It is time to upgrade. I need some good advice.

[Arendel]

I Multibox on a single machine using ISBoxer, and what was at the time I had it build a decent computer (back at the end of 2007) Im looking into upgrades, and would like to use as much of my current stuff as it prudent. I have a budget for this upgrade of around 900 dollars.


My current computer is: (Sorry Long)

Gaming Computers, Custom Gaming PC Systems, PC Gaming Rigs : Velocity Raptor™ DCX Custom Gaming Computer System
Base Price: 3995.00 Your Price: 4303.00 Weight: 75 lbs
Case LXe-W Silver- Velocity Micro Signature Case - Pure Aluminum, side window, removable front door, extended depth (+$50.00)
LX Wheel Kit LX Aluminum Wheel Kit (LX case only) - Pure aluminum wheels make your case easy to move, with wheel lock
Power Supply 1200 Watt Velocity Micro® Power Supply - Nvidia® SLI™ Certified (+$155.00)
Case Lights None
Motherboard EVGA nForce 680i SLI, Socket 775, PCI-E, DDR2
Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor Q6600, quad 2.4GHz cores, 8MB L2 Cache (-$295.00)
CPU Cooling Arctic Cooling® Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink, Ultra Quiet Fan, Copper Heat Pipes, plus Arctic Silver™ 5 Thermal Compound
DDR2 Memory 4096MB Corsair Dominator DDR2-800 Twin2X2048-6400 with Dual-path Heat Xchange (4x1024) (+$275.00)
PCX Video 1GB Diamond Radeon HD 2900XT HDMI/HDCP Velocity Micro Performance Edition (850w PSU Recommended) (-$375.00)
Monitor Velocity Micro™ W220 - 22" Monitor (+$369.00)
Audio Creative Labs SoundBlaster® X-Fi™ XtremeAudio
Hard Drive 1 2 x 400GB Hitachi 7200rpm 16MB Cache SATA 300 w/NCQ - RAID 0 (800GB Total)
Hard Drive 2 None
Optical Drive 1 20x Lite On® DVD+/-RW/CD-RW Dual Layer, Black Bezel
Floppy Drive & Media Reader 1.44MB Floppy Drive, Black Bezel
USB 2.0 Ports 8 USB 2.0 Ports, 2 front & 6 rear (2 rear ports may be unavailable in some configurations due to available resources)
Internal Cables Rounded Silver Braided IDE and Floppy Cables
Keyboard Velocity Micro™ Keyboard with Lighted Palm Rest - Black, USB
Mouse Velocity Micro™ Ultimate Laser Mouse with 2400 dpi Resolution, USB

With the following changes: It now has:

- 8 gigs of DDR2 Corsair Dominator RAM.
- 1 XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 Graphics Card.
- Runs 64 Bit Windows 7 Professional.

The ram upgrades made a huge difference about a year ago. The graphics card only modestly more. I am able to play 5 instances of wow with IS Boxer on this machine with graphics set to Fair, with little issues.

I feel the need for more oomph in the system though. I see from watching my monitors that my CPU is being maxed. Would this be why the video card was underwhelming as an upgrade?


Now to what I am thinking of replacing: I am considering the following upgrades: - Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950 for a new processor.

- EVGA 141-GT-E770-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard.


- CORSAIR DOMINATOR 24GB (6 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory with DHX Pro Connector and Airflow II Fan Model CMP24GX3M6A1333C9.


Now for my questions:

- Will my current rig be able to handel those upgrades? I think my power supply is good enough for it, but I am not positive.

- Would I have to add anything else new above and beyond what i have listed above for heat issues? With the case I have and current cooling will I be ok? Will that much ram get much hotter then what I am currently using?

- Are their better parts to put into my rig, at better prices then the ones I listed above. If so please tell me why and which. All the parts with numbers are off of new egg.

- Should I add a SSD at this time, and would it work ok with the board I selected? Is there enough of a performance boost for multiboxing to worry about getting one, over the pair of raptors I already have in my rig?

- Add any other comments or suggestions on my upcoming new build.


