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Evalutating current build again, potential upgrades from AMD 955 BE PC.

S

Shadowprice

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 7, 2005
Messages
2,087
Hey all it's that time again I've decided to take a look at my PC again and see if I could benefit from upgrading it. I held off last time, so we'll see if anything different happens again.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
General multi-media (movies,streaming, blu rays). Light gaming which includes some WoW, D3, old Steam games... heavy emphasis on light gaming. I'm mostly playing console right now, so a GPU upgrade isn't such a high priority right now.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I'd like to maybe try and keep it no more then $500. I have a lot of supporting parts.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Arizona, US
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU/MB/GPU.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
PSU is a corsair 650WT I've owned for almost 2 years, not sure if it needs to be swapped out or if its still good... Antec 300 case, Corsair 8GB RAM, 128GB crucial M4 SSD, Seagate 500GB 7200RPM drive for storage (Don't need a lot of storage). LiteOn BR drive, current video card is a AMD 5770 HD.. All hardware is good, using razer equipment for KB/Mouse.

6) Will you be overclocking?
No overclocking
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1080p Asus 23.6" monitor I bought from newegg
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Anytime from Christmas to about Feburary.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Nothing in particular I can think of.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 7, planning on upgrading to Windows 8.



I've been keeping it pretty casual on my PC lately. Gaming isn't such a heavy emphasis right now but I do know my CPU/GPU is getting a bit dated. Also, a quiet operation is desired. Not looking for anything completely silent, but modest quietness it a big plus. Just seeing if its worth doing a upgrade now or if I should hold off for a little while again, but its always nice to "future proof" my build for when I decide to pick up WoW/D3 again. Not concerned about running ultra graphics, but smooth gameplay is what I strive for. Also, I'm wondering if my CPU would also do well in Windows 8, since I do plan on moving to it.
 
Since you already have an SSD that is good.
So you dont want to OC that CPU? A nice CM 212+ would get you a good OC and can also be used on a 1155 if you decided to go that route.

Personally I would go with a cpu cooler, OC it and get a nice video card. A 7950 will work great @ 1080p.

Then you can decide if you want more cpu power for encoding or whatever. Gaming will be fine except a few games may go a bit slower due to being cpu bound.(OC would work well here)
 
I have a coolmaster after market CPU fan thats really good. I have absolutely no experience with OCing and I suck at it from the feeble attempts I've made at OCing. The games that I run aren't too graphically intensive.
 
Xan433 said:
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Anytime from Christmas to about Feburary.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately that wide of a period doesn't help us help you considering that our recommendations can change in as little as a month let alone 3-4 months from now. Especially if Intel actually launches their new Haswell CPUs in March. So in other words, if you want up-to-date hardware advice, please come back when you're 2-3 weeks away from buying the parts.

Xan433 said:
I've been keeping it pretty casual on my PC lately. Gaming isn't such a heavy emphasis right now but I do know my CPU/GPU is getting a bit dated. Also, a quiet operation is desired. Not looking for anything completely silent, but modest quietness it a big plus. Just seeing if its worth doing a upgrade now or if I should hold off for a little while again, but its always nice to "future proof" my build for when I decide to pick up WoW/D3 again. Not concerned about running ultra graphics, but smooth gameplay is what I strive for. Also, I'm wondering if my CPU would also do well in Windows 8, since I do plan on moving to it.
Click to expand...
What CPU and mobo do you have now?

Xan433 said:
I have a coolmaster after market CPU fan thats really good.
Click to expand...
Which Coolermaster HSF? Is it quiet for you?
 
I don't mind waiting. If my CPU is good enough I'm fine with it, I've had it for awhile now. Is a AMD Phenom II 955 still a good CPU, still current hardware or dated now? I'm also using a Asus motherboard. I forget the exact model. I think its a M47ATD. And as for the thread I posted a little while ago, I bought a new Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus. Huge CPU fan, but seems quiet enough for me, a low hum I'm fine with. I actually think my GPU is being louder then normal. I've been noticing an annoying rapid high-low tone emitting from my GPU fan it seems, I turned on one of my case fans to medium speed to drown out the sound.
 
Do you think I just might need a video card then? Any recommendations for a low key (quiet) yet powerful GPU that will do a good job?
 
Xan433 said:
Do you think I just might need a video card then? Any recommendations for a low key (quiet) yet powerful GPU that will do a good job?
Click to expand...

Too soon to recommend a card. Remember what I said earlier?
 
Oops, sorry then, let me rephrase.. since I don't need to go out and upgrade my CPU again I could go ahead and go for a video card upgrade in the next 2 weeks or so. I don't think I'd spend more then $200, but the cheaper the better.
 
The HD 7770 isn't that much faster to justify the costs. I'd go for the HD 7850 2GB to get a worthwhile upgrade.
 
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