considering new gaming rig build

[jase874]

hi, just bought ARMA2 and want it to run a little better, what do you reckon?....

a 2nd 9600GT for SLI of course

or memory (ohhh the options!)

i currently have 2x1GB kingston 667MHz with 2 slots spare (4 total, just incase )

however my mobo allows upto 800MHz so i could afford about 6Gig of 800

or

double what i already have plus the gpu

XP 32bit now but probably win7 64bit in near future

[PAINx5]

You will see a better performance in games if you add 2nd 9600gt. I would choose the card. buy the ram now and buy the card later

[jase874]

ok thanks for reply. Is there any benefit at all from 800MHz over 667? if so im willing to spend the extra bit of money its going to cost to replace my current RAM

plus if i stuck with my current 667MHz i would only get 2x2GB sticks to total 6GB

however if i go for the 800MHz i would get 2x2GB with the possibility of 8GB total when money allows

[glc]

Until you get a 64 bit OS, do not install more than 4gb ram.

[jase874]

hi, i have a 32bit xp dx9 computer with 9600GT, AMD X2 6000+ and ddr2 RAM

wanting to upgrade to 64bit win7/dx11 and switch to ATI gpu

would my gpu work on a mobo compatable with my requirements until i could afford a dx11 card?

also i dont understand all these different motherboard chipsets, which is the best for gaming and why? thanks

[pam123]

You need another 2 GB of ram but you don't have to switch the motherboard.
You can't use Crossfire on that board but using a single Radeon card of your choice won't be a problem.

Outside of problems with specific board chipsets, and the fact that some manufacturers are more reliable then others, it's mostly an argument about over clocking and it's left over from the time when getting decent gaming performance was more of a problem then it is now.

Here's the argument well laid out : http://www.maximumpc.com/article/col...e_overclocking

and here's some practical info : http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...lock,2460.html

If you want to over-clock don't buy any board rate "Corporate Stable" , buy a board for "enthusiast" and face the fact that you're likely shortening the lifespan off your parts.

[jase874]

thanks for reply. the arguement on overclocking was very interesting and useful, the second one you sent i think was a little more technical for me.

i was considering learning about overclocking to help my new game, ARMA2, run at its best on my machine, however having read that article i may save myself some money and leave that for my next motherboard/build

i have done some searching and it seems DDR3 is not really worth the cost of a new build over my current DDR2 set-up so i think i'm just going to upgrade from 2x1Gb of 667MHz to 2x2Gb of 800MHz so that when i get win7/64bit i can just buy another pack of 2x2Gb 800MHz

as regards to graphics card i need some more of your expert advise

can you confirm a DX11 card will work on my mobo? and....

having read no reviews yet on the currently available DX11 ATi cards(i simply prefer ATi over NVidia), should i buy whats available or wait for ATi to gain some experience on the technology and release another set of cards?

thanks

[glc]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...card,2521.html

ANY PCI-Ex16 card is compatible with your motherboard. DirectX level has no bearing on it.

[jase874]

thanks, my friend and i are going to wait till a DX11 game comes out that we're interested in for our GPU upgrade

and i wasn't 100% sure on the impact Direct X had on a mobo

in the meantime im going to upgrade my RAM as i said and re-research watercooling my computer

thanks as usual for the much appreciated help, pam123 and glc

[jase874]

hi, this is my 3rd thread on the forum in a week as i am trying to make sure i dont waste the little money i have for my next upgrade/build (ill try keep it short)

basically i bought ARMA2 and want it to look as good as possible without forking out £700 on an i7 and at the same time future proof my comp for at least the next 2 years (of course)

i am waiting to see if ATi comes up with anything between now and a DX11 game been released that i want for my gpu upgrade

in the meantime im reconsidering a new mobo cpu and RAM (latter will be upgraded either way)

i would like one of the best AMD cpu's, something like a phenom 2 quad core 3GHz min (right direction?)

and a mobo to go with it that has...
DDR3,
ATi chipset (so when i get a gpu i have the choice of learning how to overclock),
USB3? (i believe i could just buy a USB3 PCI expansion slot card so built in is not necesarry?)
i only use 1 SATA HD and 1 SATA DVD drive and a creative gaming soundcard so features dnt havto be excessive

ill leave it at that, thanks and i hope i put this in the right forum section

[glc]

I've merged your 3 threads. We prefer that you keep everything in one thread when the subject matter is essentially the same. Thank you.

[jase874]

okay, sorry.

anyone any ideas on cpu and preferably an asus mobo? thanks

[jase874]

BUMP....

ASUS mobo ideas - ATI chipset, AM3, DDR3, USB3(?), SATA3 6Gb/s(?) which models?

CPU - AMD PHENOM2 X4.....

any ideas on which models anyone?

thanks

[glc]

You are going to have to wait for someone else to take a look - I don't give AMD recommendations because I don't build them and don't know what's current.

However, I will reiterate that you don't really need a mobo/cpu upgrade, but you do need a video card upgrade and 4gb of DDR2-800.

[jase874]

ok no problem

through research though it seems ARMA2 is very CPU intensive so i would of thought a quad core would give better performance than my dual core

as for RAM if i were to buy a new mobo i could get one that supports a higher speed which again i would of thought would give more performance than my current 800MHz limitation

i understand it may not be massive performance but if it allows me to turn the graphics up im happy

[jase874]

in the end i decided to buy those 2X2GB kingston 800MHz RAM and ARMA2 seems to be running a bit more smoothly

also going to upgrade from 9600GT to a DX11 ATI card in the near future

thanks for all the input