Worth an upgrade?

Azure101

Azure101

Azure101

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Joined
16 Apr 2009
Posts
243
Hey there, basically... I've decided my pc isn't good enough anymore =) and i just want some opinions on where people think i should consider upgrading my pc.

I've got around £350 to spend so fire away! =)

Here's my spec:

Asus M2N-E SLI motherboard
4870 1gb
600W Corsair PSU
4GB Corsair ddr2 800MHz ram
250GB HDD
AMD 5200+ (2.7 Ghz)

All opinions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Azure
 
Id spend money on mobo, cpu, and ram if I were you :) Your gfx card is still very decent
Hopefully this helps in some way xD
Regards
 
Hi, This setup would give you £100 to spend on something else because your using your DDR2 ram :)

Setup.jpg


Will
 
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well things have changed the i5 and 965 are fairly similar when it comes to gaming however the i5 is better than the 965 at more cpu intense activities such as encoding ect... However the advantage of the 965 is the backwards compatibility with your DDR2 ram if you wanted to do this. it would save quite a bit of money and you could buy a SSD or something else.
 
Well, i'm not particularly bothered about having an SSD, so i would more than likely choose to upgrade my RAM, which would then mean getting an i5 would be the better idea? =)
 
the x4 955 might be a better option as it's cheaper and there's not much of a performance difference between it and the 965 as far as i'm aware at stock clocks, but if you want an i5 go for it they're awesome chips and should last you for a good while
 
I would get a Phenom II and a 790X motherboard as you could re-use your old RAM.

The Phenom II X4 955BE would be a good improvement over your X2 5200+ processor:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=32&p2=88

However I would also consider the newly released X2 555BE which should be under £80:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=32&p2=120

It has most of the speed of an X4 955BE in games and is cheaper:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=88&p2=120

It has an unlocked multiplier meaning it is easier to overclock and many have reached 4GHZ or thereabouts!

Also since it is based on the Phenom II X4 some of the processors have unlocked to a quad core too!

You should save around half your budget and gain both a Crossfire capable motherboard and a massive improvement in gaming performance.

The money saved could be put towards a new graphics card when your HD4870 is not fast enough for new games.
 
alright, this thread has been very, very informative but has left me with a few questions. =P

That X2 555BE looks very interesting =D especially if the price is as low as you say it is. I can't seem to find it listed anywhere =(

Also, would upgrading my RAM provide a substantial performance increase or should i do what CAT said and save the money for a new gfx card further down the line?

A new motherboard is an obvious one =P
 
The X2 555BE has been released today so give a week or two for it to enter retail channels.

The earlier 3.1GHZ X2 550BE is around £70. However the X2 555BE is a newer stepping with lower power consumption and better overclocking potential AFAIK.

If you can get the motherboard sooner you can also upgrade the BIOS so you can install the new CPU.

The GA-MA790X-UD3P supports the X2 555BE:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=3107#anchor_os

Having faster RAM will only give you a minimal increase in performance when compared to a graphics card upgrade.
 
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CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
The X2 555BE has been released today so give a week or two for it to enter retail channels.

The earlier 3.1GHZ X2 550BE is around £70. However the X2 555BE is a newer stepping with lower power consumption and better overclocking potential AFAIK.

If you can get the motherboard sooner you can also upgrade the BIOS so you can install the new CPU.

The GA-MA790X-UD3P supports the X2 555BE:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=3107#anchor_os

Having faster RAM will only give you a minimal increase in performance when compared to a graphics card upgrade.
Click to expand...

So, in other words, the smartest thing to do at this stage would be to get the mobo and the cpu and then wait for a 5850 or 5870 to come down in price? =P

EDIT: Would that X2 555BE be very futureproof?
 
Azure101 said:
So, in other words, the smartest thing to do at this stage would be to get the mobo and the cpu and then wait for a 5850 or 5870 to come down in price? =P

EDIT: Would that X2 555BE be very futureproof?
Click to expand...

Think about this way - the X2 555BE will be a big upgrade at stock over what you have. If you overclock it or manage to unlock it to a triple or quad core it would be an even bigger upgrade.

For instance in this review comparing the X2 555BE to a Core i5 750 the X2 555BE at stock has 70% of the performance of a Core i5 750 in the worst case scenerio at 1920x1200:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-ii-x2-555,2540-8.html

Even then with all the processors in the review the average framerates are over 40FPS with an HD5850.

The Core i5 750 costs £150 excluding the cost of the motherboard and the expensive DDR3 RAM. To get a socket 1156 motherboard capable of symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X you are looking at over £100 and even a normal socket 1156 motherboard is around £70.

Save your money and get an HD5870 when you get one for under £200. Nvidia is launching its own DX11 graphics cards in the next few months too.

Your HD4870 card is fast enough for the time being. The vast majority of games at 1680X1050 and above are GPU limited.
 
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So what you're saying is this, if i get the budget processor and i am able to unlock it then i'm very lucky and the upgrade was definetly worth it, if not the upgrade was still worth it because the processor will still be decent and i can upgrade the GPU later on. Which is where i'll be getting most of my FPS upgrade from?

Surely later on that CPU might be bottlenecking the later cards though?
 
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