It's that time of year again, new PC build

[corrupt_tiki]

Hello forumites,

My computer is reaching that ripe old age again, she's two years old, and it shows .

The low down;

After putting up with some rather horrific performance thanks to my outdated GX7950 GX2, I decided to upgrade just the video cards about 6? - 12? months ago, I upgraded to two Ati HD 5770's in Crossfire setup, and they seem to work ok for the majority of things ( I am running a real dinosaur of a monitor so 1200x1000 is around my max resolution and even that sometimes skews things)

I need a new CPU, which incidentally means I need a new Mobo, new Ram, and a new HDD wouldn't hurt either (and a new monitor, but alas, my funding is a tad low atm :S )

I was thinking;

CPU: Core i5 - 760 sounds like the best option @ 269$ <Heart set on this CPU
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 @ 429$
RAM: Corsair CMT6GX3M3A2000C8 3x2gb @ 309$ < Bad OC experience with shitty memory =S
HDD: SATA 3 WD 1TB/7200RPM/SATA3/32MB @ 129$
OS : MS Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit @ 289$
Total(all prices are in AUD from my local cpu shop) @ 1425$ !

Man that got expensive quick! I will mainly use the computer for gaming ( such as ArmA 2, CoD:MW2, Witcher etc) and I use it for online browsing, and Photoshopping, and also some video editing, I am also trying to 'future' proof as much as possible, but at this price it looks like I am already running over budget. (I would part with this amount of cash but, I would really really rather it be cheaper!)

I was sort of hoping for around 1000$ upgrade but, I don't think that would be possible for what I want.
Any suggestions, or ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks! ^^

 

[aznshinobi]

I was thinking not to buy that now, and also that mobo doesn't need to be the UD7, sure the UD7 is good, but alot of mobos cheaper than it do the same and just as good of a job. IE the MSI Fuzion (cheaper ver of the Big Bang) or if it's not in AU, the Asus Sabertooth. I recommend going dual channel, since 1156 only supports dual channel, you wont see a huge hit, but just for optimal performance that'd be my rec.

Your HDD, way to expensive WD is just a name. Samsung F3's beat it in price and performance. F3's have 500gb platter size. While the black only has 320gb platters. (cept the SATA 6 versions) Anyway my point Samsung F3 1tb better choice.

Now, my overall recommendation is these two recommendations.

Sandy Bridge: January 11th
Cayman: December 15th-ish
Both are going to be huge, Cayman being a great GPU and going to be a beast. SB (Sandy Bridge) is going own the current gen of i5/i7's. They're also bout double the i7's current performance with like 2x the OC capability and better performance in everything, like PS5.

SB: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row

 

[corrupt_tiki]

Well the reason of the UD7 is because of all the features, however I will check out some of the other mobos, such as the MSI or the Asus.

And the HDD, cheers, I thought that was fairly competitive, so I will check out the other samsung HDDs.

That sandy bridge looks like a real killer CPU, the cayman looks good also, but I would prefer to stick with Intel as I am more familiar with their setup, having fiddled with a bit of lightweight OCing.

I might just wait it out then, but I am a bit worried that the new CPU will drive up my prices even more, I am really stretched at 1400$ AUD

 

[Wamphryi]

Grab the i5. You pay double the money for a 5% increase in performance is the reality of the situation. Todays software is the new bottleneck. The i5 sits in the sweet spot right now and will for quite some time. Over Clocking used to be about extracting performance out of budget chips. The i5 at stock will do everything you want 99% of the time. To get anymore real world performance you will have to spend a great deal for not much. Software is the bottleneck.

 

[corrupt_tiki]

Well if you actually read that Sandy Bridge linked at the end of azn's post, it would have you believe otherwise, I am actually quite convinced the architecture is more efficient than the current crop of i5/i7 series. Although even if they keep the pricing the same for the CPU's, no doubt that the Mobo's required for this CPU will be pricey, and could well blow my budget out of the water(if it isn't already)

Mobo's costing over 500$ is just bloody silly in my mind

 

[Wamphryi]

I have read the article and sure Sandy Bridge can crank some code. The problem is that those tests don't really reflect real world usage of the PC. I have an i5 and an i7 and the i5 boots one second faster. I finally succumbed and scored an SSD and so far I have found it does only one thing faster than the Velicoraptor it replaced. The i5 is a good video editor and gamer. Stay in budget and enjoy what is actually a good all round machine. Just make sure you get a good graphics card.

