Need some help updating the PC

[MisterTickle]

I need some help picking out a new graphics card and most likley Power Supply for my Computer. I have a 400-500$ budget and am a very active gamer.

I have a... (Data taken from Everest)

Antec Computer Case
Computer Type   ACPI Multiprocessor PC
CPU Type   QuadCore Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2400 MHz (9 x 267)
Motherboard MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition (MS-7246)  (2 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset   Intel Glenwood-DG i975X
DIMM1: Kingston 99U5316-010.A00LF   1 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM  (5-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz)  (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)  (3-3-3-9 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM1: Kingston 99U5316-010.A00LF   1 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM  (5-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz)  (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)  (3-3-3-9 @ 200 MHz)
Video Adapter   ATI Radeon HD 3850  (256 MB)
Audio Adapter   ATI Radeon HDMI @ ATI Radeon HD 38xx - High Definition Audio Controller
Disk Drive   WDC WD2500AAJS-98VWA0  (232 GB, IDE)
Network Adapter   Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection
500w Earthwatt Pwoer Supply

I am so unsure what to get, I have a Viewsonic VA2026W 1680X1050

I play alot of Steam Soruce Games, GTA SA, GTa IV, Battlefield 2. I want to have a graphics card that can run almost all games on high quality with no problems. I have been looking at possibly a GTX 295 but, Would I actually need that power? Maybe a GTX 280, OR 285 or Dual GTX 260's? What do you guys reccomend for my rig and my game style and a good PSU to ugprade to. This has been itching me for 2 months now, I don't want to spend too much on a Graphics Card I don't need but I want to play my games flawlessly and unfortunately with this graphics card I ahve when I get a new custom built computer back in September I am not satisfied with it, It makes the graphics appear blocky from side to side, I cant even max out L4D, I upgraded the Processor earlier this year and its not having its full potential realized with a shit graphics card.

Also would it be a good idea to upgrade my RAM?

THanks guys.

[[ES] RedRum]

Mister Tickle is a good friend of mine so any input you can give him would be appreciated. I directed him to post here since you all know the most out of anyone I know about computers.

[[ES] RandomHero]

Go with a GeForce GTX 280-285.  Anything more is really overkill for what you do and with your budget IMO.  It's probably not neccessary to bump your PSU up, but it can't hurt if you want to.  Go with anything Antec in the 600-800w ballpark.

FYI You can NOT do SLI with your motherboard (i975 Intel Chipset does not support it without an MCP bridge chip).  You should be able to do crossfire thought.  Still a single Nvidia 280 will do you fine.  Though, you could probably get a decent 650w PSU and a 285 for around $500.

Everything else on your machine is maxxed out (unless you start replacing everything) and really does not need updating at all.  As far as RAM is concerned, 2GB is pretty much standard and suggested for 32 bit systems.  Just get as much memory as you can on the graphics card. 

GTX 280 1GB: approx $325-350
GTX 285 1GB: approx $340-380
GTX 295 1GB: approx $490-550

You can put 4GB in it, but you will only end being able to use 3Gb or so of it.  It's because with only 32 bits you can only address 4GB of memory but since other things need to be addressed too, they take chunks right off the top.   General rule with 4GB in a 32bit system is:

4GB - (Gfx Memory) - (Other System Devices memory space) = Application Memory

So for example if you have 1GB of memory on your graphics card, you end up with 3GB left right away.  Then you have other devices like hard drive controllers and some sound cards, some network adapters, etc.  They all eat up little chunks.

[MisterTickle]

Well since I don't want to go too far but I Still want the best I can possibly get I figure I'll go with

The GTX 285 Super Super Clocked Edition - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130447

but I'm debating on power supplies, I'm looking at these 2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA

Will my PC do alright with 650W or would it be a good idea to go for the 700W

[[ES] Mindflayer]

The Antec power supplies are decent. Also look at some of the other brands and buy reputable on sale. I think 650W would be fine but I didn't do the math.

Buy the GTX 285 as it offers better performance for less power consumption.

All told, I would not spend too much money on this upgrade. The Q6600 is going to be your bottleneck and frankly most Source games don't require a lot of horsepower.

[MisterTickle]

What do you think of getting a Ati Raedon 4870 X2 for an extra 20 bucks?

[[ES] RandomHero]

The GTX 285 Super Super Clocked Edition - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130447

Honestly, I tend to shy away from factory overclocked graphics cards.  In my experience they may run hot so in some cases they don't last as long, it's really dependent on how good the cooling is in your case.  The higher clock speed doesn't offer any benefits that I would risk the card for.  That's just my own opinion of course, since I prefer just straight reference cards.

Just as Mindflayer said your CPU is going to be the bottleneck, so it's not worth spending a ton of money and going all out.  But even though it's a bottle neck, it's still more than good enough for Source based games.

[[ES] Mindflayer]

What do you think of getting a Ati Raedon 4870 X2 for an extra 20 bucks?

That's a nice card, but again, calculate investment into this platform.

[MisterTickle]

"investment into this platform."

I'm confused, What exactly do you mean?

