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Right, my poor old computer in serious need of upgrading. As i know alot of you keep up with the latest and greatest innovations i figured you might be able to point me in the right direction.
Basic specs
ASUS P5N32-E Sli plus Mobo
Intel core2Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz
NVidia Geforce 8800 GT
4Gb Ram
700Watt power supply (maybe a bit more than that but i cant remember)
I'm guessing i need to be looking at my cpu and also graphics card and i kinda set my budget at around £300-£350 but i could probably stretch that a bit if i really need to.
Any advice on where to start please
upgrade advice
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Re: upgrade advice
That asus mobo ( http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_ ... ifications ) has an LGA775 socket, which means without a motherboard upgrade you're constrained to the Core2 line. That goes up as far as a Core2Quad Extreme, which are quad core processors. if memory serves me correctly, I think the best you can do is a Core2Quad QXXXXX where XXXX is some model number (9550 jumps to mind, but not sure)
Your PSU should be more than enough for what you add to it.
RAM, you can take 4x2GB DDR2 sticks, so 8GB in total.
I'm not too up on the GFX card market at the minute, but I THINK that the GTX650 is the current equivalent of the 8800GT (ie that range when it was released), and it's big brother the GTX660 is a bit beefier for about 40 squid more. The Ti versions of those cards are usually far more powerful than their vanilla counterparts.
You could pick up a Core2Quad Q9550 for a little over 120 pounds on ebay ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat ... 550&_frs=1 ) and the GTX650Ti for about the 130 pounds on Overclockers.
Somebody else may have a better suggestion for you though!
Your PSU should be more than enough for what you add to it.
RAM, you can take 4x2GB DDR2 sticks, so 8GB in total.
I'm not too up on the GFX card market at the minute, but I THINK that the GTX650 is the current equivalent of the 8800GT (ie that range when it was released), and it's big brother the GTX660 is a bit beefier for about 40 squid more. The Ti versions of those cards are usually far more powerful than their vanilla counterparts.
You could pick up a Core2Quad Q9550 for a little over 120 pounds on ebay ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat ... 550&_frs=1 ) and the GTX650Ti for about the 130 pounds on Overclockers.
Somebody else may have a better suggestion for you though!
Re: upgrade advice
Hmmm, perhaps i should be thinking of a complete system upgrade instead. Either that or im going to become good friends with ebay and second hand components.
Cheers for the info groiny, gives me somewhere to start looking
Cheers for the info groiny, gives me somewhere to start looking
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Re: upgrade advice
i was in a similar situation five months ago when my old rig which was very similar spec to yours blew and i had to upgrade with almost no money 
after a bit of searching and waiting on ebay you can find bundels being sold off by folk who are constantly upgrading, i picked up a bargin and i am delighted and amazed at its performance, i got a bundle of a Asus Rampage Extream (775 socket) a Core2Quad Q9550 and 8Gb Corsair DDR3 Ram all for £117.00 ! for old tec its performance is blistering, runs BF3 at very high settings without problem, and its very stable too not had a single issue with any of it, cant reccomend the Q9550 enough for an old 775 socket chip it really dose fly,
but again with ebay its just your luck as to what kind of nick the components are in, you pays yer money and takes yer chance 
after a bit of searching and waiting on ebay you can find bundels being sold off by folk who are constantly upgrading, i picked up a bargin and i am delighted and amazed at its performance, i got a bundle of a Asus Rampage Extream (775 socket) a Core2Quad Q9550 and 8Gb Corsair DDR3 Ram all for £117.00 ! for old tec its performance is blistering, runs BF3 at very high settings without problem, and its very stable too not had a single issue with any of it, cant reccomend the Q9550 enough for an old 775 socket chip it really dose fly,
but again with ebay its just your luck as to what kind of nick the components are in, you pays yer money and takes yer chance The Fail Cakes are on me !................
Re: upgrade advice
mate i am running a quad extreme 6850 and i had an ultra 8800 card which fried to be honest i thought my cpu was fucked to but my cousin sorted out and fitted new cheep water cooler to cpu and upgrade operating system to windows 7 then went to 8 gig ddr3 memory and to top in i went for a nvidia gtx560ti card which was 150 ish also the best bit a new 120gb ssd drive best bit of kit i ever got
Re: upgrade advice
Just checked the list of supported cpu's from the ASUS website (courtesy of groinshots link) and the Core2Quad Q9550 is not there.
I have found an alternative which only benchmarked slightly lower than the Q9550 - the Core 2 Extreme QX6850 or alternatively the Core 2 Extreme QX6800, depending what i can get hold of for a reasonable price.
Not had a dig around for graphics cards yet but the GTX650Ti and GTX560ti both seem to fit my requirements.
Now the only question is, do i spend £300 and go for the upgrade or just bite the bullet, stick the money aside ready for when i can afford the time and the money for a new build - (which will definitely include a ssd as Mr no fear suggests)
I have found an alternative which only benchmarked slightly lower than the Q9550 - the Core 2 Extreme QX6850 or alternatively the Core 2 Extreme QX6800, depending what i can get hold of for a reasonable price.
Not had a dig around for graphics cards yet but the GTX650Ti and GTX560ti both seem to fit my requirements.
Now the only question is, do i spend £300 and go for the upgrade or just bite the bullet, stick the money aside ready for when i can afford the time and the money for a new build - (which will definitely include a ssd as Mr no fear suggests)
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Re: upgrade advice
SSDs are getting cheaper and their capacity is growing.
It does cost a little more, but well worth it for the rapid windows boot times.
It does cost a little more, but well worth it for the rapid windows boot times.
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Re: upgrade advice
Schlack wrote:SSDs are getting cheaper and their capacity is growing.
It does cost a little more, but well worth it for the rapid windows boot times.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-AGT3-25SAT3 ... 941&sr=8-1
I have one of these in my laptop, no prefetching/superfetching, all disk indexing turned off, no hibernation (so It doesn't use up 8GB of my space unnecessarily) and it runs like a dream. Would definitely advise them.