Upgrade or new build?

Azure101

Azure101

Azure101

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Joined
16 Apr 2009
Posts
243
Hey guys, my pc is getting on a bit now and i've got money to blow so i figured hey? Why not? Here's my current spec:

ASUS M2N-E Sli
4870 1gb
AMD 5200+ (2.7Ghz)
250Gb HDD
650W Corsair PSU
4GB DDR2 RAM

Basically i've got around £800 to play with so all opinions are greatly appreciated... I use my pc for gaming and that's it really so hopefully I can build something for my budget... I would consider going £50 over but that's the limit.

P.S. I would need a new case, however i do not need a new monitor. Oh... And i saw those new shiny 6 core AMD CPUs and wondered whether it's worth it or not? =)

Cheers,

Azure
 
The 6 cores would only be worth it if you do a fair bit of video encoding etc,

Do you need a copy of a OS?
Do you know what speed your Ram is?
Do you really want to speed the whole £800 now, as your GPU is perfectly fine now. You could carry on using that unless you feel you need the use of dx11 & then maybe get a 5850
 
Cheers for the reply!

I don't need a copy of an OS =)
My ram is 800 Mhz.. I was thinking i'd probably need to upgrade this
Hmmmmmmmm well i suppose if a build can be put together to accomodate my graphics card then great! I'm not too fussed about DX 11 no... DX 10 already looks amazing enough to me! =)
 
With reusing your PSU, GPU, dvd drive & memory . You could have something like this. Yeah iv gone OTT with the case & you may not want to spend that much on one. You could get a cheapre case & save a lot more money.

But if you really want to spend the full £800 i can put a couple of specs together if you want me to?

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £135.99
(£115.74) £135.99
(£115.74)
Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £130.99
(£111.48) £130.99
(£111.48)
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P AMD 790X (Socket AM3/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P AMD 790X (Socket AM3/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £88.99
(£75.74) £88.99
(£75.74)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £65.99
(£56.16) £65.99
(£56.16)
Sub Total : £359.12
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £64.90
Total : £435.77
 
Yeah.. I'm really not looking for a case like that, probably an Antec 300 if anything... Maybe the CM scout.. Not sure yet. I would prefer to upgrade my RAM however, because as it stands the only perfomance gain i'll be getting from that is the CPU.. Then again that is all that really "needs" upgrading right?
 
Yeah you can upgrade the ram but tbh honest if you are not overclocking etc....Im not sure if you can justify the extra £90 it would cost to upgrade it when really you wont see any difference in the memory speed for every day tasks.

But if you are selling your old parts on i guess you could recover a big chuck of that money back, it might not be as bad...The choice on that one is really up to you.
 
Should i even bother upgrading my pc at all then? xD or just leave it as it is if there's no point me upgrading anything other than my cpu o.0
 
How about this? A new i7 920 build (PSU using your existing Corsair 650W):
i7920upgrade.jpg


Graphic upgrade wise you have two options:
1. keep your existing 4870 1GB and get another one (2nd hand may be) to Crossfire
2. get a 5850, and sell your 4870 1GB

Speed wise, a 5850 is around the same as CF4870. While a 5850 do offer the benefit of dx11 support and lower power consumption, it does however cost much more than grabing an extra 4870 to crossfire.

In my opinion, I think dx11 in most current dx 11 game titles are still nothing more than market gimmicks. The difference between dx10 and dx11 at the moment is that dx11 got nicer shadowing, effects etc, but graphic detail wise it's not much different from dx10...as the utilising of tessellations is still very minimal/light in the current games.

Games would hopefully head toward the direction of improvement graphic details by employing heavier use of tessellations. One thing to note is that while the HD5000 series do support dx11, tessellations is one area which it is weak at, therefore it would make more sense to just grab an extra 4870 to Crossfire for now, and upgrade to 2nd generation dx11 or something when games actually offer better graphics by using more tessellations.
 
Last edited:
Azure101 said:
Should i even bother upgrading my pc at all then? xD or just leave it as it is if there's no point me upgrading anything other than my cpu o.0
Click to expand...

At the end of the day its up to you if you upgrade or not, what you need to ask yourself is.....Is the PC running slow when doing day to day things & is it having problems running games at the setting's you are happy with.
 
Azure101 said:
That build looks quite nice also, I'm guessing that's pretty much set to last for most games to come around in the next 3-4 years?
Click to expand...
If you can overclock the i7 920 to 4.0GHz or a bit higher, it should last you around 3 years. Graphic card wise...like I said in my previous post, it would depends on how how soon will games actually use higher tessellations for the dx11, and when you think it actually worth moving onto the dx11 platform for games. If it is just for gaming in dx10, CF4870 1GB should have enough juice to last another one and a half to two years I think...that it would probably be the right time to move onto 2nd gen/3rd gen dx11 card.
 
Azure101 said:
Saying that.. Couldn't i just buy this and buy a case to go with it?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-171-OK&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1675
Click to expand...
That bundle got the same motherboard, same CPU, same memory and same CPU cooler, and same price thermal paste as what I quoted, but cost around £46 more. If you are not comfortable with doing the overclocking or spending a whole day stress testing for stability yourself, then paying the £46 extra to get that bundle is indeed a good choice.
 
Bundles are just fine if you dont have the time or expertise to overclock your self, and cases I find are more of a personal choice so just pick one you think you will be happy looking at everyday and fits into your budget. good luck.
 
81130022.jpg


here's my final basket i guess... Can anyone reccomend me a DVD RW drive plz? And any opinions on my basket are again, greatly appreciated.
 
Cheers! Just chucked it in my basket now... Other than that is there anything i should be aware of/I may be missing? I'm re-using my Gfx card and PSU ^^ I'm also going to ghost my current OS + files onto it... Is it really as easy as it sounds? Or will i need my Windows CD key and everything again?
 
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