My upgrade path - recommendations?

Hey all! I've been doing a lot of reading here, looking for advice on what to do about upgrading my system. I would like to go with an i7 system, but as this new rig is primarily for gaming I'm not totally convinced to go that route, especially with a new issue that has popped up (I'll explain below).

First, let me detail out what my current system is so you all will know what I'm trying to move up from:

Motherboard: Gigabyte K8NF-9
CPU: Athlon 64 3200
Memory: 2 x 512MB Corsair DDR PC3200
Video: GeForce 6600GT
Storage: 120gb maxtor drive primary, sata, 200gb wd drive, sata, 500gb wd mybook, usb
PSU/Case: Cheap no-name combo in which the PSU came with the case.


In anticipation of my new system, I have bought a few components when I thought the price was right. Namely, a new case and PSU:

Case: Coolermaster HAF 932
PSU: PC Power & Cooling 750 W

But the rest of the system still needs to be purcahsed. After much reading I've been teeter-tottering back and forth between a core i7 system and a more-dated but better bang-for-the-buck socket 775 system. I already have a monitor, 1680x1050, that I plan to keep for a while, so this build is really focused on getting decent graphics on that display. I was leaning more towards the i7 due to just my desire to go that route, however a friend of mine threw something into the mix yesterday: A free Core2Duo E6600. Now, I know that it's not the greatest of processors, but the price is right. My thinking now is whether I should take that, get a board like the Gigabyte p45 - ud3r, and 4 gig of ddr2 800 memory.

If I go this route, I have more money to spend on the video card, which overall I would think would help what I intend to primarily use this machine for. My question for you guys is if you think that it's worth taking the e6600 and building a machine around it, so that I can wait for the i7 prices to drop, or to just forgo that and pull the trigger on an i7 system now, and lastly what memory/gpu recommendations you guys would have for the system. As you can see, either upgrade path will be a big step up for me.

if you're gaming and don't have the money to burn then build around the E6600
you can always drop a 45nm quad in later on

as for graphics it really depends on your budge
a HD4850 will run a lot of things in high quality settings at your resolution
but again, depends on how much money you have to burn and what games you're going to be playing

I'm trying to stay away from locking myself into a particular budget, bang-for-the-buck being the most important factor, as well as future ease of upgrading. Trying to balance these two things is what is giving me a headache! The game I'm currently playing is Fallout 3, however I do have dead space, mirrors edge, and would get crysis after my build.

I don't want to go overboard; I'm not as concerned about synthetic benchmarks, more concerned about what I will notice while playing games. I would like to run at high settings and things to be smooth. That pushes me more towards sticking with the E6600 and getting a great vid card, however I don't want to waste money on a difference I won't notice in game. If I were to go with the i7 path, I would lean more towards radeon cards due to being able to CF with the gigabyte ex58-ud3r board, but if I go with the e6600 path, I'd be more inclined to go with an nvidia card. I think.

Damn.. tough one Zimpo... Bang for the buck I would still go Wolfdale (e84, e85, e86) and an X48 based mobo.

If you plan on keeping this PC longer, I would go with a Penryn (Q9450, Q9550, Q9650) and a P45 based mobo.

Assuming you are overclocking of course. If not, then the cheapest P45 or X48 based board will do.

Thanks for the feedback. What are the key differences between the X48 mobos and the P45 mobos?

X48 has 2 16x PCIe and Intel ICH9R chipset
P45 2 8x PCIe lanes and ICH10R chipset. asus P45 boards have express gate.

The X48 is a bit better for high overclocks on duals, the P45 is better for quads.

ObiWong said:

X48 has 2 16x PCIe and Intel ICH9R chipset
P45 2 8x PCIe lanes and ICH10R chipset. asus P45 boards have express gate.

Click to expand...

Right. To add to that, this is only relevent in Crossfire setups. Otherwise the P45 is 16x for one card.

I'd probably start with one card, but don't want to rule out two as a potential upgrade. Does the x8 vs. x16 lane make a significant difference?

