Your thoughts on this upgrade...

[LiengLiengZA]

Morning people,


As the title states my boet has this rig currently:

Zotac 775 mobo
E2200 2.2Ghz CPU
ECS 1GB 9500GT GPU
80GB HDD Samsung SATA 2
320GB WD HDD SATA 2
Transcend 2GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM
Gigabyte Odin 585w PSU

Now knowing this is as old as you can get,he gave me a budget of R6000 and asked me to check whether I can get him a rig.The old rig he used for music and gaming.

So this is what I came up with:

Cooler Master Elite 344, Mini Tower with USB 3 Case
Intel Core i3-2120, 3.3GHz, LGA1155 CPU
Sapphire HD7850, 1GB 256bit 4 channel DDR5 GPU
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARX, 1TB/1000GB, SATA6G HDD
Corsair CMV4GX3M2A1333C9 , value select , 2Gb x 2 kit , DDR3-1333Mhz RAM
ASUS P8H61-M LX R2.0 - all-in-one LGA1155 Motherboard
LG GH24NS90, 24x SATA Drive
Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus, 500w PSU

I went and did home work on the PSU for what I chose but your thoughts and input would help a lot.

I showed him the rig and and he looks doubtful but I assured him this rig would be lightyears better than
what he has got especially for gaming.

 

[Netar]

WD Green - I hope he's not planning on using that as a system drive, because that will be dirt slow. Either go WD Black/Blue or an SSD.
i3-2120 - compared with that graphics card, this CPU is underpowered.
2Gb x 2 kit , DDR3-1333Mhz RAM - Memory is dirt cheap. Get 2x4GB.

If your budget is R6000, why not re-use the old 320GB hard drive and the old PSU?

 

[LiengLiengZA]

you think it will create bottleneck with CPU ang GPU?
He is selling rig as unit to his friend so his not gonna keep WD 320 and PSU.
I'm also thinking 8GB route on RAM.
He is getting SSD next week for OS system.

 

[Tim the Techxpert]

Hi There,
I wouldn't want to risk a bottleneck so up the processor a bit.
Increase the Ram as has been said it is cheap these days.

Regards

Tim

PS I still have a Celeron 2.2GHz in daily use and a dual Xeon server running all day so I think my technology pre-dates your brothers

 

[CataclysmZA]

The i3 won't bottleneck the HD7850, so you're pretty much covered there. For R6k, this is what I would build:

Intel Core i3-3220 @ R1268
MSI H61M-P31 @ R454
TEAM Xtreem Dark DDR3-1600 4GB @ R200
EVGA GTX660 Superclocked 2GB DDR5 @ R2649
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB @ R657
LG GH24NS90 24x DVD-RW @ R163
GIGABYTE PoweRock 400W 80Plus Bronze @ R361
Cooler Master Elite 344 @ R317

Total: R6069

Before anyone shouts, the Powerock is a CWT design and is closer to the Antec 380W Green PSU we were all fond of when you could still buy one locally. This rig would be fast enough for just about any game out there. Overclocking capability is limited to just the GPU, but with Nvidia's Boost there's almost no reason to try it anyway.

 

[ponder]

This rig would be fast enough for just about any game out there.

Aren't there some games requiring quad cores these days?

 

[cerebus]

Aren't there some games requiring quad cores these days?

Nothing requires a quad core. Some games certainly benefit from it though.

I couldn't ever recommend a 400w psu for a 660 gaming rig.
I also don't think 4gb is adequate these days.
But... in all fairness there isn't much else you can do to cut down on that rig. The bottleneck if it exists will be very small, and graphics cards are supremely important in gaming performance.

 

[Netar]

The i3 won't bottleneck the HD7850

It will with some titles. Over the next 2 - 3 years that number will steadily grow.

 

[CataclysmZA]

Aren't there some games requiring quad cores these days?

