Mobo CPU and Mem upgrade Advice please

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killkom

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Hi Guys

My current Mobo looks like it dying the Bios keep loosing its config and setting the Overclocking setting to random values which is not a good place to be as far as stability is concirned

I current have a Biostar Mobo with a Q6600 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo with 4 Gigs RAM.

I am looking at the Intel I5 760 Quad core with a Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3L full ATX Mobo and the Transcend® aXeRam™ DDR3-2000 4GB Gaming RAM Kit - Matched Pair Of 2x 2GB Modules - Aluminum Heat Spreader

I will be using this with a Nvidia 8800 GTS 320meg will have to look at upgrading this later.

My Question is I play mostly WOW and COD Black ops type of games will this I5 760 be good enough for this I mean I have heard so much stuff about dual core vs quad core but its all from a few months ago is this still an issue?

Does anyone know of a good place to buy this stuff for a good price. The Mobo is quite expensive so any suggestions on alternatives would be cool
 
i5 750 will be perfect. I would swap out the RAM for G.Skill or Corsair though. G.Skill is cheaper though and still somehow better, so thats first prize.
Now what are you looking for in a mobo? This will probably suit your needs just fine. Whats your overall budget? Do you have anything else (sound card, etc) that needs a slot?
 
gabba69er said:
Upgrade your GFX. That is what is slowing you down.
Click to expand...

I disagree here my current cpu is letting me down at the moment. I have the g15 Keyboard I set the LED display to show my CPU usage while I am playing COD Black ops and it is running at 100% and as soon as it stays a 100% for more than a few seconds it starts to scip and jump

Yes my GFX card is old but I think it can still be good until I have more money to upgrade it anyway the reson I am doing this is to fix the issue with my mobo
 
Archer said:
i5 750 will be perfect. I would swap out the RAM for G.Skill or Corsair though. G.Skill is cheaper though and still somehow better, so thats first prize.
Now what are you looking for in a mobo? This will probably suit your needs just fine. Whats your overall budget? Do you have anything else (sound card, etc) that needs a slot?
Click to expand...

Thanks for this I stuggle to find the i5 750 now it looks like its been replaced with the i5 760. I Prophacy the best play to buy this stuff?
 
killkom said:
Thanks for this I stuggle to find the i5 750 now it looks like its been replaced with the i5 760. I Prophacy the best play to buy this stuff?
Click to expand...

You can take your pick between prophecy, wootware, take2.. and several others. Those three are the main ones I use. And yes, the 750 has been replaced by the 760.
 
killkom said:
Hi Guys

My current Mobo looks like it dying the Bios keep loosing its config and setting the Overclocking setting to random values which is not a good place to be as far as stability is concirned

I current have a Biostar Mobo with a Q6600 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo with 4 Gigs RAM.

I am looking at the Intel I5 760 Quad core with a Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3L full ATX Mobo and the Transcend® aXeRam™ DDR3-2000 4GB Gaming RAM Kit - Matched Pair Of 2x 2GB Modules - Aluminum Heat Spreader

I will be using this with a Nvidia 8800 GTS 320meg will have to look at upgrading this later.

My Question is I play mostly WOW and COD Black ops type of games will this I5 760 be good enough for this I mean I have heard so much stuff about dual core vs quad core but its all from a few months ago is this still an issue?

Does anyone know of a good place to buy this stuff for a good price. The Mobo is quite expensive so any suggestions on alternatives would be cool
Click to expand...

What you need to do is keep the Q6600, buy a decent new or second hand 775 mobo and overclock it to 3.0 - 3.4, 4gb ram if you don't already, and then buy a GTX 460 1gb or 6850/6870.
You'll see little to zero difference with your old VGA..
 
killkom said:
Hi Guys

My current Mobo looks like it dying the Bios keep loosing its config and setting the Overclocking setting to random values which is not a good place to be as far as stability is concirned

I current have a Biostar Mobo with a Q6600 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo with 4 Gigs RAM.

I am looking at the Intel I5 760 Quad core with a Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3L full ATX Mobo and the Transcend® aXeRam™ DDR3-2000 4GB Gaming RAM Kit - Matched Pair Of 2x 2GB Modules - Aluminum Heat Spreader

I will be using this with a Nvidia 8800 GTS 320meg will have to look at upgrading this later.

My Question is I play mostly WOW and COD Black ops type of games will this I5 760 be good enough for this I mean I have heard so much stuff about dual core vs quad core but its all from a few months ago is this still an issue?

Does anyone know of a good place to buy this stuff for a good price. The Mobo is quite expensive so any suggestions on alternatives would be cool
Click to expand...

For the time being, try replacing your little battery on the mobo, bios settings may be random when the battery is in-between good and flat. Check this.
 
That q6600 is fine for gaming you are wasting money upgrading it over a new graphics card.

COD BO has some serious issues so i would not take what it reports too seriously.
 
FrancTheTank said:
For the time being, try replacing your little battery on the mobo, bios settings may be random when the battery is in-between good and flat. Check this.
Click to expand...

This is probably what's causing the errors.

Someone has definitely been bull****ting you about CPU's. The Q6600 is a Core 2 Quad, not Duo. Also, its more than capable of playing any of the latest games, I have an "old" Core 2 Duo E6700 and I play everything on max settings at 1920x1200 with 4 or sometimes 8X FSAA on, perfectly smooth. The big difference is in the graphics card. If you want better performance, get a faster graphics card, only then consider memory, then the CPU. The only time the CPU will hold you back is if it's really,really old, or if you have like 3 or 4 Radeon HD5970's or something huge and you want to go for some crazy 3Dmark scores or something.

