[£200] Upgrade scenario

Liquiduk

Liquiduk

Liquiduk

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Joined
19 Nov 2010
Posts
1,772
Location
London
Current Specs:
Athlon ii x4 640 3.00ghz Proccessor (happy with)
Corsair 4GB RAM (2x2GB, possibly another 4GB)
Sapphire Xtreme 5830 1GB
MSI 870-C45 AMD 770 Chipset
Elite 500w PSU
500GB Samsung HDD
320GB Western Cavier HDD

I am going to try and explain this in the most understanable way possible as in my head right now this may sound like a load of nonense...

Ok after a bit of thought of selling some things and calulating the money I will have to spend I have come up with this. I will firstly have £320 pounds all together to spend... the three things that need investing on are my motherboard, powersupply and GPU card as to get the £320 pounds I will be selling these things as I feel they need an upgrade for future proofing/performance, the motherboard and PSU I have come to a decision on are as followed,

PSU(OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w): http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-032-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Motherboard(Asus M5A97 EVO AMD 990X):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-463-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2046

I picked these two as some time in the next few years a bulldozer upgrade will be on the cards and I here this PSU can handle a Xfire/SLI rig quite well so, so far I am prety sure on these and this leaves it down to the question on which GPU to pick? If my maths is correct (I have an inckling it isn't :D) then I am left with around £150 to spend on a Graphics card so what would you guys suggest? I thought maybe a 6950 or a 560? or possibly two GTX 460's if I stretch it? let me know.

Another point, if somebody has any other suggestions for the parts I have already thought about let me know.

Thanks!

- I plan on going Xfire/SLI with the card I buy
- I will play on no bigger res then 1920x1080
- Am willing to stretch my budget £50 or so for the graphics card
 
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1. Upgrading your PSU is always a great idea when upgrading the graphics card, but I'm not sure the OCZ is the best on offer. An XFX or Corsair with similar stated wattage will provide you better, more reliable performance, for very similar money.

2. Unless there are any substantial tangible benefits to upgrading your motherboard now, you're far better off waiting to upgrade it until Bulldozer actually comes out. It's quite a long time away, and there may be significant changes in the socket AM3+ market in terms of price, performance and features. It's always best to wait until your hand is forced to upgrade.

3. Your 5830 is still a very good card, although I assume it's starting to struggle a little on max settings. I believe that dual 5850s will give you the best performance for your money if you can stretch it- alternatively, a 6870 OC, a 560Ti or a 6950 are all great choices.
 
Don't sell the old PSU! You will regret it should you have any problems with the rig and need a spare PSU for troubleshooting purposes.

You won't need any more RAM for gaming, 4GB is absolutely fine. The 5830 you have is pretty basic now, although i imagine you will be able to sell it ok. I'll add a link so you can compare benchmarks on 2011 GPUs, the 6950 is a good budget high end card. The 6870 is really no better than the 5870, you really want a 6900 series card if you're serious about gaming.

I wouldn't bother changing the mobo now. As hybrid said there will be more mobos released in time with BDs release.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=331

(Note it's the 560Ti they've benchmarked not the standard 560, don't get them confused)
 
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Using the word "budget" to describe the 6950 is somewhat misleading, even in terms of high end. At 1900x1080, a 6850, GTX 460 1GB or 5850 is plenty enough to bring FPS up to very smooth play at max or near-max settings in all but the most challenging of games. At £110-£130, these are what I'd call "budget high end cards", and they're cracking value for money.

The 6950 2GB and the 560Ti are a significant jump in performance compared to one of the above, and if you're desperate for >=60 fps in all games (NB: most monitors can't display above 60 fps anyway) at pretty much top settings, these are the cards you want. That said, at ~£200, they're also a significant jump in price. Depending on your personal opinion, this is either "serious about gaming" or "a little overkill".

That said, the rest of honosuseri's points are bang on. It's worth keeping an old PSU, 4GB of RAM is plenty, and the mobo isn't worth replacing yet- and don't confuse the 560Ti with the 560.

It's also worth considering overclocking potential, if you might give it a whirl with the graphics cards- 6950s typically reach 6970 levels of performance, whereas 560Ti's usually reach those of 570s. If you plan on overclocking them, the 560Ti does tend to pull ahead of the 6950.
 
Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX (Socket AM3/AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
(£108.32) £129.98
(£108.32)
Lepa B-Series 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £72.98
(£60.82) £72.98
(£60.82)
Sub Total : £169.14
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £35.73
Total : £214.37
(with free postage)

thats a much better board and on sale from £160 and thats a better modular psu that will support 2x 5830's so when you single one strugles just slot in another (you can get them off the bay for about £60-£70 ) http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3170/sapphire_radeon_hd_5830_video_card_in_crossfire/index7.html as you can see they will easly outperform a 5870 i recon it will be on par if not better that a 6950/6970
 
Sorry Pohly, but it's really not worth buying an AMD board now (especially not a £130 800 series), Lepa are an unknown quantity in the PSU world and hence to be avoided at all costs, and twin 5830s, although as you say are easily in excess of a single card's performance, will produce significantly more heat and draw more power than a single card solution, and have no future upgrade potential. That said, as a cheap "for now" fix, a second hand 5830 to add to your existing one would be a great upgrade.
 
hybrid572 said:
Lepa are an unknown quantity in the PSU world and hence to be avoided at all costs,
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What are you waffling about? there are reviews out there of their products, the results are good, Hardocp tested the 850W version of the B series, they also tested the NAXN 750W Enermax PSU which is the same platform as the 750W B series, Hardware secrets have tested the G series of PSU and they seem fine too.
 
As mentioned unless you need a new board for features you do not yet have I would stick with the board and invest in something like a 6950 and a new psu. They can then transfer over to your next upgrade to bulldozer. At which point the 6950 can be crossifred as I believe they play nice together.

I use a 6850 and its a cracking card. Could go for that and cf later. Even the 6870 which can be had for £140 new.
 
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stulid said:
What are you waffling about? there are reviews out there of their products, the results are good, Hardocp tested the 850W version of the B series, they also tested the NAXN 750W Enermax PSU which is the same platform as the 750W B series, Hardware secrets have tested the G series of PSU and they seem fine too.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry I don't take time to masturbate over PSU review sites, but the known and trusted brands are simple. Antec, Seasonic, Corsair, XFX, and OCZ- although the last has produced some dodgy units. My point was that you don't see Lepa units around often, and particularly they aren't recommended in system build guides on sites such as techreport and bit-tech. I wasn't saying that there aren't any reviews of them out anywhere.

Please stop checking my posts and trying to disagree with all of them, you aren't correct about everything and need to stop thinking as such.
 
hybrid572 said:
I'm sorry I don't take time to masturbate over PSU review sites, but the known and trusted brands are simple. Antec, Seasonic, Corsair, XFX, and OCZ- although the last has produced some dodgy units. My point was that you don't see Lepa units around often, and particularly they aren't recommended in system build guides on sites such as techreport and bit-tech. I wasn't saying that there aren't any reviews of them out anywhere.

Please stop checking my posts and trying to disagree with all of them, you aren't correct about everything and need to stop thinking as such.
Click to expand...

its to do with then being relatively new to the uk.

And if you post rubbish then I will be there to put you right.
 
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