Matt_w

Hello all :D Im starting to piece together a computer for heavy gaming, and i was hoping you could give me some advice. Atm i have a brand new 150g velociraptor, a diamond 5870 video card and a corsair 1000 watt power supply. I got 4 gigs of corair reaper ram that i plan to reuse from my old computer, but i wanna get a new I7 cpu and a motherboard to match. Problem is, i really havnt been keeping track with new technology over the last year.. so i was wondering if u guys could show me a good combo?

I know that expensive doesnt always equal quality, but price isnt a huge problem here, i dont mind spending 500-600$ (canadian) if needed. (less is always nice tho :D).

Anyone, i use ncix.com since its right near my town, i was wondering if any experienced techies hear could point me towards some nice hardware thaltl be compatibale with what i already have.

Oh! and ps: i have a new windows 7 copy waiting too, if that makes a difference.

Thanks!!

grimx133

What is the old ram that you want to keep? The i7 9xx uses triple channel ddr3, for
that type of cpu you'll probably need new ram. The i7 8xx cpu's use dual channel ddr3.
You won't be able to work with that budget for the 9xx cpu's, they are very expensive,
as are the x58 motherboards. Less, but a bit more of the same with the P55 boards
and the 8xx cpu's. You're looking 300+ for just the cpu alone. The best bet with that
budget would be to go with the i5 750 for a cpu, it's around 230 bucks, and you can get
a decent board for under 200. Not so with the x58. ncix has a decent bundle deal in
the weekly sale, if it isn't sold out, must be though, didn't show in the limited quantity
surprise specials. It was this one here, they had it for 450 or so, now it's $476 after
a 20 buck rebate. Core i5 750, Gigabyte P55-UD3R, and 4GB of G.Skill 1600 Mhz. C7 ddr3.
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...Bundle%20Deals

There's also a decent Asus bundle with
NCIX P55 Bundle Deal Core I5 750 2.66GHZ CPU Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3-1600 ASUS P7P55D Motherboard
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...Bundle%20Deals

To make your budget, you'll need to do something like that. Any of the core i7 setups
will go a lot higher, well, at least a hundred or two higher at a minimum. Skies the
limit though.

What cpu and motherboard are you using now? You do know that going to the i5 or
i7 won't give you a monstrous leap in performance if you have a half decent setup now.

ncix is very good though, I get almost everything there. A few other places too, like
newegg.ca, but mainly ncix.

linderman

the i5 750 is a MUCH smarter move, the i7 is a SERVER platform which brings only overkill to the desktop world.

Its like you buying a 250 tank to bring water to the weekend family picnic.

linderman

I hope you arent using a intel q6600 or better right now; otherwise you are headed for buyers remorse!

Matt_w

Hey lind, im using the E8500 atm. I just dont wanna get bottlenecked after spending so much money on a video card.

Thanks for the advice grim, ill check out those bundles now. Is the difference between I5 and I7 really that minimal?

Phædrus2401

With an E8500 you'll see absolutely no improvement going to i5 or i7, an additional 1-2fps at most. If you're really worried about bottlenecking, your best "bang for the buck" would be to buy an aftermarket CPU heatsink and overclock your CPU up to ~4.0GHz.

Matt_w

Ah, well thats good news i suppose lol. I do have an after market heat sink atm, i forget the name.. something ultra 120? Was expensive lol.

Is overclocking hard? my PC is cooled on air, is that ok?

Phædrus2401

Nah, it isn't too hard at all, though we do need to know the brand and model of your motherboard, and though it isn't necessary the exact model # of the heatsink would be good too. Air cooling is fine, water cooling can let you get a little bit higher but isn't necessary. I'm overclocking my CPU by 43% on high-end air cooling.

Tyree

There is a thread about OC'ing but all Mobo's/Bios are not the same.
if you are new to overclocking / read here for starters
And OC'ing voids warranties.

grimx133

Yah, I run my E8500 with a 1600Mhz. fsb, gives a clock speed of 3804Mhz. It runs
24/7 without any issues at all. Never have any problems with frame rates or lag or
anything. Don't much care what fps I get, everything runs smooth on high settings,
going to a new cpu, motherboard, and ram isn't going to change that. The slight
differences will not be noticable.

It is a very good overclocker, with a TRUE for a heatsink you shouldn't have any
problems hitting 4Ghz. stable. Post your full specs in the OC forum, make sure you
include full model numbers of your components. Ram can be an issue, if you're using
some form of value ram, you'd want to replace that with performance ram.