Upgrading - Advice?

Jaysquirrel · 18 Feb 2011 at 18:11

Well my last upgrade was in March 2009 when I bought a new CPU followed by a new mobo (stupid thing to do, but oh well,) but other than that most of my hardware has been the same since Oct 2008. Anyway thanks to the ever expanding graphics cards I'm now forced to upgrade my case too. Currently I play games at 1680x1050, but chances are I'll upgrade to 1920 in the future.

Current Specs:
Case: Lian Li PC-60 II Plus (A 4850 just about squeezes in, plus ventilation sucks)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition ~3.3GHz (I was probably dumb for going with AMD at the time, but oh well)
MB: Asus M3A78-T
MEM: OCZ Gold 6144MB RAM 800MHz DDR2
GPU: Asus EAH4850 512MB
PSU: Akasa Power 80+ 500w

Obviously my GPU is horribly old now but I'm not totally sure which card to go for, I've pretty much paid no attention to hardware for the last few years. I'm tempted to just go with a 6950 and buy a 2nd one if I need it in a year or so, plus from what I've heard it's pretty easy to flash it to a 6970 if my PSU can handle it. For the case I'll probably go with a HAF 912+ which is pretty ugly, but seems to be the best considering the price.

Also will my PSU be able to handle it? I probably wont OC my GPU since going from a 4850 to a 6950 will be a huge leap even at stock. I could always upgrade my PSU in the future if I go CF with another 6950 I guess.

stulid · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:05

Yeah, your psu will handle that card, for Crossfire a 650w+ is needed.

Another case for same price is this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-103-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411 or http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-LN&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1447

Cookeh · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:08

PSU will cope, just have no headroom!

In terms of cases, the CM690-II Lite is a better case aesthetically, and the performance is near identical.

HD6950 is the best bet around that price point - however if you need a new PSU as well I would drop down to a HD6870, I have one and can max everything with a system very similar to yours!

Cookeh · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:09

stulid said:
Yeah, your psu will handle that card, for Crossfire a 650w+ is needed.

Another case for same price is this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-103-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411 or http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-LN&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1447

You on the sauce Stu?

Since when was a HD5850 a case?

stulid · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:11

Cookeh said:
You on the sauce Stu?

Since when was a HD5850 a case?

Suppose to be this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-212-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=29

No sauce yet, just other stuff that you know about

Jaysquirrel · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:24

Cheers, good to know I wont have to shell out for a new PSU. Also I have no idea how I missed that CM690-II, I'll go for that instead.

Cookeh · 18 Feb 2011 at 20:21

Jaysquirrel said:
Cheers, good to know I wont have to shell out for a new PSU. Also I have no idea how I missed that CM690-II, I'll go for that instead.

Awesome choice!

Jaysquirrel · 22 Feb 2011 at 13:42

So I got my XFX just now. The seal has been broken on the box... the card had the protective plastic film on it still but.. Have I been given a second hand card or something?

I tried to register my product with XFX (xfxforce.com) and it tells me the serial number is in use by someone else already.

If it's an issue on XFX's side then fair enough. But I seriously don't expect to pay £220 for a used card.

EDIT: Well I deserve some sort of reimbursement for being sold a used item as new. I'm pretty sure that's not allowed :/