OK. Here's my build. what should I upgrade?

Intel E6600 2.4Ghz
3Gb DDR2 800 ram
Gigabyte S-series SLI mobo (not sure of the exact product # atm im at work >.< )
74 gig raptor hdd and WD 7200 250g hdd
2 Evga 8800 GTS 320Mb video cards
onboard sound >,<
cosmos 1000 case
truepower trio 550w power supply
windows xp sp2
acer 22'' monitor 1650x1080 i think. its in that area

Ok.. so I'm a noob what can I say. I play WoW atm and im gonna get flamed cuz my cpu is wayy over spec for that game. but I wanna play some higher end stuff like crysis and gears. I will be upgrading to vista...idk if i should get 32bit or 64bit. I will probably buy a new HDD and dual boot vista just for the dx10 games, cuz xp takes much less resources to run. Im currently only getting 40-50 fps in wow, which is perfectly fine, but that wont cut it in newer games. i will also need to upgrade my ram, get 4gb of the same type...atm i have 2g ocz platinum and 1gb buffalo firestix, which is bad from what i hear. ill get another 2gb ocz platinum...its cheap.

cpu-z reads my processor at 1068mhz fsb... thats not up to par i dont think. also my ram is only reading at 667mhz. im afraid of pumping up the voltage cuz i dont want to break anything.

my ideas:
1) get a gtx280, which hopefully will produce less heat than the combined sli graphics cards. get a new Ps, fix my ram issue, and up the power to my processor.

2)keep my vid cards for now, upgrade my processor.

3)get a new 790i mobo, 4gb of ddr3 ram and a quad processor, keep my vid cards for now, but upgrade in the future.

Any and all ideas and comments are welcome. i really would like some help with this

Go with option one; though I personally would pass on the GTX280. I would get either the 9800GTX or the ATI 4870. Also, there is nothing wrong with your processor. The stock FSB of the E6600 is 1066. There's probably nothing wrong with your RAM either. Higher speed RAM modules with always slow to the slowest speed RAM module installed. Even with the RAM Running at 667MHz (333 base), it's still not holding up your processor (1066/266 base).

-Wolf sends

If I'm not mistaken, Isn't the gtx280 a more powerful card, even though it might not have drivers that can put it to use yet? Im staying away from ati cards for the time being , cuz i have an sli board so if I decide to upgrade to 2 cards i'll be okay. so its basically the gtx280/9800 gtx or 9800gx2. which card will I see the best increase in performance by itself? If i read correct info the 9800gx2 is just 2 8800 cores working together, which would be the exact same thing I have now. will the gtx run better than the two cards that i have already?

Also, can anyone recommend a good PSU that would be able to power 2 of these higher end cards(to future proof myself).
ive heard that pc power and cooling is a good brand...any specific models?

On a side note...are there molex and pci express extenders for power supply cords? i have trouble keeping the inside of my computer neat like the pictures theres wires all over the place...if i took a picture of the inside of my Pc some of you might cry. it looks like the amazon jungle

I agree with wolf, the GTX280 is not worth the cost, especially if you compare the fps per dollar against the GTX260 or 9800GTX. DDR3 really doesn't give you a huge boost in performance unless you are pushing your rig with overclocking, which it doesn't look like you are. personally, I would get a GTX260 (which may require more power) and if you start delving into some OC'ing, look at 800 MHz ram. You still have a decent rig how it stands right now though

the gtx280 is a more powerful card, but it is made from the same architecture of the 9800gtx, just bigger because more stream prosessors are loaded into it. Again, i think a better deal for the increase in power is the GTX260, which is slightly slower than the gtx280 but much cheaper. I've heard rumors that the 9800gx2 will be EOL soon, once the gtx260 comes out, beacuse it is graphically wise on the same level as the gtx280, but power hungry and oh so much hotter. Just my opinions!

Your processor is fine. Your PSU probably needs to be upgraded. I wouldn't touch the GTX260. If you definitely want to stick with nvidia cards I suggest either a single GTX280 or perhaps 2x9800GTX in SLI, assuming your board can handle them.

Ok here's what im leaning towards:

dual 9800 gtx's (unless the gtx 260s are coming soon) and upgrading to 4gb of ram and 64bit vista ultimate. im gona get a 2x2gb kit ,because it'll probably be more efficient and its goddamn cheap now.

any date on those gtx260s ?

and a good Psu recommendation please!


thanks for all the help fellas

by the way im using an arctic cooler freezer pro 7 or whatever the exact phrase is... think i could bump up a little voltage on my processor with it?