Haha, I hadn't even realized that going socket 775 would present me with yet another decision to make for mobos. Part of me says go with the X48, since I'd like to jump from the free core2duo straight to an i7 when I would upgrade further in the year, but part of me says to go with the P45 now and just upgrade the processor to a quad later in the year, and wait until next year when the 32nm chips are mainstream to replace mobo/mem/cpu.... decisions, decisions...

X48 nor P45 support i7 chips. Thats a completely different socket all together. they are socket 1366 and currently only X58 boards can run them.

It doesnt make much of a difference really except with the dual gpu cards (HD4870x2) in CrossfireX.

Zimpo said:

I'd probably start with one card, but don't want to rule out two as a potential upgrade. Does the x8 vs. x16 lane make a significant difference?

Click to expand...

see for yourself
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=571156

Thanks for that link, I'll check it out. Caligula, I should have been more clear, yeah the i7 requires a new mobo and ddr3. I just meant that if I save money now by using the e6600 and x48 mobo, I could get a new cpu/mobo/mem later in the year when prices go down, however if I were to get a p45 mobo now, I could use the core2duo for a bit, then get a quad to replace it, then wait to next year to jump on the i7 cpu/mobo/mem bandwagon.

Although I'm half tempted to say 'screw it!' and just go i7 now.

With these different setups, what would be the best bang for the buck video card for a 1680x1050 monitor? Until I started researching recently I've been an nvidia fanboy (bad experiences with ATI drivers in the past), but now I'm not so sure. It's definitely tempting to go with ATI now since I the motherboards I am looking at seem not to support SLI but do support X-Fire. Basically, I'd like to have something that runs this res fluidly with high settings in most games (obviously games like crysis can be more taxing than say left for dead), but potential to buy a second like card to X-fire or SLI if I do get around to getting a new monitor or games become more crysis like on GPU's.

Either the GTX260 216 or HD4870 1GB. Both would be great.

Ok, I'm looking at the eVGA GTX 260 216's, and there are three different versions. I do plan on doing some overclocking myself, so are the upgraded versions worth the increase in price? Or are they all pretty much the same and can be O/C'ed to the same amount?

Actually, there seem to be two different clock speeds.. newegg lists one twice? (the non O/C'ed one, with two different model numbers - one ends in A1, the other in AR)...

On newegg, the 4870 1gb is only about $10-$15 cheaper than the 4850x2 1gb. I know the 4870 uses GDDR5 and the 4850x2 uses GDDR3, however I've heard that the performance of the 4850x2 is better than the 4870 - however when I do read that, they never say if they're talking about the 1gb or the 2gb version of the 4850x2 (and whether that is a limitation with current gen games).

Sapphire 4870 1GB - $224 before rebate, $214 after
Sapphire 4850x2 1GB - $234 before rebate, $224 after

I'm leaning now towards ATI because I like the potential ability to X-Fire without having to change out mobos (I'm going with the Gigabyte ep45-ud3p mobo)

I'd consider getting a P45 board. Just from the fact yes X48 does have the 2x 16 PCI-E lanes but the processor will be the one that really holds you back to some extent unless you get a really good clocker, or jump to the newer E8xxx or Q9xxx series CPU's. With being given a E6600 though I'd just go with that, hopefully you can get it to 3.6Ghz and then go from there.

As for video card, dual cards requires horse power from the driver side of things. The more you have the better benefit you'll recieve in that area. As for video card... that is a tough one, the 4850x2 will be faster than the 4870 but you really shouldn't be limited that much by the memory on the card (1Gig total, truely 512Meg will be the limit). Course there are some CF issues out there that should be known, not all games will use it but they are trying to work on that right now with speedy releases on drivers to help get games at least CF'ed. The 4870 you won't have any of those issues since it is a single card.

Me i'd go the 4850x2 route, just because I had 2x 4850's and they did treat me well, til recently with some driver issues on my system, but overall very sound performers even at 1920x1200 res. And just clock that E6600 up as far as you can get her, the more the better.

At that res, I suggest a 1GB card. Once you start turning up the eye candy, 512mb at 1680x1050 can get chewed up really fast. FC2 comes to mind. It gets crushed if the GPU doesnt have a lot of buffer. the longer you plan on keeping the card, the more memory I would go with. Textures are only getting larger as games are coming out.