Thank you all for your time and consideration. I know all of your time and valuable. Also keep on being the est community any where on the web.

[Peli]

Looks like your current rig is almost identical to mine in terms of components.

That said, the processor and the motherboard (because it only supports 8 GB of RAM) are the limiting factors for both of us.

From there, doing a Mobo, CPU, and RAM update is probably your best bet (and what I would do, too). Your PSU is plenty powerful to handle it and all of your other components should be just fine to use (except if any of them use IDE connectors, since those have been phased out by just about every modern Mobo to allow for more RAM and SATA slots).

I can't really answer about better parts and better prices. Hopefully someone else can handle that. It's been a long time since I've looked at computer hardware.

That said, I think 24 GB may be a little overkill. 12 or 16 GB should be plenty and you can always add more later if you want or need to. I'd save the money that you would spend there and would definitely suggest that you add an SSD. The technology is amazing and they're getting to the point of being cheap enough that they should be a part of just about any serious gaming rig build.

Good luck!

[MiRai]

- Will my current rig be able to handel those upgrades? I think my power supply is good enough for it, but I am not positive.

Yes. A 1200W PSU will handle a hefty overclock on a modern CPU and triple SLI using top end video cards.
I'm going to guess that your current system uses maybe 650W at most.

- Would I have to add anything else new above and beyond what i have listed above for heat issues? With the case I have and current cooling will I be ok? Will that much ram get much hotter then what I am currently using?

No, but I wouldn't recommend buying the equipment you listed (see below). RAM doesn't usually get hot
unless you overclock the shit out of it and/or pump a ton of voltage into it.

- Are their better parts to put into my rig, at better prices then the ones I listed above.

If we're talking price:performance ratio then, yes.

Intel 2600K @ $325 or Intel 2500K @ $230
$200 1155 Motherboard (ASUS, Gigabyte, EVGA)
$150 16GB RAM 1.5V (Corsair, G.Skill, etc.)

If so please tell me why and which.

The 1366 chipset is old news at this point and about to be completely obsolete now that X79 has launched
and Ivy Bridge is coming out later this year.

- Should I add a SSD at this time

As it stands, the answer to that is up to your budget. I will always recommend an SSD (64GB or more) if
you can afford it.

and would it work ok with the board I selected?

If the motherboard you buy has SATAII or SATAIII (preferred) ports it'll work just fine.

Is there enough of a performance boost for multiboxing to worry about getting one, over the pair of raptors I already have in my rig?

Yep.

[Arendel]

Can any one find fault in these selections?

pdate Qtys Remove Selected Move Selected To... My Temporary Wish Lists

	Qty.	Product Description	Savings	Total Price
		CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4X2133C11RItem #: N82E16820233256Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy		$189.99
		EVGA P67 FTW 160-SB-E679-KR LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel MotherboardItem #: N82E16813188082Return Policy: Standard Return PolicyProtect Your Investment (expand for options)	$20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card	$249.99
		Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...Item #: N82E16819115070Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return PolicyProtect Your Investment (expand for options)		$324.99
		OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)Item #: N82E16820227726Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return PolicyProtect Your Investment (expand for options)	-$40.00 Instant $30.00 Mail-in Rebate Card	$199.99$159.99
Subtotal:				$924.96
Calculate ShippingZip Code Update Method FedEx Guaranteed 3 Day -- $29.32UPS Guaranteed 3 Day -- $10.10Newegg 2 Day -- $29.05Newegg Next Day -- $36.06 FREE 2-Day Shipping learn more			Shipping:

And will they work with my above system specs?

Also: Thanks again for the replies and use of your experience.

[MiRai]

2133 is a little overkill for RAM unless you're attempting to break a world record of some sort? Anandtech
shows that memory speed greater than 1600 doesn't always scale so great on the 1155 chipset. This low
profile memory may also prove better if you ever decide to get an aftermarket cooler. If you plan to
overclock the CPU then I can only recommend an aftermarket cooler and it's likely that they will interfere
with the tall heatsinks on the RAM. Not sure if the low profile stuff comes in red, though.