Edit: The fact that it's showing 100% just means there are no cycles where the CPU is laying idle. This is normal with games. It by no means implies that the CPU is causing a bottleneck.
 
Last edited:
When the BIOS is losing its configuration, then it's likely to be the 3.3V battery that's drained.

The GA-P55-USB3L isn't expensive at all: http://www.comx-computers.co.za/GA-...ipset-Information-Price-Buy-Cheap-p-36214.php @ R1240

The i5 760 is an awesome gaming CPU for its price.

You might want to get a motherboard with USB3 + SATA3 (6Gbps) support, but it's not a necessity either.
eg Asus P7P55D-E LX @ R1426 (incl USB3 + SATA3), or
Asus P7H55-M/USB3 @ R1215.13 (incl USB3), or
Asus P7H55-M @ R927.91 (no USB3/SATA3)

There is no reason to go for DDR3 2000MHz, unless you're going to go really big with the overclocking DDR3 1333MHz should suffice.
You can get 2x 2GB DDR3 1333MHz for under R700.

As for your Q6600, only Penquin & you are convinced that it's not enough for BC2 - which could probably be the case at stock speeds. Overclocking it to 3GHz or 3.4GHz, should alleviate that problem.
I'm also with TJ99 on this one, that simply getting a better graphics card would increase your framerates considerably.
 
Last edited:
Thanks guys for all the advice

I am actually starting to doubt my original assesment here

It would be cheaper to just buy a new mobo and get a new GFX card. I am just surprised that my old CPU is still good enough.

I was looking at the Leadtek® nVidia® GeForce GTX460 - 1024MB GDDR5, 256-Bit Memory Bus, PCI Express 2.0, 2x DVI, 1x Mini HDMI, HDCP Compliant

this is the OC addition or do you guys have any other suggestions?
 
Just another quick question can you put a Micro ATX mobo in a full ATX case?
 
killkom said:
Just another quick question can you put a Micro ATX mobo in a full ATX case?
Click to expand...

Yes. And no need for the OC version of the 460, just OC it yourself. Also have a look at the chrats in my sig, there are a couple of alternative at the GTX460 price point.
 
killkom said:
Thanks guys for all the advice

I am actually starting to doubt my original assesment here

It would be cheaper to just buy a new mobo and get a new GFX card. I am just surprised that my old CPU is still good enough.

I was looking at the Leadtek® nVidia® GeForce GTX460 - 1024MB GDDR5, 256-Bit Memory Bus, PCI Express 2.0, 2x DVI, 1x Mini HDMI, HDCP Compliant

this is the OC addition or do you guys have any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

killkom said:
Just another quick question can you put a Micro ATX mobo in a full ATX case?
Click to expand...

uATX is perfectly fine in a full case.

I applaud your decision! :)

My 2c:
Decent uATX board with FSB and vcore options.
CM Hyper TX3 (if you haven't got a decent cooler)
Cheapest reference design 460 1GB you can find (quiet and OC's well, 800 core no prob, don't worry too much about the memory..)
 
Last edited:
Ok Here are my calculations

If I upgrade to a i5
ASUS P7H55-M/USB3 LGA1156 Dual-Channel DDR3 1 1215.13 1215.13
Intel i5-760 Quad Core 2.8GHz LGA1156 8MB Cache CPU 1 1739.3 1739.3
Corsair VS2GB1333D3 VALUESELECT 2GB DDR3-1333 1.6v CL9 2 359.59 719.18
Total 3673.61

If I change my current mobo keep my e6600 cpu and upgrade the GFX card
Asus P5KPL-AM SE G31 LGA775 Dual-Channel DDR2 PCI-E 2.0 1 420.83
Club3D CGNX-X46024O GeForce GTX460 1GB OC GDDR5 256-bit PCI-E 2.0 1 2288.55
Total 2709.38

Thats a R964 saving if I keep my current CPU

Its actually funny that the more expensive option will actually give me less of an improvement than the cheaper option

Does any one have any objections to the kit that I picked or any suggestions on alternatives
 
I definatly have a core 2 duo I got the model number wrong initially its the e6600 not the q6600. the e6600 is the dual core
 
killkom said:
Ok Here are my calculations

If I upgrade to a i5
ASUS P7H55-M/USB3 LGA1156 Dual-Channel DDR3 1 1215.13 1215.13
Intel i5-760 Quad Core 2.8GHz LGA1156 8MB Cache CPU 1 1739.3 1739.3
Corsair VS2GB1333D3 VALUESELECT 2GB DDR3-1333 1.6v CL9 2 359.59 719.18
Total 3673.61

If I change my current mobo keep my e6600 cpu and upgrade the GFX card
Asus P5KPL-AM SE G31 LGA775 Dual-Channel DDR2 PCI-E 2.0 1 420.83
Club3D CGNX-X46024O GeForce GTX460 1GB OC GDDR5 256-bit PCI-E 2.0 1 2288.55
Total 2709.38

Thats a R964 saving if I keep my current CPU

Its actually funny that the more expensive option will actually give me less of an improvement than the cheaper option

Does any one have any objections to the kit that I picked or any suggestions on alternatives
Click to expand...

http://www.prophecy.co.za/inno3d-nvidia-geforce-gddr5-256bit-pcie-p-82915.html R2067.85
http://www.prophecy.co.za/evga-01gp31370er-ddr5-256bit-pcie-p-86190.html R2075.37
Make sure to enquire whether they are the reference design versions as is represented in the pics.

It's literally child's play to OC these cards.
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure if it's worth it to buy a new socket 775 motherboard, but getting a decent one 2nd-hand might be.
 
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