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Upgrade time... been away :-(

elrasho

elrasho

elrasho

Soldato
Joined
12 Jan 2009
Posts
6,463
Hi,

I havent been following the hardware scene since my last upgrade in 2006. Arma 2 has been released, the new Call of Duty 4 Moder Warfare 2 and Operation Flashpoint are around the corner and my current rig is gonna struggle big time to paly it so its time for an upgrade.

Here my current rig:

ASUS A8N-SLI SE
AMD Opteron 180
2GB PC3200 DDR
MSI 8800GT OC 512MB DDR3
XFI Extreme Gamer
Maxtor Diomand 160GB 7200rpm
Centurion Cooler Master ATX
HX620W Corsair PSU


Heres waht Im thinking of getting as I have a budget of £300

** AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail
** Asus M3N-HT Deluxe HDMI nForce 780a SLi (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
** OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel (OCZ2G10664GK)

All from Overclockers.co.uk. Im keeping my 8800GT for now as I cant afford to get a GTX 275. However if getting a GTX275 will help me play those games then I'll get one of those instead and leave the rest until xmas. What do you guys think, is this worth the money? My benchmark is to play Arma2, COD4:MW2 and OpFlashpoint at a 1280*1024 with everything on high/medium.
 
what res will you be playing at?

Also am2+ & ddr 2 are on there way out so am3 & ddr 3 is a much better choice :


AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (Socket AM3)

Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H AMD 785G (Socket AM3)

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C9 1333MHz TwinX Dual Channel

total £299.98 inc VAT

better & more "future proof" than your spec

ps this is far more suited to general hardware
 
Im only going to play at 1280 * 1024

That mobotherboard has a pretty poor chipset compared to the 780a don't you think? Also I wont be able to go SLI if I choose to get another GTX 275 in the future
 
elrasho said:
Im only going to play at 1280 * 1024

That mobotherboard has a pretty poor chipset compared to the 780a don't you think? Also I wont be able to go SLI if I choose to get another GTX 275 in the future
Click to expand...
Will you want to though? I bought a non crossfire/non sli mobo recently but figured by the time I want a GPU upgrade (I dont plan on doing one before 2 years atleast) DX11 cards will be settled and will offer better performance from one single card than two 275s and wont be that expensive either.

Or maybe Im overestimating the GPU market.
 
Most of the time a single GPU can hold its own so not much need for SLI, especially if your going to be staying at that res. Even if you wanted to go higher today's cards will be capable.
 
Right guys its almost time to make the purchase and Im having second thoughts about the Mobotherbaord. The M3N-HT is AM2+ and supports DDR2 memory.

I could get an Asus Crosshair III board for £30 more (http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=2Y4dQFaJ6gPN18cQ&templete=2)

4GB og 1600 DDR3 ram for £70.

and finally a AMD Phenom II X4 955 BlackEdition 3,2Ghz

All this for £360, which is £60 more that the original config of an AM2+ board and DDR2 ram

Is it worth it? That motherbaord has got some great reviews, and can OC very well. Ill be getting faster RAm and a faster CPU too, seems more future proof to me.
 
elrasho said:
Right guys its almost time to make the purchase and Im having second thoughts about the Mobotherbaord. The M3N-HT is AM2+ and supports DDR2 memory.

I could get an Asus Crosshair III board for £30 more (http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=2Y4dQFaJ6gPN18cQ&templete=2)

4GB og 1600 DDR3 ram for £70.

and finally a AMD Phenom II X4 955 BlackEdition 3,2Ghz

All this for £360, which is £60 more that the original config of an AM2+ board and DDR2 ram

Is it worth it? That motherbaord has got some great reviews, and can OC very well. Ill be getting faster RAm and a faster CPU too, seems more future proof to me.
Click to expand...

I would go with that combination (AM3 and DDR3), as you said it faster and more future proof
 
I dont know the ins and outs of the chipsets, I just looked for an AMD chipset which is like the nVidia 780a chipset.

Ive decided Im never gonna SLI so I dont need it. I need a motherboard that supports AM3 and DDR3 with a decent chipset, and the best one I saw was te Crosshair III. Any alternative 790FX chipset motherboards?
 
Im so glad I waited for this upgrade, heres what Im getting now:

Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz £149.99
ASUS P7P55D iP55 £115.52
Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 XMS3 DHX Memory Kit £71.99

Total: £347.49

This is cheaper than the AMD Phenom 2 955 setup and is faster! Ive got a couple of questions though, The Latency Timings on the Corsair ram is CL9 ( 9-9-9-24 ), is that rubbish? I cant get Tri-Channel kits for this Asus board can I?

Also I have a smallish case, Cooler Master Centurion: http://uk.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?language=en&act=detail&tbcate=17&id=25 , will this be ok for my upgrade?

My opty gets to 60C under laod and so does the 8800GT so the upgrades should be ok right?
 
elrasho said:
Im so glad I waited for this upgrade, heres what Im getting now:

Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz £149.99
ASUS P7P55D iP55 £115.52
Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 XMS3 DHX Memory Kit £71.99

Total: £347.49

This is cheaper than the AMD Phenom 2 955 setup and is faster! Ive got a couple of questions though, The Latency Timings on the Corsair ram is CL9 ( 9-9-9-24 ), is that rubbish? I cant get Tri-Channel kits for this Asus board can I?

Also I have a smallish case, Cooler Master Centurion: http://uk.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?language=en&act=detail&tbcate=17&id=25 , will this be ok for my upgrade?

My opty gets to 60C under laod and so does the 8800GT so the upgrades should be ok right?
Click to expand...
Uh oh, Im yet again having second thoughts

Was discussing this upgrade with freinds and they said get a i7 board that has the X58 chipset. This is becasue the 6 core Intel CPUs coming out next year wont support the P55 chipset, so will me getting an i5 and P55 mobo now be a mistake?

I know the i7 and X58 is more expensive (by about £100) but Im going to try and get all this on finance so its not gonna hot as hard on the bank balance, what do you guys think?
 
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