the £600 upgrade thread

Soldato
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It's time to consider the options - my e2160 dual core and current 7300gt are getting long in the tooth :p


Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £224.99
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail - £135.99
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard - £109.99
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM) - £88.99

Total : £571.13


So, opinions? can i do better for the money? the quad 955 is the cheapest of the full fat (highest chache) quads in that range, but is there a better option with a lower TPD for example? This kit is going in a htpc case (silverstone lc17) so it's something to consider :)

The motherboard ticks all the boxes (sata 6gb/usb 3, tonnes of connectors and fancy names for technologies) and is rather cheap for the kit. Good option, or is there better?

the gpu, well...thats a given :D

So what do you reckon guys?
 
Other retailers stock the 95W version of the X4 945 for around £125. The 65W X4 910e can be had for around £140 to £150 and the 65W X4 905e can be had for around £130 to £140.
 
Power consumption < Performance :D Plus a big bit of extra dosh on it :O Stick with the 955 or consider the i5 750.
 
all this phenom II tpd stuff is a confusing mess when you havent really kept up with it :p

Good shout on the asus boards, i'll take a look.

after studying the PII list on the wiki (good 'ol wiki!) it seems the 125w 955 and 965 are the same cpu's as the 95w 945. on that basis, would you guys say the 95w 945 is the one to go for if i can find one, all other things being equal or should i go with a 125w 955 black edition for the unlocked multiplier?
 
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I ordered the kit last night:)

i went for the same ram (4gb g.skill ripjaw), the asus m4A89GTD pro which has the 890 chipset with usb 3 and sata 6gb and grabbed a 125w 955 from another website :)
 
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