New Gaming PC?

To keep costs down, I was just going to replace the mb, proc and ram keeping case, psu and hdd's, I have an ssd 64gb which supports trim as the main hard drive for the operating system.

I currently have gigabyte ga-ep45-ud3r, along with 8gb ram (4x2gb OCZ reaper pc6400) and e8400 overclocked from 3ghz to 3.8ghz with no added voltage and has been running best part of 9 months now without crashing and running a full 24hrs on prime and other cpu stressers.

I also have a GTX275 inno 3d gpu, which I am happy with I don't think it's worth replacing that.

I was looking at getting this combo.

Just wanted to hear anyone elses opinions on what they have got or are looking at getting perhaps in the near future, I have had a look on a few forums, but not found anything conclusive.

The main gaming use will be cod mw2 and l4d etc, which run fine on my current set up, I also love my flying though and like FSX with all the add ons you can get for that, the airports really eat into your fps and it can be incredibly cpu hungry.

Current monitors are 2x23"lcds both samsung one at 1680*1050 and the primary one at 2048x1152.

I have tried tweaking fsx as much as I can with all the tips and tutorials that are about to try and maximise my fps, but it still takes a hit near larger airports.

Regards,


Ben Bird

Xilo <--- The dog's danglies!
4.5km from Exchange
Was 60DB Downstream Att now it's 56DB?!
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Edited by benbird7 (Sun 07-Mar-10 13:01:51)

tbh i can think of better things to do with £577, considering your existing setup appears to be already quite highly spec'd. i know fsx is cpu intensive but in real-world performance i doubt you would see much of an improvement, at least not 577 quids worth.

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Thanks, that was I was wondering on whether I would see a large enough jump to warrant the spend, any other things you could think of that may really help it so it's better?

Regards,


Ben Bird

Xilo <--- The dog's danglies!
4.5km from Exchange
Was 60DB Downstream Att now it's 56DB?!
Speedtest.net
Pingtest.net

*Bump*

Can anyone else think of anything that may be benficial to the perfomance to my current set up, or would it really need to be a full overhaul?

Regards,


Ben Bird

Xilo <--- The dog's danglies!
4.5km from Exchange
Was 60DB Downstream Att now it's 56DB?!

I think if you want to go for i7 you are better off with the 930 and not the 920 as the 930 is replacing the 920 But then theres the fact that the D0 stepping 920 is one hell of a overclocker.

If you want to save even more money just get a Q9550 For your current mobo. That will give a nice boost.

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Thanks for the input Sean, Do you think getting a quad core, would be overly beneficial? I dont know if FSX supports quad core any more than it does dual core, but certainly worth looking into, I could get some £ for my old processor, don't know how well the quads overclock though? Have you had any experience on this.

Regards,


Ben Bird

Xilo <--- The dog's danglies!
4.5km from Exchange
Was 60DB Downstream Att now it's 56DB?!

The 45nm quads will OC just as good as the dual core counterparts.

The dual core wolfdale will oc to 4ghz with ease and since the quads (Q8XXXQ9XXX) are a yorkfield core (2 wolfdales in one chip) they to will oc well.

Even if the game being played wont take advantage of extra cores its all about if your CPU can feed the GPU with that it needs.

With my old wolfdale chip @ 3.8Ghz i was getting 120 ish fps in guild wars. With the new quad at just 2.7Ghz im now gettng 300+ fps xD

At the end of the day its up to you what money you spend.

But the core i7 upgrade is still worth it and youll get a nice boost in performance as well

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Thanks again, I have had a look between the quad and dual and although fsx now supports quad by editing the config, I am unsure whether the performance increase will warrant getting a new processor, I am currently on an alsaka heat sync getting 3.8ghz o/c from 3ghz comfortably.

Idle temps vary from summer to winter but around about the 40 degrees mark, I have tried to increase my fsb from 422, to 450 to give me 4.05ghz, but for some reason windows starts crashing, i have tried tweaking voltages&changing memory mutiplier but to no success. Current mobo is a ga-ep45-ud3r.

If I could get it overclocking a little bit more and still staying stable, I would be happy, but don't seem to quite be able to get there.

Regards,


Ben Bird

Xilo <--- The dog's danglies!
4.5km from Exchange
Was 60DB Downstream Att now it's 56DB?!

That mobo has an fsb of 1600 and your 422 OC is pusing the chipset past its stock speed.(422*4=1688) and with 450 fsb *4 that 1800FSB.

Try adding +0.1V to the MCH even try +0.2 but no more

PS Did you get my PM?

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Edited by Seansmit17 (Tue 09-Mar-10 11:50:09)

MCH is northbridge? I don't know where that is in the voltages, but will have a look, also do you think i am pushing it too far then going to 450? What memory multiplier would be best 2.00D?

I read up loads ages ago on overclocking with my e6600 and got that from 2.4 to i think 3.2ghz faily ok, if I go anything over 4ghz with this e8400 without changing any voltages i get a bsod.

I have had a read on other user experiences in this forum but it does seem faily inconclusive on exactly which way I should be heading, obviously I know every chip has its own characteristics and should be increased a little at a time, so not to fry it

Replying to your pm now.

Regards,


Ben Bird

Xilo <--- The dog's danglies!
4.5km from Exchange
Was 60DB Downstream Att now it's 56DB?!

Edited by benbird7 (Tue 09-Mar-10 12:44:43)