-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition
- Thread starter Spy
- Start date
Fragamemnon
Member
I too think you should really try ME2 and Bioshock 2 straight up with that rig, especially if you can weasel at least a 2.6-2.7 overclock out of that E6400 (see the guide in the first post). ME2 runs surprisingly well, much better than the first. Bioshock 2 runs on that heavily modified UE2.5 engine-it shouldn't be too demanding on hardware.
BTW, if you haven't done so in a while (year+), if you are having temp issues when overclocking, a clean and reapply of fresh thermal compound can really help out.
BTW, if you haven't done so in a while (year+), if you are having temp issues when overclocking, a clean and reapply of fresh thermal compound can really help out.
I think my 8800GTX died today. Getting green blocks and can't get out of the damned bios.
I would take it out and test my onboard video, but my mobo doesn't have internal video.
Oh well, frankly the system was getting kind of old itself. I am still running a dual core. I can get away with most games on med-high, but I think it is time for an upgrade.
Now to decide which parts can be salvageable. It's going to be a long day.
I would take it out and test my onboard video, but my mobo doesn't have internal video.
Oh well, frankly the system was getting kind of old itself. I am still running a dual core. I can get away with most games on med-high, but I think it is time for an upgrade.
Now to decide which parts can be salvageable. It's going to be a long day.
LAUGHTREY
Modesty becomes a woman
brain_stew said:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=17506227
+
The combo deal you linked me
Comes out to about 520. Anything else about the other stuff I kept? Case, PSU, whatever?
Can I get some help shaving as much money off this as possible please?
The one my friend just got for his parents (includes a 5670 for light gaming so his brother can play Source games):Septimus said:
Athlon II X4 630 - $99.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=42600&vpn=ADX620WFGIBOX&manufacture=AMD
http://www.bewawa.com/amd-cpu-adx630wfgibox-athlon-ii-x4-630-95w-am3-2mb-2800mhz-retail.html
Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 - $90.99 - $10 MIR = $80.99
http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php?module=detail&id=450404
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=47584&vpn=GA-770TA-UD3&manufacture=Gigabyte
Case + PSU (Antec Sonata III) - $109.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=24294&vpn=SONATA III 500&manufacture=Antec
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129024
Assembly - $41.09
Add the combo by scrolling down on the Antec Sonata III page
Samsung DVD Drive - 20.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=46792&vpn=SH-S223C/BEBE-OEM&manufacture=Samsung
http://www.a-power.com/product-14239-Weeklyspecial
500GB Samsung F3 - $55.33
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=111120624&vpn=HD502HJ&manufacture=Samsung
4GB DDR3 Patriot RAM - $99.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?affiliateid=4352418&sku=43090
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220435&
XFX Radeon 5670 - $103.46
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=49185&vpn=HD-567X-ZNFC&manufacture=XFX
http://www.pricecanada.com/p.php/XFX-Radeon-HD-5670-Redwood-HD567XYNFC-645486/
Total: $621.83
I'd recommend waiting until 6PM Pacific for NCIX's sale in case there's a shipping promo. Today is the last day for some of the price matches.
MoFuzz
Member
Does anyone know of a cheap, efficient method of switching between two displays on one PC? It's an older machine, with only one video output (VGA).
Just to be clear, I'm not talking about using two monitors at once, just one or the other at any point in time. More specifically, it will going back forth between a monitor and an HDTV that are both in the same area.
Also, is image degradation an issue in these cases?
I've tried searching on a couple retailer sites, but nothing seems to match what I'm trying to do.
Just to be clear, I'm not talking about using two monitors at once, just one or the other at any point in time. More specifically, it will going back forth between a monitor and an HDTV that are both in the same area.
Also, is image degradation an issue in these cases?
I've tried searching on a couple retailer sites, but nothing seems to match what I'm trying to do.
Anybody ever dealt with MSI warranty before? I sent my card in almost 4 weeks ago after it shorted and this morning they finally sent me an e-mail.
We will need to provide you with a refund. Can you please reply back with the invoice attached to the email. Thank you.
I'm pretty pissed that it took them 4 weeks just to tell me that I have to take a refund. I was without a competent video card for almost two months because their e-mail service is so shitty they never got my e-mail requested help with locating the serial number. I even had to call in and tell the guy the numbers manually, and NONE of them were in the system apparently so I was manually assigned an RMA#. Is there any way I can bitch and get a good deal out of this? They don't even sell the card I had anymore. What would these guys do if I couldn't provide an invoice? Can I request another card from them?
