Updated the thread with the new benchmarks, seems like a whole bunch came out really fast.
As well as updated the $500 and $750 systems. A lot of power for not much money. Changed the $500 system quite a bit, now has some decent gaming power.
Updated the thread with the new benchmarks, seems like a whole bunch came out really fast.
As well as updated the $500 and $750 systems. A lot of power for not much money. Changed the $500 system quite a bit, now has some decent gaming power.
I'd suggest the Trinity 5800k for the $500 build. Only $10 more, very similar CPU performance to the 4300 but the integrated GPU is a massive improvement over the mobo's onboard GPU.
I'd suggest the Trinity 5800k for the $500 build. Only $10 more, very similar CPU performance to the 4300 but the integrated GPU is a massive improvement over the mobo's onboard GPU.
Good call, done. I remember checking that out around the time Llano came out and didn't think it was worth it, Trinity is fast enough. Also upgraded it to 1866mhz memory, APU's love fast RAM.
One thing that continues to baffle me though is why motherboards are more expensive in Canada. Everything else seems about the same.
I've been thinking about upgrading my motherboard so I can run more RAM on it as I am a heavy gamer and I also use it for photo, vector, and publishing work.
Right now my specs are:
i7-2600K(LGA 1155 socket)
Gigabyte HD 7950 card
Corsair GS 600watt power supply
1TB of memory and then a 500GB backup drive installed
I have an Asus CG8350(with obvious upgrades). The stock board is installed but it is capped at 8GB of RAM, which I am currently at, and am looking to upgrade to a newer board and a minimum of 16GB of RAM.
Any thoughts on what motherboards would be good for me?
I've been thinking about upgrading my motherboard so I can run more RAM on it as I am a heavy gamer and I also use it for photo, vector, and publishing work.
Right now my specs are:
i7-2600K(LGA 1155 socket)
Gigabyte HD 7950 card
Corsair GS 600watt power supply
1TB of memory and then a 500GB backup drive installed
I have an Asus CG8350(with obvious upgrades). The stock board is installed but it is capped at 8GB of RAM, which I am currently at, and am looking to upgrade to a newer board and a minimum of 16GB of RAM.
Any thoughts on what motherboards would be good for me?
Is your current RAM 2x4gb or 4x2gb? Also what speed is it?
Any overclocking interest? If not pretty much any board will work.
Are you sure your board is maxed out? If you are out of slots just start upgrading to 4gb or 8gb chips. RAM is cheap so that's probably the way to go. Most boards only have 4 slots anyway so upgrading it won't help much.
See if there is a model# on the board, it might already support up to 32GB.
Was going to reformat my computer and install windows 7 (have XP) and do a slight upgrade but now I am pondering starting from scratch.
Is there anything from my current system that is worth keeping? Aiming for a mid-to-high gaming computer and any advice would be appreciated!
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GZ
RAM: 4GB single channel DDR2 OCZ Ram (two sticks room for two more)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512GB (obviously want to change this)
Motherboard: ASUSTek P5E Deluxe (SLI capable)
Well, you could give yourself a big boost with a new video card as you mentioned. A 7850 1gb or a 660 GTX would be a great drop in upgrade and make that system pretty usable. A few CPU limited games will give you some trouble. If you are willing to get a cooler and overclock that CPU to like 3.5 GHZ it would help too.
For a full upgrade though, everything else basically has to go. It's DDR2 so the RAM is now obsolete, you'll need to go either LGA 1155 or Socket AM3+ on the motherboard. What kind of power supply do you have?
Are you sure your board is maxed out? If you are out of slots just start upgrading to 4gb or 8gb chips. RAM is cheap so that's probably the way to go. Most boards only have 4 slots anyway so upgrading it won't help much.
See if there is a model# on the board, it might already support up to 32GB.
I ran a crucial scan and it came back saying that my board can support up to 32GB of RAM.
