Upgrade Advise £500 budget

[ampot]

Howdy hi,

Looking to upgrade in prep for crysis 2, medal of honor, diablo 3 etc, Looking for some advise on upgrade.

Need

windows 7 (not sure which version to get, currently have legit windows xp)
New hard drive (currently using a 9 year old random brand one - no idea how it has survived)
Graphics Card

Not sure if i need processor?, i would consider fastest quad that fits in my mobo if it allows in budget


Currently own
XFX 4850 512mb
AMD Phenom II x 2 550 be @3.1
GA-MA770-UD3
450vx corsair
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800 MHz
1680x1050

Currently eyeing up the http://www.ebuyer.com/product/222056 for graphics.

Budget £500, may nudge that slighty.

 

[guanyu210379]

Get only the :
1. Win 7 Home Premium x64 is enough for you
2. Samsung F3 7200 rpm series HDD

the rest can wait untill the Bulldozer, Sandybridge, and the AMD/ATI HD6000 are there.
If you can not wait :
1. Yup HD5850 is the correct choice
2. An upgrade to X4 965 or X6 1055T
3. An SSD is also not bad
Or if your PSU is still enough...a second HD4850 is also not bad.

 

[asteldian]

Just getting the Windows and HDD would probably do, but in case you really want to make changes, here are a couple of ideas.

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500gb - £33
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252

PSU: XFX 650W - £70
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191826

GPU: 5870 - £281
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-XFX-HD-5870-PCI-E-21-(x16)-4800MHz-GDDR5-GPU-850MHz-1600-Cores-DisplayPort-DL-DVI-HDMI

Phenom II 955 Black Edition - £112
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-955-Black-Edition-Sok-AM3-32GHz-8MB-Total-Cache-Retail

Total: £496

An alternative would be to go with the 5850 for £200 which should be plenty of power for a 1680 x 1050 resolution. That would leave enough for Windows 7 Upgrade pack.

Expensive but good build:

RAM: G Skill 1600mhz, DDR3 CL7 - £92
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/180490

PSU: XFX 650W - £70
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191826

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500gb - £33
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252

CPU: i5 760 - £146
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel-i5-760-S1156-Lynnfield-Quad-Core-28-GHz-8MB-Cache-Core-Ratio-21x-95W-Retail

MSI P55 GD65 - £109 (SLI/XFire)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/MSI-P55-GD65-Intel-P55-Motherboard-LGA1156

GPU: GTX 460 1gb - £170
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/232853

Total: £528
This would mean having to stick with Windows XP until you can afford the Windows 7. The GTX460 1gb should be plenty with your resolution with the added bonus you can SLI a second in the future for excellent performance.

You could see if anyone would buy your current computer, with the money from that you may be able to get a second GTX 460 straight away, or the Windows 7 plus money saved towards a second GTX460, or if really lucky both.

 

[mosox]

Did you try to unlock that CPU? I would wait with the upgrade until the end of the year.

 

[ampot]

I have not tried to unlock the quad on the logic that a fast dual core is better than a slow quad. (afaik lol) Ideally dont want to try either.

When are the new products due out? I dont really want to wait too long, and ideally dont want to replace my PSU, so 5850 seemed ideal.

Cheers for the responces.

 

[mosox]

By unlocking the CPU you don't make it slower. Instead of having a 3.1GHz dual core you have a 3.1GHz quad. And you can't destroy your CPU if you try to unlock it.

 

[ampot]

How far off are the new HD6000 series? roughly obviously?

And reckon ill try quading my cpu if thats possible never new it would be a quad 3.1

cheers.

 

[guanyu210379]

HD6000...I can not say anything at this moment, but it is worth to wait.