Edit: The best card I can get with the $199 I spent on my 4890 is a 5770. However, I heard that this card runs a little worse than a 4890. If I do end up having to buy another card, should I just get another 4890?
We will need to provide you with a refund. Can you please reply back with the invoice attached to the email. Thank you.
I'm pretty pissed that it took them 4 weeks just to tell me that I have to take a refund. I was without a competent video card for almost two months because their e-mail service is so shitty they never got my e-mail requested help with locating the serial number. I even had to call in and tell the guy the numbers manually, and NONE of them were in the system apparently so I was manually assigned an RMA#. Is there any way I can bitch and get a good deal out of this? They don't even sell the card I had anymore. What would these guys do if I couldn't provide an invoice? Can I request another card from them?
Edit: The best card I can get with the $199 I spent on my 4890 is a 5770. However, I heard that this card runs a little worse than a 4890. If I do end up having to buy another card, should I just get another 4890?
So here is my current situation. I would love the opinion of the GAF PC collective.
Current setup:
EVGA NFORCE 680I SLI MB
D- CORE 2 DUO 2.13GHZ E6400 2M CACHE 1066MHZ
3 gigs DDR2 PC2-6400
EVGA GEFORCE 8800 GTX 768MB PCI-E HYNIX
SEAGATE 250GB SATA 3G 7200RPM 8MB CACHE
Current situation:
8800 GTX is totally dead
Need another main HDD
I know my processor is outdated, but for now I want to upgrade by components, 1 at a time.
I was thinking of starting off with a 5850 to replace the old broken 8800GTX. I know the system will bottleneck, but I am hoping to grab a new mobo, CPU, and RAM after next semesters student grant.
I was gonna grab that 50 dollar HDD linked above, is that good for a main HDD?
Good plan so far?
How much of a jump in performance will I see from the 5850?
Thanks guys.
Current setup:
EVGA NFORCE 680I SLI MB
D- CORE 2 DUO 2.13GHZ E6400 2M CACHE 1066MHZ
3 gigs DDR2 PC2-6400
EVGA GEFORCE 8800 GTX 768MB PCI-E HYNIX
SEAGATE 250GB SATA 3G 7200RPM 8MB CACHE
Current situation:
8800 GTX is totally dead
Need another main HDD
I know my processor is outdated, but for now I want to upgrade by components, 1 at a time.
I was thinking of starting off with a 5850 to replace the old broken 8800GTX. I know the system will bottleneck, but I am hoping to grab a new mobo, CPU, and RAM after next semesters student grant.
I was gonna grab that 50 dollar HDD linked above, is that good for a main HDD?
Good plan so far?
How much of a jump in performance will I see from the 5850?
Thanks guys.
Just overclock the E6400. I have an E6600@3Ghz with 2GB of RAM (just found a seller for another 2 sticks though...) Had an 8800GTS and just upgraded to a 5850. I ran the Crysis demo at 1680*1050, all High/Very High and averaged around 30fps. The Call of Pripyat benchmark on the DX11 Ultra settings gives me 45fps in the god rays demo and 80+ in the others.ashism said:
Yes, there are some games that benefit greatly from a quad core, but you will get a huge jump in performance with just the new gfx card.
I've never tried it, but a VGA splitter sounds like something that would do the trick...MoFuzz said:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=vga+splitter&x=0&y=0
While I know this is the "I need a new PC!" thread and not the "Help me fix my PC!" thread, I figure it can't hurt to throw this question out there.
Came back from visiting family over break to find my desktop no longer would POST. Fans would spin, hard drives too, and lights would turn on, but there would be no beep and no video. I reseated everything, reset the CMOS (jumper and even replaced the battery), and kept having the same issue. I figured alright, this is a motherboard problem, and replaced it (had an LGA 775 board and went with the same as I didn't want to replace the CPU and memory as well). Also used this thread to replace my 8600GT with an HD5770.
Long story short, parts got here today, rebuilt the machine, and the same exact problem hit. Tried both videocards, no dice. Any help or suggestions would be hugely appreciated, as I'm working with a budget and while I'd love to just go out and buy a new machine, I cannot.
