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Gaming PC Upgrade? (i7 / 5870)



Gareth

Gareth

  Turbo'd MX-5 MK4
I know I've often questioned the need for a gaming pc thesedays, but the motivation behind this is for more than just the games (as in the older components will be used to make a decent home server from). That and ofcourse we have Crysis 2 and Fallout Vegas coming out ;)

I have the exact build spec somewhere, but off the top of my head, the key components of my current system are:

EVGA 680i Motherboard
Intel Q6600 2.4Ghz
OCZ 4GB 1066Mhz
XFX 8800GTX (768MB 1900MHz Model)

I'm currently contenplating upgrading to the following (keeping all other existing components, case, hdd, cds etc):

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
Intel I7 930 2.8GHZ 8MB Cache Socket 1366 Retail Box Processor
OCZ 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz Intel Extreme XMP Memory Kit CL8 1.65V
XFX HD 5870 1GB DDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card

I haven't done much in terms of price comparison at the moment but that's coming out at circ £880.

A worthwhile upgrade? Motherboard OK? Or should I go with ASUS? Are there any better GPUs available for the money? or are there new ones coming out anytime soon?

Should I hold off and upgrade towards the end of the year when the next worthwhile games are due out?
 
David

David

  BMW e46 320 Ci Sport
personally id say wait till the last minute as you'll get more for your money, the spec is pretty good though, that chips oc's up to 4ghz no issue really.
 
Gareth

Gareth

  Turbo'd MX-5 MK4
Lol! Crysis and Fallout just won't be the same on anything other than PC.

Anything big expected with processors? I know there has been talk of 6-core?
 
UncleGrumpy

UncleGrumpy

  A red missile
Gareth said:
nope, want i7 for sure.
Click to expand...

I'd save money and go for an i5-750 mate then used the difference to spend more on a graphics card, of course your only option is the 5970 and they run at insane rates - the missus has one. The i5's have plenty of processing shove for gaming, running an MMO type game at 1920x1080 at max resolution and AA etc. the i5-750 in mine is running at 20-25%, cruising basically so i'd say go for an i7 if your doing video processing or mega complex rendering, if not then it's a waste really. If the 5870 is fast enough for you then maybe consider using the difference for an SSD boot drive, that will show more of a performance gain than going for a faster (than an already blisteringly quick) processor.

All IMHO of course - i'm sure someone will disagree ;)
 
W

wozzaa

  Monaro VXR
Gareth said:
Lol! Crysis and Fallout just won't be the same on anything other than PC.

Anything big expected with processors? I know there has been talk of 6-core?
Click to expand...

Pointless. You won't see games being able to use that power from a while yet. Infact a lot of high end apps can't even use it. There are reviews out showing them to be no more powerful due to software not being able to make use of all 12 threads.

Remember an i7 is an 8 threaded CPU. The i5 and i7 are both quad cores just the i7 had hyper threading as well. Using 8 threads at once is going to be hard enough. Never mind 12. As a games machine completely wasted. Will be a better CPU out before they can be used. I honestly would look at the i5 myself as well. Spend the money you save put it to the 5970. Which is basically two 5870's on one card.

Will be an overall faster, better gaming machine.
 
paulharrison123

paulharrison123

  Clio 172 PH2 Flamer
I wouldnt go for that Gigabyte board - get an asus equivalent instead, I work for pcspecialist.co.uk and those boards arent reight cracky!

5970 is more expensive as it is a dual GPU card, the 5870 will be more than good for you, make sure the PSU you get is over 80+ efficient and at a minimum 600w (1000w if you go 5970), with at least 24amp per rail, the 5870s need that as a minimum, corsair would be the ones to go for.

I wouldnt bother with 6gb of 1600mhz memory, you wont be able to upgrade later, due to chipset limitations, you can only have >6gb if it is at speed 1333mhz or below, may aswell for for 6gb of 1333mhz.

Im an AMD fanboy, I have a 965 BE - so im not lying here, the I7 destroys the 965 in games too, theres not a massive difference stock wise, but oc the i7 and you cant beat it - although the 965 BE is a shedload cheaper, dont bother with the i5 - if you do go for the i5-750 - best of the bunch as the others are dual core with on board video controllers, just no hyperthreading on the i5's.

The new range of Nvidia cards are out - gtx480 would be the one to go for although more expensive than the 5870 - better performance and the tesselation rocks, however they run quite noisy and run rather hot, If i had one id defo go for a watercooled setup to reduce noise and heat.
 
H182

H182

  182
Personally I'd wait, as most games will perform fine on the system you have.. unless you're craving for DX11 maybe get a new gfx card, but I can't see there being much difference in how it looks tbh. Tom's hardware have done some tests with AVP and Dirt iirc.

I just got a i5 750, couldn't see any benefit for gaming going with i7.
The new ASUS mobo's are a dream.
 
M

Munson

PMSL you know it makes sense. PC shooters are where it's at! Funnily enough I've just got off a shift on FEAR 2. God damn that's a good shooter.

Good spec BTW. Do it. Personally I'm waiting until later in the year and see how taxing Crysis 2 is. My current QX9650/gtx295 is still rinsing everything up at like a million frames a second, so no need to change just yet :eek:

Welcome back to the Alpha-Elite. Say goodbye to torn 30-fps at 720p, and say hello to vysnced-up 60fps+ at 1200p+ :D
 
paulharrison123

paulharrison123

  Clio 172 PH2 Flamer
Gareth said:
It isn't, I think its a 600W odd Coolermaster one I have at the moment.
Click to expand...

