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NathanT

NathanT

NathanT

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Joined
11 Jun 2009
Posts
813
I've managed to get together £150 to throw at my aging machine. (forgot I had £25 on Spain to win the world cup so have some cash sitting in a Coral account)

Previously I was going to get an upgrade for my old 4850, looking at a 5770. I'm still looking at this route of action, and possibly getting a small SSD for boot/win7.

The other option is scrapping the idea of a SSD and going straight for a 5850. The weekend deal http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-003-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411 is factory OC'd with a slightly higher Core and Memory clock. I'm not fussed at the MW2, just the current price only being a few quid extra than the stock. Is this card worth it or would I be better looking at the ASUS models with the voltage tweak or the XFX card with the better waranty?

Suggestions on what to do? A cheap 40-60G SSD and a 2nd hand 5770 or a 5850 and wait for a bit more cash to buy a decent sized SSD at a later date.

I'll obviously make up some of the deficit by flogging my old 4850 card and a few other bits on the MM.

Gaming currently on a 24" 1920x1080. X4 955 4mb RAM. Motherboard is not capable of CF.

Cheers for any pearls
 
As far as SSDs go, IMO, a 60 gig SSD is all you need for a system / application drive. There is no point throwing money and capacity at it, unless you want to run everything fast!

As long as you keep it clean and organised, it will do what it needs to do (make Windows and your favorite apps / games faster) without running into capacity problems. Even a cheaper SSD (Corsair Reactor) will give you a marked improvement on general comfort over a mechanical hard drive. 40 gigs imo is cutting it a little bit close.

I'd budget for a C300 64 GB (around £100), and save for a 5850 / GTX 460. Basically, the sweet spot for bang for bucks. As for your particular dilemma, I'm no specialist overclocker, but for the warranty, you have to ask yourself how likely you are to have the card after two years :) For me, it's about the time I replace them and recycle them to the family / friends, so no point for extended warranty. Overclocking potential is another thing, but I couldn't justify the premium.

And the HIS 5870 is only £30 more. So a even standard HD 5850 for £210 is hard to pass.

In fairness, I'd go for the cheaper 5850, then if the budget allows later, a good 60 GB SSD. It's more of a luxury item.

BTW Don't overlook the GTX 460. Seems to perform really close to the 5850.
 
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