Some (possible!) upgrade advice

[Agent Orange]

Hey lads,

I was wondering if you might be able to have a look at a thread I started in General Hardware and offer some advice, in case you don't wander over there:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18593209

Do you think I would benefit more with another R9 290 on the second PCI 3 lane (so running X8 X8) or a mobo, CPU, RAM upgrade? I'm now thinking the second R9 290 is a better way to go to future-proof, given I basically only game, and occasional mining. I suppose I was worried about the mobo and CPU aging but it seems the advances from Intel etc are slowing a bit.

Even if there is a new AMD architecture at the end of the year I think I would still be pretty happy with 2 R9 290's which a while ago I never thought possible! Would be my first venture into multi GPU.

Cheers for any and all advice!

 

[Agent Orange]

Oh I forgot I would probably need to upgrade my PSU - CoolerMaster 650W. Right?

 

[TheRealDeal]

You will be bottlenecked using your current i5. If your board supports an i7 then I think you would be better off selling the i5 and getting a second hand 2600k. Apart from the cpu your all good for crossfire. Thats the route I would take.

Yea i would be upgrading to at least a 850 good brand psu.

 

[Agent Orange]

Hmm ok yeah maybe I might do the CPU, mobo and RAM now, and get the 2nd GPU down the track with a new PSU. Would the i5 4670K be better with 2 290's CF?

Thanks!

 

[TheRealDeal]

Hmm ok yeah maybe I might do the CPU, mobo and RAM now, and get the 2nd GPU down the track with a new PSU. Would the i5 4670K be better with 2 290's CF?

Thanks!

I would always go i7 over i5 especially when using more than 1 card. In the long run choosing an i7 will save you money as you probably wont need to upgrade so soon. Think of it this way if you had spent the extra on an i7 I doubt this thread would have happened or it would most likely consist of which psu to get.

 

[Agent Orange]

Ok thanks for the advice. I'm surprised because everywhere I read says that modern games can't utilise the hyperthreading on the i7's. But by the sound of it, it's needed when running X-Fire. I haven't heard that, so thanks!

I'm now thinking an i7 3770k with some faster RAM might be a good option, so that I don't have to upgrade my motherboard, and can still look at X-Fire and new PSU later in the year.

 

[TheRealDeal]

Back when you got your i5 that would mainly have been true. These days most new games are making use off the extra threads which in turn helps to push dual cards harder.