Some, but they're mostly limited to multiplayer since that requires the most beef. There are exceptions like Skyrim, for example, that benefit from a quad-core even though its a single-player offline experience. Since most games are GPU-limited and OP can upgrade later if its required, I think its a fair enough rig to start off with. With an extra grand to the budget I'd definitely recommend a quad, though.

It will with some titles. Over the next 2 - 3 years that number will steadily grow.

A HD7850 isn't powerful enough to be bottlenecked by a Core i3. Since most games are GPU-dependant when you're tackling the single-player campaigns, its a moot point anyway.

I couldn't ever recommend a 400w psu for a 660 gaming rig.
I also don't think 4gb is adequate these days.

All things considered, a GTX660 uses a single 6-pin PEG connector and has a maximum TDP of 150W. Together with the i3 at stock clocks, during heavy gaming power consumption shouldn't exceed 240W. 4GB RAM is also enough for everything these days and is merely the baseline. 8GB would be more welcome but OP has a tight budget to work with.

 

[Netar]

A HD7850 isn't powerful enough to be bottlenecked by a Core i3.

4GB RAM is also enough for everything these days and is merely the baseline. 8GB would be more welcome but OP has a tight budget to work with.

Confirmed for not knowing what you're talking about. An i3 most certainly bottlenecks an HD7850. The 7850 is an insanely powerful graphics card. A 7770 is more on par with an i3, and the 7850 offers nearly double the performance of a 7770.

Memory is extremely cheap these days. The only reason for buying 4GB now is if you're stuck using a 32-bit OS.

As for the power supply, I really don't recommend 400w if you're getting a high or mid range graphics card. Go for at least 550w.

 

[Pada]

Netar, the Ivy Bridge i3's are pretty powerful.

If you're going to be playing on Full HD at high detail, then an i3 won't bottleneck the HD7850. If you're going to be playing something like BF3 multiplayer, then the i3 will most certainly be the bottleneck.

A decent 450W PSU would be more than enough for an HD7850 + i5, unless you're going to be overclocking both like more than 20%.

Lastly, NAG - Wesley knows more than most when it comes to computer hardware - so I don't know where you got that first statement of yours from!

 

[Nameite]

I think the rig is good, though i would also feel safer with a psu like a seventeam or corsair 430w - 500w...great PSUs. Had some bad experiences with Coolermaster extreme before...they just die so quickly

And +1 on 8G ram...

not sure how it will impact the cost though..could he squeeze in a little more?

 

[CataclysmZA]

Confirmed for not knowing what you're talking about. An i3 most certainly bottlenecks an HD7850. The 7850 is an insanely powerful graphics card. A 7770 is more on par with an i3, and the 7850 offers nearly double the performance of a 7770.

Oh, right, clearly you know so much more than I do Go on then, you show me your proof and I'll show you mine. At 1080p and on maximum settings in a single-player environment, the i3 won't bottleneck a HD7850. In multi-player environments like Battlefield 3, in titles like Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, DiRT Showdown with Global Illumination turned on and The Witcher 2 with everything turned on, or at higher resolutions like 2560 x 1440, then I'd concede that a stronger quad-core is needed because it definitely does help. Otherwise, its definitely strong enough in every other game to run at high settings, its even referred to in the same vein as the legendary Core 2 Duo E8400 which was occasionally paired with high-end cards like the GTX285 (and I know two people who have an E8400 with a HD7850 and they have zero issues).

Memory is extremely cheap these days. The only reason for buying 4GB now is if you're stuck using a 32-bit OS

So if you can't afford 8GB, that's not a valid reason?

As for the power supply, I really don't recommend 400w if you're getting a high or mid range graphics card. Go for at least 550w.

You really, really don't need a power supply larger than 450W delivering at least 400W on the 12v rails to power a GTX660 or a HD7850. Honestly, unless you're planning to pop in a second card later down the line, a good, 80-Plus Bronze-rated 450W PSU is all you need for a mid-range build with a mid-range GPU sporting a single 6-pin PEG connector. Besides, there's a Core i3 thrown in there. The only thing you can overclock is the GPU and the RAM, that's it.