Friendly Advice Please

Associate
Joined
17 Apr 2009
Posts
63
Location
Aberdeen
Hello Overclockers :)

Over a period of time and due to some helpful advise that was given on these forums previously, I built myself a rig. It was not to be anything overspecced or totally crazy, it is just a modest rig to play Warcraft and the other odd pc game on.

However, I do want to upgrade a few components to optimise the rig a bit. In the first instance I am fully aware that the CPU is a bottle neck for this particular motherboard and I would like to take peoples recommendations and suggestions on a good upgrade for it that will serve the board and my usage a lot better.

I would like to invest in a better graphics card for the system as well, this particular unit works very well at the moment but it is oversized and also (from what I have seen - redundent). I would encourage recommendations and suggestions once again on this matter.

I have 4 Sata HDD and was wondering if it would be a good desicion to have these on a raid setup for optimal performance?!

In terms of budget for the Graphics card and the processor, I would think between £100-200 for each.

Specification:
Power Supply: Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant.
HDD x 4: Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache.
Graphics Card: Asus ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2 1024MB DDR3 HDMI.
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core E2220 Socket LGA775
Motherboard: Asus P5Q PRO S/L socket LGA775
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2005
Posts
14,424
Location
Stoke on Trent
Hi there,

GFX wise you could get a 5770 or a GTX260 which will give a nice boost over what you have now.

As far as the CPU goes have you overclocked your current one? Id mauye look at a used Q6600 as a replacement if you didn want to change it :)
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Jan 2010
Posts
3,188
Location
Guildford
Sorry we only give unfriendly advice here. :p

Well if you want to stick with the same motherboard (and that is a nice motherboard as socket 775s go) I'd say try and pick up a 2nd hand Q6600 for ~£80, not worth spending loads on 'old tech' as everyone says. The Q6600 is still a nice chip and if you're lucky (and get one with the G0 stepping) it should hit 3.6GHz with reasonable cooling. Graphics card wise the ATI 5770 (~£125) or the 5850 (£225+) seem to be the best value atm. 5850 might be overkill unless you're planning on doing a fair bit of high resolution gaming though.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Apr 2008
Posts
3,907
Location
Sheffield
What's all that about the 5770 ?
I've been playing WoW totally fine on GPUs starting from 1900XT, 2900, 3850, 3870, 8800GT and 4850. Even 2900XT has plenty more than enough power for WoW, so has e2200 @ 3-3.2ghz. The only decrease he can notice is due to server lag or messed up system, eventually slow HDD ?
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Jan 2010
Posts
3,188
Location
Guildford
He did say "and the other odd pc game on". Yes you can play WoW on a fairly old graphics card if you're not fussed about maxing out settings, but he asked for some upgrade options and we gave him some that were easily within his budget.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Apr 2008
Posts
3,907
Location
Sheffield
Still should do fine, and you can max out wow with 2900xt : ).

If you're in need of buying new and upgrade, then fine, get the 5770 but I'd rather advise getting 2nd hand 4870 and maybe a q6600, both should fit under the cost of new 5770.
 
Permabanned
Joined
8 Oct 2008
Posts
2,663
Location
In Lockdown England
I agree with the current reply's really.


For me the hold back is probably the CPU. If you can manage to source a used Q6600 quad then this will make a huge difference personally speaking. :)

With the graphics if you have funds to spend and available then look at the 5770. Its the best quality card for the price. Though for wow that is mighty overkill.

How about a second hand 4870 - 4890 ??

More than enough for average gaming and will leave you some cash aside to go towards a potential Q6600. ?

Just an idea.

McT
 
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