5830 or aftermarket cooling?

[Emrys]

I've been building a new desktop over the past few months, watching and sniping deals. I've now purchased everything except for my graphics card:

700W OCZ PSU
Asus M4A79XTD EVO motherboard
AMD Phenom II X3 720 (successfully unlocked 4th core, stable for hours running prime95)
-Stock cooling
4 GB OCZ obsidian 1600 DDR3 ram
NZXT m59 case

I had been planning on putting a 5770 in this build, but I was recently given a $40 gift certificate to newegg. I've been debating on which way I should go- still buy the 5770 and put the certificate towards aftermarket cooling so that I can OC the 720 better, or upping the GPU to a 5830.

Any thoughts?

 

[tecmo34]

What is your overclock currently on the X3 720?? What is your monitor resolution?

These questions will better help answer your questions.

 

[Emrys]

I can get 3.0 Ghz with temps under 50 degrees. Higher starts getting a little warm for my blood.

Resolution 1920x1080

 

[tecmo34]

I say the aftermarket cooler and get the X3 720 in the 3.5 GHZ or above speeds

Neither the ATI 5770 or ATI 5830 are truly powerful enough for a 1920x1080 resolution, so I don't see the benefit in upgrading to the 5830. You would need to go all the way up to the ATI 5850 to make an impact at your resolution.

 

[Emrys]

Thanks.

Any other thoughts?

 

[apache_lives]

matching a video card to screen size/resolution is bullsh1t - older games will run fine at that res, newer ones it depends and next gen games forget about it, its about budget and future proofing - afford a 5970? then get one, otherwise select something else - simple.

 

[Emrys]

Best answer selected by emrys.

 

[Emrys]

I thought I'd give some closure, I recently picked up a deal on a Coolermaster Hyper 212+ for $20. I'll post what kind of mileage I get out of it once I have some time to mess with the OC. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Emrys]

So far I've managed to get 3.2 stable at 1.35v with temps maxing out around 48-49 C (ambient ~25 C). I was able to get 3.4 stable, but it needed voltages higher than I was comfortable with. We'll see. I may fiddle with it some more to see if I can get 3.3 stable, or 3.4 stable below 1.5 V. I haven't had that much time with it yet.