Hi all, I'm currently making plans to upgrade my rig but I'm on somewhat of a budget, so I'd appreciate some advice as to which way to go here: Upgrading from: -ABIT AN8 -Athlon 64 3500+ (Oc'd to 2530mhz core with Zalman 7700-Cu) -1024mb Crucial PC3200 DDR1 -200gb 8mb cache Maxtor SATA1 HD -230gb 16mb cache Western Digital SATA2 HD (on sata1 mainboard interface) -XFX 7900GT 256mb (Oc'd to 530/715 on stock) + A spare XFX 7900GT waiting to be used in SLI with the one I already have I'm trying to keep things simple and order all my hardware from one site - komplett.ie These are the two upgrade paths I've been considering: A64 X2: -Athlon 64 X2 5600+ -ASUS M2N-32SLI Deluxe -Corsair Twin2x 6400C4 DDR2 (2048mb) -Hiper Type R 530W Modular PSU Total cost: €762 Or: C2D: -Core2Duo E6600 -ASUS P5N32-E SLI -Corsair Twin2x 6400C4 DDR2 (2048mb) -Hiper Type R 530W Modular PSU Total cost: €850 I chose the mainboards listed there because they both provide full 16x/16x bandwidth for SLI on the PCI-E lanes and both seem to offer decent performance for overclocking. I plan to do some overlocking just to get my money's worth out of the chips, but I won't be doing anything extreme and I'll be sticking with air-cooling. I bought the first 7900GT a few months ago as an upgrade from a 6600GT, with the hope of buying another if I felt I needed it, later, as it's all I could afford at the time. I just bought a 2nd 7900GT a few days ago in what can only be described as a foolish impulse-purchase fuelled by the fact that they're not available on komplett any more, having been superseded by the 7950GTs and other models, and it was offered by a friend, brand new and unused for €17 less than what I paid for the first card. Would it be worth my time trying to sell the 7900GTs and go for a single 7950GX2 or somesuch instead? Or would I be better off sticking with the SLI 7900GTs in the new rig? As far as I know, XFX don't have a step-up system for trading in cards for better ones, which is unfortunate.. If I had €850 to spend right now it'd be a no-brainer, given that the C2D rig is faster than the X2 rig, but I'm already stretching myself beyond my means to afford the X2 rig. Could the difference in performance justify stretching myself further still beyond my means and going for the C2D, or should I stick with the A64X2 system? Thanks for any advice, and sorry about the lengthy post.
whichever option that you go for I would look at a better PSU. The PSU is the foundation that everything relies on.
Whoops, there was a typo in the first post, it's supposed to read 530W, not 430W It's corrected now, should have read: Hiper Type R 530W Modular PSU I've seen good reviews of that model and I've always wanted a modular, hence my choice.
it's not exactly a bad psu, but there are many better options. Corsair HX 520 is pretty cheap and is miles ahead.
Since you're planning on overclocking, why not drop down to a 6300? C2D really is the only way to go these days. I'd only do a budget system in AM2 Stick with your 7900s for now. Save up for an 8800 or whatever later. You could also probably get away with lowering the ram spec a bit, though good ram always helps with overclocking. Good choice in motherboard but if I were building now I'd go with the ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus as it is cheaper, or even the P5N-E SLI. The i650 chipset seems to be a good overclocker.
It's also €36 more expensive, though. I don't want to skimp on the PSU, but from what I've seen, the Hiper Type-R models give stable voltages on the rails and enough amps to power an SLI setup anyway. Thanks for the advice, though, I'll bear it in mind if my options change. I'm planning on overclocking, but for the sake of getting more bang for my buck out of a chip, not just for the sake of overclocking. Unless I'm mistaken, an overclocked 6600 is likely to be faster overall than an overclocked 6300, in terms of core clocks, while also having twice the cache memory. (Correct me if I'm wrong - I wouldn't be asking questions here if I were certain about all my choices and I appreciate the advice ) I used sub-par ram in my last build so I'm going to make up for it with better stuff this time around Unfortunately Komplett don't have the P5N32-E SLI Plus nor the P5N-E SLI, only the P5N32-E SLI, and that's a factor for me as I'm trying to keep the buying process as simple as possible. I'd buy the mainboard seperately from another shop if I had to, but I'd rather buy it all together and keep things simple. Thanks for the advice, people, keep it coming!