Current specs: Core 2 Duo (unsure of clock speed), 4GB (1GBx4) DDR2 PC6400 (Crucial Ballistix), Rosewill 550W PSU
Old motherboard: ASUS Maximus Formula
Old videocard: nVidia 8600GT
New motherboard: Intel DP43TF
New videocard: HIS HD5770
Thanks GAF.
Came back from visiting family over break to find my desktop no longer would POST. Fans would spin, hard drives too, and lights would turn on, but there would be no beep and no video. I reseated everything, reset the CMOS (jumper and even replaced the battery), and kept having the same issue. I figured alright, this is a motherboard problem, and replaced it (had an LGA 775 board and went with the same as I didn't want to replace the CPU and memory as well). Also used this thread to replace my 8600GT with an HD5770.
Long story short, parts got here today, rebuilt the machine, and the same exact problem hit. Tried both videocards, no dice. Any help or suggestions would be hugely appreciated, as I'm working with a budget and while I'd love to just go out and buy a new machine, I cannot.
Current specs: Core 2 Duo (unsure of clock speed), 4GB (1GBx4) DDR2 PC6400 (Crucial Ballistix), Rosewill 550W PSU
Old motherboard: ASUS Maximus Formula
Old videocard: nVidia 8600GT
New motherboard: Intel DP43TF
New videocard: HIS HD5770
Thanks GAF.
I posted on Something Awful and someone else suggested that as well... is that normal though? I (wrongly) assumed it couldn't be the PSU because things started spinning up and the PC "sounded" healthy, but today I noticed plugging in a USB keyboard didn't provide power to it (lights stayed off on the KB).
Thank you, in any case. Likely going to RMA the motherboard and try a new PSU tomorrow in the hopes it fixes it.
Thank you, in any case. Likely going to RMA the motherboard and try a new PSU tomorrow in the hopes it fixes it.
HomerSimpson-Man
Member
I upgraded from a Athlon 64x2 6000+ to a Phenom II X3 720, DDR3 with the newer motherboard, but I still need to get a new GPU, looking for something price reasonable so I'm eyeing the ATI 5770.
How much a performance increase would I get from my old nvidia 8800GT to an ATI 5770? I'm tempted to hook up my rig to my 40inch Samsung 1080p tv.
How much a performance increase would I get from my old nvidia 8800GT to an ATI 5770? I'm tempted to hook up my rig to my 40inch Samsung 1080p tv.
brain_stew
Member
HomerSimpson-Man said:
About 40-60% at 1080p in most games. Subjectively speaking I'd say the 5770 is past the threshold of playability at 1080p, the 8800gt, not so much. You can get a 5850 with Dirt 2 fr $290 delivered now, its a decent option if you want a bigger leap in performance.
HomerSimpson-Man
Member
brain_stew said:
I would love to get the 5850, but whew, it's a bit too rich for my blood, I already maxed out the $500 credit limit they gave me at the Microcenter thus far. I'm contemplating holding onto my 8800gt a little longer and wait and see how nvidia stacks up and the prices falling from actual competition for the 5800 line from nvidia.
Should I pull the trigger on this card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131184&cm_re=5850-_-14-131-184-_-Product
That or hold off until the new wave of cards next month and see a price drop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131184&cm_re=5850-_-14-131-184-_-Product
That or hold off until the new wave of cards next month and see a price drop?
fizzelopeguss
Banned
ashism said:
If it's out of warranty stick it in the oven for 10 mins, seriously. Fixed my 8800gt.
I figured as much, but if it's overwriting itself I'm still confused. For example, I installed ME2 last week and then Fallout 3 yesterday, both of which installed DirectX and C++. So doesn't that mean I'm rocking crap from two years ago now?x3sphere said:
I'm sure I'm just being a complete moron somewhere along the thought process, but I was bored and curious.
VariantX04
Loser slave of the system :(
Is overclocking really necessary for gaming? Also, can a noob like myself do it?
brain_stew
Member
ashism said:
The release of new cards doesn't have any standard correlation to the prices of older cards dropping, in fact last time it lead to price increases. Either way, there's very little chance we'll see any prodduct from Nvidia available for less than $400 so there's no way in hell it would ever have any affect on cards in your price range anyway.
People need to get out of this new cards = price drop mindset, it burned a load of people last time around.
As for the 5750, with 5770s available for as little as $140 I see little point in restricting yourself like that, spend a little extra and get a proper upgrade.
