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[captmcblack]

I don't play WoW...I play CS 1.6/Source and emulators right now. I don't need to have it be eye-meltingly awesome at 7,000 frames per second with 16x AA (obviously; I still play CS 1.6, lol). I want to play my other games, like TF2, L4D/L4D2, SC2, UT3 and Portal 2 - so I'd like them to be nice and playable at least.

I just want to know that I can play the few games I play at a smooth FPS with decent enough eye candy. If I can do that with the hardware I have, then I'll stick with it. I know my rig isn't bleeding edge, but I'd be shocked to find I couldn't get high frames at medium settings in most games out today with that stuff above.

 

[maks]

I also have a Q6600. My problem is my 4 year old Abit motherboard. Company went out of business years ago and doesn't have Windows 7 support drivers.

Is there a good 775 motherboard i should upgrade to? I also have a radeon 5850 card.

 

[MedIC86]

I don't play WoW...I play CS 1.6/Source and emulators right now. I don't need to have it be eye-meltingly awesome at 7,000 frames per second with 16x AA (obviously; I still play CS 1.6, lol). I want to play my other games, like TF2, L4D/L4D2, SC2, UT3 and Portal 2 - so I'd like them to be nice and playable at least.

I just want to know that I can play the few games I play at a smooth FPS with decent enough eye candy. If I can do that with the hardware I have, then I'll stick with it. I know my rig isn't bleeding edge, but I'd be shocked to find I couldn't get high frames at medium settings in most games out today with that stuff above.

My advice dont buy the ram if you didnt do it already, you will see no meaningfull gains for games whatsoever. Anyway i would save up some cash and buy a new rig...a new gpu will get you some better performace but best save a bit. If you look in the OP you can see it does not have to cost you an insane amount of money.

 

[captmcblack]

I didn't get that RAM yet...I guess I won't upgrade.

Am I really just in some sort of rig limbo, then? I really won't be able to run DX10 stuff well at at least middle settings at average resolution? No UT3? Really?

 

[Forkball]

Thoughts on this case? Also this one?

 

[TheExodu5]

He's rocking a Q6600 @ 3.3.GHz...that's no slouch. I'd leave the RAM as is, and plop down $150-220 on a video card. Either a GTX 460 1GB (non SE), 6850, or GTX 560.

If he had a dual-core, I'd tell him to wait, but he's running a very nicely overclocked quad-core, so I don't see any issues with bringing the graphics hardware up to par.

 

[MedIC86]

I didn't get that RAM yet...I guess I won't upgrade.

Am I really just in some sort of rig limbo, then? I really won't be able to run DX10 stuff well at at least middle settings at average resolution? No UT3? Really?

Well maybe you can try (but you have to check if the shop allows it) to install the games you want to play, buy the GPU (gtx460 or a 5750 or smth else) check how they run. If they run accetable for you voila it works out, if it sucks you know you have to save money for a complete upgrade.

 

[MedIC86]

Thoughts on this case? Also this one?

I have better experiences with coolermaster in terms of BQ. but cases are big prefference thing

 

[TheExodu5]

Honestly, I can think of very few games where his CPU might bottleneck him. A Q6600 @ 3.3GHz is still pretty fast by today's standards. It's not a Sandy Bridge, but then, no games even come close to needing a Sandy Bridge yet (aside from poor PS2/Dolphin emulation).

 

[dgenx]

Hey guys, how about this videocard to replace my GT 9600??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130611

Chipset Manufacturer:
NVIDIA
Core Clock:
700MHz
Shader Clock:
1400MHz
Stream Processors:
336 Processor Cores
Effective Memory Clock:
3600MHz
DirectX:
DirectX 11
OpenGL:
OpenGL 4.0
HDMI:
1 x mini HDMI

 

[captmcblack]

He's rocking a Q6600 @ 3.3.GHz...that's no slouch. I'd leave the RAM as is, and plop down $150-220 on a video card. Either a GTX 460 1GB (non SE), 6850, or GTX 560.

If he had a dual-core, I'd tell him to wait, but he's running a very nicely overclocked quad-core, so I don't see any issues with bringing the graphics hardware up to par.

Why "non-SE"? Are those gimped cards, ala the old MX series of Geforce cards from back in the day?

 

[Mr Nightman]

Why "non-SE"? Are those gimped cards, ala the old MX series of Geforce cards from back in the day?

yea se is slightly underpowered from the standard ones

 

[TheExodu5]

Why "non-SE"? Are those gimped cards, ala the old MX series of Geforce cards from back in the day?

