Tax Money!! New Computer!!!

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imgregrice

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Ok so I just finished my taxes and I am planning on upgrading my machine...
I would like to spend about $800ish and am looking for recommendations on what to replace from my current setup I am posting what I have below... as well as a link that is relevant where I was asking for a mother board recommendation.... I am open to all ideas on what to upgrade first and am willing to take a phased approach to the upgrade process. One note as mentioned in the attached thread I would REALLY like to stick with AMD but willing to look at everything!


My current setup is
AMD 4800
Utltra 1k watt PSU
ATI HD2900xt X2 NOT in crossfire mode Also one is an XT one is a "PRO"
Gaming HD
X4 Dell Monitors x4

ABIT AT8 32X

40 gig OS Drive Maxtor

x3 hds WD 150gig
Case (Ultra Aluminus)
Cyber Snipa Game Pad V2
OCZ 4gb ram but I cant find the damn link
and for a visual this is my setup older image now I have a shelf above the monitors and the tower is on that as well as updated monitors
relevant thread
 
INTEL > AMD

This is a bumper till I post links to upgrades
 
As long as you don't overclock you can stick with stock heatsink.

I have never burned a CPU using a stock heat sink in 5 years of building PCs and playing games on them.
 
Concur

I agree, if you do not overclock the CPU no reason to add an aftermarket heatsink... They test the hell out of them and stock sink will last the life of the chip...

Another problem i have had with add on heat sinks is dust build up in the heat sink and fan... they push so much air I have to go in and clean them out every few months... never had to do that with a stock heat sink and fan...

ttfn
 
i personally built an amd system recently using one of the newer phenom 5 black editions they are about 15 % behind i7s and about half the cost and a good mother board for them are also about half the cost if your interested ill list what i used
 
hmm

JimJohnson said:
INTEL > AMD

This is a bumper till I post links to upgrades
Click to expand...

ive always been a AMD fan JJ but your usually right...please give me reasons why intel is better than AMD at the moment? is it taste or benchmarks?
 
imgregrice said:
I have never had ANY luck with stock heat sinks
Click to expand...

I scrape off the stock thermal pad and put on new thermal compound to get the best heat transfer. Always had good results using the stock fans this way.
 
wilbunk said:
ive always been a AMD fan JJ but your usually right...please give me reasons why intel is better than AMD at the moment? is it taste or benchmarks?
Click to expand...

As mentioned before what it comes down to is:

clock for clock AMD is slightly slower than intel.
clock for clock AMD + MB is significantly cheaper.

Intel CPU's have more head room if you plan to overclock. If you don't go wild its easy to get an intel 2.4 ghz cpu to 3.0 using stock fan and voltage.

So if you don't want to overclock and want to minimize cost and get decent bang for the buck go AMD.

If you want to adjust some settings in the bios or run the apps most overclocking friends boards give, you can get a lower clocked , intel CPU and get extra 25% performance for extra ??? dollars.

No matter which way you go you should see a nice boost.
 
I'd replace the 2900 vid card first. Possibly waiting for GT300 is warranted now, but I haven't researched any of this for a long time, so not sure what the release schedule is currently. However, 5870's are great cards and Dx11 ready and with your system and EQ, really you'll see a bigger jump in performance with a good vid card..5870 (@$500?) or a 5850 (@$300). I think they even have 59xx and lower cards now too. That vid card will transfer over to a new build as well and really, other then GT300, it's not going to get much better then the 5870 for a while. Possibly with that upgrade, you will be satisfied to wait for the next jump in CPU/mobos from AMD. Like I said, haven't researched this stuff in a while, so not sure what is coming down the line from AMD, but reguardless, the biggest bang for the buck you'll see is a 5870 or 5850 vid card.....and it's an easy swap to boot. I think even if you went to an i7 setup and still ran that 2900vid card, you'll see very little improvement if any. And I don't think $800 will get you into an i7 setup and a good vid card (@$300). So, yeah...vid card first. Also, I thought Abit was going out of bussiness...or discontinuing any peformance orianted mobos.
 
Last edited:
Casca said:
I'd replace the 2900 vid card first. Possibly waiting for GT300 is warranted now, but I haven't researched any of this for a long time, so not sure what the release schedule is currently. However, 5870's are great cards and Dx11 ready and with your system and EQ, really you'll see a bigger jump in performance with a good vid card..5870 (@$500?) or a 5850 (@$300). I think they even have 59xx and lower cards now too. That vid card will transfer over to a new build as well and really, other then GT300, it's not going to get much better then the 5870 for a while. Possibly with that upgrade, you will be satisfied to wait for the next jump in CPU/mobos from AMD. Like I said, haven't researched this stuff in a while, so not sure what is coming down the line from AMD, but reguardless, the biggest bang for the buck you'll see is a 5870 or 5850 vid card.....and it's an easy swap to boot. I think even if you went to an i7 setup and still ran that 2900vid card, you'll see very little improvement if any. And I don't think $800 will get you into an i7 setup and a good vid card (@$300). So, yeah...vid card first. Also, I thought Abit was going out of bussiness...or discontinuing any peformance orianted mobos.
Click to expand...


800$ would get an i7+mb+decent VC but would leave him short RAM
 
JimJohnson said:
800$ would get an i7+mb+decent VC but would leave him short RAM
Click to expand...

I think you kinda need ram.

i920 is $288. Mobo is @$200, depending what you get, my picks would be over $200. A 5850 is $320...just can't recommend anything less for a main computer. Then add in an OS if you're the legal type (and for an OS...you should be) for $140. Also, he's running who knows what WD 150gb HDD's....so add in a 7200rpm WD Caviar Black 32mb cache sata 3 (holy crap...they have sata 6 now) for another 100.

Personally, I'd get a 5870 which are in the $420's and build a system around that. He said he likes AMD and while I agree intel kicks that ass, maybe a 5870 (yep, will be bottle necked) will be a huge enough boost to make him happy till AMD comes swinging back at intel (I don't actually know if they even have a game plan for that lol). The vid card will be an improvement and no matter what the next choices are, will carry over well weather he eventually goes with an i7 build or waits for AMD to answer back to i7.
 
Last edited:
Casca said:
I think you kinda need ram.

i920 is $288. Mobo is @$200, depending what you get, my picks would be over $200. A 5850 is $320...just can't recommend anything less for a main computer. Then add in an OS if you're the legal type (and for an OS...you should be) for $140.

Personally, I'd get a 5870 which are in the $420's and build a system around that. He said he likes AMD and while I agree intel kicks that ass, maybe a 5870 (yep, will be bottle necked) will be a huge enough boost to make him happy till AMD comes swinging back at intel (I don't actually know if they even have a game plan for that lol). The vid card will be an improvement and no matter what the next choices are, will carry over well weather he eventually goes with an i7 build or waits for AMD to answer back to i7.
Click to expand...

The upgrade from 4870 to 5870 is nice but not worth twice the price. If you could actually name 5 things that are really worth going to dx11 for you might have an argument.

I didnt check what his old ram was but it might be compatible. Either way for an extra 100$ he could get some that would work. so right around 850-875 total. In a few months toss in a second 4870 or upgrade to a 5870 when prices drop and toss the 4870 into another pc.

You dont need an OS since he is replacing his old PC that has an OS already.
 
remember folks I am running 2x of the 2900s..I need this to run the 4 monitors...
ill most more when Im not so fucked up
 
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