semisonic9
Gawd
- Joined
- May 2, 2005
- Messages
- 769
I've got a 2+ year old rig that's starting to bog down. I'd like to put $200-400 into it to increase performance as much as possible to carry me through the end of the year. At which point I will probably convert this rig into a media center PC and retire it to the living room.
I'm hoping the [H]ardforums can help me figure out what my bottlenecks are and how to most wisely allocate my time and funds.
Note: I work at a NOC for a web-hosting company, and can purchase non-graphic related hardware (HDs, RAM, probably CPUs) at a significant discount. Also, as a student. Upgrading to Windows 7 would be free.
Specs:
* Q6600 lightly OC'ed to 3.4ghz
* Biostar Tpower I45 Mobo (socket 775)
* 4gb G.Skill DDR2 1000
* EVGA GTX260, 216 variant running at stock.
* Windows Vista x64
Possible options:
* RAM upgrade: 4gb -> 8gb
* CPU swap. OC'ed Q6600 -> ??
* Graphics card: GTX260 -> GTX460 1gb?
* Vista x64 -> Windows 7
Pick one (or several). I'm looking for zippier performance all around, plus the ability to play this years big gaming titles (Deus Ex 3, Crysis 2, and Mass Effect 3) @ 1900x1200 on at least medium (if not high) settings. I also dabble in video editing.
With that in mind, I figure I'm probably looking at least a graphics card swap and probably more RAM. Not sure OS or CPU upgrades are worth it. Do I need more RAM? Will my system even use 6-8gb of RAM?
I'm hoping the [H]ardforums can help me figure out what my bottlenecks are and how to most wisely allocate my time and funds.
Note: I work at a NOC for a web-hosting company, and can purchase non-graphic related hardware (HDs, RAM, probably CPUs) at a significant discount. Also, as a student. Upgrading to Windows 7 would be free.
Specs:
* Q6600 lightly OC'ed to 3.4ghz
* Biostar Tpower I45 Mobo (socket 775)
* 4gb G.Skill DDR2 1000
* EVGA GTX260, 216 variant running at stock.
* Windows Vista x64
Possible options:
* RAM upgrade: 4gb -> 8gb
* CPU swap. OC'ed Q6600 -> ??
* Graphics card: GTX260 -> GTX460 1gb?
* Vista x64 -> Windows 7
Pick one (or several). I'm looking for zippier performance all around, plus the ability to play this years big gaming titles (Deus Ex 3, Crysis 2, and Mass Effect 3) @ 1900x1200 on at least medium (if not high) settings. I also dabble in video editing.
With that in mind, I figure I'm probably looking at least a graphics card swap and probably more RAM. Not sure OS or CPU upgrades are worth it. Do I need more RAM? Will my system even use 6-8gb of RAM?
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