Upgrading

L

Len

Well-known member
I've had my pc for around 12 months now I'm thinking of upgrading a few things any suggestions

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
OVERCLOCKED AMD PHENOM II X6 1090T (3.20GHz @ MAX 3.80GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR IV FORMULA: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, R.O GAMERS
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD 6870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)


the only thing I'm not over the moon with is the graphics card, it's not so good on games less then DX11 and I want to play at 1920x1080 when I get my new monitor in a few days :p, also maybe a SSD any suggestions, I think I read somewhere you can buy a small SSD to speed up ur HDD
 
sharplucas

sharplucas

Bronze Level Poster
1. Ok first off that Cpu does not need to be there 6 cores is overkill for Gaming since most games use 4 plus not many people even use 6 cores in their pc 4 cores will be fine but I have realised you are Overclocking so maybe go for a Intel cpu since they are better for overclocking.

2. with the extra money you could get a better case for cooling (or looks :p ) and what not or you could use the money to get a better Gpu like a Gtx 560 Ti

3. You would only need a 750w power supply or less no need for 850w unless your thinking of adding another graphics card in the future.
 
L

Len

Well-known member
dude i've had this pc for 12 months(the spec I posted), I'm thinking of upgrading it :p at the time there was no sandy bridge and the t1090 was like one below the highest i7 I think so I got the AMD one as it was good value for money and I use all 6 cores in some apps convertXtoDvDx)

im thinking of upgrading my GPU and possibly adding a ssd

any suggestions?
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
oooh, he thought you were interested in this spec

depending on your budget, the 570 or 580 or both very good cards at reasonable prices

also any ssd is fine apart from vertex 2 which have had some bad reviews just choose which size you want
 
L

Len

Well-known member
wozza can I use a small ssd to speed up my HDD I read this somewhere? also would a crossfire of 6870's be as good? will I encounter games that wont support it etc?
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
uh yes, its called SRT cache drive, it can be up to 64GB

i have no clue on how to set this up and as far as i know, it is quite difficult to setup
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
I don't see any reason to upgrade the rig you have at the present time,
unless you're having problems running certain games or programs you want to use.
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
youre best to buy a fresh intel ssd as ssd caching will not work with amd builds im sure. only intel. as for the graphics card not sure what you want but the 3 recommendations to look at are gtx580 or 570 and amd 6970 which are real good graphics card.

as for upgrading ur rig, it looks fine and doesnt really need upgrading apart from you wanting to upgrade the gpu
 
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L

Len

Well-known member
I have a new monitor that will support 1920x1080 I want to play BF3 and CS:GO which I think is on the portal 2 engine

I do like playing games at full graphics and settings to smooth the edges and such :p

Do you recommend I crossfire two 6870's OR perhaps get a different card? if so which

also do you think ill encounter that some games wont support my crossfire?



also what size SSD should I look at, I use window's 7 and I have around 20 games one being the massive WoW :D
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
depends how much those games take up space. so a big ssd may be a little expensive. you could buy an ssd an put the main games you mainly play on the ssd while the games you dont play as much on the hdd

you can crossfire the 6870 if you wanted to, your choice.
 
L

Len

Well-known member
teaz

also do you think ill encounter that some games wont support my crossfire?

Do you recommend I crossfire two 6870's OR perhaps get a different card? if so which

I know BF3 and CS:GO are gonna be graphical master pieces, I don't think my 6870 will run at max at 1920x1080, WoW struggles to keeep 60 FPS in massive zones like orgrimmar on high pop servers with the card on DX11!
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
i know wow will struggle at times especially with large group raids and such but under fine conditions the 6870 should cope fine. crossfire should give you the extra boost.

as for recommending, i cant exactly say what to recommend you as i dont know how much youre willing to splash out on a new graphics card or so. if your was to go for a single gpu i think a 580 would suit you fine but if not and you want to sli or crossfire then something like the amd 6950 are good ratios in price and performance to crossfire for your use but if your willing to splash more then the amd 6970 or gtx570 are something to look into to manage.

alot of games will benefit from the performance boost of crossfire or sli but not all will utilise it well. im sure WoW will make fine use of multiple gpu setups but for bf3 i believe it should but the game isnt out yet so dont know, same for cs:go.
 
L

Len

Well-known member
well im looking for a card that'll do 1920x1080 in BF3 at full I Guess, one monitor my budget will be £300 I also can resell my 6870
 
L

Len

Well-known member
I've got a £150 board with special overclock buttons and all the bells and whistles :p

ASUS® CROSSHAIR IV FORMULA: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, R.O GAMERS


It does support it
 
bg92

bg92

Expert
Adding another amd6870 for crossfire will probably be the cheapest upgrade path to improve graphics performance, the 850w psu will definately be fine.
 
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