I need help upgrading my gaming comp

I'm not exactly sure why you need to upgrade lol.

The game I play, Tera Online which is very cpu/memory intensive I feel like I can be getting higher fps. The game doesn't feel like it's running to its capability.

Well what kind of FPS are you getting? I confess I've never played it, but looking at the system requirements on their website, your computer should be able to kick the *** out of it.. Are you sure it isn't some other factor limiting it, like your internet?


Microsoft Windows

Windows Vista or Windows 7 Windows XP
AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ or Intel Core2 Duo E6750
4 GB or more of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT video card or better
25 GB free HD space
Broadband Internet connect

Thats not very demanding. Its calling for a dual core Athlon with no L3 cache, and you have a 6 core. I mean, by all means, its your money if you want to upgrade, go ahead and swap to the i5-2500k, but... wanna hook me up with that 1090T i'll be glad to take it off ur hands.   (seriously, make me an offer)

Im looking into overclocking my CPU from 3.2ghz to maybe 4.0 or 4.2 but i'll have to do a lot of research as I am completely new to overclocking. Hopefully this helps me run the game smoother, since i found out this game is very cpu/memory intensive.

I'm telling u man, based on the stated system requirements its not that intensive,If you're lagging, I think something else is going on, like I said, you're internet. But if you want overclocking help.. The first stop is to invest in a decent cooler, and some thermal compound like Arctic Silver 5.

As far as overclocking, its pretty simple. I would start by downloading AMD Overdrive, your multiplier by default is 16x and your reference clock is 200. 16 x 200=3.2GHZ. You can increase the multiplier by .5s. Ideally, you'd want to run the stability test in Overdrive for an hour or so between each step to make sure its stable. You're probably fine up to 3.7GHZ so right off the bat I wouldn't be afraid of setting it to 18.5x right away, and running stability test. Then you can step it up a little more from there. When you get 4gigaherz dialed in, I'd probably run the stability test for several hours. After 4.0ghz, its a gamble. Not all chips can go the same. One 1090T might be able to do 4.5GHZ, another 1090T might be able to only do 4.1GHZ. Once you find your stable ceiling with Overdrive, I'd dial it into BIOS to make it permanent.

Get a temperature monitoring program like HW monitor, your peak temp is 62c. You don't want to see anything higher than that.

Hmm let me post my speed test for you, but I got my 1090T OC to 3.6ghz and stable. I also reinstalled/updated all my drives just in case.

for my speed test on speedtest.net

I got Ping = 7ms

D/L speed = 23.44 mbps

U/L speed = 3.69 mbps.


After a bit of researching I think I might upgrade to a i5 2500k or 2550k or 2600k depending on the price. From what I've read they OC very well, and have great gaming performance. Can anyone confirm this upgrade?

Your internet is pretty decent. Yes the 2500k is better than the 1090T, if you really think you need to upgrade go for it, I'll give you 20 bucks for your 1090T lol. I know I'm such a cheap jerk, but if its just gonna sit around your house collecting dust, why not?

I honestly don't think you'll notice any difference however. The advantage in gaming of the 2500k is largely theoretical, since both CPUs should be able to sustain frame rates that exceed the refresh rate of a computer monitor when paired with a decent video card. And the 6950 is no slacker.

Air cooling solution: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

or if you have a case that will take it a liquid cooling solution:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

2500k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Decent mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Well for now I'm going to test how my machine works when Tera online comes out on saturday, with the upgrade from 3.2ghz to 3.9ghz. Too bad I didnt reach 4.0ghz oh well. It was weird I got some error on my windows 8 at login when I put up the multiplier to x20. You know anything about that? right now my multiplier is at 19.5 and the freq is at the normal 200mhz. and I turned of Cool n Quiet, CIE, and Turbo core. Rest is on default, including all voltages and such.

Depends on what the error message was. Windows 8? Is that out yet? I wouldn't push it that far on the original heatsink fan assembly. You have an aftermarket cooler correct?

It may need some tweaking to the voltages to get to 4.0ghz. But the voltages are whats going to increase heat mostly. Although if you got it to 3.9 thats close enough, don't fry the thing.

kk, I'll leave it as it is for now, Ill post an update after I try the game again on saturday. Thanks for all the help!

I finally figured out what's been slowing my comp down... here I am thinking I have 1600mhz ram and I have 1333mhz... which imo is a big loss for a gamer.

Nah, thats not it. Theres hardly any difference between 1600mhz RAM and 1333mhz.

Phenom IIs run RAM at 1333mhz by default anyway (so do Sandy Bridge Intel's). When you overclock at the reference clock instead of the multiplier you overclock the RAM too. For example, I have 1600mhz rated RAM, but at 222 on the reference clock x 18 on my multiplier my CPU is running at 4.0GHZ and my RAM is running at 1480 something.

If you want, you can dial your multiplier down a step or two and push the reference clock up. Although, the multiplier is the simplest way to overclock. I left my stock multiplier alone.

hmm, I'm going to try your settings and see what i get, cous right now I have default reference clock, and my multiplier is at x19 and my ram is at 1600. I'll try what you got see if I get any results.

BTW I have the same exact coolmaster as you. and I did get the 1600mhz ram, its crosshair vengence 8gb

Our CPUs are a little bit different. Mines a quad core, also my default clock speed is 3.6GHZ. Just make sure everything is stable and watch your temps, and play around with it. I wouldn't touch the voltage though if you can help it. Thats the nice thing about AMD CPUs you gotta pay 220 bucks to play around with the clock and multiplier with Intel.


Either way, 3.9ghz isn't a bad overclock since you started at 3.2.

nah i had to go down to 3.8ghz and its really stable. but i've tried several options to reach 4.0 and just can't seem to get it.

3.8GHZ isn't bad. 600mhz over from stock, I wouldn't be unhappy lol. You might be able to push it up by shutting 2 cores down, but that kinda defeats the purpose of having a Thuban x6.