Upgrading PC need advice please

L

linthat22

Regular
So the wife said it's time to upgrade, because she wants to play The Witcher 2 (ie, watch me play and her tell me what to do). So this is what I have.

ASUS P5K Deluxe Wifi
Intel quadcore 2.2Ghz
6 gigs of DDR2 1066Mhz RAM
ATI HD5770 (have 2 in Crossfire mode)
Cooler Master Silencer 700 watts (something like that )
And some old Antec server case

This is what I ordered for the new system.

Cooler Master HAF-X case (think that's the name)
AMD Phenom II X6 3.2Ghz (6 cores can't go wrong)
Asrock 890FX Deluxe5
16 Gigs of Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600Mhz
MSI AMD HD6950
after market cooler and a wireless adapter

Im going to reuse my power supply.

The goal here is to future proof my upgrade by getting a motherboard that supports the AM3+ socket and the ability to use faster RAM down the road. I purchased just one video card to keep costs down and so I could still use my PSU.

My question is, did I do the right thing with my choices or do y'all think I overlooked something?

Any input would be helpful.
 
I'm sure you and the wifey will be happy, it's hard to go wrong with today's performance level of hardware. I'd say 16 gigs of RAM is probably way waaaayyy overkill unless you do some serious work on that box when you're not gaming on it. I "only" have 12 in my rig and I haven't been able to blow even half of it just by using it like I normally do + load some unneccessary stuff on the side as well.
 
i think its good , seems as per Kyle(hardocp)'s childish attacks on his own members over at his forums , bulldozer is delayed at least into quarter 3.

I think i might just go intel again
 
I think you have more money than sense....
a bit like replacing a 180mph car with one that does 190mph

from what i can tell just having a quick look
if crossfire works in the games you want to play your looking at about 10% on the gfx card
The Witcher 2 1920x1080 very high core i7-860@4.0ghz
6950 avg 32fps -- single 5770 avg 18fps
on average cpu seems to be about 40% (you could of got that by spending $30 on a cooler)

On the plus side, New hardware is always nice ;)
 
I just upgraded to a sandy bridge system with gobs of memory and a GTX580, but the one component that actually adds the most noticeable sense of performance improvement would be the SSD. It just makes almost everything feel just that much smoother.
 
He could just mod the 6950
even so a 6970 wouldnt be that big of an improvement over 2x 5770 (but if you can sell the 5770's it makes the deal sweeter)

why not get a 6990 a good cooler(+3ghz on the cpu) and a ssd instead , get a new cpu and board later
maybe go eyefinity if you have enough change for 2x lcd's (they only need to be cheap ones)
 
I'd skip the 6990, it's hella noisy and runs really really hot under load. While it does save a pair of card slots, having 2 discrete boards seems more appropriate to me if the goal is crossfire/SLI.

Anyway, it's not as if cardslots is in big demand these days with virtually everything integrated on the mobo already. You might need it for a digital TV tuner if you want to do the HTPC thing, or a standalone audio board if you need good ASIO performance and low noise levels, or perhaps one of those PCIe SSDs if you're crazy rich, but other than that there's not much need.
 
ps: about the witcher 2, I have a similar cpu to the op (slightly faster) and a 6950 plus one of those sidebar gadgets that show cpu usage and i looked at it a few times while playing it (not the most scientific test ) and all 4 cores seem to stay around the 50-60% mark so i dont think a faster cpu will help you
 
Well, after some troubleshooting, I have my new machine up and running.

I was afraid that ya'll would say that the new video card would be negligible in performance over the two 5770's, but I have to say, overall the Witcher 2 runs a lot better now.

Now mind you, a patch did come out and I do have better throughput on this new rig versus my old one, so who know's which was what.

btw, I guess all the new hardware was too much for Windows and I had to do a clean install. Before I reformatted i was graphical fragments, stuttering mice movements, and unusually high hard drive access.

I guess I should state that the reason I chose the pieces I did was for future proofing my investment. You figure the system I replaced was built in early 2007, so it seemed like a good time to upgrade (plus the wife hates it when games stutter). I could have upgraded to more RAM and a higher end CPU on the old ASUS board, but I don't know what kind of gains I would've seen.

I appreciate everyones input. I'm glad to see I'm not at a total loss (even if I have less sense than money ;) )
 
Your wife told you it was time to upgrade because she wanted to play The Witcher 2?

Dude, where can I get one of those?!
I'll pay for the tip! Just get me an IBAN or something!
 
ToTTenTranz said:
Your wife told you it was time to upgrade because she wanted to play The Witcher 2?

Dude, where can I get one of those?!
I'll pay for the tip! Just get me an IBAN or something!
Click to expand...

Yes sir, that is correct.

When we lived in Tennessee I found the first Witcher game at the local used book store. At that time she was already hooked on the Half Life series and that game sucked her in too.

So yeah, we've been gaming ever since.

Only thing I can say is have both of y'alls hobbies in the same room and see if she picks up on the story line. My wife is a total bookworm so, I don't know if that means anything.

What's funny is that we're replaying the Mass Effect series and she's all "the graphics look better and the screen isn't choppy anymore."

Btw, do y'all thunk if I were to crossfire my computer that i'll need either a 1000 watt or 1200 watt psu?
 
Alright guys, one more question.

The wife said to go ahead and run dual 6950's and I need to get a new power supply (homerdog thank you for the suggestions and will look into them)

My question is, am I gonna pop a breaker with this rig?

So far my plug is running my LCD screen, receiver, and computer (it's in the living room)

The line that it's plugged in to is a 20 amp breaker with a 15 amp outlet. This is a brand new outlet with nothing else between it and the breaker box. So it's just a dedicated circuit.

Any thoughts?

btw, she wants ALL the bells and whistles turned on The Witcher 2 and doesn't want to play it with me until we can do that without any kind of stuttering lol
 
15 amps over 120V is close to 2kW. If you intend to connect microwave, space heater or cofee maker to same breaker you could be in trouble, if not then it shouldn't really matter much
 
I know I am late to the party and that you have already put together you machine but why would anyone buy AMD when building a gaming rig when we have Sandy Bridge out from Intel?
 
Yeah, why's the breaker higher-capacity than the outlet? Having it the other way around sounds safer and less fire-prone to me... :p
 
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