Upgrade advice (original title!)

[pastymuncher]

If you have decided to stick with the i5 760 then get it clocked for some free performance. Most will hit 4Ghz or more with decent cooling. Mine hit a max of 4.2Ghz and i wish i didn't replace it sometimes.

 

[Tonytank]

Will the stuff I have listed give me a fair boost?

As oppose to a full upgrade.

 

[pastymuncher]

The GTX760 is a nice boost over the 460 but it's overpriced for what it is. It's slightly slower than a GTX670. The VTX3D HD 7950 V3 Boost X-Edition is a better buy at £170 plus you get three free games.

Upgrading to 8GB of ram is a good move.

The SSD will be a big improvement over a normal HDD even though it will be limited to Sata 2 in your motherboard.

 

[Tonytank]

Time for a quick update. After a few months of deliberations and saving I have decided to go with the following.

I feel I have hit a sweet spot regarding the old power vs value for money shtick. I would appreciate some opinions before I order. I look at a lot of graphics cards before I settled on that one. The 760 seems llike a lovely little beast and a 4gb version can only be a good thing right?

(see this is why I ask before I buy!)

Thank you in advance for any help and advice.

 

[stulid]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with BattleField 4 PC Game Included £299.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance C70 Midi Tower Gaming Case - Military Green £99.95
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series THNSNH 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £59.99
Total : £904.00 (includes shipping : £11.75).




The D3HP comes with a free heatsink.

The R9 290 is obviously a much faster card.

 

[Tonytank]

How much faster are we talking? And is the free heat sink sufficient for the processer? (I do not intend to overclock).

 

[stulid]

The heatsink is more than sufficient and can cope with overclocking.

The R9 290 sits near the top of the tree - http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290/26.html

Todays performance should be even higher as one of the latest Catalyst drivers changed the fan profile so the card keeps a higher boost speed for longer and Sapphire have released a new BIOS for the card - http://www.techpowerup.com/194909/sapphire-releases-performance-boost-for-r9-290.html

 

[Tonytank]

Wow. Thank you very much for you help and advice sir. This will be my first ATI card ever. One more question, will my current power supply be enough to handle all this? It is a Sapphire Pure 625W Modular Power Supply. The product is no longer available on here so I cant show it to you.

 

[stulid]

Im not 100% certain, it was made by Enermax and has three 12v rails with 25A a piece, but it came out around 2009? so is nearly 4 years old and they do degrade.

 

[Tonytank]

What would be a suitable replacement for my current order?

 

[stulid]

YOUR BASKET
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 630W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £79.99
1 x Silverstone Strider Plus 600W Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (SST-ST60F-P) £79.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 620W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £79.99
1 x Enermax Triathlor FC 550w '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (ETA550AWT-M) £73.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £71.99
Total : £395.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Plenty to pick from, the Seasonic is quality.

 

[Tonytank]

Thanks for that mate. I have skimped on power supplies in the past and paid the price, so i see no reason to skip this time.

 

[Tonytank]

So, my money has not been what I thought it would be, so I am just going to yank out the GTX460 and pop this in.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-242-MS

Its a cheap and cheerful upgrade I know. Smart move?

 

[Tonytank]

Hello everyone.

So since I last posted I have been saving my pennies for a new rig and I have finally gotten enough money together. My budget is roughly 800/900 wing wangs.

I would like to start over with build suggestions if people wouldn't mind sharing there opinions and build suggestions.

I am honestly not fussed between either AMD/INTEL/NVIDIA builds. Whatever offers the best value for money and last-ability. My only caveat is I want the Corsair Vengeance C70 Midi Tower Gaming Case. Because its green. I would also like to avoid any overclocking if possible (accept pre over-clocked graphics cards, that I can handle)

The rest I welcome any and all suggestions.

 

[CrixxzeH]

So, my money has not been what I thought it would be, so I am just going to yank out the GTX460 and pop this in.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-242-MS

Its a cheap and cheerful upgrade I know. Smart move?

Taking it that you've already ordered / received the GPU.

This Build has the CPU that Stulid suggested.
Better cooler with the mobo.
Better/more reliable branded SSD.
Same RAM.
Faster 2TB HDD.
Decent PSU.


http://s18.postimg.org/chifj6q1l/rigrigzor.jpg

 

[Tonytank]

Hi.

Thank for your input. I havent ordered the GPU yet. Which offers the best value at the moment?

 

[Idleman]

Intel.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance C70 Midi Tower Gaming Case - Military Green £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler £14.99
Total : £891.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



AMD.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £227.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £110.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance C70 Midi Tower Gaming Case - Military Green £89.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G1600HC9DC01) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler £14.99
Total : £830.39 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 

[Tonytank]

Thanks for the suggestions my friend.

I currently have a copy of Windows 7 Premium (64bit). I noticed you have put Windows 8 in the list. Do I have anything to gain from using Windows 8? I only have fleeting experience with it and too be honest most other opinions I have heard have been largely negative. Have things improved?

 

[altrewin]

If you've already got a copy of Win7 I'd say it's probably not worth the extra to upgrade to Win8, spend the extra somewhere else. Only gains is a slight performance boost in games on GPUs that support DX11.2 and supposedly faster boot times which I doubt would be noticeable anyway if you're using an SSD!

 

[Tonytank]

I figured I could put the money saved toward this...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-239-MS

After reading some reviews it seems a little more future proof then the 280 previously suggested.