Upgrading My Computer

Another way I'm looking at this is this might be the last year where I can kind of be a bit careless with money and enjoy myself. It might also be the last time I can do a upgrade of this kind.

I've always been waiting for that 'next generation' but no sooner has it come out they then announce the next generation. So I've decided just to go for it instead of waiting for things to settle or slow down.

Each setup that I've built has always been middle range. If my current computer had all high end bits in it I'd be alot more inclined to put another 775 chip in it. I'm going to be ordering the new setup sometime next week hopefully.

[Kenzie]

Hope everything goes ok. I bought an Intel 1155 Sandybridge set up and three days later they announced a recall. Not impressed. Never did swap my board but just used the unaffected sockets.

Originally Posted by Seggons

Each setup that I've built has always been middle range. If my current computer had all high end bits in it I'd be alot more inclined to put another 775 chip in it. I'm going to be ordering the new setup sometime next week hopefully.

Yeah well my current rig comprises of.

Asus striker extreme 2
Quad core 2.4 running at about 3.2
4 gig of 1800 mhz ram
2 ssds in raid zero for win 7 64 and most used apps
@ spinpoint 160s in raid zero for scratch disk (mainly audio work) I also install all my games on here for speed.
1 TB datadisc for miscellaneous crap.
Geforce GTX 280
Dell 27" monitor
2 19" ilyama monitors at either side of the dell

All of this is housed in a custom coolermaster case with a custom water loop cooling it all down. It runs incredibly well and I have real need to upgrade, but I will put in a 3gig quad soon and some faster ram to get a few more years out of it. Mainly because the FSB on the newer quads is 1333 mine is only 1066. This means when i OC the new chip i'll get even more bang for me buck.

I think that will keep me close to a top I7 level of performance so can't see the need to build one. I will however probably get a new system on the go when they announce their new major chip family which I believe will have loads and loads of cores...

Originally Posted by Kenzie

Hope everything goes ok. I bought an Intel 1155 Sandybridge set up and three days later they announced a recall. Not impressed. Never did swap my board but just used the unaffected sockets.

I have seen that there have been some issues going about. I know that the Asus board I'm getting was first fitted with a dodgy chip and they had to recall them all. But now they are on the B3 revision everything seems to be ok.

When things get released to the public there is always problems. It all depends on how quick the programmers can code to get these issues fixed.

Jackie: If I had a system like that I don't think I would be worried about upgrading. It does seem like a very nice setup you have there. Your 2 cores up on mine, have a better motherboard then me and I'm running on 3 Hard Drives that are all 90% full.

[Kenzie]

Yeah, it was to do with the 3gbps sata ports, but I run my stuff on the 6gbps ports which aren't affected. Couldn't be bothered to strip the rig down for recall, but only 5% of boards were faulty anyway. I had already sent the board back as duff which they swapped.

This is something I'm a bit confused about. I take it that 6Gbps ports are a new or recent thing. Does this mean I can plug my hard drive into the 6Gbps port and it will run quicker? Or does the actual device have to be built to run on the 6Gbps port?

Also is the new USB 3.0 connections different to USB 2.0? My case has 2 USB 2.0 ports on the front, can I plug the lead into the USB 3.0 socket on the motherboard and turn them into USB 3.0 ports?

Originally Posted by Seggons

This is something I'm a bit confused about. I take it that 6Gbps ports are a new or recent thing. Does this mean I can plug my hard drive into the 6Gbps port and it will run quicker? Or does the actual device have to be built to run on the 6Gbps port?

Unless you have an ultrafast SSD like the OCZ Vertex 3 which can benefit from the extra bandwidth, SATA3 will have no effect on your existing drives. SATA 2 can deliver up to 300MB/s per drive.

Originally Posted by Seggons

Also is the new USB 3.0 connections different to USB 2.0? My case has 2 USB 2.0 ports on the front, can I plug the lead into the USB 3.0 socket on the motherboard and turn them into USB 3.0 ports?

No. They will only work as USB2 ports. USB3 connector has extra contacts.

Have you considered overclocking? I have i5 760 quad core with each core running at 4 ghz they will run faster but I want the reliability.

Spend your money on raid drives

You wont max out sata 2!

[Kenzie]

Originally Posted by Seggons

This is something I'm a bit confused about. I take it that 6Gbps ports are a new or recent thing. Does this mean I can plug my hard drive into the 6Gbps port and it will run quicker? Or does the actual device have to be built to run on the 6Gbps port?

Also is the new USB 3.0 connections different to USB 2.0? My case has 2 USB 2.0 ports on the front, can I plug the lead into the USB 3.0 socket on the motherboard and turn them into USB 3.0 ports?

The 6gbps is fairly new but the drive has to be compatible. A usb2 will fit in a usb3 port but won't benefit from the extra spped as usb3 has extra pins. You would need a usb3 device.

Thanks for clearing that up Maxinc and Kenzie.

Rodders: The only overclocking I've done is to mess about in Asus'es software but not actually know what I was doing. One thing I did learn that by clicking the wrong things it made the temperature shoot up with the stock cooler followed by the computer acting very strange. At that point I thought it best to leave alone.

So I'd rather just buy a quick CPU to start with. I'm still a bit undecided weather to go for the i7 2600 or the 2600k. I'd prefer not to spend the extra money but from what I read the 2600 has limited overclocking on it. Decisions decisions.