About to upgrade tonight, advice/critique some parts please

[bgriffin]

Hi all,

I have posted here a few weeks ago and got some really good responses and I thought I had assembled a build until some of the deals finished and the motherboard sold out.


So I have £220 (Great British Pounds)

Put an Ebay bid in for a HD 4870 : £60 (I can retract as it is a best offer, could I get much better for £60?)

2x Kingston DDR3 2GB 1333MHz i5 Memory Module CL9 1.5V £31.97

AMD Athlon II X3 450 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95w 1.5MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor £55.37

XFX 450W Core Edition Pro PSU XFX 450W Core Edition Pro PSU £39

Single 12v Rail, up to 53 Amps
Quiet 135mm Cooling Fan
80plus Bronze Certified

Motherboard: Undecided was going to be MSI 870-C45 AMD 770 Socket AM3 GB LAN 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard, but it's now sold out.



Keeping my old HD / Case/ CD drives etc. So only need the above parts.

What would you change? I really want to put an order in tonight.

Preferred places to buy: High google rating UK shops, ebuyer, microdirect, dabs, amazon co.uk


This system will mainly be for gaming.



All the best,


Ben

 

[bgriffin]

Forgot to add:

Gfx card is: XFX/ATI Radeon HD 4870 750m 1024MB PCI-E 2.0 HDTV Dual DVI
OS: XP (have a copy ready to install upon buying components.

 

[pinaklonkar]

Assuming that you are going to be playing at 19xx by 12xx resolution screen -

1) Go with AT LEAST ATI 5xxx series graphics card. If nVidia, go wit at least GTX295 or GTX480 kind of card.

2) Go with at least an i7 grade processor. Or AMD X4. Don't go for X3.

3) Power supply - 500W

4)

3) Go with at least 4GB DDR3-1600 ram

I am not in UK so I can't speak to prices in the stores or online websites there. If newegg sells in UK, check the prices.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

^Agree on the gfx point,
at least a 5770, sapphire ones can be found under £100 on scan.co.uk, ebuyer and overclockers.co.uk

I would bump the psu to 500w+ as well and an AsRock m3a770de mobo will cost you under £50, will allow you to unlock the 4th core if its a good chip.

I'm working on the assumption you want cheap and functional so those will be fine for a system.

Moto

 

[bgriffin]

I only have around £220.

Mobo: 50
PSU: for a trustable 500w about 35/45
2x 2gb ram - 32
CPU: x3 450 around 55

Already puts me like potentially 20/30 over my budget. I don't think I can stretch for a HD 5770 the lowest I am seeing them at is high seventies/ mid eighties mainly.

 

[bgriffin]

I found a 5770 for 75. Is it worth the extra 15 just for directx 11? Also would the 5770 require less power than the 4870 allowing me to go for a 430 /450 saving a bit of money?

I don't plan on much overclocking, a little though.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Well worth it, I googled the power req's looking for numbers and found http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/273105-15-radeon-5770-power-requirement for you
Moto
Striker posted while I was off again but yes the 5770 is worth you waiting for and the possibility of a 'free' fourth core makes it a decent match, I slaughter WoW on a similar build with max settings at 1680x1050 avg 50+ fps

 

[striker410]

The 5770 is comparable to the 4870, but with better everything lol. Better power consumption, better optimization, it's a better card all round. And getting the mobo mentioned by Moto would really help you out, as you might end up with a free quad instead of an x3! I understand you have budget constraints, but it might be worthwhile to save up a little more before you buy.

 

[bgriffin]

Ok, 5770, mobo, 4gb ram, x3 450 all ordered. Now I just need to order a PSU, looking on ebay I can pick up an FSP bronze standard 500w for £40.

Would pretty much any 500w Bronze psu be ok? I have £40 max.

 

[striker410]

I would grab one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371034&Tpk=430w%20earthwatt Get it where it's cheapest. Should fit your budget nicely.

Anything that's 80+ and 400w or over will be fine.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/COOLERMASTER-iGREEN-600-WATT-600W-ATX-POWER-SUPPLY-PSU-/270746068986?pt=UK_Computing_PowerSupplies_EH&hash=item3f09b927fa

If you do get one off ebay, dont be tempted to get refurb or used units, brand new only ok
saving a couple of quid may seem like a good idea, but not when a crappy/defective psu melts the rest of your build
the one I linked sits right at your budget and will last you into an upgrade or two as well man,
Moto