O what to do

[George Hallam]

ok i just sold my old graphics card and i have some more money saved and i wanted to buy something fr my PC here are my thougts

- a Q6600 quad core the "95w" model

- 2gb of RAM and vista home premium 64bit and maybe a WD 10,000rpm raptor 36/74GB, but if i dual boot my XP wont work as good on 4GB any solution??

- some peripherals a Logitech DiNovo Edge (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-093-LG&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=2), Logitech MX Revolution (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-082-LG) and a Razer eXactMat (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-003-RA) because at the moment im using a 3 year old keyboard wireless keyboard by pakard bell :rolleyes: and a Logitech MX 1000 mouse and the battery is going :(

- i have thought about a sound card but are they really worth it and how much $$$$$$$$ do i have to spend to notice a difference, i have a sound card from abit that came with the mother board (http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=AW9D-MAX&fMTYPE=LGA775)

any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated

forgive me am young, George :D :D

[Rick]

- 2gb of RAM and vista home premium 64bit and maybe a WD 10,000rpm raptor 36/74GB, but if i dual boot my XP wont work as good on 4GB any solution??

The Extra memory will not affect your XP performance

It will just be ignored by windows

I know I have been doing it for a very long time.
In my last 3 systems in fact

[George Hallam]

o right thanks for that

any other thoughts??

[saphalline]

That's a tough one. All of those are good upgrades.

I'd say your primary concern right now should be your peripherals! Using old consumer-based wireless sets is just like asking to be killed on sight! :p Your mouse & keyboard represent your primary ability to interact with your games. Get those upgraded! Also, look at the Logitech G15 keyboard and G5/G7 laser-based gaming mice. They really are awesome! :cool:

The next upgrade concern should be something performance-based. The Raptor HDD would be nice, but my own system using a SATA 300 16MB cache hard drive turns in more than respectable scores, so the Raptor is not a need item. I rather think the sound card or quad-core CPU would be more likely to make a difference. I've already talked about your CPU upgrade, so I'll leave that one alone. As for the sound card, did you know that regaining 3D audio in Vista is only easily done with an X-Fi sound card and Creative's Alchemy program? The Alchemy program is free to download and use for X-Fi owners, so I'd suggest taking a look at the X-Fi XtremeGamer, especially if you plan on gaming on Vista!

The extra RAM and upgrade to Vista 64-bit go hand-in-hand together. And since there's no real edge to having Vista quite yet (since there's no real reason to play games in DX10 mode yet) these upgrades should be shoved off to an X-mas or B-day gift idea. RAM is cheap enough nowadays to be considered a throw-away gift! :p Less than $100 for adequate gaming RAM? Haha! Vista is much more of an investment, however, and should be handled with care. There's a lot to like about Vista for gaming goodness, but there's a lot to think about in terms of OS usability. My friend Orion and I essentially bought into the Vista madness for gaming alone. There's not a whole lot of other things Vista can do by itself, other than future hardware support in the 64-bit version. In other words, Vista is quite an expensive upgrade for not a whole lot! But since you're a gamer, this is definitely something you'll want to buy. I just don't know if you need to buy it now.

[odannyboy000]

I'd go for the sound card and wait on the quad core. Remember that most games don't take advantage of multiple cores, but will be doing so in the future. If I were you, I'd wait until a game comes out that your current processor can't handle, you'll save a lot of money, or even 8-core processors may be released by then.

[saphalline]

8-core processors*drool* :p

Oh man, have any of you seen the roadmaps to 8-core!? Both Intel and AMD have plans for massive L2 cache designs, reaching into the realm of 12MB!! :eek: Can you imagine the pure power there? :cool:

[George Hallam]

o thanks saph keyboard mouse and mat it is then :D

then like oodannyboy says a sound card

i was looking at getting the these (they cost alot more but i want them to look good :D)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-082-LG&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=3
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-093-LG&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=2

but will they still be as good as gaming as these
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-077-LG&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=2
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-069-LG&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=3

[saphalline]

I'm partial to the G15 keyboard and G5/G7 mice myself (because they were specifically made for gaming), but any upgrade will probably be wonderful to you! :p

[George Hallam]

yep my little packard bell keyboard just doesnt work sometimes :D and i have to go to using a keyboard that came with a windows 95 PC and the keys are all hard so i do the Logitech DiNovo Edge will be good

[George Hallam]

ok i just bought the G15 keyboard and WOW very impressed

[George Hallam]

i have been thinking about mice now :D what is better

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-069-LG&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=3 also you can get this one as a special edition BF 2142 version do anyone no a good place to buy it??

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-023-RA&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=3

forgive me im young :D:D George