A little gimped yes. It's misleading, because the 1GB SE is less powerful than the 768MB non SE.

Anyways, I recommend spending closer to $200 just because I really do believe your CPU is a lot better than people are giving it credit for. I wouldn't even hesitate in pairing that with a higher end video card like a 6950.

 

[RS4-]

A little gimped yes. It's misleading, because the 1GB SE is less powerful than the 768MB non SE.

Anyways, I recommend spending closer to $200 just because I really do believe your CPU is a lot better than people are giving it credit for. I wouldn't even hesitate in pairing that with a higher end video card like a 6950.

Yup same boat for me, I have a q6600 and didn't upgrade anything in nearly 4 years except for the 6950. I'll just have to see how Witcher 2 holds up.

If anything, I think it's my 2 gigs of ram that is the bottleneck.

 

[TheExodu5]

Yup same boat for me, I have a q6600 and didn't upgrade anything in nearly 4 years except for the 6950. I'll just have to see how Witcher 2 holds up.

If anything, I think it's my 2 gigs of ram that is the bottleneck.

Yeah 2GB is a little low. Also, Q6600 is rather vague. It will bottleneck you in some games if you're running at stock speeds. At 3.3GHz though, it should be fast enough for just about anything. That should even run BFBC2 over 60fps no problem.

 

[nexen]

I currently have a

Intel core 2 duo 3.0ghz (E6850 iirc)
4gb DDR2 800
nvidia 470 gtx

I'm upgrading very soon and thinking:

* Intel Core i7-2600k Sandy Bridge 3.4ghz
* ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58
* G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2x4GB) 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 (PC3 12800)

Does anyone have any better recommendations or can they point out any issues with these parts?

Please note that I need to stick with Intel & Nvidia parts because of my work.
edit,edit: Want a i7, not an i5 and I'm ok with the 2600K over the 2600 because it is only $15 more and I want to play around with the sandy bridge gfx.

 

[TheExodu5]

I currently have a

Intel core 2 duo 3.0ghz (E6850 iirc)
4gb DDR2 800
nvidia 470 gtx

I'm upgrading very soon and thinking:

* Intel Core i7-2600k Sandy Bridge 3.4ghz
* ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58
* G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2x4GB) 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 (PC3 12800)

Does anyone have any better recommendations or can they point out any issues with these parts?

Please note that I need to stick with Intel & Nvidia parts because of my work.

Are you using any applications that make use of the Hyper Threading in the 2600K? If not, stick with the 2500K.

That Sabertooth won't work with that CPU. You need a Socket 1155 motherboard. Go with the Asus P8P67 if you don't need SLI compatibility, and the P8P67 Pro if you do.

 

[nexen]

Are you using any applications that make use of the Hyper Threading in the 2600K? If not, stick with the 2500K.

I was under the impression that the hyperthreading would be utilized very frequently on anything multithreaded. As long as certian conditions in the executing code were met.

That Sabertooth won't work with that CPU. You need a Socket 1155 motherboard. Go with the Asus P8P67 if you don't need SLI compatibility, and the P8P67 Pro if you do.

Yikes, really? Thanks! I steer clear of SLI/Crossfire so I'll check out the Asus P8P67.
edit: eh, pro isn't much more so I think I'll go with that just in case.
edit edit: really thanks pointing out the MB problem. That would have really sucked. *blush*

 

[TheExodu5]

I was under the impression that the hyperthreading would be utilized very frequently on anything multithreaded. As long as certian conditions in the executing code were met.

Well it will only be used if the application uses more than 4 cores. Not many games use more than 4 cores currently, and no game even needs a CPU that's faster than the 2500K at this point in time.

If you're doing heavily threaded tasks like video encoding then you'll see around a 20-30% benefit from the hyper threading.

I also suggest buying a cheap after market cooler. The Cooler Master Hyper 212+ tends to be very popular...it's quite capable at a measly $30. That will allow you to comfortable overclock the CPU to 4.5-4.8GHz...a pretty big performance boost over the default clock speed.

 

[nexen]

Well it will only be used if the application uses more than 4 cores. Not many games use more than 4 cores currently, and no game even needs a CPU that's faster than the 2500K at this point in time.

If you're doing heavily threaded tasks like video encoding then you'll see around a 20-30% benefit from the hyper threading.

