Looking to upgrade...

Discussion in 'Tech Talk' started by Eskara, Apr 17, 2010.

  1. Eskara
    Veteran FPS Officer

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2008
    Messages:
    2,805
    Likes Received:
    35
    Occupation:
    Reservoir Dam Inspector
    Location:
    Rhayader, UK
    Current setup is:
    Q6600, 8800GT 512, 4GM OCZ DDR2 RAM


    Just looking for opinions or what to go for next. No set budget atm so a variety of setups would be good :) Currently looking at going down the i7 route but not sure really as my Q6600 hasnt been to great imo. Also have a preference to ATI over Nvidia as the 8800 has been really unstable.

    I tend to use www.ebuyer.com to buy stuff so if you guys could link off there that would be great :)
     
  2. Reinier
    Veteran

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2009
    Messages:
    1,287
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Hialeah, Florida
    Go with an ATI Radeon HD 5870 for a video card which is their current upper mid/lower high end video card, anything over that isnt worth the extra money right now.

    For CPU you should definately go with an intel i7 as they perform cooler and use less energy then their AMD counterparts.

    For Motherboards I would either go with Gigabyte or Asus. Gigabyte is just as good as Asus, if not better and you can usually find Gigabyte boards with better features for less money then Asus boards.

    for RAM you should either get OCZ, Corsair, G.Skill, or Mushkin, it depends on which motherboard you go with.
     
  3. Eskara
    Veteran FPS Officer

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2008
    Messages:
    2,805
    Likes Received:
    35
    Occupation:
    Reservoir Dam Inspector
    Location:
    Rhayader, UK
  4. Vandiego
    Guest

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2009
    Messages:
    2,542
    Likes Received:
    4
    Occupation:
    Self Employeed
    Location:
    Chicago
    AMD Hex Cores are being released on the 27th and are retailing for right around $300. You can look at the stats I've posted in the other threads to see if you may be interested. The price is set so well that being an early adopter on this one may be to good to pass up.
     
  5. Reinier
    Veteran

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2009
    Messages:
    1,287
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Hialeah, Florida

    the i7 930 is a good processor, and that board is pretty good too but it says that it will do PC3-12800 and PC3-16000. Why sell yourself short and go with PC3-10666 ram ? :p

    they dont sell alot of the ram I tried to look up on that site but I would try to go with at least PC3-12,800 with low voltage and low latency so that it will overclock better.

    Low Latency PC3-12800 RAM (Latency and voltage listed in the Specs tab)

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226121

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145253

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145242

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231335

    Low Latency PC3-16000 RAM (Latency and voltage listed in the Specs tab)

    although it might be overkill to do PC3-16000 :p. I usually try to buy the highest supported ram speed in case I want to change the CPU later on (although I usually replace the motherboard too since video card gfx slots change so frequently IE: AGP, AGP x4, AGP x8, PCI-E x16, and now PCI-E X16 2.0 in a very short amount of time).

    Still there have been cases where I have reused ram from previous builds because the RAM speeds have stayed the same on newer motherboards. Getting the highest rated speed ram will guarentee that it will run at least at those speeds listed on its specs where overclocking depends on your overclocking abilities and cooling.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226117


    also if you would like to read some customer reviews on that board check out its newegg page:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128362

    its always a good idea to read customer reviews on a product before buying it to see what kind of overclocking results others have had with it and their experiences with the product good or bad.

    Edit: just noticed that on neweggs page it says different memory standards for this motherboard then on ebuyer.com. Newegg states the memory standard is DDR3 2100+/1333/1066/800. Ebuyer says it supports PC3-6400, PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066), PC3-10666 (DDR3-1333), PC3-12800 (DDR3-1600), PC3-16000 (DDR3-2000)

    Gigabytes product page says it will go up to 2100 too

    http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2961

    since the memory standard on the board is not DDR3 1600 (PC3-12800) it might roll back to the next lower speed on some ram sticks you try to use on it. Check the ram compatibility before choosing ram on the manufacturers page, its in the "memory supported" area in the right hand side of the manufacturers product page:

    http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/FileList/MemorySupport/motherboard_memory_ga-ex58-ud5.pdf
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2010
  6. Seven
    Guest

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2009
    Messages:
    707
    Likes Received:
    3
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    Look at this again. If the initial reviews are true you would be throwing away something like 80pounds by getting an i7930 over the AMD six core that will be a better performer. Wait a week, take a look, you owe it to yourself.
     
  7. Eskara
    Veteran FPS Officer

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2008
    Messages:
    2,805
    Likes Received:
    35
    Occupation:
    Reservoir Dam Inspector
    Location:
    Rhayader, UK
    Lol. Im really not that great when it comes to sorting Mobos/Ram etc =p

    As for the Hex cores, i'll wait for them anyway. Im just busy saving money atm and will upgrade in the next couple of months probably, im just looking for setups and stuff now to get some general ideas of cost etc.
     
  8. ss_hype
    Veteran

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2008
    Messages:
    856
    Likes Received:
    1
    Occupation:
    Systems Administrator
    Location:
    Mass.
  9. Sogetsu
    Veteran

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2009
    Messages:
    7,511
    Likes Received:
    3
    Occupation:
    Logistics
    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    I got a steal on my i7 (microcenter) so I went ahead and got that.

    /shrug.

    Good luck with your choices, even if it will be a few months off until you start buying.