 

[corrupt_tiki]

Ah ok, yeah, I knew the i5 was a really good chip, and I mean, I am not quite as serious as I once was with my gaming, it's very much only a wet day activity now, sadly life has kicked in =/ ( the boring bits anyway)

On the GPU, I thought that two ATi Radeon HD5770 Crossfired were quite good? I am certainly happy with their performance, I think the CPU is the bottleneck at the moment, at least in ArmA 2 it is anyway.

 

[GoldenI]

just a question, though. why spend so much on a motherboard? you really don't need to spend almost $500 on a motherboard. I spent around $200 on mine and it works fantastically; not to mention that Gigabyte's motherboards are over-sized and will not fit in most ATX cases (you'd need a full tower case to fit one of those in).

 

[aznshinobi]

^ Everything in the AU is more expensive, the board is only like 240ish in the US. Ummm Cayman is a GPU, the most comparable GPUS on the market to the Cayman are the 580 and 570. But if your happy with CF 5770, you don't need to upgrade. (5770 CF = 5870 almost) So yeah just stick with your GPUs. However I think that an SSD would be a good idea if you have some money left.

EDIT: Nevermind, that board is REALLYY Overpriced. It's also a X58 board so you couldn't have gotten it. It's 350$ in the US not my 240ish prediction. I suggest the Sabertooth and MSI Fuzion. Both are great boards. I prefer the Fuzion though.

 

[Wamphryi]

As I mentioned before my SSD purchase turned out to be a bit of let down. I replaced a Velicoraptor with an OCZ Vertex 2. The only area of actual performance it has achieved is that it opens my video editing programs two seconds faster than the Raptor. This hardly fills me with joy considering the amount of money I paid for a whopping 50 GB of capacity. It even came with a sticker saying my SSD is faster than your HDD. They forgot to add "on the odd occasion in very limited circumstances." A 10000 RPM HDD has the capacity and the performance to serve very well at a far more reasonable cost.

 

[aznshinobi]

^ Well obviously, SSD's shine in booting systems. They also are video editer's (with large budgets) choices. Since they must store a lot miniclips and effects the SSD's can place them and open them faster. Also another thing is SSD's price/gig is clearly more than that of HDD's. You may not have gotten the speeds you wanted. But many SSD's shave off like 1 minute on boot vs other drives.

 

[Wamphryi]

The thing about an SSD is that if you have replaced your old 320 GB 7200 then you will see a big difference. However if you did what I did and replaced a 10000 RPM drive there is next to no difference. As for Video Editing I have discovered actual drive speed does not make any major difference. To test that theory out I ran an encoding job on a WD Green RAID 1 and then ran the same job again using RAM Drive and there was no improvement in speed. You don't get faster than RAM Drive. I have seen no real improvement in Boot, Installation or executing programs except for my Video Editing applications where I shave off a magnificent 2 seconds. In fact I have decided to put the SSD in my laptop where it will actually make a difference. A Velicoraptor delivers in terms of real world computing.

 

[vibhas]

Ah ok, yeah, I knew the i5 was a really good chip, and I mean, I am not quite as serious as I once was with my gaming, it's very much only a wet day activity now, sadly life has kicked in =/ ( the boring bits anyway)

On the GPU, I thought that two ATi Radeon HD5770 Crossfired were quite good? I am certainly happy with their performance, I think the CPU is the bottleneck at the moment, at least in ArmA 2 it is anyway.

i5 isn't even bottlenecked by the HD 5970 let alone 2 x 5770's.

The 5770's are fine for now though.
It may bottleneck in cpu intensive tasks but how many games are that cpu intensive?

 

[corrupt_tiki]

Well thanks for a bit of confirmation that the GPU's were adequate, I was talking about my Core 2 Duo E6420, which is quite dated, as is my meager 2GB RAM (1 x 1Gb stick, 2 x 512kb sticks)

I am quite intrigued at the sandy bridge CPU, however, I think for what I want, an i5 - 760 or similar would suffice, I was thinking after reading the suggestions, that the Fuzion board MSI, would be the best price/performance way to head, however I am unsure if I can get it in Australia, I will ring my Computer store tomorrow, and find out, the Asus 'TUF' Sabertooth looks quite good too, although again, I am unsure if I can get this in Aus.

Oh @ Vibhas, Games like ArmA 2 etc, can be quite cpu Itensive I have found. (Many AI entities, multiple battles, CPU commanders, plus all your aux processes etc)

EDIT: Also, thanks for all the responses, suggestions, ideas guys ^^ Much appreciated!

 

[aznshinobi]

^ ARMA2 is like BF:BC2, it uses up all 4 cores. I would suggest that you wait for SB and just see how that goes. According to intel, SB is meant to appeal to lower end budget builders. So if that is true, expect price drops or that SB is going to be cheap. Which then... Your 760/750 will be even more cheap!