Upgrading my current machine...

[ChiefyWombat]

A friend has just pointed me at this forum as a great place for opinions and tips on build specs.

My current build is as listed:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

AMD FD4170FRGUBOX FX-4170 Processor - Quad Core, 8MB L3 Cache, 4MB L2 Cache, 4.20GHz (4.30GHz Max Turbo), Socket AM3+, 125W, Fan, Unlocked, Retail

Corsair CML8GX3M2A1600C9 Vengeance LP Desktop Memory Kit - 8GB (2x 4GB), PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 CAS Latency, 240-pin DIMM, 1.5V, Unbuffered, Intel XMP Ready

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AMD 9 Series Motherboard - ATX, Socket AM3+, AMD 990FX Chipset, 2000MHz DDR3 (O.C.), SATA 6.0 Gb/s, RAID, 7.1-CH Audio, Gigabit LAN, SuperSpeed USB 3.0, CrossFireX/SLI Ready

OCZ OCZ-ZT550W ZT Series ATX Modular Power Supply - 550W, 80 Plus Bronze, 140mm Fan, Active PFC

Toshiba HDKPC03 DT01ACA100 1TB Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200 RPM, SATA, 3.5"

Thermaltake V3 Black Edition Mid Tower Case - ATX, Micro ATX, 120mm LED Fan, 4x 5.25 Bays, 5x 3.5 Bays

XFX Double D Geforce GT 630 GT630NCDF2 Video Card - 2GB, DDR3, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), 1x Dual-link DVI-I, 1x VGA, 1x HDMI, DirectX 11, Low Profile, Dual-Slot

And the following is my criteria per this thread

(1) The most intensive thign this system will be doing is gaming, it's a gaming machine that I do graphic design and software development on. What I have now is more than necessary for the GD and dev work. I wanna beef up the gaming portion.

(2) My budget is flexible with a cap at around $500

(3) My country is USA

(4) n/a

(5) I prefer AMD, I am currently running a NVidia card but I'm looking towards an AMD Radeon card

(6) I'm looking to upgrade the GPU, and if absolutely necessary the CPU as well though if the CPU is fine where it stands then mainly the GPU. Currently I'm using the stock heatsink and fan with my current CPU but I'm recieving this in the mail in a few weeks (ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2, CPU Cooler - Intel & AMD, Multi-Directional Mount, 92mm PWM Fan)

(7) I have no plans at overclocking the system for now

(8) 1920x1080

(9) Within a months time


Here is the card I'm looking at now

GIGABYTE GV-R927XOC-2GD Radeon R9 270X 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

And here is the CPU i was considering

AMD FD8350FRHKBOX FX-8350 FX-Series 8-Core Black Edition


So... have at me

 

[Torn Mind]

The GT 630 is a weak piece of hardware designed for HD video playback and extremely light gaming in mind; it was never meant for demanding gaming. You have the right idea, but the card you linked to is out of stock right now.

 

[ChiefyWombat]

Yeah, I have it setup to notify me as soon as it comes available... I'm open to other cards but want to be able to run Metro:LL which at this time I can run it at mid-low settings enjoyably on the GT 630

 

[Ken g6]

If you have no plans to OC the GPU, then you don't need one with lots of good fans unless you're really concerned about noise. How about this 270x from HIS, which is pre-OCed even higher than the Gigabyte for the same price?

The other thing you could do is wait and see if the [thread=2361202]cryptocoin bubble[/thread] pops - at which point you might be able to fit a used 280x or 7970 in your budget.

 

[Cerb]

$500? Get the R9 270X, and reload Windows on a brand new SSD. Your CPU may not be great, but for the money, a video card will get you many times more added performance than a drop-in CPU upgrade will, unless all you do is benchmark Crysis 3 all day long.

 

[mfenn]

$500? Get the R270X, and reload Windows on a brand new SSD. Your CPU may not be great, but for the money, a video card will get you many times more added performance than a drop-in CPU upgrade will, unless all you do is benchmark Crysis 3 all day long..

Agree. Specifically:

PowerColor R9 270X $210
Crucial M500 240GB $150
Total: $350

You actually have the budget to go even higher on the GPU, up to the GTX 770. You'd be looking at a serious CPU bottleneck at that point though.

 

[lehtv]

The Powercolor 270X is $210 + $6 shipping. SuperBiiz has Sapphire 270X DualX OC for $224 shipped and in stock according to the site, I would get that one if buying a 270X.

However I really don't see the point of spending so much on the GPU, the FX-4170 is not that fast. I would probably pair it with Asus GTX 660 $186 AR shipped or HIS R9 270 IceQ X2 $186 shipped. Or I would skip the SSD and upgrade the CPU to i5-4570 + Asrock B85 Pro4 $263, along with the Sapphire 270X.

 

[ChiefyWombat]

These are all GREAT suggestions, I'm actually looking into the Intel cpu's now, as I've just witnessed an older i5 out do my current amd.... which tells me intel i5's-i7's are a better route to go.

Also, the reason i was going with the gigabyte model was because I had read reviews that the other models had trouble with overheating but that the triple fans on the gigabyte doesn't have trouble with heat and sits a few degrees below the other models in idle and during an intensive payload.

btw thank you to everyone that took the time to reply.

 

[lehtv]

Also, the reason i was going with the gigabyte model was because I had read reviews that the other models had trouble with overheating but that the triple fans on the gigabyte doesn't have trouble with heat and sits a few degrees below the other models in idle and during an intensive payload.

None of the cards overheat, not even the reference models. The GPU is designed to handle high temperatures without trouble. The difference is that, comapred to reference cooling, a third party cooling solution from Gigabyte, Sapphire, Asus etc. allows the card to operate much quieter without getting hot, which allows for a higher overclocking potential at the expense of noise and heat.

Also, based on what I've read, Gigabyte's triple fan cooler isn't actually any better than the dual fan coolers from Asus and MSI, for instance. I don't expect Sapphire's cooling to be worse at least not enough to really matter, they had some of the best coolers in the HD 7000 generation. The price on the Gigabyte 270X is good, but the thing is, Sapphire is the one actually in stock.

 

[ChiefyWombat]

So I'm checking out the Sapphire 270x and I noticed this:

(1) Sapphire DUAL-X AMD Radeon R9 270x Mfr Part Number: 11217-01-20G

(2) Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 270x Mfr Part Number: 11217-01-25G

Those are two diferent links, two different cards as the part numbers show.... but HERE the Mfr Part Number: 11217-01-25G says it has the DUAL-X technology but not the Vapor-X technology. Other than that the weight is the only difference besides the second has the latest drivers and is .5 lbs heavier. I'm actually confused as to which I should buy???

 

[mfenn]

The only difference is that the 11217-01-25G is bundled with BF4 whereas the 11217-01-20G is not. Since the BF4 bundled card is less expensive and comes with a free game, you might as well get that one.

 

[ChiefyWombat]

Ok so far I'm eyeing these items for my upgrade:

Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell 3.2GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54570

ASRock B85 Pro4 LGA 1150 Intel B85 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2, CPU Cooler - Intel & AMD, Multi-Directional Mount, 92mm PWM Fan

Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 270X OC 2GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card w/ Boost & Battlefield 4 Edition

Sadly the combo deal is over so I'll need to purchase the CPU and MB separate.

 

[mfenn]

Looks good to me. :thumbsup: The Freezer 7 Pro works great for stock clocks, which is what you're limited to on this build anyway.