System upgrade advice

Tombles

Tombles

Tombles

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Joined
10 Jun 2005
Posts
760
Hi all

I am looking to upgrade my current system. It is coming up three and a half years old now and has the following specs:

Case: Antec 300 Gaming Case
Power Supply: OCZ ZS 550w PSU (Bronze 80)
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.40GHz Sandybridge CPU
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68AP-D3
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Hard Drive: Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SSD and Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6GB/s
ASUS GTX570 DirectCU II 1024MB GDDR5

I am looking at upgrading the system for around £500 and have been looking at purchasing a new graphics card, case and PSU. I have been out the loop a bit in terms of components and would like to know where my money would best be spent. Is the CPU still up the task?

Thanks

Tom
 
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Looking to order these parts today, I've added some components to my basket that I thought may be a good option. What do you guys think? Will my CPU throttle this at all?

OcUK GeForce GTX 970 "NVIDIA 970 Cooler Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Promo** £314.99

Corsair Carbide 330R Ultra Silent Midi Tower Case - Blackout Edition £85.99

SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £84.95
 
Thanks tamzzy. How comes you opted for a 290X and smaller PSU? I know the 550W should suffice but I was thinking about a bit of future proofing.
 
the 290x, believe it or not, is just as good, performance-wise, as the gtx 970.
yes the 290x 60w hotter at full loads, but at £80 dearer, the gtx 970 will take years to pay itself back in energy efficiency lol

and for any single gpu system, 550w is more than sufficient, unless you want to go dual gpu, in which case, a 850w psu would be better.
(your current psu, the zs550 is actually only a 400w psu)
 
It's not so much the power consumption I'm worried about but I would rather a cooler, quieter card.

I know there has been many debates about 290x vs the GTX970 but is there really a right or wrong answer?
 
tamzzy said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290X LE Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid Tower Enthusiast Case with Window £89.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £51.95
Total : £391.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

Personally i would be going for a bigger PSU for running a 290x. He's also running a OC CPU. The 290x is very power hungry.

People do run them on smaller PSU's but this would last you a few builds as well.

I'd go with one of these personally. Then if you wish to go crossfire then at least an 850W

YOUR BASKET
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £84.95
Total : £94.55 (includes shipping : £8.00).



I have a 290x myself and it's max temp i've seen is 72 degrees when in a benchmark of Heaven overclocked. It's pretty quiet. I mean, i have a silent house at the moment and i can't hear my pc at all and it's right next to me.
I wouldn't buy a 970 just on the principle of them miss selling and knowing that they done it. But my brother has one and it does out do my 290x at times at 1080p but when we go above that it then is better.
 
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Tombles said:
It's not so much the power consumption I'm worried about but I would rather a cooler, quieter card.

I know there has been many debates about 290x vs the GTX970 but is there really a right or wrong answer?
Click to expand...

there isn't a right answer, depends on who you ask.
the msi 290x card is cool and quiet - it all depends on the heatsink.
stick a reference 290x heatsink on and it'll run hot and loud ;p

of course if you're already into the nvidia ecosystem (g-sync/physx, etc) then there's reason to shell out for the 970
 
savagesam117 said:
Personally i would be going for a bigger PSU for running a 290x. He's also running a OC CPU. The 290x is very power hungry.

People do run them on smaller PSU's but this would last you a few builds as well.

I'd go with one of these personally. Then if you wish to go crossfire then at least an 850W

YOUR BASKET
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £84.95
Total : £94.55 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

a 550w psu is sufficient for an overclocked cpu and a single overclocked 290x lol.
no point spending extra for a 750w psu if OP will never run dual graphics cards. and even then, as you say, 850w would be a better option
 
Tombles said:
It's not so much the power consumption I'm worried about but I would rather a cooler, quieter card.

I know there has been many debates about 290x vs the GTX970 but is there really a right or wrong answer?
Click to expand...

I'd tend to agree with tamzzy, there isn't a straightforward answer to this one!

I'm in a very similar position myself, have been going backwards and forwards between the R9 290, R9 290X and GTX 970 - with the same balance of getting the best performance and quite/cool at the same time!

I am still leaning towards the 290X but just recently I've been toying with the idea of bumping up my budget and going for a 2nd hand GTX 980 (this bypasses the whole 3.5GB VRAM issue on the 970's that may or may not affect me, while sticking with the more power efficient and therefore cooler nVidia path!)

What monitor do you have/plan to get? (ie. what resolution do you plan on gaming at and will it include FreeSync/G-Sync??)
 
I'm no expert myself but from the reading I've done, the 290/X is probably the best value upgrade for gaming at 1440p but the trade off seems to be a larger power draw meaning higher temps and volume while it's at full tilt!

The (alleged :p) GTX 970 performance issues may or may not impact you depending on whether your gaming requires more than 3.5GB VRAM but the next step nVidia-wise is a 980 at circa £450 whereas you can pick up an R9 290X for £240!
 
I've just been through your thread and starting to lean more towards a 290x due to 1440p monitor. Even if I do go for a 290x I'm not sure which card is best and which case will be best for airflow and noise suppression.
 
Tombles said:
I've just been through your thread and starting to lean more towards a 290x due to 1440p monitor. Even if I do go for a 290x I'm not sure which card is best and which case will be best for airflow and noise suppression.
Click to expand...

The Corsair Carbide Air 540 combined with a decent 3 x 140mm PWM fans seems a good shout. The PWM would allow you to set a custom curve profile, or simply a flat profile on the maximum RPM you are happy with noise-wise. The case being so good for airflow means you can reduce RPM considerably and still get good airflow. A cheaper method is to keep the stock fans and use a 7v adapter (although that won't give you ideal precision between airflow and noise, it's a pretty good bet that it'll be just about well balanced). I wouldn't advise to use the stock fans at 12v if you're after silence (but that's just my opinion/personal noise tolerance). The stock fans may also have a mechanical/electrical noise that isn't pleasing.

Some options for both routes:

YOUR BASKET
3 x Noctua NF-P14s REDUX PWM 1500RPM 140mm Quiet Case Fan £13.49 (£40.47)
3 x Alpenföhn 140mm Wing Boost 2 Plus PWM Fan - Red £9.95 (£29.85)
1 x Akasa FLEXA FP5S 5 Fan PWM Controller (AK-CBFA07-45) £5.28
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 7V 20cm - Black £4.99
Total : £90.18 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Alternatively - a silenced case, but those tend not to be great for airflow and may be a bit of a gamble combined with a 290X.

Personally, if a powerful GPU is involved, I like going for good airflow cases, and then setting about reducing noise. Or you can end up with having to run high RPM fans in a silenced case and it's not so silent anymore. That's just my approach. Some may know of good airflow + silenced cases though.
 
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