<<<=====LOWEST PRICE IN THE UK - MSI ATI HD 5850 Twin FrozR Graphics Card ONLY £124.99 Delivered!!==

[J.D]

J.D are you going to look into getting a 2nd hand Q6600 or something? With your current CPU you might not see much improvement with the 5850 over your current 4870...

Hi Marine.

I'm either going to get the i5 760 or the i3 530.

I ordered 4gb of DDR3 with the 5850 so that's on it's way. The reason I never ordered everything was my friend let me down with £300 he was due me so with what I had, I ordered the 5850 and DDR3 on Tuesday. He's giving me the money tonight so I'll be ordering the new CPU and motherboard either tonight, tomorrow or Sunday. I'm not too fussed about when I order it as I'll not get it any quicker over the next few days.

One part I'm stuck with is what CPU to get. I encode rarely, I don't use any video editing software. I mainly game and read on my PC so I'm not sure if the i5 will blow my mind out of the water compared to a similar clocked i3 (I'm going to clock the nuts of either CPU ).

So as I will be ordering in the next few days. What would you suggest?.

 

[Marine-RX179]

So as I will be ordering in the next few days. What would you suggest?.

I would suggest you wait for Sandybridge and see how it perform and priced comparing to i5 760, since it will launch at early January. But if you don't want to wait, I would suggest you get the i5 760 over the i3 530, as while a highly overclocked i3 530 SHOULD in theory be fast enough for most games, from time to time there could be some console which ported in such a way which actually perform better with 3-4 cores, and fast dual-core is not enough (i.e. Black OPs) because it's not being used well. I know poor porting sucks, but there's not much we can do about it...so going i7 760 would be best of both worlds, as arcitecture wise it is faster than i3 530, and it has two more cores.

 

[Gibbo]

Does anyone do PC insurance I'm not risking putting this card anywhere near my extravalue Colorsit PSU without some form of cover.

Guess I'll have to do some matched betting over the next week to pay for a decent one.

That sounds like a horrible cheap nasty PSU. I'd definetely not recommend running this type of card from a cheap nasty PSU.

 

[vail3r]

What PSU should I be looking at for running 2 of these and an i7?

550w be enough?

 

[danceforfreedom]

Does anyone do PC insurance I'm not risking putting this card anywhere near my extravalue Colorsit PSU without some form of cover.

Guess I'll have to do some matched betting over the next week to pay for a decent one.

LOL

Wouldn't that probably work out more expensive and hassle than buying a new PSU.

A decent made/brand 500w + will more than take care of an average setup with a 5850. One guy got away with it with a Corsair 430w.

 

[AsLan]

Just arrived. Brilliant service.

 

[Mattyjw]

That sounds like a horrible cheap nasty PSU. I'd definetely not recommend running this type of card from a cheap nasty PSU.

My thoughts exactly Gibbo. Which is why it's currently sitting unopened on the other side of the room.

DFF the matched betting or the insurance, no I'm gonna look on johnnyguru and bit-tech and see what works out best long term, probably pick up a decent 600w.

 

[J.D]

I would suggest you wait for Sandybridge and see how it perform and priced comparing to i5 760, since it will launch at early January. But if you don't want to wait, I would suggest you get the i5 760 over the i3 530, as while a highly overclocked i3 530 SHOULD in theory be fast enough for most games, from time to time there could be some console which ported in such a way which actually perform better with 3-4 cores, and fast dual-core is not enough (i.e. Black OPs) because it's not being used well. I know poor porting sucks, but there's not much we can do about it...so going i7 760 would be best of both worlds, as arcitecture wise it is faster than i3 530, and it has two more cores.

Yeah I would like to wait but as it's only going to cost about £250 odds for the motherboard and CPU I know it will do me fine regardless of how SandyBridge turns out. From what I've read on SB, gaming will remain the same give or take a few FPS but I imagine the crossfired monsters GTX580s 6970s etc will get a boost in the games that seem to be CPU bound.

I'll take your advice on the i5 760 over the i3 530 though as I know the abuse PC gaming has been getting from game devs so I'd rather have the extra cores to help push the FPS in poorly ported games.

I did look at i3 gaming benches though and from what games were tested, I can't down the i3 from what I've seen but I was always swaying more to the i5 quad due to never owning one.

Also, I'll most likely upgrade March/April 2011 and donate this system (minus the 5850) to my mother as she's on an ageing skt939 X2 3800 overclocked with 2gb of DDR1, My conscience is eating at me .

i5 760 it is and hello quad core OC fun. hehe Thanks Marine, it's been ages since I've tinkered. I've become so lazy in the last 2 years.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

A 400w would be enough, as long as its a quality brand like Corsair. If you want to expand later, 550-650w would give some headroom.

 

[jmp_78]

Just placed my last-minute order for a card

Thanks @Gibbo/OcUK, and Merry Xmas all!

 

[Mr Krugga]

What PSU should I be looking at for running 2 of these and an i7?

550w be enough?

A good brand 650W or more. i7 900 is a power hog on its own, even though you'll never max out the true potential of these cards (as in power requirements), it would be unwise to get anything below 600W paired with an i7 CPU.

600W is what you'll take from the wall socket with stock Crossfire 5870s and a mildly clocked i7 920 (3.3GHz or so).

 

[the_electrician]

i used to have a corsair 550vx running a 920 and a 4870 and the fan used to kick in quite loud in games.
Would defo be looking at 600w + good branded Seasonic, corsair ect

 

[RJC]

Any quality branded 600w + will be fine, mine with a I7 pulled 430w ~ from mains full load.

This was with win mark 2006 & Prime.

 

[brit~XR]

Im tempted to buy this but will i see any proformance gain over my gtx 275? And is the free delivery for everyone or just active forum members?

 

[H@mmer]

Ok got everything setup and running ok without a hitch. 10.12 drivers installed and crossfire found.
Opened BFBC2 went to advance settings and put everything to high with 4xaa and 16xaf selected in drivers. Res 1650x1080 would get an average of 50fps and a low of 24fps with these settings on my ATI 4890. With my 5850CF I’m getting 150fps+ and yet to see it drop below 112fps.
The cards run a lot cooler than my 4890 average 60c
Card 1: 47c
Card2: 33c
I expect these to get warmer as I’ve just had a quick look at BFBC2. Ok off to play some more.
Well impressed. Thank you OcUK for getting these out today.

 

[LM101]

Ordered
This should be a nice replacement for my 4850

 

[Marine-RX179]

Ok got everything setup and running ok without a hitch. 10.12 drivers installed and crossfire found.
Opened BFBC2 went to advance settings and put everything to high with 4xaa and 16xaf selected in drivers. Res 1650x1080 would get an average of 50fps and a low of 24fps with these settings on my ATI 4890. With my 5850CF I’m getting 150fps+ and yet to see it drop below 112fps.
The cards run a lot cooler than my 4890 average 60c
Card 1: 47c
Card2: 33c
I expect these to get warmer as I’ve just had a quick look at BFBC2. Ok off to play some more.
Well impressed. Thank you OcUK for getting these out today.

Hammer did you download the 110MB one or the 72.6MB one off AMD site?

 

[H@mmer]

The 110Mb one mate.

 

[Marine-RX179]

The 110Mb one mate.

Cheers. Gonna download and try that one. Fingers-cross that it work fine 1st attempt without running into problem...

 

[Chong Warrior]

I eventually caved in and bought one, free delivery and free game on top was too good to pass up.