Easy Question. (What to upgrade first?)

[kellan123]

<p>Currently running:</p><p>CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (dual core, 3.0 GHz), overclocked to 3.3GHz</p><p>Video - 2 Geforce 7800 GTX cards in SLI</p><p>Memory - 4GB DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300</p><p>Motherboard - ASUS P5N32-SLI</p><p>Power Supply - Antec Neo HE550</p><p>Sound - Soundblaster X-fi</p><p>Storage - (2) 150GB WD 10k Raptor drives in a RAID 0 stripe.</p><p>OS - Vista Ultimate x64 w/ SP1</p><p>I usually play on 'Balanced' in towns or big zones, I'll play 'High Quality' in instances and go down to 'High Performance' on raids. I try to stay around 30fps. There is no budget, really...just looking to upgrade the parts in what order you guys think best..</p><p>Windows Experience Index = 5.7</p><p>CPU first? which CPU?Vid Card first? which one?What second?etc...</p><p>Big 'thank you' in advance and appreciate any advice!</p>

[Ashenor_Teveril]

<p>What you have is not bad, but really to upgrade past where you are i would think you would pretty much want a new build. If you go with a i7 processor you will need a new MB, and will probably want to run ddr3 ram. I would wait until the DX11 cards come out in oct/nov and plan a new build around that with windows 7.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>I would say the graphics card is probably the best thing to upgrade.  Keep in mind that the game does not make significant use of dual GPUs.  You would get more performance out of a faster single GPU solution.  I'm using a GTX280 at the moment and it works very well with the game.  You could even stick with a dual GPU card by getting a 285 or something similar, but keep in mind that the game is running almost entirely off one core.</p><p>Also, some faster RAM wouldn't hurt.  Something you can select custom timings on would be ideal, but anything faster would help.</p><p>EDIT:  Where can I pick up my 5pp?  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" /></p>

[kellan123]

<p>I was thinking the same thing (video card) -- I'm really not excited about rebuilding the entire system as I play 3 accounts with 3 computers in front of me and would rather spread the investment over those comps than just have one running great. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I'm thinking the GTX280 as well, Daniel.  Good to know about the single GPU. I should have noted that I only play EQ2 at the moment so I'm really tailoring the solution towards this game.</p><p>Any advice on what manufacturer of vid card? I'm thinking this bundle right here:</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.234736">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Combo...st=Combo.234736</a></p><p>Daniel, I'll give you 10 if you meet me in Qeynos Harbor tonight, top floor of the Tavern (by the docks). Come alone. No funny stuff. If I even think for one second that Nathan Ironforge is following you, I'm gating out.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>Kade@Kithicor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I was thinking the same thing (video card) -- I'm really not excited about rebuilding the entire system as I play 3 accounts with 3 computers in front of me and would rather spread the investment over those comps than just have one running great. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I'm thinking the GTX280 as well, Daniel.  Good to know about the single GPU. I should have noted that I only play EQ2 at the moment so I'm really tailoring the solution towards this game.</p><p>Any advice on what manufacturer of vid card? I'm thinking this bundle right here:</p><p><a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.234736">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Combo...st=Combo.234736</a></p><p>Daniel, I'll give you 10 if you meet me in Qeynos Harbor tonight, top floor of the Tavern (by the docks). Come alone. No funny stuff. If I even think for one second that Nathan Ironforge is following you, I'm gating out.</p></blockquote><p>Keep in mind that the 275 is a dual gpu model so would produce performance similar to a 270 with our game.  With recent Nvidia cards, the models that end in 5 are the dual gpu version of the ones that end in 0.  If you're only playing Eq2 then you can save a few dollars by sticking with the 270 model.</p>