This motherboard might be better unless you're dead set on two x16 PCIe lanes. Technically Z68>P67
but to be honest it shouldn't really matter much. There is also minimal (not noticeable) performance
difference in x8 versus x16 while using PCIe 2.0.

What I'm about to say is an opinion founded on the OCZ/SandForce problems that have been happening
the last few years. Some people have no problems with OCZ drives and others have never-ending problems
with them. I'm not a fan of OCZ (especially the SandForce drives) and I would recommend an Intel 510
(even a 320), Corsair Performance Pro. The Crucial M4, and Samsung 830 are also highly recommended by
many, many people and I would like to try out a Crucial M4 myself. If you drop down to the 1600 RAM I
linked you could invest $80 more into a different (non-OCZ) SSD.

[Peli]

What I'm about to say is an opinion founded on the OCZ/SandForce problems that have been happening
the last few years. Some people have no problems with OCZ drives and others have never-ending problems
with them. I'm not a fan of OCZ (especially the SandForce drives) and I would recommend an Intel 510
(even a 320), Corsair Performance Pro. The Crucial M4, and Samsung 830 are also highly recommended by
many, many people and I would like to try out a Crucial M4 myself. If you drop down to the 1600 RAM I
linked you could invest $80 more into a different (non-OCZ) SSD.

I bought an Intel 320 120GB SSD on a Black Monday deal and have had exactly one problem with it since I installed it in November. That issue was because the SATA cable that came with the drive had poor retention and it ended up having a loose connection one day and wouldn't boot. I swapped the cable with another one that I had lying around and have been gaming happily ever since.

[Arendel]

2133 is a little overkill for RAM unless you're attempting to break a world record of some sort? Anandtech
shows that memory speed greater than 1600 doesn't always scale so great on the 1155 chipset. This low
profile memory may also prove better if you ever decide to get an aftermarket cooler. If you plan to
overclock the CPU then I can only recommend an aftermarket cooler and it's likely that they will interfere
with the tall heatsinks on the RAM. Not sure if the low profile stuff comes in red, though.

This motherboard might be better unless you're dead set on two x16 PCIe lanes. Technically Z68>P67
but to be honest it shouldn't really matter much. There is also minimal (not noticeable) performance
difference in x8 versus x16 while using PCIe 2.0.

What I'm about to say is an opinion founded on the OCZ/SandForce problems that have been happening
the last few years. Some people have no problems with OCZ drives and others have never-ending problems
with them. I'm not a fan of OCZ (especially the SandForce drives) and I would recommend an Intel 510
(even a 320), Corsair Performance Pro. The Crucial M4, and Samsung 830 are also highly recommended by
many, many people and I would like to try out a Crucial M4 myself. If you drop down to the 1600 RAM I
linked you could invest $80 more into a different (non-OCZ) SSD.

This is what I ended up ordering:

• 1 x EVGA P67 FTW 160-SB-E679-KR LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard
  
• 1 x Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
  
• 1 x Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I72600K
  
• 1 x Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
  
• 1 x CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9.

I noticed a discrepancy on the mothersboards' ram stranded. The specs say DDR3 2133+. The ram I ordered is DDR3 1600. Will this be a problem? I was under the impression that you could use slower ram. Can some one please clarify this for me. I still have time to alter the order.

[Bollwerk]

As I mentioned in your other post, the RAM will probably work fine. The board can use any speed from 800 to 2133.

[confusedtx5]

Myself, my brother and my cousin all had problems with OCZ sandforce drives. I had to return mine, brother puts up with his computer bluescreening every day or so, but my cousins got fixed with a firmware update.

I'm running a Corsair Performance Pro in my new machine (built it last weekend) and so far, its been working fine. Scored me my first 7.9 Windows experience index score.

[Arendel]

All of my new parts arrived on 2-16-2012. I put it all together and It is working like a dream. Had a little trouble getting my old raid drives to work for secondary storage, but I figured it out.

The system is exponentially faster then my former build. Thank you all for your help and advice on the hard ware, especially part suggestions. I would like to specially thank MiRai for his advice.

God i love our community on these boards.