Hey Guys, Im looking at upgrading my pc at the moment. I currently have a Asus AN-SLI Deluxe with a AMD X2 4400+ with 2.5GB PC3200 and two 7800GT's in SLI. I havnt upgraded or done anything on it in ageessssss! As you can tell.. Anyway, what im asking is... I want to upgrade! Ive been using windows 7 RC recently and I love it, so hoping to get everything by time of release. I want to play games like world in conflict, company of heroes, crysis, far cry 2 etc. and future proof it a bit! I want to be able to run it at full on 1280x1024 resolution monitor The spec Im looking at is: AMD Phenom II X4 955 (3.2GHz quad core), AMD 790GX motherboard (although I dont know much on this one and im open to new/better boards and also a suitable manufacturer!), 8GB of OCZ Platinum DDR3 (1333MHz), and a Geforce GTX 275 896MB. Looking at about £500-600 on it. Obviously gonna be an AM3 board and socket CPU. I was also thinking of a Zalman flower cooler (or the one of the upright coolers of similar design, as I want my pc to be quiet!) Only thing I heard was is that Phenom II isnt worth it if u dont already have AM2+ board, but I looked at similar Intel i7 and the prices are much higher (even for base level 920). So I personally think the AMD Phenom II X4 would be the best for the money, I dont wanna spend loads. Would it be worth doing this at all? Or should I just get the GTX275 and bump it up to 4GB of ram for £200? If so, which GTX275? I want to keep my PSU, case, hard drives and DVD drives. They should all be ok to keep. Let me know what people think Thanks!
That upgrade sounds pretty good, you'll need to upgrade the whole system to take advantage of the GTX 275.
Have you seen Bit-tech's guide to building a new PC? That page lists their suggestions that comes in right about your price point.
Im looking at spending about £500-600. Is it gonna be worth spending all of this rather than just getting a new card? Cheers guys
Having just looked into it... would it be worth the extra... £100 to get the intel i7 920? As I could get it with a X58 board and overclock to 3.2-3.4GHz on air (so I've heard). Thoughts appreciated!
I'd deffo try to go that route if you could afford it. Will certainly last you longer and give better upgrade options in future. Though the extra cost of memory and motherboards that are compatible may be quite heavy?
extra £100? No... more like £150+, Read the signature btw , if your a gamer, then stick with the Phenom, Using a Phenom II in an AM2+ board is like buying an uzi and modding it into a bubble shooter - you HAVE to get an AM3, AM2+ is DDR2 btw
It works out at £100 more for the i7 processor and appropriate mobo, can get the 920 i7 D0 stepping (good for o/c) for £201 from overclockers.co.uk! Which is £50 more than Phenom II, the mobo is £140 for X58, about £40 more than what I was looking at (agreed, I could go lower with an AM3 mobo though). To be honest, they are both going to be using DDR3 (Intel tri channel though) The 955 comes pretty close in some benchmarking but in others gets blown away by the stock 920, and everyone seems to be getting the 920 up to 3.8GHz+. Overclockers.co.uk are also doing a bundle for £540, i7 920 clocked to 3.8GHz (4.0GHz for £15 more) with the EX58-UD5 Gigabyte board, 6GB DDR Tri Channel and the Noctua NH-U12P. Works out at £695 with GTX275. OK, thats a bit above what I said.... but it always is! And it ends up being a 3.8GHz (above 975 i7) for less than the cost of the 975 processor! And its cheaper to buy the bundle than to buy the parts individually. Hmmm... not sure what to do now! Ive always had AMD, but from seeing reviews and benchmarks the i7 920 is amazing when overclocked! Whats everyone think? And would my 600W seasonic PSU be able to handle it?
Depends. A Corsair for example would do just fine, but a cheap jobbie wouldn't. Which reminds me: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/413 edit: Oops, missed "Seagate". Never heard of Seagate PSUs (they make HDDs), are you sure you don't mean Seasonic or Silverstone? Both of those are good.
Yer, I meant Seasonic... lol. Sorry. I always call them seagate for some reason! Its a decent quality, I believe its the Seasonic S12 600W. Cost me about £100 at the time. That PSU looks pretty cool, Ive got a side window on my Antec case, cant remember what case it is though, P120 or something like that! Nice case though
Are you going to buy a new monitor too? If not, I think a GTX 275 is a bit overkill... Go for the Phenom II + AM3 mobo!