Thanks for the advice. Any specific 5770 I should grab?brain_stew said:
I was thinking the newegg combo with dirt2 or the 10 dollar rebate one.
Once this one feels slightly dated I can always grab another and dual gpu it.
Will I see a good jump in performance from my 8800 gtx?
My D-Link gamerlounge 4300 just died 
It was working, then I unplugged it waited 10 seconds and then plugged it in again and it gets no power, wtf.
Hopefully it's heat issue (summer yay), but it's not looking good.
So I've plugged in the old 3com adsl1 one as a temporary fix, but I'll be needing a new router.
So what's a good router these days. Do I go for w/less N (even though I have nothing which supports it). Are there any which support attached HDDs?
Recommendations and opinions are most welcome!
(will be googling too, I just want to know what you guys think).
I suppose I need to go IPv6 too?
It was working, then I unplugged it waited 10 seconds and then plugged it in again and it gets no power, wtf.
Hopefully it's heat issue (summer yay), but it's not looking good.
So I've plugged in the old 3com adsl1 one as a temporary fix, but I'll be needing a new router.
So what's a good router these days. Do I go for w/less N (even though I have nothing which supports it). Are there any which support attached HDDs?
Recommendations and opinions are most welcome!
(will be googling too, I just want to know what you guys think).
I suppose I need to go IPv6 too?
My question of the day:
Is it worth spending the extra 100 bucks for the DDR3 + Quadcore?
Thinking outloud: If the graphic card is "usually" the bottleneck, wouldn't one be better off purchasing DDR2 ram, a smaller hardrive, and a 5850, as opposed to the 5770 in the OP?
I am trying to make a build in the $650 price range with a 5850 (I'm sure eventually they will come down to $250). Is that feasible? I don't want to go all the way down to Dual Core, but Quad Core + DDR 2?
Is it worth spending the extra 100 bucks for the DDR3 + Quadcore?
Thinking outloud: If the graphic card is "usually" the bottleneck, wouldn't one be better off purchasing DDR2 ram, a smaller hardrive, and a 5850, as opposed to the 5770 in the OP?
I am trying to make a build in the $650 price range with a 5850 (I'm sure eventually they will come down to $250). Is that feasible? I don't want to go all the way down to Dual Core, but Quad Core + DDR 2?
drhankmccoyphd
Member
thuway said:
Are you looking into AMD CPUs? You can get a nice Quad for right around $100.
Other question: Do you guys recommend overclocking from BIOS or with software specifically AMD OverDrive for AMD Athlon II chips? I've read through this guide multiple times and it seems really straight forward, and while it says some people including a few people in this thread prefer to tweak settings from BIOS, this AMD OverDrive tool looks pretty powerful.
Hello, I've been enjoying my new PC for a week or so and I have encountered some problems...
It turns out every time I play a game, watch a video or do something that requires the video card to use its power, the computer restarts or the screen turns green-ish with vertical lines or completely black and I am forced to turn the computer off and on again, since it stops responding to any input!
I have an i7 920 and a 5750. 6 GB of RAM and an Asus P6T SE Motherboard. The power supply works properly, or so it seems, at 720W. There are no overheating problems as far as I can tell.
Any ideas? I'm taking the guy to where I bought it, to see if they can locate the root of the issue.
It turns out every time I play a game, watch a video or do something that requires the video card to use its power, the computer restarts or the screen turns green-ish with vertical lines or completely black and I am forced to turn the computer off and on again, since it stops responding to any input!
I have an i7 920 and a 5750. 6 GB of RAM and an Asus P6T SE Motherboard. The power supply works properly, or so it seems, at 720W. There are no overheating problems as far as I can tell.
Any ideas? I'm taking the guy to where I bought it, to see if they can locate the root of the issue.
Have a question for our local graphics gurus.
I'm installing stuff for my new rig, and one of the neat things I can do now is to connect it through hdmi. The VGA connector of my HDTV was very picky at the signal I supplied it, but with HDMI I can use whatever I want and let the TV do the downscaling (it´s quite nice doing it, it´s 32" Panasonic LCD).
So now I'm trying to figure what would give me better result: 1360X768 with AA activated or going with 1080p without AA, getting free AA from the downscaling. My tests with Crysis gives me a better result with the last option, 5 or 6 FPS more in the same scene, and the image looks a bit better to me, but I wanted an expert opinion to check the best options avaliable (and to check if my thinking is right about the dowscaling). Thanks in advance.
I'm installing stuff for my new rig, and one of the neat things I can do now is to connect it through hdmi. The VGA connector of my HDTV was very picky at the signal I supplied it, but with HDMI I can use whatever I want and let the TV do the downscaling (it´s quite nice doing it, it´s 32" Panasonic LCD).
So now I'm trying to figure what would give me better result: 1360X768 with AA activated or going with 1080p without AA, getting free AA from the downscaling. My tests with Crysis gives me a better result with the last option, 5 or 6 FPS more in the same scene, and the image looks a bit better to me, but I wanted an expert opinion to check the best options avaliable (and to check if my thinking is right about the dowscaling). Thanks in advance.
KittyKittyBangBang
Member
MoFuzz said:
Im wondering if the easiest solution would be to set it up as if you were going to use dual monitors. Use clone mode, that way you could set different configurations for each monitor individually, and just use one dispaly at a time. Kind of a weaksauce solution, but could work. VGA switch would be the better solution though
Acosta said:
Depends on the game. AA is almost free in some games, depending on your graphics card.
The best example of this is any Source game. AA seems to have no meaningful effect on performance, while resolution does. In Crysis, AA has an enormous impact on performance. Downsampling would certainly be preferred in Crysis since it would smooth out foliage as well.
Janken said:
Really sounds like overheating. Have you tried running a game for a few minutes, and then checking HWMonitor (http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php )?
KittyKittyBangBang
Member
Janken said:
silly question time!
A. did you make sure conencted the PSU's PCI-E plug to the 5750?
B. did you OC? if so it may need to be back off a bit
C. have you been monitoring case temp or GPU temp? maybe something is getting to hot?
just throwing out things to look at
BastardTrees
Banned
Just a quick question.
using D3Doverrider
Am I supposed to turn off v-sync in game and just force on triple buffering and v-sync on D3Doverrider ?
using D3Doverrider
Am I supposed to turn off v-sync in game and just force on triple buffering and v-sync on D3Doverrider ?
MoFuzz
Member
The idea is that you are supposed to turn off the options in-game and the control panel and let D3Doverrider handle the rest. Regardless, you'll know it's working from the little sound that chimes before launching a 3D app.BastardTrees said:
Personally, I only use it when I absolutely need the extra performance boost or the game doesn't support vsync natively as I get noticable input lag in some games with it enabled. Twitchy FPS's with mouse control are the worst in this regard. Gamepad controls suffer to a lesser degree due to the analog sticks being less sensitive.
Making my first journey into a PC thread for goodness knows how long, and have a (hopefully) easy question:
I just upgraded my motherboard to a Q9550 CPU w/ GB DDR2/800 RAM... I'm looking at upgrading my graphics from a Radeon 1950GT to something a bit nicer but am not sure whether to get something now or wait for the 8530 to come out. Is it really going to be a competitively priced 8550/8570? What are the alternatives?
I just upgraded my motherboard to a Q9550 CPU w/ GB DDR2/800 RAM... I'm looking at upgrading my graphics from a Radeon 1950GT to something a bit nicer but am not sure whether to get something now or wait for the 8530 to come out. Is it really going to be a competitively priced 8550/8570? What are the alternatives?
Struct09 said:
KittyKittyBangBang said:
Thank you for your answers, Struct09 and KittyKittyBangBang.
I've run HWMonitor while on a game and the card goes from 102º to 128º in a matter of seconds. All cores on the i7 920 stay at around 130º, but I don't know if that is hot or not. I think what I have here is a major overheating problem. I have not overclocked anything and, as far as I've been told, nothing has been overclocked before I got the PC home. The PCI-E plug sure is connected to the card!!!
The case is as ventilated as it can be, I guess. What shall I do? D:
Definitely not overheating then. CPU can handle up to and above 190F (not recommended) and the video card should stand a little shy of that number. Your gpu temps do shoot up very fast in a game btw.
Visual corruption can come from a variety of sources. Go into 'event viewer' and look for any system messages that might be related. You should see critical errors posted that led to the crash. Post them to see if we can help.
Visual corruption can come from a variety of sources. Go into 'event viewer' and look for any system messages that might be related. You should see critical errors posted that led to the crash. Post them to see if we can help.
