Seeking some upgrade advice for my mobo/CPU/RAM - Rate my own attempt

T

transcend11

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My current build:
Radeon HD 4850 512MB
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester 2.2GHz Socket 939
24" Westinghouse 1920x1200 Monitor
OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V
A few SATA/IDE hard drives

I think my video card should still have quite a bit of life in it, but I really need a new CPU, RAM, and a motherboard. My PSU should be fine, right?

My browsing on NewEgg lead to this in my shopping cart, how does this look? $290 total after rebates:
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard $109
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $50
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor $130

I'm upgrading this for gaming, most recently for Rift and how much lag I get in major cities with lots of characters. I also want to keep it as cheap as I can while still getting quality components of course.

Thanks for any help and advice! I'm ready to jump on this order ASAP, as I'm in shock I can give my computer it's first major upgrade for under $300 :) Assuming my potential build is indeed good...
 
That's a good start, but the performance bottleneck will then shift over to the HD 4850, which isn't made to handle 1920x1080 gaming.

How old is the Earthwatts power supply?

Are you planning on overclocking?

Outside of gaming, what do you use your computer for?
 
Thanks for the reply, tiraides.

The Earthwatts power supply is somewhat new, about 6 months old. Had to replace it from Best Buy when my old one died.

That's unfortunate about my HD 4850... I 'just' bought it back in 2008, and is the newest major piece my system. If I do indeed need a new graphics card to get the performance boost I'm looking for, that will definitely raise the price - but I'm willing to do this the right way.

I may plan on minor overclocking but it's definitely not necessary, as long as my system runs smoothly and efficiently.

Other than gaming I use my computer for internet browsing, music, movies, Microsoft Office, nothing major. No video editing, etc.
 
3) Where do you live?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
 
I definitely recommend a new video card, but I don't know how much you're willing to spend in that area. Here's a sample build to show you how much you need to truly overhaul your machine:

$170 - AMD Phenom II X4 840 & Biostar TA880GB+ combo
$40 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10666CL9S-4GBNT 4GB DDR3 1333 DIMM
$189 - Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460
=====
$399 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

As you can see, I spent more on the video card itself than I did on the new processor and motherboard for your system. (While I only chose one stick of RAM, it is a 4GB stick, which is more than enough memory for gaming.) Sadly, that card is the bare minimum that I would recommend for medium settings at a 1920x1080 resolution (but it's more than enough for most MMOs).
 
Danny Bui said:
3) Where do you live?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
Click to expand...

I live in the Indianapolis area.

I honestly don't think I need any special features. I may have lost my touch with keeping up with technology lately, and barely know what a lot of what you mentioned is for.

I don't have a RAID setup, no Firewire accessories, just one video card, and don't know if I'd need USB 3.0. I do have two SATA drives but I don't know if they can utilize the 6GB/s. Don't know what eSATA is, and definitely don't need onboard video since I'll have a good graphics card for gaming.

tiraides said:
I definitely recommend a new video card, but I don't know how much you're willing to spend in that area. Here's a sample build to show you how much you need to truly overhaul your machine:

$170 - AMD Phenom II X4 840 & Biostar TA880GB+ combo
$40 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10666CL9S-4GBNT 4GB DDR3 1333 DIMM
$189 - Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460
=====
$399 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

As you can see, I spent more on the video card itself than I did on the new processor and motherboard for your system. (While I only chose one stick of RAM, it is a 4GB stick, which is more than enough memory for gaming.) Sadly, that card is the bare minimum that I would recommend for medium settings at a 1920x1080 resolution (but it's more than enough for most MMOs).
Click to expand...

I would definitely be willing to give my computer a truly great overhaul even if that meant having to wait to save more for a better graphics card. Would you have a preferred graphics card if I said I was willing to reach higher? (Also, I'm really not sure what makes the GTX 460 stand out so much from my HD 4850. It's got a slightly faster clock speed, same VRAM amount, etc... am I missing something?)

The processor/mobo combo you found is at a great price, as is the value RAM, but does the low cost reduce the performance/reliability versus the 'highly ranked' parts I found?

I really appreciate your help. This is a lot of $$ and I want to make sure I'm doing the best I can.
 
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The parts that I picked out are no less reliable than the parts that you've chosen for yourself.

The more modern technology within the GTX 460 makes it better than the two-year-old HD 4850. However, for good frame rates at high (or ultra/max) visual settings for your resolution, we'd normally recommend a high-end card like the HD 6950.
 
transcend11 said:
(Also, I'm really not sure what makes the GTX 460 stand out so much from my HD 4850. It's got a slightly faster clock speed, same VRAM amount, etc... am I missing something?)
Click to expand...

