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Minor Upgrade

  • 22-01-2012 6:09pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,414 ✭✭✭


    Hey all :)

    So I'm thinking of doing an upgrade to the family PC which we bought about 5 years ago from Aldi. Currently it has,
    Core 2 Quad Q6600
    Some crappy motherboard
    3GB DDR2 RAM
    500GB generic HDD
    nVidia 8600 GT 256MB
    And a generic again probably crap PSU.

    What I am thinking to give this a bit of new life and to quieten it down a bit is get a new PSU as the current one is loud enough, a new HDD as it makes the weirdest noise I have ever heard come from a HDD and a better GPU so we can play Battlefield 3 and Skyrim properly.

    This is what I have picked out so far, from dabs
    Item|Price
    Total build cost: €304.42 (inc delivery Free!)
    Corsair 500 Watt CX500 V2 Builder Series 80 Plus Power Supply|€52.07
    Samsung 500GB SpinPoint F3 7200rpm 16MB Sata|€93.08
    XFX ATI Radeon 6870 900MHz 1GB PCI-Express HDMI|€159.27

    From hwvd
    Item|Price
    Total build cost: €273.32 + €30 shipping
    Sapphire HD6870 1G GDDR5 PCI-E DL-DVI-I+SL-DVI-D / HDMI / DP|€151.66
    Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB, SATA II (HD502HJ)|€79.90
    Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€41.76

    I am hoping the build from dabs will include a free copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution with the 6870 since dabs is listed on AMD's site as a store participating in the offer, I have sent dabs an e-mail just to confirm this since it doesn't mention it on the site so if they are going to give me a free copy would the build be okay? Worried mostly about the PSU here, I think I remember people mentioning the builder series as not being great.


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,600 ✭✭✭Eboggles


    If you wait a few weeks the 77xx and 78xx series are being released, the power consumption is going to be a good bit less and you might be able to keep the psu (doubt it though) and instead get an ssd? It'd certainly speed it up.
    Just a thought, but yeah that stuff will be grand, what res are you playing at? You mightn't even need a 6870...
    The 7850 would be coming in around the 150 mark, so that might do you fine.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,414 ✭✭✭Fluffy88


    Thanks for the help :)

    Yeah I kinda forgot about the 7000 series. The 7850 would probably be the perfect choice. It's due out in March isn't it? But will it really be that cheap on release? Seems a very optimistic price to me, since it will probably be better than a 6870. Monitor is 1680x1050.

    As for the SSD, I have one in my laptop and I love it, but this PC is the family PC and I don't use it very much, it's mostly used for web browsing. I think for the price an SSD wouldn't be worth it as it would be just a waste considering what the PC is used for.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,600 ✭✭✭Eboggles


    Fluffy88 wrote: »
    Thanks for the help :)

    Yeah I kinda forgot about the 7000 series. The 7850 would probably be the perfect choice. It's due out in March isn't it? But will it really be that cheap on release? Seems a very optimistic price to me, since it will probably be better than a 6870. Monitor is 1680x1050.

    As for the SSD, I have one in my laptop and I love it, but this PC is the family PC and I don't use it very much, it's mostly used for web browsing. I think for the price an SSD wouldn't be worth it as it would be just a waste considering what the PC is used for.
    Well the 7950 is being released during the 1st week of Feb and the next ones being released soon after, but the money spent on not getting a new psu should cover it, it actually might be closer to 170 or so.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 82 ✭✭Peter8


    How sure are you that the 7950 will be released in the first week of Feb? if so I think I should wait on ordering a 2GB 6950 for 245 euro.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,710 ✭✭✭Monotype


    Most sources indicate that the 7950 is due the 31st of January, unless it gets delayed again. The 7850 isn't as clear but in the latter half of February seems to be the word on the street.

    BTW, 550W OCZ 550W ZS is about €5 more.
    http://www.dabs.ie/products/ocz-technology-zs-series-550w-80--bronze-power-supply-7H49.html


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,414 ✭✭✭Fluffy88


    Thanks for the suggestion Mono, would the OCZ be a better quality quieter PSU?

    I think I will hold off until the 7850 is out since it's probably going to be a better value card or might drive the price of the 6870 down a bit, so I should probably hold off annoying ye with tonnes of questions until then :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,710 ✭✭✭Monotype


    I'd say so, yeah. The efficiency is better at the very least on top of the additional power. Jonny and kit -gurus give it good marks.

    http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=248
    http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/ocz-zs-series-550w-power-supply-review/

    The 430W CX (version 2) is a reasonably good buy as nearly everything else in the price region isn't good (aside from the 450W amazon if you were buying from HWV). The 500W and 600W versions don't have many reviews but assuming it's similar quality, the 500W would still appear to be an OKish buy, depending on what else is available, while the 600W is nearly always very overpriced so that's a bad buy.

    If you were to build a system around a 7850, a 450W like the amazon would likely be enough with room for overclocking.

    Hopefully hard drives will be down a bit in a month too.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,414 ✭✭✭Fluffy88


    Hopefully in a few months when the 7850 is out hard drives will have fallen enough to compensate the possible extra cost of the GPU or the cost of the better quality PSU :)

    Thanks again for the info.


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