Main apps are Visual Studio, 3ds Max, Photoshop, and of course games. Wouldn't mind future proofing a little bit but the price difference is enough to make me chew on it.

one last question: do I need to bother with arctic silver and a better cpu fan if I'm not going to overclock? heh, I see your edit about the fan now. But what about the thermal paste?

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Glorious Master Race, a question:

I have a rig in which the following parts are installed:

CPU - C2Q 6600 (G0 stepping) running @ 3.3GHz
RAM - 4GB PC-1066 DDR2 RAM
VGA - 512MB HIS ATi Radeon 4850

I am about to buy 4 more GB of RAM to max out the memory, but I'm thinking I'm gonna upgrade that video card too as it's 3 years old or so now. It seems that the bang-for-the-buck king in that $100 to $150 range is the Geforce GTX460 family...is that true? Would I see meaningful gains/DX11 support with that card, or should I just rock with that 4850 and DX10 until I update the entire rig?

buy a GTX 460, 560 or even a 6870.

 

[Darkman M]

Yes, unless you accept the risks for the added performance you get from the Vertex 3. I own a Vertex 3 240GB...but I don't think the performance differences are very visible in real world usage. As such, I think the Intel is the safer recommendation.

If you're still interested in the Vertex 3, I recommend you do a bit of research, and maybe read the Anandtech review.

The GTX 570 and 6970 are largely equivalent. Get the brand that you're more comfortable with.

Thanks man, leaning towards the intel ssd and gtx 570.

 

[wandering goat]

The $180 1 GB 6950 posted earlier just looked too good, so I had to order it, along with an aftermarket heatsink (Thermalright T-Rad2 with 92mm fans). Should be fast, cheap, and quiet once it all comes together.

 

[TheExodu5]

one last question: do I need to bother with arctic silver and a better cpu fan if I'm not going to overclock? heh, I see your edit about the fan now. But what about the thermal paste?

The Hyper 212+ should come with thermal paste, but if you want to keep some around anyways, the de-facto standard today should be the Arctic MX-4.

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

I'll wager you'll be delightfully surprised.

Here's the Gaf thread which you can follow step by step and also read up on what causes tearing and general info about it.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366413

Dude, this thing did wonders! Not only is there no tearing, but it really did increase my framerate! Should I keep Vsync enabled with the triple buffering or does it matter?

 

[brain_stew]

He's rocking a Q6600 @ 3.3.GHz...that's no slouch. I'd leave the RAM as is, and plop down $150-220 on a video card. Either a GTX 460 1GB (non SE), 6850, or GTX 560.

If he had a dual-core, I'd tell him to wait, but he's running a very nicely overclocked quad-core, so I don't see any issues with bringing the graphics hardware up to par.

Listen to this post. Others are giving very poor advice.

Personally a GTX 560 or 6950 is what Id aim for.

 

[Jeramii]

First of all, check for some combos on your parts or similar ones, you could probably save yourself a little more money.

1) Not sure, but it should. You'll just have to make sure it's set as your default output device in your sound settings.

However, my receiver wouldn't accept sound from my PC over HDMI, even though my TV would. Yet the same receiver DOES accept sound over HDMI for my PS3 and 360. YMMV I guess.

2) The card will work fine on any motherboard. But the card will cover up the second PCIe x16 slot on most motherboards, so you couldn't run two cards in SLI. For the record, there are several boards that could run those in SLI, but if you aren't using two cards it won't matter.

Other than that, I'd say you don't need a wrist strap unless you just want to be extra cautious. As long as you work on a solid (not carpet) floor and wear shoes or work barefoot you should be fine. You can also keep your arms touching the case as you work in it to prevent screwing stuff up with static.

You can get faster, cheaper RAM.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

And maybe a cheaper P67 motherboard, but I don't know if that one has features you want/need.

Also not sure about the case. The 900 is pretty old and you could probably get a comparable or better case cheaper than that (and there is a new version of the 900 for $20 more). I'd probably go with a HAF 922 or CM690 II Advanced in that price range, but it's your call if you prefer the way that one looks.

thanks. i'll take a look at the ram.

another way i found to shave off the $50-60 in shipping is sign up for the thirty day trial of that 2 day shipping yearly fee new egg offers. i'll cancel the subscription after my packages arrive. ^__^

 

[vitaminwateryum]

Alright, going with the feedback I've gotten from this thread this is what I'm at now:

Anyone see anything that needs changing or improvement?