The Radeon 4850 is old man. It's NVIDIA match would be the Geforce gts 250. The GTX 460 has 1gb Vram vs 512mb on your HD 4850. The memory clock data rate is much higher on the GTX 460. Plus, its using GDDR5 RAM vs GDDR3 on the 4850. Also, the default core clock speed on the GTX 460 is higher than the default clock speed on the 4850 with 675mhz vs 625mhz
 
HardwareGuru said:
The Radeon 4850 is old man. It's NVIDIA match would be the Geforce gts 250. The GTX 460 has 1gb Vram vs 512mb on your HD 4850. The memory clock data rate is much higher on the GTX 460. Plus, its using GDDR5 RAM vs GDDR3 on the 4850. Also, the default core clock speed on the GTX 460 is higher than the default clock speed on the 4850 with 675mhz vs 625mhz
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I needed. I'm out of touch with these comparisons. Thank you :)

I am currently browsing newegg and benchmark sites for the perfect graphic card.

Thank you for showing me I can buy the inexpensive items from NewEgg and still make out well. This will leave much more room to spend it on the big guy - the graphics card.
 
Not sure what your budget on a new video card upgrade but, a Radeon HD 6950 1Gb or Geforce GTX 560Ti will be a very noticeable upgrade for $250
 
Here's what I've put together, extremely similar to tiraides' suggestions:

$255 SAPPHIRE 100312SR Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1

$41 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

$170 AMD Phenom II X4 840 & Biostar TA880GB+ combo

Total: $486.

Whew... Well, who am I kidding? I'll probably talk myself into this within 24 hours :)

So, look good?
 
$274.99 - I would go with this card instead since they both cost the same initially anyway, but the XFX has a lifetime warranty where as that Sapphire only has a 2 year.
 
Looks pretty good. Save for the CPU, all of my suggestions below are more or less splitting hairs.

I like your original CPU choice more than the X4 840. Don't get me wrong, the X4 840 is a decent chip. But the 955 is better for a bit more money.

$130 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache (promo code expires today 3/23. Tomorrow it should go back up to $140.)

Here's a motherboard to go with it:

$55 - BIOSTAR A770E3

Subtotal for AMD CPU + Motherboard: $185

It's possible to do a dual core Sandy Bridge build for $195. It'll be faster in a lot of games if Anandtech and Legitreviews are to be believed. If you're interested, I can provide a build.

You mentioned SATA + IDE hard drives. The motherboard I linked to above will support 2 IDE devices (whether hard drive or DVD drive.) It also supports 6 SATA devices. A PCI IDE controller card is under $20 and will fit into any of my listed motherboards. A SATA DVD drive is about $18.

If you want to save a few more bucks on the video card you can go with:

$245 (after $30 MIR) - XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB (comes with a $10 Newegg gift card. Not a lot of reviews unfortunately, but does have a lifetime warranty.)
$245 (after $25 MIR) - MSI R6950-2PM2D2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB (also comes with a $10 Newegg gift card. The number of eggs seems to be misleading. The only 1 egg reviewer doesn't even own the card.)

I picked up the XFX 6870 on this page a few days ago (it arrived today, but I'm out of town. Good thing I sent it to the office so it's not on my porch.) It comes out to about $167 after mail in rebates. But the 2 GB 6950 is a fair bit more powerful than the 6870. If you want to shoot the difference, you could get an XFX 1 GB 6950 for around $215 after rebate, before promo card and other combos.

GPU Subtotal: $167 to $245

Memory looks good. I still prefer dual channel for a few dollars more (or less if you go with memory without heat spreaders. Which I consider to be mostly aesthetic unless you actually put them yourself and do it right.)

$40 - G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

My recommendation:
Total:
$470 = $185 for AMD CPU & Motherboard + $40 for RAM + $245 for GPU (before shipping and taxes.)
However, you could still get very good 1920x1200 gaming for $392 by getting the XFX 6870 card. NOTE: I'm not familiar with Rift. If it's very graphically intensive, put your money toward the 2 GB 6950 first. Then pick your CPU+Motherboard, and don't forget to save about $40 for RAM.
 
Thank you all for your time, it helped tremendously. :)

Final Purchase:

$130 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache (promo code expires today 3/23. Tomorrow it should go back up to $140.)

$55 - BIOSTAR A770E3

$245 (after $30 MIR) - XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB

$40 - G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

Total: $470
 
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