Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Help me track it down please
darkcircuit
Member Posts: 211
Hey all,
It's that time of year again, its time to start looking at the latest components and trying to work out where I am likely to see the greatest performance gains without throwing massive amounts of money at it.
My current spec is as follows:
Case: Antec P180
Monitor: Samsung 24" running at 1600x1200 (drool worthy)
PSU: Hypex (SP?) 850 watt Modular
MB: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe (no longer supported)
Memory: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2
HD: Seagate 750GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Graphics: XFX HD 4870 1GB DDR5
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Please remember I am looking for components that are going to greatly increase performance and my budget is around £300 so please don't start linking the latest and greatest graphics cards because they are usually around £500.
I was considering a SSD but after speaking to a friend who has recently purchased one, he hasnt seen any great decrease in load times in games (slightly less juddering after a loading screen) and the only real performance boost he has noticed is in his windows start up times (not that crucial for me).
Thanks for any advice you can give 
Comments
Hey, I remember my AC Freezer 7; I loved that cooler! It was cheap and awesomely effective (till I gave it away with the machine).
There's really nothing wrong with this machine... The CPU isn't top notch, but an E8400 is NOT going to bottleneck you (especially because it's such a stellar overclocker). The only thing you could really reasonably improve upon for better performance would be the video card. I'd get a Radeon HD 5870, personally, but I'm not sure exactly how much you'd be willing to spend (Misco.co.uk has one for 338 with VAT). If that was too much, a 5850 would also be fine (and they run for about 260 after tax).
I run 4 it did increase my performance but it did cost more than it was worth if you just look on performance, my biggest point was to get the computer silent, cold and to keep my data safe. That worked great.
If you just want faster HDs it is cheaper to buy 4 smaller SATA disks and just raid them together, it will increase the performance (and security of your data) somewhat. You don't need particularly big drives, just 4 of the same type and size so you could probably get a deal on that, your PSU have plenty of room for them.
But the first thing I would do would be increasing my Ram memory. That is the thing that will give you most performance for your money. You can never have too much memory and prices for them isn't that great.
I would also download Easycleaner (http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm) for free and clear my register, get rid of junk files and take away anything I really don't need from the start up menu. Programs in the background slows you down a lot.
Then I would check all my temperature like processor and GPU, and consider if overclocking the stuff is an option.
All that done you would be getting down to change more hardware, and that is more expensive. Save up for a 480 GTX is probably the best alternative then, changing processor, DDR3 memories and a new motherboard will also be expensive and give you less.
The cheapest way to get out more of your computer is always to try to optimize the software. Easy cleaner is a great help here, and so is closing of all bling bling in Windows, like fading menus and other junk. Nothing bets free.
Another thing you should keep an eye on is your antivirus/Firewall. Some of those uses a lot of resources.
You can pick up an ATI HD5870 for around £330, and would be by far the best way to upgrade your PC. If £300 was your limit a HD5850 for £230 would also do the job nicely.
The rest of your PC is fine and upgrades would not see you get a large increase in FPS for your money. A new card will see you fine for a year or two, and you can upgrade core and memory then.
Good little online store I use is http://www.overclock.co.uk/dept/ATI-HD-5800-Series_1079.html
Not worth the money. The 5850 performs worse than his current card and the boost from a 5870 is actually very little. To get a good boost he needs a 5970, a 295 GTX or a 480 GTX.
Check out this chart for comparisions: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-high-quality-update-3/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-1920x1200,1702.html
This is assuming he uses 1920 times 1200 resolution, but with the screen he most likely will and similar resolutions have about the same values anyways.
Just a couple of points here to reply.
Firstly that chart does not have an XFX 4870, but we can assume it has a similar speed to say a stock ATI card. Now according to that chart the ATI 4870 1GB gets 162.60 FPS, the 5850 gets 224 FPS and the 5870 gets 245.40 FPS. I can only assume you have confused the 2x4870 in Crossfire which gets 252.70 FPS. The CF or X2 means 2 cards in Crossfire.
If his board has the capability and he certainly has the PSU for it, then crossfire is a good idea and sticking another 4870 in would be preferable to buying a 5870, because it would be much cheaper. Also 2x5770 would be even better as they are DX11.
Adding memory will not see any where near as much FPS gain as upgrading his card.
For all intents and purposes, this simply wrong. He already has 4GB of RAM, so there's going to be just about zero tangible benefit to getting more, because presently, nothing uses more than the available memory in a system with 4GB to throw around. People who really know the ins and outs of computing get 6GB kits these days on certain systems, not because they need the additional 2GB of RAM, but because their machines support triple channel memory (and a little overkill is better than being limited to 3GB, especially down the road). For the rest of us, 4GB is more than adequate, though having open slots for more isn't a bad idea.
Also, viddster is completely correct. Even a Radeon HD 5850 would give a flat performance increase of 50%+, which is HUGE. At most for that budget, a 5870 might be advisable (which would roughly double performance). There is no need, whatsoever, to get something like a 5970 or a GTX480 (which is barely faster than a 5870 anyways, for TWICE the power consumption I might add) to see a very big performance gain over a 4870.
Whoops, you are correct, I checked the crossfire version. So, yes, those cards or a second like the first to xfire will be an improvement, the danger of checking chart very early in the morning. The problem with X-fire is that it only works in a game which supports X-fire, which is fine if the OP play those but sucks for the games that have no support of it, like many MMOs.
It is also true that GFX is the single biggest improvement for a computer, which is why you always should buy the best possible. The Ram however is very cheap and with Windows 7 6gb actually boost the performance a bit. With XP it doesn't do squat, XP can't even use it. So it is a question about costs.
Upgrading to 6 gig and then save some money for a 5970 or 480 GTX would be the wisest choice in my book still. If OP needs it now then 5870 is the best choice.