Help Upgrading my computer

[Arendel]

I run a computer that uses Windows 7 64 bit Pro. I have 8 gigs of Corsair Dominator Ram DDR2 ram installed. Mother Board is a EVGA nForce 680i SLI, Socket 775, PCE, DDR2. CPU is an Intel Core 2 Quad processor q6600, quad 2.4 GHz cores. 8 mb L2 Cache. I run with dual monitors.

Currently I run five instances of wow on this box with graphics settings bottomed out. I use ISboxer and Jamba as my primary multi-boxing tools.

I'm having issues lately with slower fps and some lag issues. I am hoping it is possible to give my system a significant upgrade with out having to change out every thing. So:


I have a few questions about an up grade for my computer that I run five instances of WoW on it..

1) Do I need a special motherboard to use a SSD
2) Will an SSD give me a boost in speed over a pair of raid zero 7500 raptors that is enough to make it worth getting.
3) What SSD type and brand do you recommend?
4) What is a good video card to add to my machine. Im currently using a Radion 5400 generation card. What card would you the community recommend that would not break the bank.


Thank you all for your time and attention.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

1) No, nothing special, though motherboards with 6GB/s SATA ports will help utilize the SSD's potential.
2) For some things, yes. Probably not enough for you to go "MY...PRECIOUS!"
3) I will only use Intel controllers in my SSD's, so I only use Intel or Kingston drives. Google can tell you which are which.
4) The Radeon 6850 is a good choice for an upgrade if you're on a tight budget. The 6950 if you're willing to spend a bit more.

Honestly, I would probably upgrade the video card first and see what that does for you as there's nothing wrong with the rest of the system. Note that you may need to upgrade your PSU if it doesn't have the power rails to support the newer cards.

Next easiest improvement would be upgrading from the Q6600 to i7-2500/2600k cpu/mb/RAM, but that isn't something you'd be interested in except as a last resort from your comments.

RAID0 raptors will be fine (it's what I ran on my i7-950 system) with a bit of stuttering in Dalaran/Org/etc. for a few seconds until textures load up.

[Arendel]

Thank you for the advice. The psu is a 1200 watt Velocity Micro Power supply.

Do you know how I would determine if my board can use the SSD to is potential? I cant seem to find any thing one way or the other what the gb/s transfer is for it.

[Tehtsuo]

Thank you for the advice. The psu is a 1200 watt Velocity Micro Power supply.

Do you know how I would determine if my board can use the SSD to is potential? I cant seem to find any thing one way or the other what the gb/s transfer is for it.

If this is your board - http://www.evga.com/articles/346.asp - looks like you've got 3gb SATA.

[Arendel]

1) No, nothing special, though motherboards with 6GB/s SATA ports will help utilize the SSD's potential.
2) For some things, yes. Probably not enough for you to go "MY...PRECIOUS!"
3) I will only use Intel controllers in my SSD's, so I only use Intel or Kingston drives. Google can tell you which are which.
4) The Radeon 6850 is a good choice for an upgrade if you're on a tight budget. The 6950 if you're willing to spend a bit more.

Honestly, I would probably upgrade the video card first and see what that does for you as there's nothing wrong with the rest of the system. Note that you may need to upgrade your PSU if it doesn't have the power rails to support the newer cards.

Next easiest improvement would be upgrading from the Q6600 to i7-2500/2600k cpu/mb/RAM, but that isn't something you'd be interested in except as a last resort from your comments.

RAID0 raptors will be fine (it's what I ran on my i7-950 system) with a bit of stuttering in Dalaran/Org/etc. for a few seconds until textures load up.

Any particular Radeon 6950 you would recommend. I wandered over to Newegg to look around and their are a ton for one. I have no idea how to separate the goodies from the baddies as far as brand is concerned..

Again, than you for your input.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

XFX is a good brand.
MSI and Gigabyte are OK.
Asus is OK but looks like they're out of stock.
Avoid Sapphire like the plague.

[Arendel]

Update: My Radeon HD 6950 arrived yesterday. I installed it per instructions, and downloaded the latest drivers. I am however not really noticing much of a performance boost in single window or while boxing.

I play using is boxer, two monitors. One full screen, the second divided into four parts. I tried useing the eyefinity but that just made my desktop distorted to where I could not get the windows quite right. When I try to use directx 11 is boxer will not export the file because it is trying to make my toons go to the C:\Program Files. My wow instal is in C:\Program Files (x86).

I will keep working on this, though any advice on configuring the card properly would be welcome.