Need to start upgrading my PC

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MaximusZA

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Hi Guys,

I am looking for a little advice. i need to start the process of upgrading my current PC. i wish i could do it all at once but until i win the lotto thats not going to happen. i use the PC for gaming mostly and internet surfing. dont use it at all for work. my current setup is as follows:

Graphics card: Asus HD4870 512mb (budget max: R4000)
Memory(RAM): 1x 4gb corsair XMS DDR2 1066MHz (budget max R1000)
HD: 1 x Seagate Baracuda - 1TB (budget max R1000)
CPU: Intel Core 2 duo E7600 - 3.06GHz (budget max R3000)
Motherboard: Asus P5Q SE2 (budget max R2500)
PSU: Raidmax RX730 watt (budget i actually have no idea how much PSU's cost these days)
Screen: Samung 2033sw (20" wide) (budget max R2500)

everyone is always going on on about the better the graphics card the better the game perfomance, but dont want to go spend R3500 on a graphics card to find i dont have the power supply for it or my CPU is causing a bottle neck.

Any advice would be great.
sorry forgot to put in a budget... its been added :)
thanks a Million,
Maximus
 
Last edited:
Well you left out a critical part.. what is your budget?

I can recommend a few things here and there, but I need to know how much I am playing with.

That Raidmax PSU you have, is it the modular one? Those are very good PSU's. So you can spend R3500 on a graphic card and it will handle it no problem.

Rest of the stuff looks OK. From there you would switch over to an Intel 1155 platform. But again, depends on your budget.
 
Jeesh, for a budget like that you can get a pretty hectic PC.

Core i5 2500k ~ R2k
CPU Cooler ~ R300
P67/Z68 motherboard (eg. MSI P67A-C43 ~ R1200) ~ R1200 - R2000
2x 4GB DDR3 1600MHz 1.5V RAM ~ R800 * If you don't need as much, you can probably go for 2x 2GB too, because 4GB more than enough for most people
MSI HD6870 Hawk ~ R1900
Now you can keep your HDD, case, PSU & screen, but you'd probably want to upgrade your screen to a full HD 23" one.
 
I did a quote for a client today for a R15k PC.

Gonna try and remember what it was.
 
Okay.

I vaguely remember what I did.

Board : Gigabyte Z68-UD3 - R2150 (I think)
Chip : i7 2600k - R2999
RAM : Kingston Hyper X Blu Genesis. Matched kit of 8 GB RAM - 4 GB Modules - R925
Case : CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced - R1 295
Graphics : Gigabyte GTX 570 - R3 999

Prices are from my retail prices. Can probably find it cheaper.

For the screen, can get anything that suits your fancy really. Most popular is 23" to 24" LED. LG or Samsung.

Can keep your PSU. Really strong PSU that one.
 
Keeping the PSU is not a problem, it hasnt given me a hint of problems. i was looking at the GTX 570 and the ATI HD6970; question regarding these though. i know the GTX 6 series and ATI 7000 series is not far off, do i wait for them? also what do i start with?
 
Well, difficult to say. There's always a newer generation around the corner. If you keep on waiting you'd wait forever.

I'd say start off with the case and then graphics card. At least you can put your existing system and use the graphics card in your current setup.

The rest of the stuff should drop in price as you buy it up.
 
Glad to have been of assistance :D

I guess we could, but it'd be cheaper getting from a CPT shop or ordering online from say Prophecy or Landmark or Zaps to be honest.
 
MaximusZA said:
Keeping the PSU is not a problem, it hasnt given me a hint of problems. i was looking at the GTX 570 and the ATI HD6970; question regarding these though. i know the GTX 6 series and ATI 7000 series is not far off, do i wait for them? also what do i start with?
Click to expand...

The 7 series is due around the 4th quarter or early q1 2012.

If you can hang on you should because they look insane. For now get a 6950 though. Good card and will tide you over. Fairly cheap as well.
 
killadoob said:
The 7 series is due around the 4th quarter or early q1 2012.

If you can hang on you should because they look insane. For now get a 6950 though. Good card and will tide you over. Fairly cheap as well.
Click to expand...

I bet you that only the 7970 and 7950 will be available and they will be about R 6000 and R4500 respectively if they are the fastest. And they will only arrive here 2 moths after the world launch.
The 6950 is a very Good GPU and good value for money
 
killadoob said:
The 7 series is due around the 4th quarter or early q1 2012.

If you can hang on you should because they look insane. For now get a 6950 though. Good card and will tide you over. Fairly cheap as well.
Click to expand...

GeOgre said:
I bet you that only the 7970 and 7950 will be available and they will be about R 6000 and R4500 respectively if they are the fastest. And they will only arrive here 2 moths after the world launch.
The 6950 is a very Good GPU and good value for money
Click to expand...

AMD is confident of having a launch this year still on the HD7xxx. Expect to wait a month for reasonable stock levels in SA. Cant see price being above R5000 for either, dont know where you pulled that from, much more likely to be R3-4.5k.
 
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