Even so, I'd recommend going for a Corsair HX, a Seasonic, a PCP&C or even a Tagan over the Hiper. Not always true. If you got an E6600 and an E6300 to the same clocks, with the same memory timings *unlikely*, the E6300 might edge the 66 because it has a much higher bus speed, cache doesn't make that much difference. To be honest I'd just buy them from seperate shops, it's not that much more complex imo, and it's worth getting what you really want for that extra £8 or so for delivery.
Two things. One, buy the E6600 for the 9x multiplier. Basically, if you think your cooling solution can handle a E6600 at 3.5GHz+, go for the E6600. Otherwise, I would go for the E6400/E6300. Two, I'm going against the norm by saying the Hiper PSU is fine. There is no way the Hiper won't be able to handle a rig that that. If it was Core 2 Quad, 8800GTX SLI, fair enough, but with "only" a C2D and 7900GT SLI, it would be a complete waste of money going for the Corsair, unless you were seriously futureproofing.
The Hiper will work perfectly well, and I'm sure it'll give a few years of awesome use, but it won't be as good as the above. The SLi GT's will be pretty fast for now, they're certainly not slow by any means. Stick with them for a while, I'm sure you can cope with them until R600 etc have petered out and the best DX10 solution is obvious.
Thanks for all the advice and responses everyone, you've all been helpful. After reading reviews, benchmarks etc for a few hours I'm leaning towards dragontail's view already.. This upgrade is mainly an interrim upgrade to suit my needs and budget right now, so I'm only intending to semi-futureproof the system (by allowing for a later upgrade to a faster socket-775 cpu or better GPUs later - to avoid being hit with a false economy from buying top-of-the-range kit now and having it superceded quickly) I'm leaning strongly towards the E6600 after seeing the overclocking results on air, so as long as I get lucky and get a good overclocker I'll be happy. It's €25 more expensive than an X2 5600+ but with a disproportionately large increase in performance and energy efficiency/heat-output over the X2. In comparison to the 6300 or 6400, I'd rather have the 4mb cache (even if the performance increase is only marginal, as evidenced in benchmarks) and potential for higher clocks with the option of coming down from a 9x multiplier. I know there's no guarantee that the E6600 will be a good overclocker, and someone with a 6300 might outclock me if I'm unlucky but reports suggest that most of them are good overclockers, and there's just as little guarantee of a 6300 being a good overclocker, to my knowledge. And hey, the Hiper PSU will be a significant upgrade in quality from what I'm on now - An awful ThermalTake Butterfly 480W - 16A on the 12v rails, anyone? (I was worried I wouldn't be able to run a single 7900GT on this thing stably, and I'm fairly sure it's holding back my OC's on the card already) I'm using a Silverstone Temjin-06 case which can be a bit of a pain for cable-routing, so a modular PSU is a priority for me here. My current dilemma is which mainboard to go for.. I'm still considering the Asus P5N32-SLI since it can give me full 16x/16x bandwidth for SLI, rather than 8x/8x and it's on the 680i chipset, but I've read elsewhere that the difference between 16x/16x and 8x/8x is negligible - How true is this? The other problem with it is that it's a little bit on the pricey side at €230, and since I'm splashing out on an E6600 I'd like to bring the price down a bit, but without compromising my chances at a good overclock and a stable board. Yes, I do want to have my cake AND eat it. I've been looking at the MSI P6N SLI - Does anyone here have any experience with that board or know if it'll fit the bill? (Anandtech seem to think so: http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2946 ) (PCstats seem to think so too: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2099&page=5) I really like the sound of that MSI board.. Edit: I was hoping that'd be the case - The idea that my drunken impulse-buy of a 2nd 7900GT was a major mistake terrified me!
To be honest there aren't many cards (or rather, none that you want right now) that can tax 8x lanes, even in SLi. 8800GTX's in SLi doesn't max them out, so I wouldn't worry. The Corsair PSU's I suggested are seriously good for the cash, and modular too, it really is worth getting, as you won't be needing a new PSU anytime soon if you get one. With the Hiper, you might have to upgrade it on your next GPU upgrade, as the new DX10 cards are hungry for power. (180+W TDP). Don't go for an AMD system, even if they're at the same price-point, the C2D's really do leave them behind, and that's before OC'ing. I've not heard much about the vanilla P6N, and to be honest I'd just go for the Asus P5N-E, preferably the plus version, but the ordinary is a great board too.