Just did my first "major" DIY project, swapped out my mobo, cpu, ram, and primary hard drive. Everything went well (the only thing that I seem to have done wrong is failed to connect the front LCD power indicator correctly--no big deal) and I'm now sporting an AMD II X4 Phenom 955 CPU with 4GB of DDR3 RAM. It was fairly easier than I imagined, I just had to get past the fear of tearing apart my perfectly fine rig without a backup.
Psy-Phi
Member
I would like some advice on an upgrade path.
Current System:
CPU: C2D E6400 @ 2.66
Mobo: Gigabyte EP43-DS3L
RAM: 4GB PC6400 (800mhz)
GPU: GTX260 216 Core
I'm looking at a Q9550 as a cheap upgrade that should see fairly decent gains in games, especially multi-threaded obviously. And it would be OC'd at least 500mhz)
I see no reason to upgrade anything else if I keep my current Motherboard. Which is an enticing thought.
But I worry about throwing that money at a processor and upgrading later this year or early next year. Should I stick it out? Or go for a new mobo/cpu combo (and ram if I get an i5/i7). I think about AMD, but haven't owned one since the Thunderbird days and just feel a bit of hesitation in going that route due to the unfamiliarity with them first hand. But I think I can get a very decent quad core AMD and mobo for about 100 more than the Q9550?
What I'm looking for is consistent FPS above 30 in games at 1680x1050 with 4xAA / 1x2 2x2AA. While playing Mass Effect 2, my current system, while OC'd to 3.2 would dip below 30 in a few areas, very short moments, but annoying all the same. Also, the game was @ 100% CPU usage in both cores for most of the game. Looking to get away from that, 90-99% is fine, 100% could be causing limitations).
The limited cache on my processor is not working in my favor currently if I understand how it can impact the processor as a whole anyway (which I may not so any education about that would be welcome).
I'm willing to buy an i5/i7 as well, just would wait for a bit on the prices (need a Mobo thats near 100, processor < $200). Only problem there is I would need new RAM.
What I really desire from my upgrade is another 2 years of 30+FPS with the settings I mentioned before. Nobody can tell me the future, but I want to know if things like the quad cores from AMD and Intel (and not the i5/7 quads) seem like they will have legs for that long from those that own them.
I know it seems odd: if I'm willing to blow a lot more money, why not do that? Well, I'd just prefer to get the most bang for my buck. I'm frugal like that.
Current System:
CPU: C2D E6400 @ 2.66
Mobo: Gigabyte EP43-DS3L
RAM: 4GB PC6400 (800mhz)
GPU: GTX260 216 Core
I'm looking at a Q9550 as a cheap upgrade that should see fairly decent gains in games, especially multi-threaded obviously. And it would be OC'd at least 500mhz)
I see no reason to upgrade anything else if I keep my current Motherboard. Which is an enticing thought.
But I worry about throwing that money at a processor and upgrading later this year or early next year. Should I stick it out? Or go for a new mobo/cpu combo (and ram if I get an i5/i7). I think about AMD, but haven't owned one since the Thunderbird days and just feel a bit of hesitation in going that route due to the unfamiliarity with them first hand. But I think I can get a very decent quad core AMD and mobo for about 100 more than the Q9550?
What I'm looking for is consistent FPS above 30 in games at 1680x1050 with 4xAA / 1x2 2x2AA. While playing Mass Effect 2, my current system, while OC'd to 3.2 would dip below 30 in a few areas, very short moments, but annoying all the same. Also, the game was @ 100% CPU usage in both cores for most of the game. Looking to get away from that, 90-99% is fine, 100% could be causing limitations).
The limited cache on my processor is not working in my favor currently if I understand how it can impact the processor as a whole anyway (which I may not so any education about that would be welcome).
I'm willing to buy an i5/i7 as well, just would wait for a bit on the prices (need a Mobo thats near 100, processor < $200). Only problem there is I would need new RAM.
What I really desire from my upgrade is another 2 years of 30+FPS with the settings I mentioned before. Nobody can tell me the future, but I want to know if things like the quad cores from AMD and Intel (and not the i5/7 quads) seem like they will have legs for that long from those that own them.
I know it seems odd: if I'm willing to blow a lot more money, why not do that? Well, I'd just prefer to get the most bang for my buck. I'm frugal like that.