PC upgrade, is it worth it?

stuartam

stuartam

stuartam

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
397
hi guys,
currently i have a 3.4ghz P4, 2gb ram, ATI Radion x300 (my 6800gt just died :( ), 74gb raptor, 19" monitor, its about 4 years old now...

was thinking of upgrading to this:

Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme Intel X58
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail
OCZ Blade Series 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-16000 Triple Channel (OCZ3B2000C9LV6GK)
Prolimatech Megahalems Performance CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1366)
BFG GeForce GTX 295 1792MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Single PCB)
OCZ Agility Series 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1AGT60G) x 2
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EADS)
Pioneer BDR-203BK 8x BluRay-RW/DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer Drive - OEM
Samsung T260 26" Widescreen LCD Monitor x 2

will the difference be that noticeable ( well 2k noticeable ) or should i just replace my graphics card & monitor, and wait a bit...

thanks
 
No its not, hows this look? It'll still give you 90-95% of the performance of your spec for half the price

basket-11.jpg


The UD5 is the same board as the extreme, with a little less cooling (the extreme is optimized for WC)
The blades are overpriced for little extra than these reapers
you need to include a 120mm fan with that heatsink
295s arent worth the money, just get a 275, 2 if you really want
imo SSDs arent worth it atm either, theres still quite a few bugs with them (partition offset and block rewrite penalty particuarly) have a read of techreports site for more info, 1 solid WD Caviar Black should do you
Do you really need to write Blu-rays? If so then stick with your Pioneer but Id of thought this LG which reads Blu ray and writes DVDs would be enough for most
Your monitor(s) are very much personal thing, if you really think you need 2 big monitors like that then fair enough
You didnt include a case or PSU? the 902 is great case, go for the 1200 if you need bigger, the new Corsair HX range are good, as are the BeQuiets but theyre out of stock atm
 
Last edited:
thanks for the replys guys, im thinking of building it bit by bit, so cpu / mobo / ram 1st etc

i will look into the SSDs from looking at the shop there is a lot of difference in spec across the range, also i want a reliable drive so i will look into this further ;)

i only really want a bluray reader atm but couldn’t find one, also i have had problems with the quality of my last few dvd drives (all sonys ) and know that pioneer drives are always built solidly which was my reason, but are the LG's just as good?

i dont think i need a psu as my current one is a enermax 600w, will this be enough?

any i have a coolermaster wavemaster case which i really like :D ( and if that’s too small i have a coolermaster cm stacker )

thanks again guys, keep the post coming tho ;)
 
the psu is about 3~4 years old..

the computer will mainly be used for:

photoshop
3d modeling
racing sims (rfactor, gtr evo etc)
internet
office apps
GIS work

i also want a computer that will last me another 4 years without the need to upgrade

thanks guys
 
stuartam said:
the psu is about 3~4 years old..

the computer will mainly be used for:


3d modeling
Click to expand...

i'd deffo go for a new psu then.


depending on how much 3dmodelling and how important it is rifles spec looks decent enough, if the 3dmoddeling isnt that important then i'd maybe look at a AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core (955 Black Edition 3.2GHz) setup.
 
thanks for the reply, after a few AMD computers i will only go down the Intel route now, i find them a lot more stable, abit more expensive but its worth it.

thanks
 
stuartam said:
thanks for the reply, after a few AMD computers i will only go down the Intel route now, i find them a lot more stable, abit more expensive but its worth it.

thanks
Click to expand...

final choice is yours, but not seen any more issues of am3 problems over i7.
 
stuartam said:
thanks for the reply, after a few AMD computers i will only go down the Intel route now, i find them a lot more stable, abit more expensive but its worth it.

thanks
Click to expand...

If you mainly use it for work and apps, doesn't want AMD, then i7 is your definite choice and it is worth it!

Rendering, encoding/decoding will finish quicker on an i7 compared to the Phenom due to it's more advanced chip architecture. Besides, i7 920 is pretty affordable now, only the mobo and ram costs on top of it that puts it out of reach to some.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom