At first, I thought the HD5850 was going to be bottlenecked by my Q6600, after some in game testing, this doesn’t seem to be the case at all. I’m able to run Crysis at the max settings at 1920×1200, and have very playable frame rates. I tested a few other games and the result was just awesome. I probably got more than 2x the performance of my older card, the HD4850 which I bought when it came out. I don’t plan on upgrading the motherboard/cpu until the next gen cards arrive, such as the HD6850 or something, I’m sure by that point the Q6600 will just be too slow to keep up so a full system upgrade is in store around that time

If you’re debating about the HD5870 or the HD5850, 10 – 15% more performance just isn’t worth the extra cost in my opinion, just go with the 5850. Right now, it has the best price/performance ratio out there. I didn’t get all into the benchmarks and stuff yet, I might never get to it this time. Usually I always do when I get a new card and go quite insane with overclocking. I guess I’d rather just game than play with the benchmarks

Oh yea, almost forgot.. I’m extremely impressed with Windows 7, it runs great. I’m always on the computer for work or entertainment so having a good setup is pretty important to me. Below is a pic of my current desktop

*Note* Always ground yourself by touching the metal case of the computer or using a grounding wrist band.

First of all you have to remove everything connected to the motherboard. That includes the PCI/PCI-Express/AGP cards, the IDE/Sata cables, case cables, and the power cables. Once that’s done, you must unscrew all the mounting screws used to keep the motherboard in place. They are located in many different areas on the board. Once you’re done, you should be able to gently lift the motherboard out of the case.

(This is how my case looked after I removed the motherboard. )

The next step is to remove the heat sink and fan from the old motherboard. The removal process should be documented if you have a stock heat sink/fan, or if you have an aftermarket cooler you should be able to look it up. The removal process will vary.

Once that’s done, you’ll have to remove the CPU, or processor from the old motherboard. There’s generally a latch by the cpu socket that you have to push down and then up to release the CPU. Place the CPU into the new motherboard and pull the latch down. Some older processors have pins on them so you should be careful. The next thing you’re going to want to do is remove the ram sticks from the old motherboard by pressing down on the release latches. Move them to the new motherboard as well, press them firmly into the memory socket.

(Processor and Ram moved to new location)

The next thing you want to do is wipe off the old thermal paste and create a mirror finish on the top of the processor. Then reapply artic silver, or some other kind of thermal paste.

Next, you will  also want to create a mirror finish on the  heat sink and attach the heat sink to the new motherboard.

With that done, it seems it’s time to move the motherboard over to the case and mount it with the screws taken off the old motherboard. Then, all that needs to be done is to attach all the PCI/PCI-Express/AGP Cards, connect the power, and IDE/Sata cables. Not quite finished yet. There are some little wires hanging off your case you’re probably going to want to connect again to your case, otherwise your power button isn’t going to work Look up the pins for the connector in your motherboard manual. Then, hit the power switch

Next you’ll probably have to reinstall Windows or whatever OS you choose. You can backup your data by using a Linux LiveCD and copying them to a flash drive or another hard drive. You could also try following this guide: Replace Your Motherboard Without Killing Windows

Hopefully this will prove useful to someone out there

I’ve uploaded a video on youtube for you to watch, but I couldn’t get sound to work for some reason, and I didn’t feel like messing with it to get it to work.. (Lazy? maybe ) I also misspelled Molotov in the video.. Oh well, I’m not perfect

You can check it out here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Db7sFzzQ4

While we’re in the spirit of gaming videos, here’s a First Encounter Assault Recon video I made awhile back.. http://vimeo.com/412097

UPDATE: Seems there was some interest on YouTube and elsewhere so here are the files. Download

Of course, these CPU’s will become more prevalent in the coming months, until they’re more mainstream. In a year or more I will most likely have one of these processors, either that or another new processor that came out in between. I go where the performance is, maybe AMD will have something for me. Last time I had them was with the Opteron 165. This brings back memories, because I actually ruined my first Opteron 165 I still have it sitting at my desk at all times, to remind me not to be fruitless with my technology.

Back when the PC was in assembly

Well, I’ll end your curiousity. Under the hood I have:

• Q6600 Processor overclocked to 3.2GHz
• Tuniq Tower CPU Cooler
• 2X1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 (I do NOT recommend this memory go with G. Skill or similar.)
• 250GB Western Digital SATA Hard Drive
• 320GB Seagate SATA Hard Drive
• Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard
• Antec 900 Computer case
• Corsair 520WHX Power Supply
• HD 4850 Video Card
• 19″ Viewsonic 5ms LCD
• 22″ V7 D22W12 5ms LCD
• Klipsch Promedia 2.1 Speakers
• DVD-RW Drive (Paid $200 for it a long time ago, it needs to be upgraded, to a $20 drive.. Yea, it’s that old.
• Wolfclaw gaming keyboard. (I have a regular keyboard I use as well. )
• Diamondback Razer gaming mouse.
• Thunder 8 Gaming mouse pad

That is all I can think of, everything in and relating to my computer should be listed. I hope you enjoy, because most of those components are high quality, and any one of those would be great to include in a build for yourself or others. Check prices and new hardware frequently at places such as extremeoverclocking.com or xtremesystems.org .