System Setup, feedback? what do you think?

[Helgaiden]

Hi all,
So over the years I've handed down and found deals to help out my little brother so he could have a decent rig to game with me with. I passed my original build to him which was an athlon XP 2500+, 1gb pc3200 ram, an a radeon 9500 pro. When the mobo died, he scrounged up enough to reuse the same case and PSU (antec 430w tp2) and I set him up with an Athlon 64 x2 based system. Eventually it started showing its age and the abit am2 mobo was a dead end when all was said and done. Fortunately, about maybe 2 years ago a coworker sold me his Asus p5q se-r mobo and q6600 processor and I transplanted that Into my brother's rig , carrying over the 4gb ddr2 800. He picked up an nvidia gts 450ti but 6 months later I scored a GTX 460 for $50 less (clearance) and returned the 450 for a refund to pay for it and get money in my pocket. His system has gone through another revision recently and the 11 year old case has finally been retired. He has dubbed his new setup the Phantom.

(TL;DR). Anyways, what do you guys think of the setup now? How much longer do you think it can go and if there was anything more to upgrade, what would it be? GPU? Or is it bottlenecked and wouldn't matter?

-Asus p5q se-r
-Xeon x5470 CPU (771-to-775 mod)
-6gb ddr2 800 in dual channel
-GTX 460 graphics card
-Antec 430w true power duo
-500gb 7200rpm 16mb cache Hitachi HDD
-Corsair Carbide 400r case

The one thing he wants next is a solid state and now that he has a better job, looking at a crucial 512gb drive thats a little over $200.

Games played include bf3, bf4, league of legends, tf2, l4d2, call of duty games, and Loadout.

Thanks in advance.

https://imgur.com/CMArbbP

https://imgur.com/S3Lnpv2

https://imgur.com/rCTsYkW

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I'd upgrade the GPU first, just be aware of higher power cards approaching that PSU's limit.

 

[Helgaiden]

Right, I'm aware the next GPU upgrade will coincide with a PSU upgrade for sure.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

The CPU/mobo should hold its own for a while longer. I would just be on the lookout for a nice deal on some 1155 stuff to swap to in a year or so.

 

[Daleon]

Good used 775 cooler? Do some OC'ing maybe.

Don't think your doing dual channel with 6GB of ram.

Wouldn't put so much into the SSD. Can get good 128's for $65 or less now. Put more focus into GPU. Used 290X's going for $250 off the bay are great deals but likely more GPU than that CPU can really handle but gives you a great board you can grow into. New, wait for a good deal on a 280X for $200 or less.

 

[Helgaiden]

Well when we switched him to the Corsair case last week, I recommended he get a better cooler because the stock q6600 cooler probably wasn't gonna cut it for the incoming xeon x5470. Keeping things on a budget, ended up getting him a Cooler Master Hyper T4 for $24.99 with a $10 rebate.

I made sure the 6gb was in dual channel. At first it was recognizing Dual Channel Asymmetrical (had both 1gb sticks next to each other then 2 2gb sticks next to each other), but then I did some research and realized that wasn't the optimal setting. Rearranged the ram into 1gb+2gb, 1gb+2gb, then it popped up recognizing as dual channel Interleaved. Checked on that and verified it was the optimal form of dual channel for the system.

Okay cool thanks for the tips on the gpu search. My other brother actually got a HIS Radeon 280 IceQ edition and loves it. Will keep an eye out as long as he can afford it now.


So is it the general consensus that upgrading the GPU wont leave it bottlenecked by the CPU? Still room for improvement on the GPU front FPS-wise? That's good to hear.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

There's still room to grow on the GPU for sure.
Also, I'd much rather have a CPU bottleneck than a GPU bottleneck for gaming.

 

[Helgaiden]

There's still room to grow on the GPU for sure.
Also, I'd much rather have a CPU bottleneck than a GPU bottleneck for gaming.

heh, yeah good point.