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Need To Upgrade. Okay Maybe NEED is the wrong word.

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Uberg33k

Registered
Joined
Mar 9, 2010
Hey all,

So I'm getting bored of my current system (see bellow) and would love to upgrade as much as I can for OCing mostly and of course gaming. Some have suggested that RAM may be my real only upgrade cause it may be bottle-necking my OC? What would you guys recommend? RAM? MOBO? CPU? Should I dive into Sandy bridge? CrossFire? I have about $1000 to spend.

Current Rig(s)

CPU: Intel Core i7 930 @ 3.8GHz (Cooler Master Hyper 212+) 1.26875v
MOBO: Asus Rampage II GENE
RAM: 12GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Low Voltage Gold XTC 8-8-8-24
GPU: Sapphire ATi Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X 1GB @ 870/1250 (Stock)
HD(s): WD 500GB Caviar Black 32MB, WD 1.5TB Caviar Green 32MB & Seagate 1TB 32MB
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850watt Modular
CASE: Antec 900
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
DISPLAY: LG 42" 1080p LCD @ 1920 x 1080
LAPTOP: Asus G73JW-A1 @ 3.2GHz (VGA @ 840/1700/1480)
 
Nice build BTW, very similar to mine. Anyways, the only thing I could suggest would be to upgrade your mobo. In that antec 900 you will have plenty of place for regular ATX format motherboards and you will have the possibility of getting another 5870.
Maybe this one:
ASUS P6X58D Premium
or this one:
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5
the UD5 is a really good board for overclocking also.
The 930 is a nice chip, but if you find a 920 D0, jump on it. I understand that the 920 D0 is really easy to OC.
 
+1 to ssd.. or since you have more cash to spare.. get a full sized ATX mobo and one of these

OCZ Revodrive x2 240gb or go smaller, but its faster than standard SSD.. just make sure to update the board BIOS so it can boot off it..
 
Another +1 to SSD, that is your main bottleneck.

Other options are crossfiring your 5870, upgrading that psu. Maybe get another case to change the overall look on your computer. Get a IPS monitor.

All those things you should upgrade before thinking about changing the cpu, mobo, and ram, since you have a powerful setup already.
 
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