i have an urge to upgrade my PC, what do you think i should get first?

[dae]

and i can't decide, what to go for:

-a really nice cooling system (i like to overclock things)

-a second GPU (computer is SLI ready)

-a SSD


i don't do anything performance-intensive other than play games.

i would have to say 90% of the time everythings fine, but in games sometimes there's the rare skip, or the rare fps reduction, but only when there's a bunch of crazy stuff going on in the game, but even then it's very little

but i do in fact love to upgrade things, and just give my computer more power. maybe it's a new hobby of mine

so maybe i can get some opinions from you, or information on which one would suite my experience the best

i understand that SSD reduces load times, but by quite a lot too so that's kind of got a chance of me going for it






my system:

-1090T AMD Phenom II x6 BE (overclocked to 3.9ghz, getting it stable lately, temps are running quite close to max, another reason i might want the cooling)

-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460

-8 GB DDR3 ram

-Sata hard drive

-Corsair H50 (it's not that special, i really want to upgrade this too)





i really want all of these, and will probably get them eventually, but money is tight and i'm only going for 1 for now, soon i'll get it all but

what do you think must come first?

thanks!

 

[Cigarsmoker]

cooling system

 

[trekky]

SSD is the best upgrade you can buy and thats that

 

[Knufire]

Do you have a V1 or V2 GTX460?

If you have a V1, grab one before they all disappear.

V1 and V2 can't SLI, and vice versa. You need the same revision.

 

[dae]

oh really? how do i find out what V i have?

 

[Knufire]

V1 has a 256bit memory bus, V2 has a 192bit. People are a bit POed, it was an unpublished update and the SLI incompatibility had some people fooled.

 

[dae]

hmm, yea

gpuid says "Bus width 256bit" so i'm assuming it means it's a V1

are you sure they are going to stop producing V1's?

i don't understand how they wouldn't, it would be completely ridiculous!

 

[Knufire]

They already have, and apparently a while ago. Gotta buy used to get a V1 GTX460 nowadays.

 

[dae]

oh and of course the v1's are all overpriced

i guess i won't SLI for a long time

/cry

 

[ssjwizard]

Na I grabbed 2x GTX 460 v1s not but 3 weeks ago from the egg. Just gota look for them. 256bit 1gb cards should all be V1. The v1 cards are notably slightly more expensive than the newer v2 cards.

BTW what motherboard are you using?

SSD are friggin amazing. I purchased my first SSD for my laptop about 18 months ago and I will not build another computer without one.

Of course a nice cooling system is just the icing on the cake. Not only does it keep your parts cooler and potentially lower noise its something you put together yourself so it gives it that extra bit of "Mine".

I vote for all 3 but not all at once. Id say if you have ambitions of SLI and WC that a card and 2 gtx 460 blocks should be first, since both the card and the water blocks are becomming harder to find. If you dont want to do WC on the GPUs then the order of your purchases makes no difference.

 

[Twiggz]

SSD are friggin amazing. I purchased my first SSD for my laptop about 18 months ago and I will not build another computer without one.

+1 for that

 

[dae]

yea ssd sounds amazing so that's a plus

my overclock seems to be stable at 3.9ghz (i want 4 or 4+ real bad, i've seen it in action) but at a near max temp, so that's a plus


v1's as you say are rare, and if there's a chance they will be removed permanently from the market i'm getting that ASAP

i've always wanted to SLI. that's why i got my computer SLI compatible. it's a custom pc


so is there any chance they will remove it from the market? anyone know? or should i keep my options on the other 2 open. that's if i'll be able to eventually get another gtx 460 v1

 

[Knufire]

They won't completely remove them from the market. They're not rare now, I was just making the point that they will get rarer as time passes. As someone else mentioned above, you can still buy them from Newegg, just have to check which version you're getting.

 

[dae]

ok cool, good to know

what should i be looking for to make sure it's v1? in the stat descriptions of the cards

 

[ssjwizard]

Na I grabbed 2x GTX 460 v1s not but 3 weeks ago from the egg. Just gota look for them. 256bit 1gb cards should all be V1. The v1 cards are notably slightly more expensive than the newer v2 cards.

BTW what motherboard are you using?

 

[dae]

quick question, would getting a SSD improve gaming fps and overall "gaming" experience?

not just load times?

the way i think of it, the more that's going on your computer effects games and such, so if less is going on, wouldn't that make it so?

let me know, if so i'll be much more on the getting SSD side of the matter

edit: oh oh big situation changer if this is true, would getting a SSD lower my cpu core temps when playing games and stuff, on the ssd? know what i mean? if so i'm definitely getting it first, i sure hope both of these answers are a yes

 

[ssjwizard]

The SSD will primarily effect loading time. However, if something needs to be paged during gameplay it will boost that. Single player games with massive piles of textures also benefit from an SSD by allowing that data to reach the GPU faster.

No an SSD will not improve your CPU temperatures.

 

[dae]

damn

such a hard choice, let me tell ya

i guess it's ok i have a bit of time to think about it

i think the graphics card is what i least need, mine does fine really. i'm just a perfectionist

it'll probably be between cooling and ssr

anyways thanks guys

 

[Bigbaddie]

SSD would be best option for you atm

 

[Neuromancer]

Most important purchases for upgrade.

Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse and speakers.

these will not change no matter how often you flip your CPUs and GPUs. And since this is your primary means on interacting with a PC, is more important than CPU choice IMHO.

(So far my 1920x1200 monitor has lasted 4 years, and thats a LOT of hardware flips maybe a dozen CPUs and a half dozen mobos? )