OC current rig or build new one?

[CleanChucks]

My old rig is getting slow and buggy in both the gaming and the multitasking categories, so I'm thinking about getting a new rig within the next month or two. I've also thought about overclocking my current PC, but I'm neither sure of whether the speed increase will be enough, nor do I know how risky it is.

Current specs: (from: Lookin to build a system!)

Asus P5B motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
2GB DDR2-667 Corsair RAM
eVGA 8800GTS 320MB Video Card
Seagate 320GB 7200.10 SATA Hard drive.
LiteOn SATA DVD Burner - Retail
Corsair 520HX Power supply.

(I now also have a zalman cnps9700 cooler with arctic freezing installed. I've had this system since mid-2007 with heavy usage.)

Will overclocking yield a serious risk for the cpu? Lower the lifespan considerably?
Will the change in speed be enough not to need a new PC?

Basically I'm thinking either OC my current rig and keep using it for media, gaming, multitasking, video editing, OR leave it as-is and use it strictly for media, then build a new one for gaming/multitasking/video editing.

The money for a new rig isn't going to gauge me or anything, but obviously I'd prefer a free improvement to an 8/10 PC rather than drop $1800 for a 9/10 rig if you know what I mean. I've been told OCing your cpu can be like buying a new processor entirely, but I'm worried about the risks.

Anyway I was hoping I could get some recommendations for components. My budget is flexible, but I'd prefer somewhere under $2,000. I'm clueless as to current standards and stuff, so I was hoping I could get some suggestions for the best bang for my buck.

Side note: I have a 120gb SSD I can use for my primary drive and a win7 oem cd, but the rest will have to be purchased anew.

Thanks for reading!

[Khalil]

upgrade your memory to 4GB, get a new video card and you will be good to go. I recommend an ATI 5870 if you can afford one, brands recommended are Asus, Diamond and HIS.
Upgrading anything else will make very little to no visible improvement at this time. OCing your CPU is a bad idea, your system is bogged down because you have only 2GB of memory and older slow hard drive.
If you were to move to WD Black hard drives you would see a lot of difference in performance. It is not your CPU or motherboard that are the problem here.

[CleanChucks]

I tacked on 2gb of additional ram but what seemed like compatibility issues kept the system from using it all, and can only use about 2.43gb total. I'll have to go and ask about it on asus' boards since we couldn't come to a solution here last I posted about it.

Regarding the HDs - I forgot to mention it here but the SSD I have is currently installed with windows 7 (as primary) on this rig and the only significant difference I've found is with boot/shutdown times. Everything else is a bit faster, but not by much.

I'll consider the new vid card. I assume the 5870 will be compatible with the rest of my rig?

Thanks for the reply sir!

[CleanChucks]

It doesn't look like freeing up the memory is a possibility:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us

So the only thing left is a new video card right? I suppose I could buy a 5870 and try it on this system (and if performance still isn't great I can use the card for a new system). Problem is I'm not looking for just a gaming upgrade, I'm also looking for an increase in my PC's actual speed and multitasking ability. When I first used my PC I could run several apps at once without any hiccups, but now everything tends to slow down if I use say, a poker client, holdem manager (uses postgres databases), video recording software and maybe teamviewer at the same time.

[Khalil]

Sounds to me like you are ready for a total overhaul.
I say go with either an Intel i5-750 or an AMD Phenom II 965 but if you give us a budget of how much you are willing to spend on a totally new system we will help by giving you recomendations.
Recently I had a customer come back for an upgrade on a system that I built for him with a P5B-Deluxe and an E4700, we had already upgraded his video card from ATI 3870 to 5830 for gaming but he wanted to get more out of his video editing so we upgraded his CPU to the Q9550 and boy did that make a huge difference to the performance. Something about the Q9550 and Q9650's 12MB L2 Cache that makes them such beasts and super performers when it comes to Video/Music Editing and rendering applications. The Q9550 is compatible with your motherboard. I don't know how hard core of a gamer you are but if you are more of a casual gamer, I would go with the ATI 5830, it's performance for the price is outstanding.

[CleanChucks]

Yeah that's what I figured.

It sounds like you're suggesting upgrading my current rig but I'd actually prefer a new rig and a fresh start, and don't mind dropping the extra money. I can use my current rig for low-intensity work and CAN'T have it down for more than a day or so at a time (some failure during installation would be disastrous for me), so building a new one is actually ideal.

Originally Posted by CleanChucks My budget is flexible, but I'd prefer somewhere under $2,000.