 

[Baller. PhD]

Brothers, I need some guidance on eSATA. My P8P67 Pro has ports on the back for both eSARA and "Power eSATA." Does that mean that the eSATAp port will provide the juice to run a hard drive? If so, where can I get a cable that can do this? Surely the end that plugs into the hard drive can't deliver power through the SATA port. I'm trying to set up my rig inside my entertainment unit and will not have access to the back ports, so I want to run the eSATA cables out and tape them to the back in case I ever need to use them.

Thanks!

 

[Locke562]

So I'm gonna be upgrading this week:

and I'm wondering if my Antec Neopower 650w Blue will be sufficient to power it. If not I'll just get the one I have in my cart above.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371010

 

[nexen]

The Hyper 212+ should come with thermal paste, but if you want to keep some around anyways, the de-facto standard today should be the Arctic MX-4.

Thanks for the help!

 

[SneakyStephan]

I don't play WoW...I play CS 1.6/Source and emulators right now. I don't need to have it be eye-meltingly awesome at 7,000 frames per second with 16x AA (obviously; I still play CS 1.6, lol). I want to play my other games, like TF2, L4D/L4D2, SC2, UT3 and Portal 2 - so I'd like them to be nice and playable at least.

I just want to know that I can play the few games I play at a smooth FPS with decent enough eye candy. If I can do that with the hardware I have, then I'll stick with it. I know my rig isn't bleeding edge, but I'd be shocked to find I couldn't get high frames at medium settings in most games out today with that stuff above.

Every game you listed there (except for sc2) should run maxed with 8x AA at over 100 fps on that rig...
So why would you upgrade at all?

Judging from the 'get an i5 or better' comments you should probably go ask for advice on somewhere like guru3d, because you are getting terrible advice from some people here.

There is no point to upgrading your ram to more than 4GB for games (yet).

Your cpu is fine.

A gtx460 won't be that big an upgrade, it's perhaps 30-40 percent faster than a 4850, and won't max some of the most demanding games either.

Again, for the games you listed (with the exception of sc2 , which ll still run fine if you lower detail settings a little bit) there is no point in upgrading.

If you want to get a meaningful upgrade (that's worth spending money on) you are looking at a gtx560 or a hd 6870 at least.

 

[Diseased Yak]

Listen to this post. Others are giving very poor advice.

Personally a GTX 560 or 6950 is what Id aim for.

Glad I read this and about the Q6600. I'm in the same boat as he is, almost identical system except my Q6600 is at 3.2ghz and I'm rocking a 4890 that I bought in April '09 (I believe). Was thinking of replacing the whole system, but after reading advice here I think I'll just dump a 6970 or some such in it and wait for Ivy Bridge to get here and mature a little before dumping $2000+ into a new rig (which I was very close to doing before seeing this advice)

 

[TheExodu5]

A gtx460 won't be that big an upgrade, it's perhaps 30-40 percent faster than a 4850, and won't max some of the most demanding games either.

GTX 460 1GB is about 85% faster than a 4850.

As for the "bad advice", well, I assumed that he was looking for higher framerates in other games. L4D is sometimes a tad demanding, but otherwise, yes, all the games he listed should not fall anywhere near below 60fps.

 

[·feist·]

Brothers, I need some guidance on eSATA. My P8P67 Pro has ports on the back for both eSARA and "Power eSATA." Does that mean that the eSATAp port will provide the juice to run a hard drive? If so, where can I get a cable that can do this? Surely the end that plugs into the hard drive can't deliver power through the SATA port. I'm trying to set up my rig inside my entertainment unit and will not have access to the back ports, so I want to run the eSATA cables out and tape them to the back in case I ever need to use them.

Thanks!

Yes.
eSATAp is a hybrid of standard eSATA and USB's ability to power devices. As long as the device is a low power eSATA one (like the pic below), or, better yet, has an eSATAp port, you're good.

You can buy an eSATAp cable from Newegg, Amazon, etc.

 

[desertdroog]

Need some advice on what Graphics card to upgrade to. My current set-up was built based off of last year's NeoGaf computer build thread. I am running a factory overclocked MSI GTX260, and while it works fine, games like Crysis 2 (and Crisis 1) still give it a work-out and require less than optimal settings. I am running Win 7 Pro, 6 gigs of RAM, an i7 920 2.66Ghz Nelahim CPU and a 750W modular Corsair Power supply.


