£500.00 upgrade for current setup

[PapaLazaru]

Hi chaps. My current setup is this -

In addition to the above, I have a 30BG Kingston V Series SDD for my OS, and a 500GB Seagate Barracuda for games / storage. These are both installed and being used.

I have Win7 home premium retail.

I also have a Thermolab Baram (still boxed) and a Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case (still boxed).

The £500 is for anything else. I will get a new monitor as well but that is a separate issue.

I can unlock the CPU to 4 cores but am having trouble getting it stable so have decided I may flog it and the mobo on MM once I get some new stuff.

I have been mulling over a Phenom x 6 but cannot really justify one as I only really game and currently, there is no real need for 6 cores, is there?

I need to get rid of the HD as I swear it is on the way out so need another one to get my stuff onto asap.

I have kind of settled on the below -

Crossfire another 5770, get a decent quad, overclock it with the lovely new mobo and keep it all cool with the Baram in the lovely new case.

Is this a good idea, or what would you do differently?

I could supposedly keep the mobo but it does not offer crossfire support, but the money save on the mobo, I could flog my 5770 and just buy a single 5870.

So many dilemmas but any help would be great as I am aiming to fit this all together over the bank holiday weekend.

Sorry for the waffle.

 

[PapaLazaru]

personally flogging the 5770 and getting a single 5870 seems better unless the price difference is very big, but yeh the phenom 965 is a great buy, consider the 1055T as welll tho, not much difference in price

It is quite bit more for a 5870 which is why I though of crossfiring another 5770 as I could only get £90.00 for my card. Would prefer a single GPU though to be fair. PSU should run two fine.

Or just keep the mobo, save £170 from not buying a new mobo, sell the 5770 for £90.00 and spend that £260.00, plus the £130.00 I was going to buy a new 5770 on, on a £390.00 5870?

 

[PapaLazaru]

Cheers for the answers guys.

I much prefer the single GPU option as there is less to go wrong!

Sounds like a good plan with less things to sell.

So, I reckon 965 (or 955), 5870, new HD, sell case and 555. Job done.

About £500.00 for the above and I can probably get £150.00 for my case, GPU & GPU.

*EDIT*

Quick Q, should I reinstahl Win7 if I plop in the new CPU? If I had replaced mobo then would have for sure, but not sure with just CPU?