a bit of advice please

[paulhenney]

hi need a couple of bits of advice if anyone can help. My current system-

Asus M3N78
AMD 9950 BE
Xigmatec S1283
2x2 gig Corsair 6400
Asus 4850 512m
Hiper 550W
couple of maxtor 160G HDs
all in a Coolermaster Scout

My other bits-
Razer Diamonback on a Goliathus mat
Merc Stelth keyboard
Creative Fatality headphone
Decent-ish Logitech speakers

Right first question is ive had my 9950 for a while now and its always run hot, around 50 idle 60-65 under load. I bought the xigmatec to try and sort it but have had loads of difficulties installing it. The primary thing being it doesnt seem to fit and leaves about 1mm top and bottom gap. When I finally manage to get the bracket on its probably moved around a bit more. Am I being really stupid and missing something.

Bought the case because of the bit fan on top and a cheap exhaust for my gfx card. The card dropped loads to around 40-45 and the cpu dropped to maybe 45 idle up to 60 under load. (BTW everything is running at stock) Ive seen other people having problems fitting it but the fact if i measure it against the cpu out of the case and it is too small baffles me a bit.

So if anyone can shed any light on that it would be appreciated.

Onto my second plea for advice.

Am probably going to upgrade a bit over the next few months what would you suggest. I tend to upgrade over a few months as I cant throw a lot of money at it in one go. Maybe £150 per month for 3-4 months. Which way would you go?

Would probably prefer to stay the AMD route to keep the ram and possibly mobo initially and want to upgrade the card although I cant see much increase in performance to £150 cards at the moment, would really like a dx11 option that can play BF BC2 maxed.

So to summarise any ideas about the cooling for my cpu (i could then OC a bit and concentrate on upgrading the card for now). If not which CPU should I be looking at before going for a new card and thirdly how important is an expensive mobo (if the cpu is good enough probably wont overclock).

Sorry for the long post.

Cheers

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Your motherboards supports AM3 Phenom II X4 processors:

http://asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=WhuOCj0ipNR0NRXD&templete=2

I would probably get a 125W X4 955BE and sell your existing processor on a well known auction site as it seems to reach at least around £70 including postage.

There is also the 95W version of the Phenom II X4 945.

Both should be under £125.

The Phenom II has some improvements over the original Phenom and is made on a 45NM process meaning it will run cooler and will consume less power at idle too.

AFAIK,they also seem to undervolt reasonably well too!

I would also go for a faster system disk such a 500GB or 1TB Samsung F3 or Western Digital Caviar Black.

The PSU could also use replacing as Hiper don't seem to have a good reputation for reliability.

The HD5830 is also being introduced in the next few weeks too.

I would probably consider the upgrades in this order:
1.)Get a Phenom II X4 955BE or 945 - under £125
2.)Potentially get a new PSU - under £70
3.)Perhaps get an HD5830 - hopefully under £160
4.)Get a new and faster system disk - under £70

IMHO,these upgrades should cost much less than £600 over 4 months and more like around £425 or even less.

If you sell the bits you have upgraded from then the cost will be even less and I would think that your system would not need an upgrade for a while.

I would save the rest of the budget for any upgrades you may need next year.