What upgrade would you suggest next?(Tian Sabre)

airrunner · 13 Oct 2010 at 15:55

Hello all i am looking for advice on what would be the next best upgrade for my system and whether i should act now or hang on another 12 months. I get decent performance for gaming from my pc but not superior. I do some video editing but primarily gaming.

Here is my pc spec, and thanks in advanced

Graphics Card XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P AMD 790X PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Processor AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz @ 3.30GHz Black Edition
Power Supply Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Memory Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 TwinX Dual Channel
Processor Cooler AMD Approved CPU Cooler
Case Antec VSK 2000 Midi-TowerCase - Black
Warranty 1 Year Onsite Collect & Return Warranty
Sound Card High Definition 7.1 OnBoard Sound Card
Optical Drive LG GH22NS30 22x DVDÂ±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter

95thrifles · 13 Oct 2010 at 16:53

If you want a cheap boost to gaming you could add another 4890 in xfire

Jony27 · 13 Oct 2010 at 16:59

my suggestions would be crossfire the 4890,try unlocking the 555 or buy an SSD

cmndr_andi · 13 Oct 2010 at 17:07

As suggested - try unlocking the extra cores on the CPU.

Also overclocking the CPU a bit further would be good place to start - however you will be wanting a new CPU cooler (something like this) to keep the heat down.

Finally, to echo what the others have said above- buying a second 4890 (most likely second-hand) would give you the biggest boost in gaming power for the lowest cost. Your PSU can handle the extra load for sure.

airrunner · 13 Oct 2010 at 18:51

cmndr_andi said:
As suggested - try unlocking the extra cores on the CPU.

Also overclocking the CPU a bit further would be good place to start - however you will be wanting a new CPU cooler (something like this) to keep the heat down.

Finally, to echo what the others have said above- buying a second 4890 (most likely second-hand) would give you the biggest boost in gaming power for the lowest cost. Your PSU can handle the extra load for sure.

That's great thanks, really good advice. So if i purchased the arctic freezer cooler, would i need to get anymore cooling in my pc if i aquired another 4890 and crossfired it?

Thanks again

cmndr_andi · 13 Oct 2010 at 18:53

The Arctic Freezer will keep the CPU cool - but it won't affect the overall case cooling much.

As you probably guess - a second 4890 (and an overclocked/unlocked CPU to a lesser extent) will add a fair bit more heat to your case, so it would be a good idea to add more/better fans if possible. How many fans have you currently got, what type are they and how many fans can you add to the case?