Mobo: P5N32-E SLI PLUS CPU: Intel C2D E6750 (2.66ghz - looking to maybe OC) Ram: 2gb Corsair XMS2 6400 Hard Drive: Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 250-GB Hard Drive Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320mb Monitor: DELL 1708FP 17" Hello everyone, im looking to upgrade my pc to be able to play "Age of Conan" on max graphics. It runs fine with my current setup, but i havent got all the nice effects turned on, that really make this game look amazing. By the way im not planning on buying any hardware just yet, because of the way the prices seem to have risen lately. I was thinking of maybe a new graphics card? I originally had my eye on the GTX 280. But its a little out of my price range. So then i started to look at the 260. Which should do the job just fine. I know i only have a small monitor, but im looking to upgrade that too in the future to maybe a 20" / 22" Do you think i should upgrade anything else like my CPU or maybe get a couple more gb of ram? Also will i notice a difference in my gaming if i upgrade to Vista 64? to make full use of the 64bit processor? Plus if i install Vista it means that i can upgrade to 8gb of ram in the future. I was thinking of maybe buying an E8400 and overclocking it a little, with the TRU cooler (and 2noctuas) but will i need to upgrade my motherboard to be able to hit like 4ghz? I think my board only has 1333 FSB. Ive had my eye on this ram also, im very tempted to buy it. 4GB TWIN2X - (2x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR2 PC2-8500 (1066) Sorry for all the questions, better to be in one post than many hey
Welcome! An E6750 will do 3-3.3GHz easy with a good board, although I haven't used the P5N32 Plus in a long time to know. Being a 650i SLI northbridge it's unlikely to take a new E8400 - check the Asus website. 1066 memory is a waste on your board - just stick to 800. 4GB will certainly help you run things smoother, as will extra graphics memory - a 320MB just doesn't cut it these days. Most of all though - upgrade that monitor!! Budget that in and get a nice 20-22" at least because you're looking through the neck of a bottle playing your game on a 17". Why have all that horsepower and not experience it in full? A great keyboard, mouse, sound, visual experience is a must. The likelihood is that prices continue to rise as the value of the £ drops and there's general uncertainty everywhere in regards to supply/demand. You'll only be putting off the inevitable.
I would advise getting the video card and overclocking your current cpu. Leave the ram for now, upgrade it later on if you want. I just went from 2gb to 4gb and didn't notice any improvement. Of course all this depends on how much you are willing to spend?
Thank you for your replies Bindibadgi - yes a new monitor is a must, i think ill be happy with a 20" one, it will look massive compared to this sat here, ill upgrade even bigger when the 20" starts to look small So im seriously considering a new motherboard now, because i plan to upgrade most components in my pc over the next year, so might as well start with a really good heart to my new system. Any suggestions on which board to go for? price ranges of about £140-£200? Chris - But for now i think ill go for a new card, and maybe a slight overclock with the cpu, and the TRU cooler, try and hit 3ghz. Btw ive had this rig since last november, and i havent even bothered with the Mobo BIOS, am i supposed to keep upgrading the bios or something? (havent a clue tbh about MB Bios or Video Bios)
If you haven't had any issues then I wouldn't bother updating the bios. When you buy a new cpu (if you do) then you may have to update it. If you want to update over the next year, I would get a motherboard that supports ddr3. Problem there is of course you will need to buy ddr 3 ram. and if you get something that suports the new cpu's, then you will have to buy one becuase the new motherd wont support the old cpu's. Short of it is that if you update the motherboard now with the intent of upgrading it later, its going to cost a lot more than just getting a video card now for your current pc. I would get a new video card, overclock, save some money and then later on get the new motherboard, cpu, ram and you will still have the video card to put in it.
Used to run a P5N32-e sli myself first, then changed to the P5e3 now, it's nice. especially since it overclocks my q6600 better then the p5n32-e sli. one of the things i always recommend is to get a board that OC's decently, oc the cpu and get 4gb of ram before you change those. the P5N32-e sli doesnt have Pci-e 2.0 though, so try to keep an eye (with future card purchases) on that it won't limit the card. when you upgrade with a different board i would suggest to leave the s775 series and go i7 if you can though, untill then atleast the processor should do fine.
i7 is expensive, I'd actually either go for graphics and monitor now, then wait until January to see what AMD does and look then - it's only a month away. He'll already have the DDR2 for AM2+..
what i mainly meant here is that he harware he has (mobo/cpu) will do well for a while, as the mobo can overclock E6750s like mad. and by the time he will need a new one for pci-e2.0 (or whatnot by then) he should dispose of s775 (i expect i7 to be more affordable by then... right? a gtx280 doesnt have very much drawback from pci-e 1.0 i guess)