New Egg # Part
13-131-358 MB ASUS P6T6 WS REVOLUTION X58 RTL <-Mobo

14-127-361 VGA MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GTX260 RT <- Graphics Card

17-139-006 PSU CORSAIR|CMPSU-750TX 750W RT <- Power supply

19-115-202 CPU INTEL|CORE I7 920 2.66G 45N R <- CPU

20-227-365 MEM 2Gx3|OCZ OCZ3G1600LV6GK R <-6 gb Mem

22-136-284 HD 1T|WD 7K 32M SATA2 WD1001FALS <-HDD

I would like to stay with an NVidia Card. Looking at either an Asus or MSI GTX580, but the $499+ card price has me reconsidering if I need that card with regards to price per performance.

Any Suggestions and advice is welcome. (This current rig is responsible for getting me back into PC gaming after limping an AMD K2 450 mHz, Win2k powered machine from college well past my graduation date.)

 

[Hazaro]

Alright, going with the feedback I've gotten from this thread this is what I'm at now:

http://i.imgur.com/4jdHH.jpg

Anyone see anything that needs changing or improvement?

Looks great to me.

So I'm gonna be upgrading this week:

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k10/Locke562/Upgrade.png

and I'm wondering if my Antec Neopower 650w Blue will be sufficient to power it. If not I'll just get the one I have in my cart above.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371010

Your 650w should be fine.

Need some advice on what Graphics card to upgrade to. My current set-up was built based off of last year's NeoGaf computer build thread. I am running a factory overclocked MSI GTX260, and while it works fine, games like Crysis 2 (and Crisis 1) still give it a work-out and require less than optimal settings. I am running Win 7 Pro, 6 gigs of RAM, an i7 920 2.66Ghz Nelahim CPU and a 750W modular Corsair Power supply.


New Egg # Part
13-131-358 MB ASUS P6T6 WS REVOLUTION X58 RTL

14-127-361 VGA MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GTX260 RT <- Graphics Card

17-139-006 PSU CORSAIR|CMPSU-750TX 750W RT <- Power supply

19-115-202 CPU INTEL|CORE I7 920 2.66G 45N R <- CPU

20-227-365 MEM 2Gx3|OCZ OCZ3G1600LV6GK R <-6 gb Mem

22-136-284 HD 1T|WD 7K 32M SATA2 WD1001FALS <-HDD

I would like to stay with an NVidia Card. Looking at either an Asus or MSI GTX580, but the $499+ card price has me reconsidering if I need that card with regards to price per performance.

Any Suggestions and advice is welcome. (This current rig is responsible for getting me back into PC gaming after limping an AMD K2 450 mHz, Win2k powered machine from college well past my graduation date.)

ASUS 3 slot GTX 570 or MSI Frozr 6970.
Also look into overclocking your i7

 

[desertdroog]

ASUS 3 slot GTX 570 or MSI Frozr 6970.
Also look into overclocking your i7

Overclocking is something I am not versed in, as in know nothing about it, but my system is air cooled with a beastly Zalman fan and heat sink:

35-118-020 CPU COOLER ZALMAN|CNPS 9700 NT R
35-118-045 CPU COOL ZALMAN|ZM-CS4A R

Does overclocking require liquid cooling? I know overclocking requires some study and research to do it correctly, so no need to go into detail here. Just trying to remember best practices from my earlier readings on the subject before I built this rig.

Thanks for the sugestion on the Asus 3 slot GTX 570 (definitely intend to stay NVidia, no offense to ATi fans), I will do some research on that card and see where it takes me.

 

[Hazaro]

Overclocking is something I am not versed in, as in know nothing about it, but my system is air cooled with a beastly Zalman fan and heat sink:

35-118-020 CPU COOLER ZALMAN|CNPS 9700 NT R
35-118-045 CPU COOL ZALMAN|ZM-CS4A R

Does overclocking require liquid cooling? I know overclocking requires some study and research to do it correctly, so no need to go into detail here. Just trying to remember best practices from my earlier readings on the subject before I built this rig.

Thanks for the sugestion on the Asus 3 slot GTX 570 (definitely intend to stay NVidia, no offense to ATi fans), I will do some research on that card and see where it takes me.

45nm was easy. Just set it to 1.3V or 1.35V and let it run. Set FSB to 150-175 and up the multi. You may need to bump the NB voltage up one or two, but it was still pretty simple.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-920-overclocking_11.html

ASUS 570: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121432

 

[Curufinwe]

My PC with a GTX 460 and a old E6420 @ 2.13 GHz somehow managed to trip the circuit breaker for the two bedrooms in my house, and all I was had open was Firefox. And the only other things using electricity were a phone and an alarm clock in the other bedroom, and the ceiling light and a cable box here in the computer room.