The lower the better. But for example if it were: '$1500 for a solid gaming/multitasking PC, but upgrading from vid card A to vid card B for an extra $200 will show a huge performance jump'. I'd definitely take the leap in that case.

I also want this to last as a solid gaming/worhouse rig at least as long as my current rig has (since mid-2007; 2.5 years), and to outperform it relatively speaking. I think my last rig could run the current games of the time (battlefield 2, modern warfare) at nearly maxed out settings - it now struggles with current games on min settings. I believe my last rig put me back 12-1300, but I'm willing to spend more this time around.

[glc]

With a socket 1156 board and an i5-750 or an i7-860 you should be able to keep the price in the low to mid $1000's easily.

[CleanChucks]

What's the difference between say the i7-860 and the q9550 that khalil mentioned? I have no idea what it means, but the q9550 has the aforementioned 12mb l2 cache vs the i7's 8mb cache. I understand it's 775 vs 1156, but both are in almost exactly the same price range - what would be the advantage of one over the other, and using one socket board vs the other overall?

edit: sorry, should have googled first. It looks like one of the main concerns is with sli/crossfire, where i7 shines?

[CleanChucks]

Thoughts on this lineup? Will need help with the ram, I have no idea what I'm looking for there. DDR3, 1333, outside of that I'm lost. Also with the PSU, not sure how much wattage I need.

I picked a crossfire board because I want to keep that open for upgrade in a year or so. It seems a bit pricey, maybe someone can suggest an alternative.

Gigabyte P55A-UD4P mobo

Diamond 5870 [this will run 2x 24" samsungs at 1920x1200 each right?]

i7-860

80gb ssd for primary [for running holdem manager, a postgresql-based app, it's been suggested I use an SSD]

WD black for storage

Case

Finally, OS. I'm thinking about the ram here - I don't know how necessary >4gb is, but I understand to use that much I'll need a 64-bit OS. I've heard application and driver compatibility isn't great with 64-bit...is this going to be a problem? A quick read through this makes it sound like 64-bit will be fine, but I'm not entirely sure.

[glc]

Yes, the mobo is pricey, but if you want true Crossfire, you gotta pay. I'd recommend one of the Asus P7P55D boards instead. Don't forget a power supply and an optical drive. 4 gigs of ram is fine for now, you can put 4 more in later if needed.

I wouldn't worry about Crossfire - by the time a 5870 is getting slow, it's gonna be time for another major upgrade anyway.

[CleanChucks]

Ok cool. So this one look fine?

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=43123

What speed ram am I looking for? This corsair ok?

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=42537

[glc]

That mobo is fine, but note that the second slot only runs at x4, so it's not a true Crossfire board. The ram is more than you need, I wouldn't spend the premium for Dominator. DDR3-1333 is all you need, but DDR3-1600 is quite acceptable.

[CleanChucks]

That's fine. I do want the option of adding a low-level vid card in order to run 3 monitors, but if what you said is true then I might as well not bother with crossfire anyway.

I assume this will be fine then: http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...0&promoid=1097

Lastly - what about the PSU? 550w ok with my setup? http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...acture=Corsair

[glc]

Those should be fine. You will be able to put a low end video card in the second slot and run it independently.

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by CleanChucks What's the difference between say the i7-860 and the q9550 that khalil mentioned?

Hype and Intel marketing and trends, people want "new" and Intel is obliging!
You will not notice or feel any difference in the performance, benchmarks will show the i7s slightly faster in some applications but there is really no advantage justifying the full upgrade.
It is your money though!

[glc]

I beg to differ. The i7-860 runs benchmarks more than 20% higher than the Q9550.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

[CleanChucks]

Doesn't seem to be much of a price difference between the two anyway, so I guess I'll go i7.

So the final lineup:

asus P7P55D mobo
intel i7-860 cpu
diamond 5870 vid card
coolermaster cm 960 II case
Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
WD black caviar 500gb HDD
OCZ 2x2gb 1333 DDR3 ram
Corsair VX550W 550W PSU
Liteon 24x DVD writer
Windows 7 home premium 64-bit

Total comes up short of $1700 before tax and shipping (which is actually free according to ncix's shopping cart!)

Factor in the mail-in rebates and it's closer to $1600.

Not bad

I'll wait until tomorrow to place the order just in case somebody notices something wrong with the lineup.

Thanks again guys, wouldn't be able to do this without your help. I appreciate it!

