What should i do about an upgrade?

[Perfect_Chaos]

my current pc is a opteron 170, 2gb ram, and a geforce 6800 GT..

so what i was planning on doing is building a new PC later this year, however i dont know what to do cos i dont have a lot of money.. but i was thinking maybe £1,000 would be my budget.. for a new graphics card/mobo and a E6600-E6700 intel cpu, since i heard these bad boys can be overclocked a hell of a lot over stock.. up past 4ghz on a MachII GT, but mines broke

should i keep the pc i have now? or go for conroe.. and should i get my mach II gt fixed? it will cost around £100 but its lumpy and a big pain to fit on etc, i think i wasted a ton of cash on it when i should have just gone watercooling.

Other than that, i could keep my processor i have now and just buy 2 x new graphics cards and run them in SLI or crossfire or whatever when the DX10 ones are released..

I like the look of conroe, and from the speed boosts over Athlon 64 they look pretty fast.. but on top of that these babies can be overclocked well over 1ghz extra easily (or so i hear?) some getting over 4ghz.

would a watercooling setup be easier than fixing my mach II GT? because id rather have watercooling, as long as it doesnt require as much maintanance.. not only that but your only losing 200mhz or so on an overclock from mach II gt to watercooling, correct?

I have a LianLi PC60 right now, i dont think its big enough to house a watercooling system.. however i dont want to spend a fortune on a case so if anyone can reccomend a cheapish one, say no more than £40 or £60 then ill consider it.

so what should i do out of all those options?.. is it best to buy soon.. wait for quad core.. what should i do?

i could go a little over £1,000 but only by 100 to 200 the most

 

[semi-pro waster]

What does your PC not to that you want it to? If it does everything you want I'd probably save the money for just now. If you are upgrading for the sake of it then Conroe and an X1900XT with 2gb DDR2 to back it up is where I would be looking and then overclock but I honestly don't see the point if your system still does everything you need, it is a fast PC even now.

If you want a cheap and massive case then a Chieftec Dragon Full Tower is probably as good as you will get anywhere, solid steel and enough space inside for its own ecosystem but might not be that easy to find new even if they still make them.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

What does my pc not do now?..

well it does most things fine at the moment, im more concerned about newer games.. like crysis

plus my opty 170 has heat issues, noisy fan + temps just ok at stock.

other than that its fine, the graphics card is almost 2 years old.. and i usually enjoy putting new stuff together. if i go conroe though would i see a big improvement? or am i better off waiting for something else?

and should i really get watercooling or stick to air cooling, if i upgrade?.

well in effect id be building a new pc not just upgrading..

 

[Zefan]

Watercooling really has lost it's spark, but if you get a big triple rad and cool your graphics cards and CPU you can save yourself a lot of noise. It's not so much about temperatures leading to a better overclock now, as air is more than sufficient.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

Watercooling really has lost it's spark, but if you get a big triple rad and cool your graphics cards and CPU you can save yourself a lot of noise. It's not so much about temperatures leading to a better overclock now, as air is more than sufficient.

are you kidding, to get a good overclock with air surely it would make a lot of noise..

 

[Zefan]

No, for a good overclock with air all you need is a decent heatsink with a slow 120mm silent fan on it. The maximum voltage that can be put through the chips without killing them can be used, seeing as HSF's have got so good. The only reason I'd go for water is that

A) you've got money to burn
B)You're going to cool both your cpu and graphics card/s and more.
or C) You just fancy dabbling, but it wont get you anything more.

Believe me, I have a waterloop just for my cpu and sure it's cool, but I know for a fact that it's not making the slightest bit of difference to my overclock.

Looking back at it, I think all the extra hassle and expense was a total waste. I might as well have saved myself £100, a HUGE heap of time and just bought a Scythe ninja.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

No, for a good overclock with air all you need is a decent heatsink with a slow 120mm silent fan on it. The maximum voltage that can be put through the chips without killing them can be used, seeing as HSF's have got so good. The only reason I'd go for water is that

A) you've got money to burn
B)You're going to cool both your cpu and graphics card/s and more.
or C) You just fancy dabbling, but it wont get you anything more.

Believe me, I have a waterloop just for my cpu and sure it's cool, but I know for a fact that it's not making the slightest bit of difference to my overclock.

Looking back at it, I think all the extra hassle and expense was a total waste. I might as well have saved myself £100, a HUGE heap of time and just bought a Scythe ninja.

How come over at extremesystems then people say they have over 4ghz water, and slightly higher with a mach II GT?.. with the new conroes.. i havent seen anybody hit 4ghz with air, and if they have i bet its noisy and unstable at that speed.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

anyone else want to answer?

im impatient

 

[Zefan]

Well, maybe, seeing as I haven't really seen them in action yet enough. It doesn't really make sense though as they're cooler still and require even less voltage before it gets dangerous... so really they should be easier to cool.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

Well, maybe, seeing as I haven't really seen them in action yet enough. It doesn't really make sense though as they're cooler still and require even less voltage before it gets dangerous... so really they should be easier to cool.

So what clocks could i expect on a locked E6600? apparently on anandtech they were getting 4Ghz on air! thats awesome if possible, well even a little lower than that id still be happy.

Wont it be harder to OC since it has a locked multi though?

 

[Zefan]

Is the multi actually locked? I was under the impression it was just locked from being increased?

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

Is the multi actually locked? I was under the impression it was just locked from being increased?

yeah thats what i meant