1280x1024 is sooooo low these days, 1680x1050 is kindal ike a standard for the MINIMUM heh So, a new monitor is a definite if you want a powerful GPU, or it is indeed overkill. Any decent mid/low ranged card will do that 1280 res, easily. But...Hold out on the graphics card for a bit, when Win 7 is released, the new graphics for directx 11 will be released. Good going with choosing AMD
A core i7 set up is possible on a budget of £600, if you only need the bare minimum. From www.scan.co.uk as follows: Intel i7 920 D0 - £207.20 Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ - £33.91 (the best rated air cooling for i7) Asus P6T SE - £143.64 (a lower version of the top overclocking boards P6T Deluxe and the new V2) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 6GB - £81.79 XFX GTX 260 XT - £129.95 Total (Inc VAT and Delivery) £607.97 I admit it’s a little over and the GPU is a 260 not a 275, however the overall performance of this set up will out run the Phenom. Plus slight changes can be made: The Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R, still a great overclocking board, costing £5.44 less than the Asus but it lacks 2 dimm lanes, which can hinder future proofing. You could also swap the 6GB of Ram for 3GB saving £33.37, but again with future proofing in mind you will only have to buy it later. Making these changes would bring the total to £569.16, which is within your £500 -£600 budget and of course shopping around can also save some more money. I hope this is a help.
Thanks again everyone for the helpful replys! Yer, I know 1280x1024 is low now! Still seems high to me.. haha. But I want to also be able to connect it up to my HDTV if I wanted (1920x1080). So Maybe the GTX275 is best for this? Ill mostly be using it on the monitor, but want to be able to link to the HDTV and run games at this too. Overall, im not sure. Because I know that the Phenom II, even if it is sightly slower than an overclocked i7 920 will be SO much faster than my old 4400+ setup. So considering its cheaper it may be the better option. As long as its not going to be only slightly faster than mine. On a side note, does anyone know how much real difference its going to make getting the X4 rather than the X3 or even X2? I only use a dual core at the moment, and dont feel like its much faster multitasking. And have people had much luck unlocking the cores on the X2 or X3? I was thinking about waiting until the graphics cards are updated and building in the new year (a long time I know, but would let me save more and the DX11 cards may and hopefully will be out!) Is it worth waiting? Thanks again for all your help, Im sure Ill get a spec sorted eventually
x4 phenom 955 is AMD's best IIRC The X3 720 is best VALUE. Offers STELLAR performance at a very affordable price. Overclockable to 3.7 GHz, and can POTENTIALLY unlock the 4th core. THat's the one i have btw....i did not see a need for the 955....the 720 does extremely well and it's cheap. Personally I've not seen differences in real world performance at that level, unless you're benching. I could care less about benching really. i7 is untouchable though. If you go GTX 275, start looking for 24" LCD monitors. I recommend getting a 'true' 1920x1080 model eg, Benq G2400WD But yes, it's worth waiting for the new graphics cards, i really urge u to not spend so much money on that card right now. It's a great card of course, but you can wait....it's just right around the corner. Let a cheap one keep you till then
i personally never really advise people to wait, because there is always something better around the corner. but with the i5 just RIGHT around the corner, i would hold off for a few weeks. with the 720 and then new 550 (and the ability to get free cores from those) amd is right back in this thing, especially with mid-level performance rigs. since you are budget limited, and if you don't want to wait to see exactly what i5 brings, i would recommend the amd route, and use the saved money for a new monitor. keep in mind however, while i can vouch for the fact that the gtx 275 is definitely not cpu limited even in sli or triple sli mode on the i7, i can't verify that is the case for the am3 socket. it would definitely be cpu limited on your current rig, so i wouldn't bother just buying the card.
Q9550/Q9400 + P45/750i board of your choice + GTX275/HD4890 = win. You save a wee bit of money not getting an X58 board and DDR3. And for the GTX275, try to get the iChill one or the Palit one, for the HD4890, the Toxic/Vapor-X is a must.
Hey everyone, think Im gonna wait until after they release the new Gfx cards so I can see what things are doing. At worst prices will have fallen of GTX series Think Im gonna end up going for the Phenom II as its quite a bit cheaper and looks a pretty decent spec even if it doesnt keep up in some bench marks. Ill look into a monitor, but I love my trusty sony 17" 1280x1024! It is at least LCD, lol. You guys reckon its worth buying vista 64bit now with an upgrade voucher or waiting til windows 7 comes out? Just seems quite expensive still.
