what's the "bottleneck" of my PC?

P

P Masta Flex

Contributor
Veteran X
I'm going to do an all around upgrade again when crysis comes out, not just for that reason but I half assed a few things when I built the PC and I wanted a fucking supermachine. lets say you had this rig and you where going to drop ~1k on it, where would you start.

current rig
c2duo e6600
EVGA nforce 680i SLI mobo
2 gb of Kingston HyperX ddr2 800
EVGA geforce 7950GT 512mb
western digital 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0
logitech z640 5.1 speakers
logitech g11 and mx518 mouse and keyboard
viewsonic 19" widescreen LCD va1913 (max resolution 1440x900) :/
samsung dual layer litescribe DVD burner

I've haven't overclocked anything at all yet, as a matter of fact I've never really messed around much with overclocking but I wouldnt mind trying if it was worth while. Any components I replace could go into my wife's crappy dell (or into building her a new PC outright) or things like the speakers and LCD

things I had in mind
Logitech Z-5500 speakers

8800 series mother card(s) , I dont know if SLI is really worth it

new monitor(s) I would love a three monitor setup but I'm not sure what's really involved in going with 3 as far as the vid card is set up, I heard you cant do multiple monitors with SLI I'm also considering just getting one 22"-24" LCD

more ram, either another 2x1gigs of the same or 2x512mb of the same type to stay dual channel

10k RPM hardrive(s), are they really worth it?

I'm still using on board sound, maybe a xfi card?

I've been very impressed with the e6600 c2d but the quad core chips have dropped of in price a lot, would gains be substantial?
 
I would get another HD (you can get a 320gig 7200 RPM 16MB for ~$70), then get a new video card when Crysis comes out.
 
solid state hard drive, the 10k rpm really isnt worth it unless youve got some kind of RAID array.

an 8800GTX/GTS would be a welcome addition, SLI is a money sink however.

and i think you would really notice a difference with a dedicated sound card.
 
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SLI is buggy and retarded, don't bother. Just get a nice, powerful single card like an 8800GTX or something. I've got a "superclocked" 8800GTS, and I've yet to see a game it can't handle on highest detail.

I'd double your RAM to 4GB. I've got 2GB in my new machine, and I get close to running out at times when I'm playing a few games.

10kRPM hard drives are worth it. Setup a few WD Raptors in a RAID array and you'll boot in 10-15 seconds ;)
 
P Masta Flex said:
things I had in mind
Logitech Z-5500 speakers
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Good idea. I plan on getting these as well. :)

8800 series mother card(s) , I dont know if SLI is really worth it
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Video cards will always be the the biggest bottlneck, assuming you have even halfway decent parts in the rest of your machine. It's been discussed in other threads, but basically the entire 8xxx series isn't worth it (FOR DX10 GAMES). The developers of Crysis have been using dual 8800gtx's during presentations for the game, and they are unable to play the game with 60fps at anything above 1024x768. Wait for the 9xxx series (g90/92) cards to come out.

new monitor(s) I would love a three monitor setup but I'm not sure what's really involved in going with 3 as far as the vid card is set up, I heard you cant do multiple monitors with SLI I'm also considering just getting one 22"-24" LCD
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The bigger your monitor is, the harder it will be for you to play at it's native resolution, especially with games like Crysis. However, if you're bent on getting 3 monitors, get 3 20" models. Dell makes really good S-IPS monitors, so look into the 2007wfp, or even the 2407wfp-hc(24" model). 22" monitors are ALL made with TN panels, which SUCK for image quality and color reproduction (but have awesome refresh rates, if you're into FPS). Either get some 20"'s or a 24" if you care about either of these, as they use S-PVA and S-IPS panels.

more ram, either another 2x1gigs of the same or 2x512mb of the same type to stay dual channel
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Don't get 4gigs unless you plan on using a 64bit operating system.

10k RPM hardrive(s), are they really worth it?
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The logical answer is no. You'll notice MAYBE a 5% increase in "performance", which in games amounts to slightly faster loading times. 10,000rpm drives like Raptors tend to be noisy, pricey and hot, so for me, it's definitely not worth it. If you're obsessed with having the absolute fastest hardware you can, however, go for it.

I'm still using on board sound, maybe a xfi card?
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Believe it or not, most modern motherboards actually have pretty nice onboard sound. However, with those nice speakers you plan on getting, you may want to take a look. Doesn't matter either way, sound won't affect performance, just the experience :)

I've been very impressed with the e6600 c2d but the quad core chips have dropped of in price a lot, would gains be substantial?
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This depends entirely on the game, and whether or not it is programmed to take advantage of multiple cores. Very few games out right now are, but in the future, it will become more important. Keep in mind the intel's new Penryn/Wolfdale cpu is coming out fairly soon, so even if you decide you don't want that, it will drive the the price of the conroe cpu's down even further. If you do end up getting several monitors, having a quad core will be extremely nice for mutlitasking, as you would literally be able to have a game on one screen, and several other apps running on the other screen without any noticeable slowdown whatsoever :)
 
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