K later this year or next year.
 

strikerty

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I would love to overclock my cpu however my board is an intel board from Acer computer that I purchased for the cheap when Circuit City was going out of business , of course the only original thing left is the board and the cpu , but now I cant do anything with the board The overclocking features are locked.

Possible System 1.

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161349

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130544

Cpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

$680

Possible System 2.

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131668

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150518

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

$670

The second build leaves me with an open pci -x slot for when I can afford to get another card.

What do you think of these two for or against or any substitutions you might make.

I might have to buy my wife something nice to swing spending over 600 but its worth it

Thanks guys
 

Grove

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For the 1st build, everything looks good but I'd recommend this 6870 instead.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121418
Same price but much better cooler.

EDIT: This mobo says it has two X16 slots but it doesn't elaborate on if they operate at x16/x8/x4/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130551

For the 2nd system, you could save a little by getting the Phenom II X4 955 instead of the 965. Also, the 2nd PCIE slot on that mobo operates at X4 which would be a big bottleneck. Look for X8/X8 or X16/X16.
 

Zenthar

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If you get the Xigmatek HDT-S1283, I suggest you also get the ACK-I5361, the mounting bracket will also be good for your future LGA1155 board anyway ;). Be careful, Xigmatek has different mounting brackets depending on the HSF, the one I liked is for the HDT-S1283.
 
At $825 I could do something outstanding :

MoBo - $395 - ASUS P8P67 Pro w/ ntel Core i5-2500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.575884

RAM - $70 - (2 x 2GB) Mushkin CAS 7 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226103

GFX - $360 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130593

At $600 :

MoBo and CPU I wouldn't cut as the next board down is $30 cheaper but ya lose the $20 combo savings

Could save $20 on RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.575884

So that means a $155 vid card to hit a $600 budget ... the one in bold is $5 over

Choices:

$120 Asus 5770 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121363
$140 Asus 460 GTX 768 MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121390
$150 EVGA 460 GTX 768 MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130563
$160 EVGA 460 GTX 1 GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130591
$165 Saphire 1GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
$190 Asus 6850 1GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121419

For Wow, you'll see that the nVidia 460 cards outperform the ATI 6870 cards in THG's benchmarks by 12%

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-directx-11-performance,2793-3.html

460 gets 90, 82,60 (232 total)
6870 gets 78, 71, 59 (208 total)