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by glc I beg to differ. The i7-860 runs benchmarks more than 20% higher than the Q9550. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

As an end user you won't notice much difference, benchmarks are cool however people don't spend their days at the computer benchmarking and to the human senses and productivity current software can barely utilize all the full power of the higher end Core 2 Duos and Core 2 Quads so an i7 will not be visibily faster for a user, that is what I meant.
In a year or so when the AMD bulldozers are out the i7-860 will be in the same spot the Core 2 Quads are in today because Intel will have to make better, marketing simply requires it to keep stocks from falling!
Congrats to the OP on your choice of hardware however I would stay away from OCZ, you are much better off going with Corsair, Kingston, ADATA or Crucial memory.

[glc]

My point is, the i7 is newer technology than the Core 2 Quad and it costs virtually the same, so why not as long as he's building a full rig? Sure, he could UPGRADE his old P5B with a Q9550.

[CleanChucks]

Ordered the list from post #17 yesterday, subbing in some corsair 2x2gb ddr3 1333 memory instead of the OCZ.

Everything should be here early next week, then I'll come back to bug you guys once more!

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by glc My point is, the i7 is newer technology than the Core 2 Quad and it costs virtually the same, so why not as long as he's building a full rig? Sure, he could UPGRADE his old P5B with a Q9550.

You are absolutely right glc!

[CleanChucks]

Hi guys,

So I have everything built and have yet to install the OS or anything past the physical build, but I don't know exactly what I'm doing with regards to the drive configuration.

Refresher: I will be using the 80gb SSD as my primary, and the 500gb HDD as my storage drive. I'm not looking to mirror the drives or whatever, just the primary for apps/critical data, hdd for storage.

I was told in another thread to change my SSD to AHCI during the installation of the OS, but I wasn't shown any options to change that. I guess I have to go into BIOS during the install? Is there a specific point where I should do it?

Thanks again.

[glc]

You do it in the bios PRIOR to the install.

[CleanChucks]

ok well I did it on the first reboot possible without the second drive plugged in (it actually hung at the 'loading windows' screen until I detached the second drive) and everything's working great. Installed and formatted/partitioned the second drive and everything looks like it's working fine.

Loading all my apps and testing out MW2 - 1920x1200 running smooth as can be

Thanks again for the help guys, the rig's a beast!



By the way, the coolermaster 690 II advanced that I bought for my rig is great. It's only about $100, but emulates the obsidian and similar cases pretty well for a lower-end model. Lots of cooling, sliding drive bays, some no-tool entry stuff as well as good cable management, and I'm very happy with it, so I'd recommend it to anyone not looking to spend too much on a case.

[CleanChucks]

Ran into my first problem:

I was running Assassin's Creed 2 and decided to quit, my PC crashed, and I got a bluescreen crash error that was too quick to read/take a photo of.

On reboot, I got a 'system was not shut down properly' error, started windows normally, and it again it crashes and has to reboot. It now gives me an option of starting windows normally (always crashes and reboots), or some type of repair option. Trying that gives me this error:



I would appreciate any help, thanks.

[CleanChucks]

Just rebooted again and startup repair actually worked this time. Got this message once windows booted properly:

Problem signature: Problem Event Name: BlueScreen OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3 Locale ID: 1033 Additional information about the problem: BCCode: 6b BCP1: 0000000000000000 BCP2: 0000000000000000 BCP3: 0000000000000000 BCP4: 0000000000000000 OS Version: 6_1_7600 Service Pack: 0_0 Product: 768_1 Files that help describe the problem: C:\Windows\Minidump\042010-11434-01.dmp C:\Users\Taylor\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-16458-0.sysdata.xml Read our privacy statement online: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?link...8&clcid=0x0409 If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline: C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Is there any info in there that tells us what the actual problem is/was?

Is this truly fixed or should I be looking to do further repairs?

[glc]

You may have a bad memory module. Go to www.memtest.org and download memtest86+ and run it on each module individually.

[CleanChucks]

Ran the test and my PC crashes before it can even finish! It runs to about %45 on the first status bar, then reboots.

When I try to boot my PC normally now, it always gives me the option of running safe mode/normal mode etc, and regardless of what I try, it boots to a black screen with my mouse cursor, which is movable. It doesn't allow me to run task manager, but curiously it does do the sticky keys thing when I press Shift 5 times in a row...

Really would like to get to the root of this problem - it sounds like it's ram-associated, right? Might also be something wrong with my hard drives and/or the actual OS?

[shadowpr]

You will want to download and burn a disk using the bootable iso.

Then boot with the disc and let it test the ram that way.

You don't want to run this from within windows.

[CleanChucks]

I did, the test was run through the CD I burned (and still crash-rebooted my PC).