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simpleman78

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I need to upgrade my computer and looking into some suggestions on what a decent motherboard/processor would be.

I've purchased pre-bulilt systems all my life, so I didn't really have to worry about the componetns. My current setup is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processor 6000+3.01 ghz with 6GB ram. The mobo is a foxconn. I bought it thru Vigor Gaming, which doesn't exist anymore (purchased back in 2008 i believe).

My GPU will be upgraded once I can get the other components upgraded.

I've been playing Battlefield 3, which is an extremely resource hogging game. I've got all my settings on low and with few as possible processes running so I can try and dedicate any resource to the game. Well, it just isn't cutting it for me any more. I want to experience the game smoothly...not jumpy.

I've got a big A+ case with an existing 1100 watt psu.

I'm leaning more towards an Intel processor rather and AMD.

I'd like to stay around the $500 range for a mobo/processor...that is including a cooling system for the processor.

Can someone guide me on what I should get and/or your experiences with what you have now.

Thanks in advance.

Nick
 
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I really can't see any issues with the list you put together. 16GB is a bit overkill for gaming, but better to have too much than to little. The processor is an excellent choice, as is the board. I hope that big fan fits your case... any idea of the case's make/model? Big fans are the way to go if you have the mounting for them. You'll like the EVO 212 cooler. I have it on my i5-2500K. It is dead silent at idle and cools great. The card will do a fine job gaming at 1080p. BF3 is a killer when it comes to using all the eye candy from what I've read.

Btw, The Nvidia GeForce site has some BF3 tweaks you might be interested in, even though you will have an AMD card...

clutchc

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Btw, you don't mention which graphics card you are using. I'm assumimg you have a discrete card now and are not using integrated, right? Once you have any adequate processor, after that it's all about the graphics card. One other item equally important to know, is the resolution of your monitor; the resolution you will be gaming at. Before I went with two GTX 570s, my single card was adequate up to 1920x1080 for most games at max/near max settings.
 

e56imfg

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You can't say they're less quality because the Maximus Gene-Z is just a smaller version of the Extreme. They are still great for OCing, it just comes in a smaller form factor with less PCI slots.
 

simpleman78

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Clutchc,

I think that I'm going to go with the recommendations you provided in the first post. I know that I want to go with the i5 processor.

I've got my ideas on a video card. I know that you provided a couple links, but I don't want to be "marginal" with the eye candy on :)

The amount I would spend on the video card is around the $300 range. You or anyone wouldn't mind on suggestions?

I really appreciate it.

Nick

 

clutchc

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Using the graphics card hierarchy chart I sent earlier in the post, you can see that the 2 best cards that fall in the price range you quote are the Nvidia GTX 560ti and the AMD HD 6950. They appear to be pretty evenly matched if you read some online reviews.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%204018&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=RATING&PageSize=20
 

simpleman78

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Is the gpu size (in terms of gigabytes) "bigger the better?" Or doesn't it also depend on the other components of the card well? The card I have now is NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX with 768mb on it. It looks like the 448 core 560Ti is only 512 mb more than what I currently have.

Nick

 

simpleman78

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I'm sorry for all the additional posts...maybe I should split it up....

My existing computer has raid setup up (can't remember what setup) but I've got 3 physical hard drives but only have 2 drives within windows. I know that when I replace my mother board i'm going to loose everything and will need to start over...I'm ok with that. I've got a external HD that I will backup everything to. Do you think I should go back to a raid setup?

Also, my existing case has a huge fan in front that I think is supposed to move air through each harddrive. Well, it's broke in the center and will not spin now. I measured across the fan and it measures at 8 inches. I'm guessing I need a 200 mm case fan to replace it? Case is an A+ case (if that is correct).

Not sure if the posted RAM from the previous post would be the recommended ram or if I should go with a higher speed. My existing RAM in my pc is DDR2, so I think I need to replace it.

I think that pretty much it. Other than the PSU and harddrives, I'm basically creating a new pc from scratch.

Nick
 

clutchc

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When you decide on a motherboard, go to the manufacturer's site for that board and check the Memory compatibility list they provide. It will list the amount, size and speed memory that was tested/verified to work. Not that memory that's not on the list won't work as well, just that when you poplulate all the memory slots with the fastest memory the board is designed for... timings and such get pretty touchy. It may be better to back off on the max speed of the memory if you populate all slots with memory not on the list. At least untill you know how stable the board is.

If you want to use RAID, decide on whether it is for increasing size and speed (striping), or for redundancy (mirroring). I had 2 drives in RAID 0 to increase the size and speed, but never noticed any speed increase. Unless you have a good reason for using a RAID array, you might be better off not using it. Does your existing machine have 2 drives in a RAID array now? Or is RAID just an available option?
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/RAID

Measure the fan housing edge to edge with a metric tool. That will determine the milimeter size fan you have now.
Or convert inches to mm here if you don't have a metric tool: http://www.calculateme.com/index.htm
 

clutchc

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I really can't see any issues with the list you put together. 16GB is a bit overkill for gaming, but better to have too much than to little. The processor is an excellent choice, as is the board. I hope that big fan fits your case... any idea of the case's make/model? Big fans are the way to go if you have the mounting for them. You'll like the EVO 212 cooler. I have it on my i5-2500K. It is dead silent at idle and cools great. The card will do a fine job gaming at 1080p. BF3 is a killer when it comes to using all the eye candy from what I've read.

Btw, The Nvidia GeForce site has some BF3 tweaks you might be interested in, even though you will have an AMD card: http://www.geforce.com/Optimize/Guides/battlefield-3-tweak-guide Koroush Ghazi is the king for game tweaking. His old site was one of my go-to places for game tweaking in the past ( http://www.tweakguides.com/ )

Hope all the parts come with no DOAs. That happens occassionally. I've had to return a few boards lately. But Newegg is good with RMAs if that happens. Good luck and enjoy...
 
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