What's that? Another upgrade thread?

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Kasyx

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I guess this isn't really an upgrade so much as it is a completely new system. Here's what I am looking at purchasing:

Intel Core i5 750
Asus P7P55D LE motherboard
2x 4GB DDR3-1600
Raidmax Smilodon Black Chassis

Right now I am debating the graphics card and PSU.

Once upgraded, my rig will consist of the following:

Intel Core i5 750
Asus P7P55D LE
2x 4GB DDR3-1600
Raidmax Smilodon Black Chassis wt. 5 LED case fans
160GB SATA hdd
500GB SATA hdd
1TB SATA hdd
300GB PATA hdd
250GB Seagate Free Agent GO External hdd (USB-powered)

I'm not sure what sort of power I would require, I checked it out on one of the online PSU calculators and it seems I will require roughly 400Watts. I'm looking into the Gigabyte Odin 585, as well as the CoolerMaster eXtreme 650W. Ideally, I want to spend as little on a PSU as possible whilst still ensuring I have a large watt overhead, however, I would also like a PSU with modular cables.

In terms of a graphics card, I'm looking at one of the ATI HD series as they seem to be cheaper and consume less power than nVidia cards, unless someone can persuade me otherwise.

Budget wise, I have around R3000 to divvy up between the PSU and the graphics card. I was originally drawn to the HD5770 for DX11, however the 128bitness of it saddens me - I would ideally like a 1GB/2GB card with 256bit bandwidth, possibly the HD4890 or 4870. I have a 22" monitor, so I would like to run my games at 1680x1051 at decent FPS.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

tl;dr version: I have R3000 to spend on a PSU and graphics card - what do I get to best compliment a Core i5 750 setup?
 
Get a 5770. The card performs like the 4870 with Dx11. Or you could xfire two 5750s and get a proper power supply like a cooler master or corsair.
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know the P55 chipset does not play well with crossfire as there are just not enough lanes to the CPU from the PCI-E slots, also on the aforementioned motherboard, the PCI-Express slots are x16 and x4. Other than that, I would love to go with a crossfire setup, although it is probably a bit out of my budget. Let me go so far as to state that, if a crossfire setup would not be heavily affected by the issues mentioned above, I would definitely look into buying a second gfx card in a month or two.
 
I've never heard of Club 3D, hence why I didn't consider any of their products. Are they decent? My only issue with the 5770 is the 128bit memory interface - I would prefer going with 256bit as I am unlikely to go with crossfire any time soon...
 
Club 3D is a decent make. Nothing wrong with them at all. The 5770 is around 2% slower than a 4870, with some overclocking it can beat a 4870 by up to 12%. So 128bit interface isn't really an issue. ;) Those cards are beasts for their price. It uses very little power and it runs cool compared to a 4870.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5770-review-test/14
 
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So let me work out some pros and cons for taking the 5770 over the 4890:

Pros:

DX11
Price
Runs cooler
Less power-hungry

Cons:

Requires overclocking to out-perform the 4870
128bit memory interface

I will check out that review when I some international bandwidth :(

Thanks for all the help so far
 
Also, the HD5770 requires a minimum of 450W.Would I be safe in going with a 600W PSU?
 
Well what are you going to be using the PC for? If gaming, I'd get the 4890. I mean even now, a year and a half after the release of the dx 10 cards, there's still hardly any dx 10 games, unless I've missed all of them :/
 
Stickfigure said:
Well what are you going to be using the PC for? If gaming, I'd get the 4890. I mean even now, a year and a half after the release of the dx 10 cards, there's still hardly any dx 10 games, unless I've missed all of them :/
Click to expand...

The PC will be used predominantly for gaming - Left 4 Dead, MW2, ARMA2, etc.

I'm trying to future-proof as much as possible, wanting to only have to do minimal annual upgrades for as long as I can, hence why I thought it prudent to go with the 5770, but I do see your point, although the 4890 is around R400 more than the 5770, so I am still sitting on the fence :(
 
4890's use a fair amount of power and run hot. Atleast with a 5770, you can crossfire them at a later stage and it equals the performance of a 5870. So you're getting 5870 performance for R3400, while 5870's are R4500-5200.

4890's aren't really practical for Xfire imo, they run to hot to crossfire them.

5770 is still more practical.

You'll be more than ok with a 600W PSU Kasyx. I was running a AMD Phenom 9950 OC and a 4870, 3 SATA HDD's, 4Gbs of RAM on a 650W. When you use that calculator you'll see roughly how much your PC is using.


When I had my 4870's in XFire, Phenom II OC 3.8Ghz, 3 HDD's and the whole tooty, I was only using roughly 620W/750W's under load so you'll be fine.

I highly recommend this Corsair PSU. http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/corsair-hx650w-eps12v-modular-cable-management-650w-p-3590.html.
 
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Stickfigure said:
Well what are you going to be using the PC for? If gaming, I'd get the 4890. I mean even now, a year and a half after the release of the dx 10 cards, there's still hardly any dx 10 games, unless I've missed all of them :/
Click to expand...

That's because people hated vista and dx10 was vista only. Now that win7 is out things will be much better.
 
Stickfigure said:
Well what are you going to be using the PC for? If gaming, I'd get the 4890. I mean even now, a year and a half after the release of the dx 10 cards, there's still hardly any dx 10 games, unless I've missed all of them :/
Click to expand...

Get the 5770... DX 11 will be used unlike DX10

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/uk-directx-dirt-2/58054

^Its a bit like physics with less of a performance blow (least thats what I think)

I was a tiny bit unconvinced until i saw that benchmark that comes with the sapphire cards running DX11.
 
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So if I go with the 5770, taking into consideration my aforementioned new rig, would I be alright going with the Gigabyte Odin 585W?
 
You would be fine but I'd recommend getting something a little higher for future upgrades.
 
Tero said:
You would be fine but I'd recommend getting something a little higher for future upgrades.
Click to expand...

A good point indeed! Hadn't considered that, especially if I want to go with two 5770s in crossfire at some point. You think I would be okay with the CoolerMaster eXtreme Power 650W?
 
Well if I'm not mistaken Crossfire needs a min of 600W, You should be fine with a 650W, But I think in all honesty, buy your graphics card, run it on your current PSU and save up for say a Gigabyte Odin 720W, They're about R1000 and you won't have to upgrade it for a long time.

Although I'm sure you won't use more than 500W under full load so 650W should be more than ok.

That's just my 2c and I find it a lot better to save, buy bigger and save money by not having to spend more upgrading later down the line.
 
I'd really like to do that, but unfortunately I am stuck with having to buy a graphics card and PSU at the same time as my current PSU does not have a 6-pin PCI-E connector :(
 
Sweet. But the issue runs deeper.

My current system:

Gigabyte LGA775 motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz CPU
1,5GB DDR2-533 RAM
Asus EN9400GT 1GB
160GB SATA
500GB SATA
1TB SATA
300GB PATA
SATA DVD-RW/CD-RW

My current PSU is a 400W no name brand. I had to remove the 300GB PATA drive simply to stop my PC from turning itself off randomly :(
 
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