Best upgrade(s) for $500?

[paulm]

Hey!

I currently want to spend $500 on my rig.

What upgrades would leave me with the greatest boost in performance (in general, games, benchmarks, just overall) for under $500?

I know I need to upgrade my video card, and probably my case (but lets not consider that as part of this $500).

I'm happy to overclock for a performance boost, so if you think its worth throwing in a decent HSF, go for it.

I want to upgrade to i7 in the future, but at the moment, its too pricey and I have a feeling it isn't worth it (if I'm wrong, please feel free to shank me and then proceed to broadcast fanboy slogans).

Thanks guys

 

[LittleLizard]

gigabyte ud3p 130 + shipping
xiggy s1283 - 37 free shipping
e8400 - 165 free shipping

use the leftovers for a videocard

 

[rizla1]

upgrade ur cpu fan and oc like a chapion ,anther hdd 1tb or something similer and and a gtx 260 216 shaders can be had on ebay for £160 or $230 its the best i seen oc it to get gtx280 performance.

 

[iStink]

tax returns or something? lol

Get yourself an OCZ gamerXStream 700w psu, and a gtx285.

 

[ShadowFold]

Get two of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236
And go i7 down the road. An E6600 is still a pretty powerful CPU for gaming. If do go for a new board get this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136051&Tpk=DFI X38

 

[paulm]

Alright, slight change.

For the sake of not wasting money, lets say I get the following:

GPU (Something)
HSF (Capable of mounting 1366 socket in the future, via bolt through kit or otherwise)
PSU (Enough for an i7 rig in the future and to power the GPU(s), doesn't need to be fancy)
Case (I like the HAF 932, but it is on the more expensive side).

How would you budget that to be $500 or under?

 

[BrooksyX]

Honestly if your wanting to spend $500. I would just sell your current setup and go i7. $500 is a lot of money to spend on old hardware.

 

[LittleLizard]

hsf - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055&Tpk=coolermaster v8
gpu - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131120
psu - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009
case - keep your for now

 

[paulm]

Honestly if your wanting to spend $500. I would just sell your current setup and go i7. $500 is a lot of money to spend on old hardware.

i7 920 - $280
DFI DK x58 Mobo - $250

= $530 in addition to whatever else I need to upgrade (GPU, PSU, HSF, Case)

 

[LittleLizard]

read my list, is good

 

[dna1x]

Honestly if your wanting to spend $500. I would just sell your current setup and go i7. $500 is a lot of money to spend on old hardware.

I'm with him on this. Your current setup is a money pit. Get rid of it while it still has value. I've sold a similar amd system for $300 easy fast cash. You could probably get more if you waited for the right buyer and might even be able to save a bit more at the same time. I also had the same idea as you where I'd buy a good psu and case and use it as a place holder for a future upgrade but your older hardware will continue to lose value as you are waiting for the prices to drop and funds to become available. Whatever you decide, good luck and happy shopping.

 

[ShadowFold]

Alright, slight change.

For the sake of not wasting money, lets say I get the following:

GPU (Something)
HSF (Capable of mounting 1366 socket in the future, via bolt through kit or otherwise)
PSU (Enough for an i7 rig in the future and to power the GPU(s), doesn't need to be fancy)
Case (I like the HAF 932, but it is on the more expensive side).

How would you budget that to be $500 or under?

GPU -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236
PSU -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
Case -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160
Cooler -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029
Almost exactly 500$
Wait for that Xigmatek to come back in stock, it comes with the 1366 bracket.

 

[MohawkAngel]

Look at my system spec and you could get it for hte 500$ even less. Sell your Intel and you could get a Phenom quad-core for that and a good video card....3 gigs quad core + 4 gigs 1066 ram + 1 gig video card .....man you will kick some asses!!!

 

[paulm]

Look at my system spec and you could get it for hte 500$ even less. Sell your Intel and you could get a Phenom quad-core for that and a good video card....3 gigs quad core + 4 gigs 1066 ram + 1 gig video card .....man you will kick some asses!!!

Why would I want to go Phenom? Waste of money considering I want to go i7 and AMD can't keep up with Intel on anything except price.

I was thinking about just selling my system and going i7, but what will I do while I wait for enough funds?

$800 or so, minus $530 for mobo and i7 920 = $270 - $270 for case and PSU = $0

I still don't have DDR3 memory in that case, and I don't have a new video card. My old case isn't cutting it anymore, and I think there might be a slight bottleneck with a 256MB 7900 GS & an i7 920 (which I can't overclock too much since I lack a HSF).

 

[BrooksyX]

Whats wrong with your PSU? Unless you plan on going crossfire or sli you have plenty of juice to run an i7 rig. You could always upgrade that down the road.

 

[paulm]

Whats wrong with your PSU? Unless you plan on going crossfire or sli you have plenty of juice to run an i7 rig. You could always upgrade that down the road.

520w is enough to run an i7 920 clocked to 4GHz or so, 6GB of DDR3 1600, a couple of hard drives, and a GTX 285 for example?

I'm thinking that would be cutting it a little close?

