Upgrayedd + Johnny Two-Times

[monsterZer0]

double dose.

What I'm really after is a killer motherboard + CPU combo.

I don't want to spend more than $600.00. To achieve the true "double-dose" Upgrayedd I need to buy:

Mainboard
CPU
2 gigs of RAM
Videocard

My power supply is still ok, an Antec 500W, coincidentally enough. Everything else looks ok. Good onboard sound is important to me. I'll be playing Crysis, Call of Duty 4 on this rig, and most importantly, BioShock.

What's your opinion and advice?

[freakitchen]

Over your $600 budget by a little, but I reckon for this combination, it'd be $25 well spent.

Intel E6750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115029

ASUS P5K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131180

Corsair DDR-800 2GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145590

Evga nVidia 8800GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130318

What exact model power supply is that?
Also gotta keep in mind that for this platform, you should really be using SATA hard drives and opticals.

[monsterZer0]

Also gotta keep in mind that for this platform, you should really be using SATA hard drives and opticals.
My hard drives are SATA, the opticals are older, and IDE.

As for the power supply, I've had it a couple of years, but it's at least 500W (probably more) and Antec, bought during these semi-recent times, when the PCI-Express Videocard required its own power hook-up. The case is quite roomy.

What's your opinion on this thing?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186016

[TwoRails]

Not needed, especially on a budget. And, it's something you can add later if you feel the need...

[freakitchen]

If your PSU has the PCI-E connector, then it's ATX2 standard and should be fine.

Regarding the optical drives, IDE support is now being phased out, and the one available IDE controller on newer boards is third party, and has iffy support. By all means try your existing optical drive(s), but you MAY have to replace them if they don't work correctly.

[Katreat]

Freaks list looks good for your need so I wont re-post. With the games you listed as wanting to play you really cant go any lower on parts. You should not need an aftermarket cooler unless your case has air flow issues. Most newer mid towers with a couple of fans should not be over heating with the newer CPUs. I have a freind who used an IDE burner on a P5K with no problems so go for it. If you have a problem a new SATA burner is only about $32 so should not break the bank.

Kat

[Masaki 7-11]

If you can make room for it in your budget now or as an upgrade later on, you should look for a discrete sound card since realtek sound is pretty poor quality and doesn't offer EAX support which is the positional sound you have in most games.

[Katreat]

Originally Posted by Masaki 7-11 If you can make room for it in your budget now or as an upgrade later on, you should look for a discrete sound card since realtek sound is pretty poor quality and doesn't offer EAX support which is the positional sound you have in most games.

I never knew that about EAX. As for quality, I have found the sound on the P5K board to be pretty good, I play it through a decent 5.1 speaker system. Not sure on positional sound, I can definately get the feeling for sound behind to left, right, etc when using the speakers. Now, if you are really an audiophile with a killer set of speakers then I would agree a sound card will make things better. Truth is most of the time I game with head phones just to keep peace in the household so am not expert on sound.

Kat

[Masaki 7-11]

I have computers that use Realtek, ADI (Analog Devices) and Soundblaster Audigy SE, with the latter sounding the best and Realtek sounding the worst when tested with a $50 pair of headphones. Maximum PC also has a few articles regarding Realtek sound and how they are missing EAX support. EAX support requires a lot more processing power from the sound card than having a surround sound enabled DVD. Either way, $30 isn't much for a sound card with an increased sound quality and newer EAX support (Integrated sound usually supports up to EAX 2.0, while most sound cards go from 3.0 to 5.0). For around $50 you can get an even better sound card that has optical outputs.

[monsterZer0]

Well, with Masaki 7-11's blessing, I plan on getting this card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829118105

[Masaki 7-11]

I'm not familiar with the brand, but I heard it works pretty well. If you don't need optical outputs, I would take look at a Sound Blaster card since they come with better EAX support and have drivers for pretty much every type of windows operating system. Here is a link to it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102002
If you do need optical output, the Turtle Beach should work great, so either one will be a big improvement over integrated sound.

[TwoRails]

Turtle Beach cards have been around for a long time. I've always installed Sound Blaster, so I can't comment on TB cards personally, though I've never really heard anything "bad" about them. It will depend on which features you want, as they have a different set of features. The only thing that bothers me about the TB card is that they don't really share important specs like SNR, plus it's sampling rate is less than the SB card.

[monsterZer0]

Well, I would go with this one, but it's got quite a few disgruntled comments, and there seem to be driver issues.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102016

Maybe I'll just bite the bullet, budget up to $700, and buy this card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829271001

[Katreat]

Well, a sound card is about one the the easiest upgrades you can make, so if the budget is tight right now you can start with on-board sound, which is decent on that MoBo, and upgrade in a few months when you have the cash. It is not something you have to have to boot up the system and get it running.

Kat

[Masaki 7-11]

There aren't any driver issues for the Soundblaster sound card so long as you use either XP or Vista, not that great for linux or other operating systems. You will have good sound coming from the card, but in order to increase sound quality in games, you'll have to have it accelerated by the processor rather than the video card which shouldn't be much of a problem since you'll have a fast processor. The reason that most people give out bad reviews for the card is because it doesn't actually use an X-Fi chipset, it uses a slighlty older chipset which is tweaked, but again you will have good sound come from the card, and it will work great with the rest of the parts for your computer.

[monsterZer0]

Intel E6750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115029

ASUS P5K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131180

Corsair DDR-800 2GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145590

Evga nVidia 8800GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130318

I'll wait on the soundcard, I think.