Also some people told me it might be a good idea to upgrade my motherboard, is that true? Like get a GTX 275 and get a new motherboard?

[[ES] RandomHero]

"Platform" in this case refers to your base system.  The basics aside from the graphics card.  Basically your CPU, Motherboard, and RAM.  Or to put it another way, it's the generation of your computer.  Your computer is a generation behind the latest, buy about 6-10 months or so I would say.  This isn't a big deal but because it is "older" technology you need to consider how much money is worth investing into it.  This is what Mindflayer is saying.  Personally I would say $500 is worth it, no more.  $700-1000...absolutely NOT.

The way I see it, you have two choices.  You either just upgrade your graphics hardware, or you rebuild the entire thing.  There really is no need to rebuild your PC.  That is much more than is neccessary, and will end up costing you double what you said you're looking to spend. Your system should last you a while yet after upgrading the graphics card.

IMO, anybody that says simply "upgrade the motherboard" shouldn't be taken seriously.  There's no need to replace your motherboard, you would not gain any benefit unless you got a newer generation motherboard.  If you did that, it would only make sense to upgrade your CPU also to gain any benefit (you may actually have to).  You already have a Quad Core, which is just fine for what you described you want to do.  It should last you some time yet.  Besides in the process you would have to get new RAM most likely too, another reason it is not worth it.  Also replacing a motherboard is not a task for novices, there are ALOT of things that can go wrong.  So really at the point of replacing the motherboard, that's almost the same as rebuilding the machine from scratch.

I already discussed the RAM.  To recap, it isn't neccessary to upgrade either IMO.

You CAN get a faster hard drive, but this will NOT affect your gameplay.  It may make games load faster and your computer boot faster, but I'm only talking seconds here.  Who cares if Counterstrike loads in 3 seconds instead of 5?  You can really go crazy in this area too and get multiple disks hook them up into various configurations for speed and/or redundancy.  It's absolutely not worth the investment unless you do hard disk intensive things (for example video capture).  I honestly do not think it's worth it in your case.

Really just stick with updating your graphics card and maybe a power supply.  Other things can be upgraded at any time if you feel you need to do more later.  Be warned a new graphics card is pretty straight forward to install and get working, whereas some of the other upgrades (like motherboards) are not so easy and may require that you upgrade other components in the process as I mentioned.

Ultimately you need to weigh the cost vs the benefits.

[MisterTickle]

Got GTX 285 SC and 700W OCZ power supply, I am happy with it and it does what its supposed to do.

[MisterTickle]

I'm having some problems and could really use some help.

I used to have problems with my old ATI Raedon 3850 where I could move side to side and the graphics would get like blocky and distorted. Now on a even better card its still giving me problems. It doesnt seem to be all games. I do good on COD:WAW but on San Andreas (Frame Limited Removed), Godfather 2 and such I sitll get it and its driving me crazy. I cant figure out what the culprit is, I cant be drivers because i had this problem on another card, i've formatted plenty of times. I run a 1680X1050 display and one strange thing I noticed though was COD: WAW told me it had to "reset my settings automaticly" or somthign and changed my resolution to 1024X1080 or something but now I don't know. I don't think its my monitor, Iv'e had it since late 2007 and its the only comptuer part I can hoenstly say hasnt gave me problems.

I honestly just want to game without these problems, and I switched for this reason. Can any of you tell me what it might be?

Edit: Oh and I OCed my processor ( Just raised FSB) from 2.4 to 2.8 could that be causing any problems because I honestly didnt notice these problems until recently.

Gonna run 3D Mark 06 Professional.

[[ES] Mindflayer]

Absolutely could be your OC of the CPU. Check your temperatures. The degradation is common when you are OCing and pump too much heat.

[[ES] RandomHero]

Absolutely could be your OC of the CPU. Check your temperatures. The degradation is common when you are OCing and pump too much heat.

That is absolutely true.  I mentioned heat and other issues in an earlier post about overclocked graphics cards, the same applies to CPU's.  Honestly someone who does not know alot about computers should not be overclocking anything in their PC, IMO.  Too many things can go wrong since it is a very delicate balance that needs to be found.  Without knowing all of the risks and impacts on your system, there is no way to make an informed decision about overclocking.

Well enough of my ranting.  Another thing to check is your v-sync settings in these games.  I've heard of some people describing the "tearing" effect as a "blocky texture" effect.  This happens especially on older LCD monitors. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_tearing

[MisterTickle]

Reversed the OCing, If it was the OCing i wouldnt o've had problems on my old system. I always monitor my head, IT usually idles at 39 C for my CPU and my graphics card maintains under 70 C so I don't know all I know is I need to find out soon due to EVGA's 30 day warranty, If I needed to RMA the card I need to know ^^

and this isnt an older LCD Monitor, ITs a Viewsonic VA2026W

A guy I met is nearly certain its my RAM I mean it can get to 1.96 GB usage in certain games but one thing I find interesting is I dont have this problem in COD:WAW but almost every other game (It seems to be barley noticable at 30 FPS, If I have frame limtied in San Andreas enabled I don't notice any problems but when I lift it, it goes crazy)