Memory Type: DDR3 PC3-10600, DDR3 PC3-12800, DDR3 PC3-14900, DDR3 (non-ECC)
Maximum Memory: 32GB
Currently Installed Memory: 8GB
Total Memory Slots: 4
Available Memory Slots: 0
I am relatively new to PC building(outside of the simple stuff like dropping in a graphics card) so I'm unsure about which memory types are better for what I'm looking to do(graphic design work, gaming).
I ran a crucial scan and it came back saying that my board can support up to 32GB of RAM.
Memory Type: DDR3 PC3-10600, DDR3 PC3-12800, DDR3 PC3-14900, DDR3 (non-ECC)
Maximum Memory: 32GB
Currently Installed Memory: 8GB
Total Memory Slots: 4
Available Memory Slots: 0
I am relatively new to PC building(outside of the simple stuff like dropping in a graphics card) so I'm unsure about which memory types are better for what I'm looking to do(graphic design work, gaming).
You likely won't notice a difference between any of those speeds. You also don't need 16GB for gaming, but depending on what kind of graphic design work you're doing it may be useful.
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I picked up a used HD6850 off my local craigslist for $40. Can't complain, especially when I found a sucker who took the HD5830 off my hands for $55.
You likely won't notice a difference between any of those speeds. You also don't need 16GB for gaming, but depending on what kind of graphic design work you're doing it may be useful.
I am relatively new to PC building(outside of the simple stuff like dropping in a graphics card) so I'm unsure about which memory types are better for what I'm looking to do(graphic design work, gaming).
The link from Benny would work, pretty much any DDR3 1333 and above on Intel is good to go. Check this article out if you want to see some comparisons, and how little difference it makes.
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I picked up a used HD6850 off my local craigslist for $40. Can't complain, especially when I found a sucker who took the HD5830 off my hands for $55.
Good score, I just sold my 6950 on craigslist for $135. If you can manage to find another one, crossfire 6850's for +/-$80 would be pretty fast
Well, you could give yourself a big boost with a new video card as you mentioned. A 7850 1gb or a 660 GTX would be a great drop in upgrade and make that system pretty usable. A few CPU limited games will give you some trouble. If you are willing to get a cooler and overclock that CPU to like 3.5 GHZ it would help too.
For a full upgrade though, everything else basically has to go. It's DDR2 so the RAM is now obsolete, you'll need to go either LGA 1155 or Socket AM3+ on the motherboard. What kind of power supply do you have?
I can't for the life of me find any identifying marks on the power supply other than the brand (tough power). Does my CPU plug into any of the builds you have set up have decently?
I can't for the life of me find any identifying marks on the power supply other than the brand (tough power). Does my CPU plug into any of the builds you have set up have decently?
No, there are basically no parts usable from your current system except the hard drives, case and maybe power supply. It's all 3 gens behind.
I think your best option is to add a video card to your current system and see if that makes you happy. And if not, finish off the upgrade with everything else.
If you can't see what your PSU is, you may need to unscrew it and look on the other side. Tough power is a line from thermaltake, but their PSU's are all over the map. Need to confirm what it is.
EDIT: Just to add though, one thing you may not have considered is selling your old stuff on ebay. Q9xxx CPU's are worth some good money on ebay. You could almost buy a mainstream intel quad core for that. So if you do a complete upgrade you can fund it partially that way.
No, there are basically no parts usable from your current system except the hard drives, case and maybe power supply. It's all 3 gens behind.
I think your best option is to add a video card to your current system and see if that makes you happy. And if not, finish off the upgrade with everything else.
If you can't see what your PSU is, you may need to unscrew it and look on the other side. Tough power is a line from thermaltake, but their PSU's are all over the map. Need to confirm what it is.
EDIT: Just to add though, one thing you may not have considered is selling your old stuff on ebay. Q9xxx CPU's are worth some good money on ebay. You could almost buy a mainstream intel quad core for that. So if you do a complete upgrade you can fund it partially that way.
