Happy Upgrade to me, happy upgrade to me..

ZorbaDaGreek

Its birthday time and i have put together a list of upgrades that i will be probably (100%) be ordering next week. The prices are site dependent, not all will be coming from same location, prices listed are cheapest out there.

Asus Xonar D2X Soundcard E110
Intel X25V SSD E105
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Cooler E25
Sennhauser P350 headphones E100
Win 7 Pro Free

Is there anything comparable and cheaper available for any of the above? Or should I be looking in other departments for upgrades?

Current config

Antec 300
Asus P5Q Pro
Q6700
Vapor X 1GB 4870
Creative X-FI Gamer
500GB WD HD
Windows Vista Ultimate 64
24" Benq Monitor

PS: The reason I am upgarding to Win 7 is the most annoying error code EVER! 0x80072EFE. Have tried every available solution and I am told even a full reinstall is unlikely to clear it. Sorry I am ranting now.

Venom

What's the budget for planned upgrades?

What are you planning on using the PC for?

BTW a full reinstall should fix any errors. What is the error in relation to?

ZorbaDaGreek

No budget as such but am really looking at bang4buck on all upgrades.

Using it for gaming, movies and music.

The error is a windows update error, no security updates since 17/0/09 for anything to do with windows. Seems to be affecting Steam too, DOW2 has been stuck on 80% - 100% update for the last month. Was thinking of trying a new Router, thats something that has been mentioned also.

Effluo

ZorbaDaGreek wrote: »

The error is a windows update error, no security updates since 17/0/09 for anything to do with windows.

Reinstall would solve anything unless it's a hard-ware problem and then windows 7 wouldn't help with the error at all.

Google that error code + the symptoms, you never know you just might get lucky and not have to do a full reinstall!

Otherwise even though W7 is pretty sweet it's not worth it when you have Vista + a pc capable of actually running vista.

Unless you're a complete audiophile then I see no reason why you would bother upgrading the soundcard.

What you want is to get as much longetivity as possible from your gaming pc as possible, what I would do(I have nearly the exact same system) is get a second 4870, overclock the processor and If I had a wee bit more money buy a different case.

The adding of the second gpu would give the best bang for buck in your system, but we need to know the model of your psu to make sure it will be able to handle the second power hungry 4870.

Solitaire

Try setting proxycfg to -d or -u via Command Prompt, checking your firewall settings or disabling your anti-virus while using Microsoft Update and see if any of those get rid of the access error.

Venom

ZorbaDaGreek wrote: »

No budget as such but am really looking at bang4buck on all upgrades.

Using it for gaming, movies and music.

The error is a windows update error, no security updates since 17/0/09 for anything to do with windows. Seems to be affecting Steam too, DOW2 has been stuck on 80% - 100% update for the last month. Was thinking of trying a new Router, thats something that has been mentioned also.

Check your computers date. Mate of mine had an issue similar to what you have described and it was due to security certs being out of date due to his PC's date being set to 2030

massy086

SOUND CARD waste of money

maybe a ram upgrade

maybe the cosair h50 (for a bit of nice over-clocking )

and maybe some nice led fans for your case

Solitaire

massy086 wrote: »

SOUND CARD waste of money

Yet...

maybe the cosair h50 (for a bit of nice over-clocking )

I think anyone coming from a stock cooler would have their heads blown off just by upgrading to a Hyper 212 Plus...

massy086

Solitaire wrote: »

Yet...





I think anyone coming from a stock cooler would have their heads blown off just by upgrading to a Hyper 212 Plus...

still he is looking for an upgrade just me 2cents wort but ye the Cooler Master Hyper 212 is a great price

ZorbaDaGreek

Thanks for the replys.
I think the general concensus is to forget about major upgrades and get the most out of whats already there.

I want to overclock to 3.0Ghz - 3.4.Ghz. The thoughts of using a water based cooler, no matter how safe, goes against everything i have been taught so I will get the Hyper 212 or the Arctic Freezer.

RAM is fine, 4GB Giel Black Pi 4,4,4,12 @1.9v, so no need for anything there.

I was not planning on doing anything Re GPU upgrade until i build an entire new rig. Whats there is fine, trying to get a similar card and having to get a new PSU to accomadate it just seems over the top especially when the advantage will be probably only 10%-15% in FPS.

I need new headphones however and the Sennheiser PC 350 seem to get great recommendations.

Is the Intel X25V SSD a good choice given its 40GB size? I just thought it would be nice to have one for the OS and leave everything else on the HDD.

Thanks for the advice on the Code Error issue, will give those suggestions a go tonight.

Effluo

ZorbaDaGreek wrote: »

when the advantage will be probably only 10%-15% in FPS.

You'd be lookin at at least a 35% and up to 80+% increase in fps(depending on the game) with a second 4870 and it would benefit your system the most out of any possible upgrade.

What psu do you have btw?

ZorbaDaGreek

PSU is a 470W PC Power & Cooling.
Effluo, I will take what you say into consideration but i really had no plans to add another card at all to be honest. It would mean E150 for a new card and another E100 or there abouts for a new PSU. I would rather keep that for something down the line.
Has anybody any thoughts on the SSD or the PC350 headphones?

AlmightyCushion

SSD = Yes. Trust me, using a normal hard drive for you boot drive just becomes annoying once you use an ssd. Don't know about the PC350s but Sennheiser stuff is meant to be great.