Upgrading advice

[Danwar]

Hello everyone

Im about to go ahead and place an order to upgrade my pc but i need your feedback , so im sure that i won't be making any errors or ordering something thats just not worth ordering.

I am on a limited budget so i will keep my SATA Hard drives , DVD , LCD , Mouse, KB and tower , but i will be replacing everything else.

Heres what i have come up with

http://secure.newegg.com/WishL...hList.aspx?ChangeQty=0

In case the above link doesnt work , heres the breakdown:
CPU - Amd Phenom II X4 955

MB - Asus M4A79XTD EVO AM3 790X

HIS Radeon HD 4890 1GB

RAM - Crucial 6GB DDR3 1333

Power Supply - OCZ 600W


What would you guys change? im trying not to go over $700 by a whole lot , right now all of that comes up to around $650 (the wish list won't let me add combos to it so it shows as $690 on it , but im my cart it comes up to roughly $650 so i may have a little over 50 spare. )

Thanks in advance to anyone that responds

 

[philosofool]

For the amount of money that you are spending, I think you will be able to do a Core i5 system instead. The LGA 1156 is supposed to debut tomorrow, and, if the rumors are to be believed, we're going to see microATX boards at about $100 and ATX boards at $125. You might eat a little of that $50 you have left, but I think you can do it. We'll have to wait until tomorrow to know the exact pricing, but I would be seriously apprehensive about going AMD over Intel. So, if you can wait one day, I would.

Also, if you're getting a CrossFire board, you should probably do two radeon HD 4850 1GB in crossfire rather than the 4890. That would cost you about $8 more after MIRs, and will definitely have a serious performance edge. Your PSU is perfectly capable of it.

 

[alyarb]

furthermore, what resolution do you run your games at? a $150 radeon 4870 is probably more than adequate, whereas the $200 4890 is a little on the excessive side. better to get a cheap GPU just to get you by in the short term so that you can upgrade to R800-generation radeons in a couple months (faster, cheaper, lower power, + several new APIs). I would get the cheapest GPU you can stomach for the time being, invest the money into P55 as it is a faster, cheaper, lower power, superior platform, and then get yourself a performance GPU when the new ones are out. also, i do not like OCZ power supplies. stick with antec, enermax, corsair, pc power and cooling, or seasonic. OCZ gives you the impression that you are getting a hefty power supply for a cheap price. the reality is that you get only a cheap power supply for a cheap price.


i also disagree that 4850's in crossfire are superior to a single 4890. the enormous disparity in energy usage is not at all worth the slight performance gain you would get, and crossfire doesn't work well in *every* game so occasionally you'll find yourself with the equivalent single-GPU performance. once again, as soon as you tell us your monitor's resolution and if high filters are a must for you, we'll be able to advise better on that decision. If you are looking for a ~$120 motherboard with a $200 CPU, however, P55+i5 is your best bet.

 

[Danwar]

i have a 20' (or it migth be 22, lol cant remember) westinghouse LCD with a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 so thats the resolution ill be shooting for.

hmm i had no idea the Core i5 was releasing tomorrow, gonna have to keep an eye out for reviews & benchmarks then. I know the Core i7 is the king right now but way out of my budget, itll be interesting to see if the i5 would measure up against the Phenom II X4 as far as price/performance ratio.

 

[alyarb]

if you're at 1680x1050 i definitely recommend you just get a 4870 512MB or 4850 and just save your money for ~christmas time.

 

[philosofool]

Originally posted by: Danwar
i have a 20' (or it migth be 22, lol cant remember) westinghouse LCD with a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 so thats the resolution ill be shooting for.

hmm i had no idea the Core i5 was releasing tomorrow, gonna have to keep an eye out for reviews & benchmarks then. I know the Core i7 is the king right now but way out of my budget, itll be interesting to see if the i5 would measure up against the Phenom II X4 as far as price/performance ratio.

It's going to be a big surprise if the Core i5 doesn't standout from the Phenom II X4. Early, possibly misleading, rumors suggest that in non-multithreaded applicaitons, it compares well to the Core i7 920, and not terribly worse than in multithreaded ones. (But only tomorrow will tell.) Moreover, LGA 1156 will begin its life in the computer market tomorrow, which means that in two years, there will be a very good (32nm) processor that you can pop into that socket and get a considerable upgrade. AM3 seems more limited to me; it is older and really only a variation on the AM2 socket of many years ago. Core i5 should start around $375 for a microATX board or $400 for full ATX. Again, tomorrow will tell.

Update: Core i5 750 owns everything even remotely close in price. See http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...ts/showdoc.aspx?i=3634

 

[Danwar]

im so glad i came here and started this thread, you guys have shown me the light

i'm very impressed with the benchmark results of the i5,

and i guess you guys are right ill just go ahead and get a 4850 (maybe even 4870) and then just wait for the 5xxx series and think about upgrading then if i feel the need.

thanks a lot