Time for me to upgrade my PC?

[King$nake]

Sup everyone. First and foremost, this forum is awesome! You guys helped me build my current PC, and it has been great ever since.

I got a few extra $$$ right now, and would like to upgrade my PC. I want to be cutting edge, but more importantly I want to be able to run the latest games flawlessly - specifically, Flight Simulator X and iRacing - both at 1680x1050 Full Graphic options (AA, etc)

Any help would be great!

Current setup is in Sig! BTW, I have been running 3.2GHZ stable ever since I OC'd over a year and a half ago! Not a single problem

Thanks
Joe

 

[Hefemeister]

How much extra $$$ do you have. That would give us a better idea of what you could get. Most likely you are looking at a video card upgrade. Looks like that board supports cross fire.

 

[King$nake]

If it would make a dramatic difference I would spend up to $500-600

How much extra $$$ do you have. That would give us a better idea of what you could get. Most likely you are looking at a video card upgrade. Looks like that board supports cross fire.

 

[Hampton]

Ha, you're lucky, you can run two ATI cards on that machine. right now ATI has the best bang for the buck and being that it's an ATI board you can take full advantage. someone else who knows more on specs can recomend what is the best ones for that setup.

 

[hikaricloud]

Besides some video card upgrades, I would look at getting 4gb of RAM. This is a good set...a little expensive, but I've heard nothing but good about it.

Newegg.com - G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Also, maybe think about getting a new HD? If not to replace yours, for the extra space.

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) - Internal Hard Drives

 

[Evolv]

He might still be using Win Xp so the full 4Gb of ram will not be recognized. Plus ram and a hard drive won't make a difference in gaming. I say keep your 2Gb G Skill and 320Gb drive and go for a new cpu/mobo/gpu.

This is what I would get if I were in your shoes:
Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TPower I45 LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Total is $547.97 with MIR from the 4870, not including shipping though.

 

[Hefemeister]

^^ Something like that or save up for a bigger better system. Can anyone say i7.

 

[hikaricloud]

^^ Something like that or save up for a bigger better system. Can anyone say i7.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. If you have 500 to 600 bucks to shell out, I would save it for an i7 build. 600 bucks puts you around halfway there.

 

[King$nake]

wow wow -

Thanks for the input guys. I figure I might as well go all out and REALLY upgrade if I am going to do it. I could probably shell out another $500+ if I felt I would REALLY see a dramatic difference in gaming. If I could run Flight Simulator X @ 1650x1080 with max AA and a smooth frame rate, I would think the extra money would be worth it.

On that note, tell me about this i7?

 

[King$nake]

Could I put an i7 920 on my Asus P5B Motherboard?