Advise on upgrade or new build

Connavar

Hi,

I have been thinking on doing a new build for a while now but am starting to wonder if it is worth it.
My current system spec is in my signature.

Do you think that a new graphics card would be enough or am I being a bit too hopeful?

I use it for day to day tasks, programming and gaming(new and old games currently on a 1280 x 1024 res monitor but will be upgrading to a 1920 x 1080).

While I'm asking, does anyone know if paypal is possible to use on hardwareversand? I see it in their terms and conditions but it looks to me like its only usable from within Germany

Thanks
Niall

zappb

Get a better monitor - 1920 x 1200 at least and higher if possible (try and go IPS) - the extra vertical res will help your programming, put a new cpu in there, and wait for jan 2011 and the AMD / Intel refresh.

Cheers!

Connavar

zappb wrote: »

Get a better monitor - 1920 x 1200 at least and higher if possible (try and go IPS) - the extra vertical res will help your programming, put a new cpu in there, and wait for jan 2011 and the AMD / Intel refresh.

Cheers!

Honestly I don't see a new cpu alone giving enough of a boost since its still on the lg 775 socket.
I think graphics is my major problem at the moment as I cant run some games at this stage.(bad company 2 gets a black screen while playing and I am not even going to attempt metro 2033)

zappb

well you have a point.

See if these two articles are any use:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-processor-core-i3-athlon-ii,2666.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-radeon-hd-geforce-gtx,2676.html

Connavar

Sadly the more I think about it the more I realise that I just have to do a build. When you need a new processor, motherboard and gpu I think it is time to move on...

I will probably leave it a few weeks before ordering to do enough research, but here is what I have so far(going to take a PSU, second hard drive, sound card and dvd drive from my current system)

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Box, Sockel AM3
ready for dispatch (only 1 article) 277,59 €
277,59 €

Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5, AMD 880FX, AM3 ATX
ready for dispatch 182,33 €
182,33 €

XFX RADEON HD 5870 850M 1GB DDR5 DUAL DVI, DP, NATIVE HDMI
ready for dispatch 382,02 €
382,02 €

4GB-Kit Corsair DDR3 PC1600 C9 Dominator
ready for dispatch 113,73 €
113,73 €

Antec Twelve Hundred, ATX, ohne Netzteil
ready for dispatch (only 1 article) 146,98 €
146,98 €

Samsung SyncMaster P2470H
ready for dispatch 219,30 €
219,30 €

Zalman CNPS9700 NT Sockel 775/754/939/940/AM2
ready for dispatch 40,79 €
40,79 €

Sum: 1.362,74 €

uberpixie

Connavar wrote: »

Honestly I don't see a new cpu alone giving enough of a boost since its still on the lg 775 socket.
I think graphics is my major problem at the moment as I cant run some games at this stage.(bad company 2 gets a black screen while playing and I am not even going to attempt metro 2033)

A Fast dualcore in socket 775 is still fine for gaming. What gfx card are you on atm?

Post up your full spec including psu and case.

Lu Tze

If you were doing it on a budget you could pick up a core2quad second hand?

One on adverts

http://adverts.ie/220144

Solitaire

If OCing your C2D won't hold you until 2011, OCing an LGA775 quad certainly would - they're still great gaming CPUs once pushed past 3GHz!

But you might indeed need a slight GPU boost to hit 1080p comfortably if you intend on upgrading your monitor before then, and while a HD5770 would be good for 1080p its not a huge boost past an 8800GTX, and if you wanted to run a second monitor too... this generation isn't too good, as the gaming sweet-spot between the HD5770 and the HD5850 is an overpriced, underperforming mess this generation - the GTX465 is a lemon and the HD5830 isn't much better!

Personally, I think a pro programmer needs two 1080p screens outside gaming; a gaming-oriented normal-aspect one for donkey work, leisure, browsing/research/resources and even modelling program outcomes, and a second 1080p monitor in 9:16 format (i.e. you turn it on its side and tell the driver to do likewise ) and use that for the actual code browsing/editing/debugging

Of course, if you're not a professional you don't need to worry about that...

Connavar

uberpixie wrote: »

A Fast dualcore in socket 775 is still fine for gaming. What gfx card are you on atm?

Post up your full spec including psu and case.

My spec is in my signature but i'll post it so you can see it

Processor: Intel E6850
Graphics Card: 8800 GTX
PSU: Enermax Galaxy 850w
Ram: 4gb Corsair DDR2 800mhz
Motherboard: Asus p5n-e sli plus
Case: PCSpecialist Sigma Case
DVD Drive: Lite-On 24x DVD RW+/-
Sound Card: Creative Audio Extreme

Solitaire wrote: »

If OCing your C2D won't hold you until 2011, OCing an LGA775 quad certainly would - they're still great gaming CPUs once pushed past 3GHz!

But you might indeed need a slight GPU boost to hit 1080p comfortably if you intend on upgrading your monitor before then, and while a HD5770 would be good for 1080p its not a huge boost past an 8800GTX, and if you wanted to run a second monitor too... this generation isn't too good, as the gaming sweet-spot between the HD5770 and the HD5850 is an overpriced, underperforming mess this generation - the GTX465 is a lemon and the HD5830 isn't much better!

Personally, I think a pro programmer needs two 1080p screens outside gaming; a gaming-oriented normal-aspect one for donkey work, leisure, browsing/research/resources and even modelling program outcomes, and a second 1080p monitor in 9:16 format (i.e. you turn it on its side and tell the driver to do likewise ) and use that for the actual code browsing/editing/debugging

Of course, if you're not a professional you don't need to worry about that...

I see my graphics as the major problem here. And as you pointed out todays options aren't great, unless spending a considerable amount

I have never overclocked before and that's why I hadn't really thought of doing it with the cpu. I might look into ocing a bit. Would a Zalman CNPS9700 cpu cooler be enough to keep ocing heats in check?(its what I have at the moment)

Still not a professional programmer(until next year) and to be honest most of the programming that I will be doing on this machine will be personal projects so I think I can leave the second monitor for now. Will try to get one that can rotate the screen to the 9:16 format angle though.

Connavar

Hi guys,

Just to let ye know that I have decided to leave the build until q1 of next year(at least that's how I feel now (though a lot can change in 6 months).
I decided to wait as hopefully the next gen of cpus by both intel and amd will be out and hopefully ati's 6k series will too. Also usb3 and sata 3 should be more standard by then

Thanks for any help ye gave me