Make sure it gets upgraded then.....last thing you want in a PC is a shoite PSU, annoys me when people order machines from us and have a great spec then the standard 20 quid case and 500w no brand PSU :(
 
W

wozzaa

  Monaro VXR
paulharrison123 said:
I wouldnt go for that Gigabyte board - get an asus equivalent instead, I work for pcspecialist.co.uk and those boards arent reight cracky!

5970 is more expensive as it is a dual GPU card, the 5870 will be more than good for you, make sure the PSU you get is over 80+ efficient and at a minimum 600w (1000w if you go 5970), with at least 24amp per rail, the 5870s need that as a minimum, corsair would be the ones to go for.

I wouldnt bother with 6gb of 1600mhz memory, you wont be able to upgrade later, due to chipset limitations, you can only have >6gb if it is at speed 1333mhz or below, may aswell for for 6gb of 1333mhz.

Im an AMD fanboy, I have a 965 BE - so im not lying here, the I7 destroys the 965 in games too, theres not a massive difference stock wise, but oc the i7 and you cant beat it - although the 965 BE is a shedload cheaper, dont bother with the i5 - if you do go for the i5-750 - best of the bunch as the others are dual core with on board video controllers, just no hyperthreading on the i5's.

The new range of Nvidia cards are out - gtx480 would be the one to go for although more expensive than the 5870 - better performance and the tesselation rocks, however they run quite noisy and run rather hot, If i had one id defo go for a watercooled setup to reduce noise and heat.
Click to expand...

You do not need a 1000W PSU for a 5970 where did you get that info from? Your average system i7 965 @ standard 3.2ghz, 6gb ram 2 hdd with a 5970 in it at full load running benchmarks will consume around 400 - 500w that is all. No need to go and stick 1000w PSU's in it. Typically less than 400w under load and under 200w idle. They are very efficient cards.

Any half decent 600w PSU...like his coolermaster should be more than up to the job. I can run my set up from a 620w Corsair unit.

i7 920 @ 3.6ghz
6gb ram
asus rampage II extreme
5 x hdd
bluray drive
2 x 5870's

1000w PSU's are for those with serious power requirements. Dual 5970's, Peltier cooling etc etc.

The new Nvidia cards are expensive, power hungry and run excessively hot. A card should not hit 90+C when it is barely doing anything. Never mind idle at over 70 degrees. Going to need a fairly big airy case unless you want the fan cranking itself up to hair dryer levels of noise too.

With regards to the 5870...it might be powerful enough, personally I didn't think it was for me. I like to run everything at 1920x1200 with max details and lots of AA etc. On some games it wasn't able to meet my minimum FPS mark with those settings, so I added a 2nd one into the system. Now looking back, wish I had just spent the extra first time round and bought the 5970 would have saved me money in the long run.

How can you say don't bother with an i5 either. The i5 750 is no slower in games than an i7 920. The 930 only slightly faster due to the extra core speed, all overclock to 4+ghz though.

Simple case of pick what you need. If you are a gamer then the i7 is going to be wasted. If you are doing lots of DVD / bluray encodes, compiling etc. Then the i7 is the way to go.


With regard to the 6 core CPU's people have posted about...

The 6 core i7 - 980x is completely and utterly pointless. Anyone looked at the benchmarks for it? You will get a shock. It's usually loses out to the i7 965. Purely because of the software issue and lack of support for the extra cores and threads.

Just to give you guys an idea of just how all these CPU's stack up take a look at these links, loads more around the net. Fact is CPU has very little impact on games right now. GPU is far more important.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/intel__core_i7_980x/

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2960/12

Software just can't take advantage of these systems. By the time it can, there will be new faster CPU's around. That will be cheaper. Couple more years and 6+ cores might be the way to go but right now. Simply wasted money in the games area.
 
Gareth

Gareth

  Turbo'd MX-5 MK4
I've got a coolermaster stacker Nvidia case (massive) so no worries about space, although a bit cheeky putting an ATI card in it, lol.
 
paulharrison123

paulharrison123

  Clio 172 PH2 Flamer
My concern regarding PSU power is I always like to have headroom, i dont believe in running a 500w system on a 550w PSU, the less the PSU works the better in my opinion, besides he may want 2x5970's at a later date :p - just used the antec calculator gettoing around 622w with the above spec with a guestimate of the drives (i chose 1 x sata and one high rpm sata) didnt include any extras in there or anything
 
Last edited:
Darren S

Darren S

ClioSport Club Member
wozzaa - what you say about 'overkill' really does make sense. My PC dates back from 2007 and like-for-like is laughable compared to the results of some of the recent kit out now.

But I've kept chipping away at it. Picking up the best spec AMD Phenom BE for it (cheap off Fleabay), upping the memory to 1066Mhz spec (still only DDR2 though ;)) and having dabbled with some older cards in SLi, I'm currently using a 4890 1GB.

The truth is, yep I can kill it. I can ramp up extreme graphic settings that drop the FPS to almost single figures. But that's taking things to the far end of what's useful. The vast majority of stuff I happily run at 1920x1200 and maintain a healthy 50-60fps. Quite how long that will last, I don't know. But I've certainly had my money's worth out of that system. :)

D.
 
M

Munson

My DDR2 still runs at 840 (1:1) despite being 1066Mhz spec. I don't have any fps problems in anything at any res :)

Old gear FTW.
 
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