Thanks for all the help! One last question (hopefully haha), is there anything I am not aware of stopping me from using the 2GB version of the AMD 7850? A local store has the 2GB listed at $228 while the 1GB is listed as 200$ which is not much cheaper. I also have a 25$ gift certificate at this store to consider if its cheaper online.
Thanks for all the help! One last question (hopefully haha), is there anything I am not aware of stopping me from using the 2GB version of the AMD 7850? A local store has the 2GB listed at $228 while the 1GB is listed as 200$ which is not much cheaper. I also have a 25$ gift certificate at this store to consider if its cheaper online.
Well the 1GB version is usually cheaper than that. Online the cheapest 7850 1gb is about $170. Sometimes it goes on sale cheaper.
But it all depends on the brand/model too.
The main reason I suggested the 1gb over the 2gb, is if you are gaming at 1080P or lower, the 2gb of memory doesn't help at all. And since the 7850 isn't really fast enough to game above 1080p at great speeds it makes a lot of sense to get the 1gb given how cheap they are.
1gb vs 2gb, same speed.
IMO, if you are going to get a 2gb card, jump up to the 7870 or GTX 660 ti. But I wouldn't go any higher than that with your older hardware. Unless you plan on immediately upgrading everything else to go with it.
Oh and you may want to buy the card online anyway. Radeon 7850 and higher get a free copy of Tomb Raider and Bioshock 3. Dunno if they have that at retail. Both of those are easily worth more than your gift certificate.
Well the 1GB version is usually cheaper than that. Online the cheapest 7850 1gb is about $170. Sometimes it goes on sale cheaper.
But it all depends on the brand/model too.
The main reason I suggested the 1gb over the 2gb, is if you are gaming at 1080P or lower, the 2gb of memory doesn't help at all. And since the 7850 isn't really fast enough to game above 1080p at great speeds it makes a lot of sense to get the 1gb given how cheap they are.
1gb vs 2gb, same speed.
IMO, if you are going to get a 2gb card, jump up to the 7870 or GTX 660 ti. But I wouldn't go any higher than that with your older hardware. Unless you plan on immediately upgrading everything else to go with it.
Oh and you may want to buy the card online anyway. Radeon 7850 and higher get a free copy of Tomb Raider and Bioshock 3. Dunno if they have that at retail. Both of those are easily worth more than your gift certificate.
Planning on building my first PC and have taken a liking to the components with the FX-8350 Vishera CPU. Not a gamer, mostly a multimedia, photoshop, video editing type computer. My parts will be coming from the company Canada computers, and there are a few changes.
1. They don't have the Gigabyte GA-970 motherboard, but the GA-970A. Is that sufficient? Or should just grab something little better?
2. Seagate Barracuda 2TB instead of 1TB, $15 more why hell not.
3. Thermaltake Versa 2 case instead of just the Versa.
4. Not sure about the powercolor video card. Would that be something should still get, being that I won't be gaming?
Trying to be another a grand with also OS, mouse, and keyboard.
Planning on building my first PC and have taken a liking to the components with the FX-8350 Vishera CPU. Not a gamer, mostly a multimedia, photoshop, video editing type computer. My parts will be coming from the company Canada computers, and there are a few changes.
1. They don't have the Gigabyte GA-970 motherboard, but the GA-970A. Is that sufficient? Or should just grab something little better?
2. Seagate Barracuda 2TB instead of 1TB, $15 more why hell not.
3. Thermaltake Versa 2 case instead of just the Versa.
4. Not sure about the powercolor video card. Would that be something should still get, being that I won't be gaming?
Trying to be another a grand with also OS, mouse, and keyboard.
Thanks for any help
If you get an Nvidia card it will make the photoshop experience alot better.
Then use the savings on getting a SSD boot drive. That will benefit you a lot more than a $180 graphics card as a non-gamer.
On the motherboard front, most any AM3+ motherboard will work for you. Especially if you aren't interested in overclocking, budget boards will do fine.
