what should i upgrade?

A

aranlong

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Oct 31, 2011
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I have about 200 quid , 300 dollars to spend on one or multiple upgrades for my system not including a case as i am building one.

mb:m4a78lt-m, i use matx format for my new case for sff and decent power

cpu:amd 1090t oc`d to 4.0ghz

cpu cooler: zalman cnps10x performa

psu: ocz 600w stealthxstream

hdd: samsung spinpoint f3 1tb

gpu: xfx 6850 1gb , im quite an avid gamer but i only play at 720p so i might not need a gpu upgrade

gpu 2: nvidia nvs 290, i use this to run 2 side monitors, i got it for 5 quid, 8 dollars so it takes the stress off the 6850

case: galaxy 3, im building my own based on another case i saw in this forum (matx)

ram: 8gb patriot 1333mhz, dont use much ram as i dont do video editing etc.


My initial upgrade thoughts were a 120gb ssd with 4gb more patriot ram or a 6950 2gb or another 1tb hdd for raid 0 but this is unlikely because of the rocketing prices.


please give me suggestions or let me know what you think of my rig.
 
Not sure you really need to upgrade anything. If youre gaming at 720p then you dont need a GPU upgrade. I guess a SSD as a boot drive would be a cool upgrade. Not sure why youd need 12GB of RAM though unless youve just got money to burn.

It would help to know exactly what you use your rig for though so we can give you better recommendations.
 
An SSD would be a nice upgrade. What res is your monitor, depending on that the gpu might make sense as well.
 
Honestly, wouldn't do any sort of GPU upgrade at all considering the PSU you have: That OCZ PSU was barely capable of 500W of clean power back in the day. Considering your two GPUs and the OC'd CPU, not a good idea at all to upgrade to the HD 6950 2GB or any other GPU for that better. Luckily, at your low resolution, that HD 6850 should be fine.

With that said, MacLeod is right that it would help if you told us what you're using that PC for.
 
I use the rig mainly for gaming but i have recently began using flash pro and a bit of media editing(cinema 4d, sony vegas, photoshop etc.). I would like to get better gaming performance and i have had no problems with the ocz psu. another thought i had was upgrading my mobo to an atx crossfire and adding another 6850 putting the cpu back to stock and getting rid of the nvs 290.

or a monitor upgrade....
 
aranlong said:
I use the rig mainly for gaming but i have recently began using flash pro and a bit of media editing(cinema 4d, sony vegas, photoshop etc.). I would like to get better gaming performance and i have had no problems with the ocz psu. another thought i had was upgrading my mobo to an atx crossfire and adding another 6850 putting the cpu back to stock and getting rid of the nvs 290.

or a monitor upgrade....
Click to expand...

Here is the problem with that OCZ PSU:

It is based on an FSP Epsilon platform. And as well-done professional reviews of other FSP Epsilon-based PSUs sold under OCZ and several other brands have shown, they suffer from serious out-of-spec ripple problems when they tried to produce more than about 500W. And although such seriously out-of-spec ripple might not kill a PSU, it will definitely kill off the vital components of your PC significantly sooner than expected. In the worst cases, some of the components in your PC might last only a few weeks even if the PSU itself doesn't die out or explode.

aranlong said:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Corsa...dDrives_RL&hash=item4cfcf30fc6#ht_2930wt_1037
Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend that SSD since it is based on a late-generation Sandforce controller that has had random BSOD issues just running Windows.
 
In addition to what E4g1e said, Crossfire is not a good choice for the money at your low resolution unless you're one of those who need 300+FPS at low settings. Crossfire really becomes a viable choice once you have a larger 1920x1080 or higher monitor.

With that said, even if you did get a larger monitor, your budget still does not allow for both a larger 1080P monitor and GPU/mobo upgrades to handle the larger resolution for gaming. And this is all assuming that you're planning on upgrading your PSU since it's of low quality.

Again, at your current resolution, the HD 6850 1GB is more than enough unless, again, you're one of those who need 300+FPS at low settings. And if you're still gonna stick with that PSU, no point in upgrading the GPU at all due to risk of hardware failure.

The SSD is pretty much the only real cost-effective upgrade that you can make besides the PSU. I recommend grabbing the largest Crucial M4 series SSD that you can afford and be set with that. If you're willing to upgrade the PSU, go for the Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU.
 
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theres currently a deal on the ocz agility 3 120gb which makes it 25 pounds, 35 dollars cheaper than the corsair, what should i go for?
 
aranlong said:
theres currently a deal on the ocz agility 3 120gb which makes it 25 pounds, 35 dollars cheaper than the corsair, what should i go for?
Click to expand...

Not worth it, IMHO: It is also based on a Sandforce SF-22xx series controller that has been shown to cause random BSODs just running Windows at all.
 
So basically stick with the Crucial M4 if you want a reliable and fast SSD.
 
Crucial M4 128 GB is on sale today for I think around $170 on Newegg, best time to snag one if you're going to.
 
I'd buy a new monitor... 720p, do you use a TV for gaming? I just put in an ssd on my PC and it really is a good upgrade, windows boots in less than 10 seconds, photoshop opens in just a couple of seconds. I also had my PC hooked to my 720p TV for a while as I'd just moved house and things weren't setup properly... going back to my monitor was a vast improvement over the TV.
If you spend time gaming I'd get a new monitor over an ssd though,
But you should probably switch out that PSU too...
 
Im getting a 22 or 24 inch hd monitor and a 120gb ssd a bit over budget but whatever.

my current 1366x768 monitor (previously called 720p which is essentially what it is) is only 15" so the resolution doesnt really bother me
 
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