Upgrading help needed

[Sanad]

This is my rig. I have about 660$ for upgrades. Im not satisfied with the gaming peformance and also need good memory sticks. Need ur advice!
CPU: E6600 @ 3.4ghz
Mem: 2 x 1 gb corsair ddr2 800mhz 4-4-4-12
HDD: 3 x 500GB Raid0
MOBO: Asus P5B Deluxe
GPU: MSI 8800GTX
PSU: 1000W Enermax Galaxy
Case: Thermaltake Armor

Should i leave it as it is and wait for Nehalem or should i go SLi or just add a quad and more ram? Help!

[zanzabar]

get this ram
http://www.tankguys.com/product_info.php?cPath=46_144_176&products_id=1809 $70

then i would go for a new case and cooling and MB, or if u wanted to mod a cheap case then u could go liquid cooling, u realy need more ocing


also dont go sli there is no point since u would trade reliabilty and stability for 30%more fps that u could have goten from something like a p35 and a quad core with some good cooling

[gundam789]

I have an intel e6600 has well on an intel badaxe mobo , 2 gigs of ram and evga 8800 GTS SSC.
I was looking to upgrade but i do not know yet.
The only new game i play is UT3 and play very well on this set up at high resolution wiht almost everything turned on, all the other games i play are older games like WoW , dark age of camelot and this set up its overkill for those older games anyways.
Of course when i run benchmark2006 i only get a score of 10000 something , compared to some of those really high ones like 14000+.
I am also interested to know , cause i saw some articles saying that there are no games out there that benefit in having more then 2gig of ram and also not many application especially games take advantage of quad core?

[Sanad]

People recommend building your own liquid cooling kits. I have no experience whatsoever in this area. Always OC'd on air! Ive heard Liquid coolig is too much hassle with added fear of components getting destroyed due to leaks!

[zanzabar]

well if u want a stable 4.0+ quad and u dont get the qx9650 then need liquid if u arnt living in the arctic tundra, but for the price u can get a TRUE120 a good case and a MB and q6600 or q9450 and u will get like 3.7-8 out of it if u get a p35 or x38 MB, but u might want to wait 2 weeks for the p45 (if it dosnt get delayed) it will be like the p35 but with pci-e2

[Sanad]

I already have a tt120 and ttarmor casing with the 25cm sidefan! Wat temps can i expect from the quad and wat speeds?

[little_scrapper]

From what I can see you really arent going to get massive performance upgrade since you actually do have a good settup. But what you can do is maybe think about tossing a E8400 or 8500 on a newer chipset. Quads dont clock as well ( I cannot qualify this statement)and most games arent optomised for quads so is it worth the extra money? Even an 8400 should give you an almost garonteed +400MHz on air, and better chipset performance. Which in turn helps everything else a bit including memory performance.

Memeory itself really isnt going to do squat since DDR800 @ 44412 is the same as DDR1000@55515. This has pretty much been proven. The only time you will SEE, let alone feel, any diff is in systhetic memory benchmarks. Not in games or real world apps. For gaming even DDR3 wont give you any noticeable performance boost since the timings are still too loose on DDR3 for those speeds. PLUS DDR3 is way way too much. Only upgrade ram if its holding you OC back.

And I also dont recommend SLI but the fact is that a pair of 8800 GT's will blow door on an 8800 ultra.

Keep in mind the money will be offset by selling you old hardware on ebay so technically you could feasible spend close to $1000 then sell of your old parts after your set up again. If you can manage all that you should see a nice boost.

[little_scrapper]

2x 8800 GT = $450
P35 or X38 mobo = $200 ( a really nice board prolly)
2x1GB DDR1000 or higher = $70 (standard DDR1000 or 1067 is cheap now)
E8400 = $200 (these generally will do 3.8GHz stable minimum)

Total = almost $1000

YOUR SOON to be SELLING on EBAY:

CPU: E6600 = $100-150
Mem: 2 x 1 gb corsair = $40-50
MOBO: Asus P5B Deluxe = $60-100 ( I got $75 for my A7N8X-E Deluxe same time as ram which is a N-Force2 chipset...can you say 5 years old)
GPU: MSI 8800GTX = $200-300

When all the dust settles and all is said and done... total investment maybe $500!!!

I dont think those selling prices are unreasonable on ebay because people on ebay is stupit!! Or stuff overseas is just that expensive. I have sent alot of old hardware over to europe and the middle east. I sold my 2x512MB of DDR400 for $185 on ebay last feburary. about a year ago. They were TCCD but damn!!! almost $200 for 1GB of DDR400...phht peeps on ebay are.... well... there it is.

The key to ebay is this:

1ST take very good, crystal clear pictures. Take them outside or near a window and get good light for pics and make sure its crystal clear focus. The pic will make or break your add in a one second glance.. trust me I have sold about 250 items on ebay and I know how badly a bad pic can kill an auction for a good item.

2nd dont copy/paste from manufactures webpage... thats a sure fire way to say I dont care and am too lazy to type. Hype your product and tell people what you liked about it, and how well it does at gaming and crap. This is what peeps want to know anyways. Nobody on ebay cares how many million megatextles your video card does. They want to know how many FPS they are going to get when fragging thier buddy!!

3rd Be honest! Dont tell them your CPU OC's to 4GHz if it doesnt. Tell peeps what it did and on what hardware. Because your reputation will also make or break your deal.

I actually didnt mean for this to turn into an ebay lesson it just kinda went that way but seriously people bid on my stuff because they peruse my feedback and they know a few things right off... I speak the truth. I dont sell anything that doesnt work. AND!!! most importantly.. they are going to get thier stuff right away because I ship when I say im gonna ship.

On ebay I sold my XP2500+, A7N8X-E, 2x512DDR400, X800 XT AGP, and my HS so I could upgrade to whats in my sig. I got well OVER $500. Almost 600 for that old crap..I couldnt believe it. I got my entire upgrade and tossed in a 19" LCD for about $500 about a year ago. GOD I love EBAY..hehe

[gundam789]

people on ebay are stupid!!



Ok ill pay 400$ for the e6600 ....sold?

[little_scrapper]

Ok ill pay 400$ for the e6600 ....sold?

SERIOUSLY!!! :rofl: Are things really that expensive overseas that is cheaper to pay retail prices for used products in the USA?? Because that pretty much what I got for my ram, vid, etc. Retail new prices... for stuff thats used a couple years old. :shrug: