PC upgrade help.

[SkyHigh]

Hey Buddy Community,
I'm looking to upgrade my PC because I'm getting lower fps in the newer games and its at it 4th year of life.
I already upgraded my VGA a while ago so that doesn't need to be changed, I'm looking for new ram, a new mobo, and a new cpu.
The budget is about 600 euro's.

Here's my current set up:
Nvidia 295 GTX + 4gig ram + Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.60Hz + OCZ 600W StealthXStream Power Supply.

I've been looking at I7 processors and the X6 Phenom II ones, I really can't decide on stuff like this with my limited knowledge of hardware. What would you reckon is the best setup within my budget.

I'd love to hear your input on this.

Thanks for your time, Sky.

 

[Balasagun]

i7 is all pc user's dream atm

 

[Solitus]

The better one would be i7 but phenom is also good for a good price

 

[Balasagun]

but as a botter i7 would be better cuz as i know intel is better when operating multiple tasks

 

[Solitus]

yep thats true.. but if he dont want to spend too much money..

 

[SkyHigh]

What I7 would you suggest?

 

[Solitus]

depends on how much money you got to spend

 

[Balasagun]

extreme ofc if u have enough money

 

[SkyHigh]

600 euro's for the ram + cpu + mobo

 

[ctark]

I had a Q6600 overclocked to 3ghz for a long while. While its a good processor WOW really takes advantage of the I7. I got a better frame increase from a processor upgrade than I did a video card upgrade. If you can find you a nice cheap I7 that can overclock to 4.0ghz you will be in business. But the Q6600 isn't a bad chip, and if thats all you can afford then so be it. If the 6 core AMD chips are cheaper than the Q6600, then I would go with that as it performs better.

 

[ctark]

extreme ofc if u have enough money

That is a terrible suggestion. You can overclock a chip to go just as fast as the extreme. And those extra cores wont do a damn thing for you in gaming. Not flaming you, just dont want someone to waste their hard earned money.

 

[CodenameG]

heres the thing right, unless your games are multi-thread enabled, and know how to handle those extra cores. it might not be worth investing that much into getting the best core i7 or 6 core pheneom, but instead get a mother board thats compatible and get a core i3 or 5, or a 4 core pheneom so you at least have an upgrade path a year or two down the road. instead i would take that money you save and put it into your ram, and video card, since thats going to be where a majority of your games processing is going to take place.

things to look for:
DDR3
and PCI-E 2.0 or 2.1

as for your video card, look up reviews, and find out whats going to run what you want the best. just because the overall clockspeed on 1 card is faster then the other does not make it faster. that card that costs $400 might preform as well as another card that cost $350, so really look around.

as for overall fps it might not matter but getting an SSD if you dont already have one just to run windows on will help things out, as well as loading times on games. so consider picking a smaller one up just to run windows on as well.

when i built my system i had a budget roughly half of what yours is, and im very pleased, not only being able to run all the games i care about at the native resolution of my monitor without lag, but also having a few upgrade paths down the road (IE: new Video card, More Ram, and even faster processor)

your already on a quad core system but i think just moving to a faster bus, with more bandwidth will be noticeable, but idk, hell you might be able to just get away with upgrading your video card since you already have a high end ish processor.

sorry, i didnt know if you actuily wanted a part list, but thats some good advice to keep in mind.

 

[SkyHigh]

heres the thing right, unless your games are multi-thread enabled, and know how to handle those extra cores. it might not be worth investing that much into getting the best core i7 or 6 core pheneom, but instead get a mother board thats compatible and get a core i3 or 5, or a 4 core pheneom so you at least have an upgrade path a year or two down the road. instead i would take that money you save and put it into your ram, and video card, since thats going to be where a majority of your games processing is going to take place.

things to look for:
DDR3
and PCI-E 2.0 or 2.1

as for your video card, look up reviews, and find out whats going to run what you want the best. just because the overall clockspeed on 1 card is faster then the other does not make it faster. that card that costs $400 might preform as well as another card that cost $350, so really look around.

as for overall fps it might not matter but getting an SSD if you dont already have one just to run windows on will help things out, as well as loading times on games. so consider picking a smaller one up just to run windows on as well.

when i built my system i had a budget roughly half of what yours is, and im very pleased, not only being able to run all the games i care about at the native resolution of my monitor without lag, but also having a few upgrade paths down the road (IE: new Video card, More Ram, and even faster processor)

your already on a quad core system but i think just moving to a faster bus, with more bandwidth will be noticeable, but idk, hell you might be able to just get away with upgrading your video card since you already have a high end ish processor.

sorry, i didnt know if you actuily wanted a part list, but thats some good advice to keep in mind.

Hey CG, thanks for your response, I upgraded my vga only a year ago to a 295gtx, is this a bad card then?

 

[CodenameG]

Hey CG, thanks for your response, I upgraded my vga only a year ago to a 295gtx, is this a bad card then?

there are better cards out now. the 295gtx, dont know if you had the dual gpu or single but there are cards now that for the price you bought the 295 for that really kick ass. also what resoution is your monitor? and are you playing everything with high or extreme settings with anti-aliasing? or what game are you playing that your having fps issues. it seems like that hard should be able to handle all the games now, as long as your not bumping up the anti-aliasing to 16x.

but on the other side, you could get a new card thats direct x11 compatible.

 

[nlr]

I wouldn't consider making a build now, Sandy bridge intel's new CPU chip is getting released on the 9th of jan.

So what you might ask:

These chips offer a better performance over the current generation cpu's by 25% and will make the current generation chips drop in price dramatically.

Regards,
Nick.

 

[SkyHigh]

Pretty sure these are dx11 compatible seeing as it says directx 11 in the dxdiag.
And yes its a dual GPU.