Recommended upgrades?

gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
The only other boards (that have a decent rating) that are 1155 and have two PCI-E slots are $100+ besides this one, and it isn't far behind. It's also Biostar
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138344

For the dollar, I think I'm just going to get the ECS board- Some brands aren't all that great, like my Thermaltake PSU, but it works and does everything I need it to. If it's as capable as my p5kpl-cm except with more ram and another PCI-E slot, I'm happy.
 
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kdfresh09

New Member
honostly, id try your best to stretch your budget a bit further so you can get a board that will support at least 2 x 8x pci-e slots, if your going to get another 7850 later. the ecs would be "alright", but that 2nd slot is 4x and it will cut performance down on the card thats in it, and will make crossfire pointless for the most part. i dont know if you prefer micro atx or standard atx, but this one looks real good spec wise for what you really want.

its only $20 more than the ecs board you linked. (well worth it)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188081

its a great brand, 2 pci-e slots @ 8x, and if you ever decide to get a k series cpu down the road, you will be able to overclock it pretty well, and this will support ivybridge cpu's i believe, (you may need to flash the bios to a up to date version), so you will have that upgrade option as well.

the rest of your parts look good, but, again, for the sake of spending money wisly, you should try to stretch your budget a little for the 2500k, so you have more cpu power through overclocking, which will help out when you have your 2nd card, as well as be able to keep up longer with programs and what not in the future compared to the 2400 which will be stuck at 3.1Ghz forever. compared to the 2500k, it comes stock at 3.3Ghz, and can go up to 4.8Ghz if you ever need more power in the future. (for just $30 more than the 2400) again, well worth it.

for these 2 things, (evga board, and 2500k)..it will be an extra $50-$60. if you dont have it, it shouldnt take too long to get it, then you will have a solid system that you will be very happy with. you asked how much of an upgrade this will be compared to what you have now? well, it will be a HELL of an upgrade over the q6600 you have, should open up your cards power more, and will deffinatly be key when you get your 2nd card in crossfire. get the 2500k, overclock it to at least 4Ghz (or more if you want, very easy and safe to do so), so it will keep up with those 2 cards in crossfire, and i know you will be as hapy as can be.
 
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gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
If I wait on the 2nd 7850, I definitely have enough money for that board and the 2500k. I can even throw in that ram and have money left over to continue saving. I'm assuming I will need a different heatsink if I want to go around 4GHz... How far can I go with the stock one and be at safe temperatures?
 
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kdfresh09

New Member
if i were you, id deffinatly hold off on the 2nd 7850, and instead invest it in the new motherboard, ram, and 2500k. on stock cooling, id say you would be alright to overclock up to 4Ghz, but just watch your temps using a program called HWmonitor. dont let the cpu exceed 72c, but if you can keep it in the 60's while under load, then that would be perfect. you can stress test by using intel burn test. if you want a great cpu cooler for cheap, then id get this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
for under $30, you really cant go wrong. they have an "evo" version for $6 more, if you want to look into that, but this one will do real well, and should cover all your overclocking needs. what case will you be using? just want to be sure it will fir in there.

i KNOW for sure, that if you go with the suggestions i have made, you will be very happy, and you will have such a well balanced, power horse of a machine
 
gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
I actually use HWMonitor all the time- it's on almost every minute my computer is. My Q6600 went over 80c when playin BF3 for a couple hours with no OC or anything. I can get that heatsink when I have some more money since, of all things, high overclocking can wait. My pay day is August 10. I'll let you know how the system goes.
Thanks for the help:D
 
K

kdfresh09

New Member
your welcome. anytime. be sure to let us know whats going on when you get your system together. you could take pics too, thats always enjoyable. keep us up to date, and good luck
 
gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
I'm not sure if anybody saw my last post, but would it be a good idea to get this motherboard instead? It is $140 on its own, but like I said, I save $40 if I bundle it with the 2500k.

I was also wondering this: The previous motherboard that I planned to buy has two x8 PCI-E slots, which is good for crossfire, and the new one also has two x8, but an x16 for a single card. I don't think the other one has x16 for one card. Would that mean that this $140 board will open up my card more?

Update: The bundle isn't available anymore :(... If I find another, I'll he sure to ask for feedback.
 
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gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
I was looking at some deals and found 2 other motherbaords that interest me. They both have a higher rating with more popularity, they have at least one PCI-E x16 slot (until I get my 2nd card), they are not micro ATX, and they are only about $6 more than the EVGA board I planned on getting earlier.

ASRock - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271
GIGABYTE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

I'm leaning toward the ASRock board since it has PCI-E 3.0, and it just looks cooler. But I don't know if there is one small thing I am missing with the board(s). What do you guys recommend?
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
I would recommend the Gigabyte board. The quality is better, support is better, and PCIe 3.0 is not necessary. Your not going to see a bottleneck even with a GTX 690.
 
gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
Well, I had an impatient ripoff with my paycheck, so I won't be able to buy the computer parts until somewhere around the 25th or so. It is probably going to be sooner, but I can't say for sure until Monday.
 
gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
I had a little change in plans...
I JUST got my paycheck today, and I ordered my parts. I got all the same things as I was saying before, but I decided to get 12gb of ram instead of 8gb since it doesn't cost a lot more, and I am going to be doing video editing and running servers.

Here is what I ordered:
Motherboard- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502
CPU- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
PSU- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044
Hard Drive (Highest rated TB hard drive I could find with a reasonable amount of purchasers)- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
RAM- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231356

I can't say for sure, but I think this is going to be a successful setup. I'm looking forward seeing how much of an fps increase I will get;)
I'll keep you posted when the parts get here sometime next week... Do any of you have any tips or feedback?
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
You did the wrong thing with the RAM. 12 GB is a good amount, but you should have went with 2x4 and 2x2. You will loose performance with 3x4 for 12GB.
 
gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
I wish I would have thought about that... I didn't know that made a difference at all. The order can't be changed, but what kind of loss are we talking about here? I am coming from 4gb of 800mhz ram...
 
gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
$20 isn't a big deal... I used almost every dollar I made for this :p. I'll be sure to pick that up along with a new heatsink when I have a bit more cash. When you say "at most 50%," what exactly do you mean? 50% Of my overall performance, or 50% of the ram performance? Do you know of an average framerate difference? If not, take a guess so I have an idea.

Edit: What if I just threw in two of the three sticks until I get the 4th one?
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
If you do that you will get dual channel performance. And 50% RAM bandwidth. Should only affect frames by 1 or 2 FPS. not much at all.
 
gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
I'll mess around with the ram when the parts come in, thanks for the channeling advice- I did not know that.

I don't think I need to upgrade RAM anytime soon, and my graphics card is good enough for me as of now. When the time comes, and when the drivers mature more, I will probably just throw in a second 7850. I am considering a better sound card vs onboard sound since it's pretty cheap, but I'm not quite an audiophile, so that isn't a big deal either.
 
gunmetalTrevan

gunmetalTrevan

New Member
Hey guys. I got the parts and put it all together, and I booted up the computer to see if anything is broken. I didn't hear any sort of beeps (no OS installed yet) but the board screen came up before some text that said it was loading the operating system. However, I'm having one issue; I can't seem to find where to plug in my CD drives. They aren't THAT old, but they aren't bluray, just DVD. They have a 39/40 pin ribbon plug, if that's the correct way to say it. Am I going to need to get newer drives, or am I just utterly blind?
 
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