I think I have a faulty circuit breaker or faulty wiring; either way, a call to the electrician seems to be in order.

 

[dgenx]

Hey guys its me again,

I have the gt 9600 , and i want to try some overclocking., any good guide out there ? I dont want to fry the freakin thing

 

[Hazaro]

My PC with a GTX 460 and a old E6420 @ 2.13 GHz somehow managed to trip the circuit breaker for the two bedrooms in my house, and all I was had open was Firefox. And the only other things using electricity were a phone and an alarm clock in the other bedroom, and the ceiling light and a cable box here in the computer room.

I think I have a faulty circuit breaker or faulty wiring; either way, a call to the electrician seems to be in order.

Yeah. That setup should draw 200W (250W with monitor) max under that situation.

Hey guys its me again,

I have the gt 9600 , and i want to try some overclocking., any good guide out there ? I dont want to fry the freakin thing

Download MSI Afterburner.
Drag slider 15% to the right. Save. Exit.

 

[CaLe]

I went ahead and purchased a second 6870 to crossfire with my existing one, for my new rig.

Should I at least be able to run games pretty well for a year to a year and a half ?

The rest of my specs for my new rig:

 

[Swag]

OK GAF, I have about $500 dollars to spend and I'm thinking of upgrading my rig a bit for upcoming game purchases ( Crysis 2, Witcher 2 etc.)

Currently using:

i5 750 @ 2.67 stock ( thinkin of overclocking this )
HIS Radeon 4890
4GB Corsair RAM

I'm looking primarily at upgrading the 4890 with a 6970 and upgrading to 8GB Ram, but I'd like you guys advice before I purchase. If possible I would like to save some of the money in order to purchase more software, but it's not a big deal.

 

[Futurevoid]

PC-Gaf , I have a quick question. I'm putting together a new PC and am ready to pull the trigger on the GTX 560-ti. Is it worth going with the 2GB model? I'm pairing the GPU with an Intel i5 2500k (plan to overlock) and 8GB of RAM (RAM is needed for other video applications). Thoughts?

 

[Cday]

OK GAF, I have about $500 dollars to spend and I'm thinking of upgrading my rig a bit for upcoming game purchases ( Crysis 2, Witcher 2 etc.)

Currently using:

i5 750 @ 2.67 stock ( thinkin of overclocking this )
HIS Radeon 4890
4GB Corsair RAM

I'm looking primarily at upgrading the 4890 with a 6970 and upgrading to 8GB Ram, but I'd like you guys advice before I purchase. If possible I would like to save some of the money in order to purchase more software, but it's not a big deal.

8gb gets you no additional gaming performance over 4gb. A 6970 is a fine upgrade, go for it.

 

[Swag]

8gb gets you no additional gaming performance over 4gb. A 6970 is a fine upgrade, go for it.

Would it be worth picking up a SB CPU instead of the 6970? I feel like my non-overclocked i5 is holding me back a bit from a performance stand point

 

[TheExodu5]

Would it be worth picking up a SB CPU instead of the 6970? I feel like my non-overclocked i5 is holding me back a bit from a performance stand point

No. Overclock that 750 to at least 3.6GHz. It won't be holding you back in any way.

 

[SneakyStephan]

GTX 460 1GB is about 85% faster than a 4850 IN CRYSIS

.

Fixed that for ya
I had to double check if my memory wasn't failing me, but the 460 did exceptionally well in crysis, but in almost every other game it's only about 40 percent faster than a 4850.
It also had less of a performance drop at really high resolutions or 4/8x msaa.
Overall it's nowhere near 85 percent faster in normal conditions though.

If he's going to drop money on a new graphics card he might aswell spend an extra 50 dollars and get a 6950 which really is a bit more than twice as fast.

150 dollars for a 40 percent increase or 200 dollars for a 100 percent increase, I know what I would pick.

(or 130 vs 180 dollars if you want to talk about good deals).

The bad advice thing wasn't aimed at you at all btw.
But seeing the ridiculous notion aped over and over that you need (or would even want if it's just for gaming) a Sandy bridge cpu -or that somehow even an i5 isn't good enough for games - is really doing my head in.

No offense to anyone.

 

[Swag]

No. Overclock that 750 to at least 3.6GHz. It won't be holding you back in any way.

Are there any guides that could help me with this? I'm super wary about overclocking because I haven't done it before, I don't want to end up messing up my CPU.

I'm sure every first time OCer has the same worries.