A rambling collection of upgrade questions...

amateur viking

amateur viking

amateur viking

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Joined
10 Mar 2010
Posts
54
Location
Keele, Staffs
Hey folks, I built the system (below) this time last year based on your sterling advice and a lot of lurking around the internets.

Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1024MB
4Gb DDR3 1600Mhz
Asus M4A79XTD Evo socket AM3
Phenom II 555 BE (conservative OC of 3.6 Ghz) w/ a fenrir for cooling
WD Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II

All wrapped up in a Lian Li PC-A05NB

I've since added a Xonar DX sound card and an OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB SATA-II SSD as a boot drive.

I use it mainly for gaming and uni work (which sometimes involves some reasonably hefty stat calculations). Current monitor is an HP 22" which has a native res of 1680x1050.

I have some (~£150 - £200) spare cash at the moment so I thought I'd look into some kind of upgrade for her. My current thinking is either a new videocard, CPU or monitor.

Some thoughts:

Is it worth just plonking another 5770 in CF in there? With my current monitor res is there any point upgrading? - it seems to manage ok at the moment. How well supported is CF?

How much functional difference would a Phenom II x4 make? (as for x6, I'm not sure I can find a use for the extra cores).

Would a new monitor running games at 1920 x 1080 expose my currently probably-only-just-adequate single HD 5770?

I'd appreciate any input! New hardware decisions are never easy :D
 
Firstly, with the CPU, have you tried unlocking the Phenom II 555's other cores?

Upping to 1080p will most likely cause you some slowdown in more demanding games. My two 5770's are holding up OK in my 2nd PC (at 1920x1200), but only just.
 
Gutted :( I unlocked my X3 720BE to an X4 last night, for the first time (purchased in 2009 :D), guess I just got lucky.

I'd not bother with CPU without a GPU upgrade, as you'll only be held back by the single 5770.

I'd probably go for a new GPU 6870 or similar, and another 4GB of RAM.

Or sell your 5770 and get a 6950 and 4GB of RAM.
 
How come you say another 4GB of RAM Para? I wouldn't have said upgrade to 8GB unless he has a better GPU and better CPU already.

Agree with the GPU though, upgrade that and it gives you time to save up a bit more cash to go 2500k. ^^
 
I find machines tend to feel snappier and be more responsive with more RAM.

I'd not even entertain the idea of building a machine with less than 8GB of RAM these days. Heck there are games (let alone proper productive applications) that can fill 4GB of RAM now.
 
I suppose your right, I just find myself not needing over 4GB. Ever. But I do only game and not the NEWEST games atm so perhaps I just lack the experience now. :)
 
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