 

[n-ster]

cpu+mobo
great RAM
if you really want 6gb
awesome PSU
about 650$ ... includes i7, mobo, 3gb tri-channel ddr3 RAM and an awesome PSU,
~700$ with 6gb or ~560$ for cpu+mobo+ram (so no PSU)

add a 4850x2 in your list and that's another 225$

so WITH 6gb of RAM, a bit over 900$ ... another 100$ or so for a case and you've reached 4 digits

IMO, save another 500$ and buy what I said above... or spend 90$ more for DFI x58 300$ mobo for OCing past 4ghz... IMO, if you want to keep your i7 for long and OC it at 4ghz, you better start WCooling... another 300$?

IMO, it's still worth it... since WC, RAM, case, PSU are all long term items... as well as mobo, if x58 stays so save up, I could tell you what I buy buy in what order:

1. 4850x2 (~225$)
2. good case + case cooling etc. (100~200$)
3. i7 + mobo+ ddr3RAM + PSU together (~700$ or 800+$ if you want to go past 4ghz with DFI x58 or EVGA classified later on) OC to 3.3 or so max then
4. WC setup... best quality possible for 300$

P.S: If I were you, I would buy 4850x2 (since now ATI is doing drivers for it, and not just saphire) and a good case + case cooling ASAP... later on this year, when you'll have money, when prices will go down, and when 38nm comes out or not, You can decide whether to buy an i7 or just buy a 38nm quad or i7 equivalent.

I think that's pretty good advice now.. no?

 

[ShadowFold]

+1 on the 4850X2. Best performance in it's range for sure.

 

[n-ster]

thank you... but I think we discussed this in another thread... right paulm? Binge was opposed to this idea however, and I was to until I discovered ATI started to support the 4850x2... but there is still a chance that driver support will be abandoned since saphire's the only manufacturer and therefore not many ppl have the 4850x2... Also, another point is that dual GPUs usually end up having problems etc... but I wouldn't worry about that too much... and the bang/buck is so good you just won't mind

 

[spearman914]

CPU is fine for now. Just grab a 4850x2 or GTX285 and u'll see a huge boost!! If u don't overclock that much then the current board is fine too.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

tax returns or something? lol

Get yourself an OCZ gamerXStream 700w psu, and a gtx285.

I second this choice. CPU is alright and since you are getting i7 in the future, this choice carries over to your new i7 build down the road.

Going multi-GPU is always spotty on performance gains. Sometimes you only really get the benefit of one of the GPU's which is very annoying on select games.

 

[ShadowFold]

I haven't found any games that don't utilize Crossfire yet

 

[n-ster]

not that they don't utilize dual GPU...

here I'll quote Binge here... hopefully he won't mind...

With every driver release they are improving the way Crossfire and SLI handle games, but what they can not do is give you any benefit to running crossfire or SLI in an application that is not supported by the driver. For every game that is SLI/Crossfire compatible there is a profile in the driver to support that game with multiple GPUs. I bet you that if you were to run a brand new game like Mirror's Edge or Farcry 2 you would not see much of a difference between your 4850x2 and a 4850. Maybe a little if the drivers are advanced enough but not as much as if you had a game like Devil May Cry 4 which definitely has support on the drivers for the 4850x2. Single GPU uses less power, creates less heat, and you know you're using your gpu even @ idle speeds because it's driving your monitor. If you have 2 GPUs you're wasting energy until you decide to start gaming. It's only a marketing gimick to get people to buy more when in reality they're spending 200% to get 140-150% performance. I'd gave up on SLI, 4870x2s, and 4870 crossfire because in the end all of the problems end up being the same. Heat, power, and lack of support for ALL of my applications.

basically, dual gpus NEED the Drivers... and until drivers get better, you will never get much of a performance increase compared to a 4850... and wtv you use it on, performance increase is 150%, not 200... so driver support, and also heat may be a problem... understand now? there are other things probably, but this is for the main part...


P.S: I would still go 4850x2.... but I just wanted to show there are some disadvantages

P.S.S: just incase... don't start an argument with Binge, since I didn't ask for permission to use this (this was a PM, me asking why...) and also, whether you like it or not... he's right

 

[trt740]

Hey!

I currently want to spend $500 on my rig.

What upgrades would leave me with the greatest boost in performance (in general, games, benchmarks, just overall) for under $500?

I know I need to upgrade my video card, and probably my case (but lets not consider that as part of this $500).

I'm happy to overclock for a performance boost, so if you think its worth throwing in a decent HSF, go for it.

I want to upgrade to i7 in the future, but at the moment, its too pricey and I have a feeling it isn't worth it (if I'm wrong, please feel free to shank me and then proceed to broadcast fanboy slogans).

Thanks guys

Q9550 and a sapphire 4870 1GB http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?submit=ChangeItem $484.00 combo deal this cpu will do 4.0ghz and this gpu is equal to a 260gtx 216

 

[n-ster]

hmm.... for that price, I'd prefer to dish a bit more money out for the 4850x2... and why upgrade to Q9550 when he wants an i7 in the near future...