Time for an upgrade

A

Alan

Honorary Master
Joined
Sep 30, 2005
Messages
62,474
Reaction score
2,588
So I'm looking to upgrade a few key components in the next month or two. I've lost track of what's best to buy.

I'm spending light so hopefully I can keep the cost down to R5000 for a CPU, motherboard and GPU. Not sure if I'll need to change the ram or PSU but I'll make extra funds available for that if need be.

Current system is a E6400, ATI 4850, 450 or 500 watt PSU and DDR2-800MHz Ram.....
 
If you change the motherboard to i5 or AM3 you'll have to upgrade ram as well. That's a fairly tight budget you've got. But you can sell current components, say r900 for the 4850 and r1k for the cpu, mobo and ram. That'll give you another 1900 to add in. Is that what you had in mind?
 
Ooooh, with R1900 more you can do a very decent upgrade.
Phenom 965 / i5 750 + 4gb DDR3 RAM + 5850 = +-R5750
Then you just have to fit a motherboard in.
 
^^^ that would be more or less what you'd want to get as a proper decent upgrade from your current system, to make it worthwhile.
 
Archer said:
Ooooh, with R1900 more you can do a very decent upgrade.
Phenom 965 / i5 750 + 4gb DDR3 RAM + 5850 = +-R5750
Then you just have to fit a motherboard in.
Click to expand...

I'll look into that thank's
 
A 5770 with a quad core is a bit of a mismatch. Not much, but the CPU is by far the stronger component which is not what you want for gaming. But it does come in under the R5k mark
 
r2183/1980
r1186/940
r1831
r1298.30

If you need help with the maths just ask.
 
Intel i5 750 @ R1,777
ASUS P7P55-M @ R1,225
Sapphire 5850@ R 3,019
2 x Kingston ValueRam KVR1333D3N9/2G @ R511each = R1022
Total: R7043

If you can sell your old components for close to 2k then this is the route i'd take.. (i dunno what power supply you got.. if it's a good quality one you could run this on a 450w )
Alternatively you can get a 5770 rather and save cash.. but 5850 all the way..
btw Prices from pcint

Edit: i see archer recommended similar..
 
Last edited:
nakedpeanut said:
Intel i5 750 @ R1,777
ASUS P7P55-M @ R1,225
Sapphire 5850@ R 3,019
2 x Kingston ValueRam KVR1333D3N9/2G @ R511each = R1022
Total: R7043
Click to expand...

that looks about right. Although perhaps only 2gb rams and if possible a cheaper motherboard.

Unfortunately I fear my PSU is starting to die. So I need a new one to run this system. 500Watt should do it but what makes are quality.
 
 
Get a Corsair VX450 (R804), only a little more but much better than the CM extreme power. You could even get the CX400 if you wanted to save a bit.

VX450
CM extreme power 550W
Although some can see Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 550 W as an option if you are not going to pull 550 W from it, we can't recommend this unit, as it burns if you try to pull its rated wattage. Its main technical problem is efficiency, between 73.2% and 77.5%, which would prevent us from recommending this unit even if it could deliver its labeled power.
Click to expand...
 
well,I'd say PH2 X4 AM3 945,4gb Kingston DDR3 RAM and 5850.The ECS board that qwiksilver mentioned isn't that bad.I've got one and it has quite a lot of features to play within the BIOS.I would say that BANG FOR BUCK this setup is worth it.And in the future if you want 6-core CPU on said ECS board you just have to update your BIOS.If I may ask,what are you gonna you use the rig for?
 
kelevra said:
well,I'd say PH2 X4 AM3 945,4gb Kingston DDR3 RAM and 5850.The ECS board that qwiksilver mentioned isn't that bad.I've got one and it has quite a lot of features to play within the BIOS.I would say that BANG FOR BUCK this setup is worth it.And in the future if you want 6-core CPU on said ECS board you just have to update your BIOS.If I may ask,what are you gonna you use the rig for?
Click to expand...

Gaming, specifically Mafia 2, although I'm not a serious gamer demanding highest quality and fps.

Will the PH2 945 bottleneck the 5850? Do I really need to upgrade to DDR3 ram. Will staying with DDR2 seriously bottleneck the machine?

How good is the Gigabyte ODIN 585W 24-Pin Power Supply. Looks a decent price.

Specs looking like this

Gigabyte ODIN 585W 24-Pin Power Supply.
AMD socket AM3 Phenom2 x4, Quad-core 945
MSI 790XT-G45 AM2/AM2+
Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 256-bit


Along with my current DDR2 Ram

Is that a decent balanced system?
 
Should be fine. DDR2 ram is obviously slower, but you'll only really notice in benchmarks. The nice thing about DDR3 is actually the low power draw which means it runs cooler. Then the 945 wont bottelneck the 5850, everything looks good. Not so sure about the PSU though, just check its efficiency (needs to be 80+ certified).
 
Alan said:
Gaming, specifically Mafia 2, although I'm not a serious gamer demanding highest quality and fps.

Will the PH2 945 bottleneck the 5850? Do I really need to upgrade to DDR3 ram. Will staying with DDR2 seriously bottleneck the machine?

How good is the Gigabyte ODIN 585W 24-Pin Power Supply. Looks a decent price.

Specs looking like this

Gigabyte ODIN 585W 24-Pin Power Supply.
AMD socket AM3 Phenom2 x4, Quad-core 945
MSI 790XT-G45 AM2/AM2+
Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 256-bit


Along with my current DDR2 Ram

Is that a decent balanced system?
Click to expand...

Yes it's fine. The 5850 will be matched with the 945. It might bottleneck but only slightly. What's the total cost on that?

BTW can I recommend against the Odin 585s? They have very poor number of cables and I had a nearly new one blow on me with just a 260 recently. Worthwhile to go a bit extra.
 
Last edited:
cerebus said:
Yes it's fine. The 5850 will be matched with the 945. It might bottleneck but only slightly. What's the total cost on that?

BTW can I recommend against the Odin 585s? They have very poor number of cables and I had a nearly new one blow on me with just a 260 recently. Worthwhile to go a bit extra.
Click to expand...

It's because it's a 460watt unit. That's why the Odin GT 550watt is double the price.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X