Official "Upgrade Help" Thread

[Binnacle]

Also a 600W PSU will run all this right ?

Thinking of power supplies. Can anyone tell me the differences between Vantec's A (A/AS), N and C power supplies? They are all "Ion 2+" it seems as if the "A" has an 80+ rating and the amps vary but all above 20A... Anyone know?

[MonGooS]

If its in my budget do you think adding nVidia GeForce GTS 250 to my purchase will make a bigger difference ?

Then it will be :

GPU
CPU

But now I don't know if this Mobo can support quad core.

It says: "CPU (Max Support) Core 2 Extreme" does that include Core 2 Quad ?

[Tryxst3r]

Hey guys, I'm in a bit of a pickle with my graphics card.

Recently (read 2 months ago), I bought myself the Sapphire HD4890 Vapour-X edition.

I returned the first one, as the screen connector's were malfunctioning, stopping my PC from booting. A week later I got a replacment.

So, 1 month and 2 weeks later, the replacment had started to fail. I don't know what is wrong with it, but it started to decrease in performance; up until now, where CoD4 is just unplayable due to microlag caused by the card.

Thankfully, I had run a 3DMark Vantage bench, just to see the performance, hours after I had received the replacement. The score showed 10.4k for GPU performance.

Tonight I decided to run another bench, to see if there actually was a problem. To my surprise, the score read 8.4k.

To me, that seems like a massive dip in points.

Now here's the question: what could be causing this drop? The temps are about 80 degrees, so overheating isn't the issue.

I haven't overclocked it.

My PSU is the Raidmax Volcano 670W.

If I return it to the shop in question (prophecy), will they replace it (which I'm hoping they dont), or can I get a refund?

I have always been a fan of Sapphire, but my patience is wearing thin.

Thanks in advance. :)

[leheheh]

Thinking of power supplies. Can anyone tell me the differences between Vantec's A (A/AS), N and C power supplies? They are all "Ion 2+" it seems as if the "A" has an 80+ rating and the amps vary but all above 20A... Anyone know?

I'm not sure about C.
But the difference between A and AS is that AS is modular.
And N has no 80 Plus certification and it has certification for ATX v2.2 not v2.3 like A and AS.

[BTROG]

I bought a Quad Core Q8200 recently but in terms of gaming it hasn't done much of a boost compared to when I was running a Dual Core E2160 could this be because my 9500GT and my 3GB of 667mhz ram, which I plan on increasing to 4GB 800mhz now that I got Windows 7 64-bit, is bottlenecking my cpu or did the cpu upgrade not make much of a difference to my pc peformance?

[Wesley]

Hey guys, I'm in a bit of a pickle with my graphics card.

Recently (read 2 months ago), I bought myself the Sapphire HD4890 Vapour-X edition.

I returned the first one, as the screen connector's were malfunctioning, stopping my PC from booting. A week later I got a replacment.

So, 1 month and 2 weeks later, the replacment had started to fail. I don't know what is wrong with it, but it started to decrease in performance; up until now, where CoD4 is just unplayable due to microlag caused by the card.

Thankfully, I had run a 3DMark Vantage bench, just to see the performance, hours after I had received the replacement. The score showed 10.4k for GPU performance.

Tonight I decided to run another bench, to see if there actually was a problem. To my surprise, the score read 8.4k.

To me, that seems like a massive dip in points.

Now here's the question: what could be causing this drop? The temps are about 80 degrees, so overheating isn't the issue.

I haven't overclocked it.

My PSU is the Raidmax Volcano 670W.

If I return it to the shop in question (prophecy), will they replace it (which I'm hoping they dont), or can I get a refund?

I have always been a fan of Sapphire, but my patience is wearing thin.

Thanks in advance. :)

What could be causing the performanc dip? That's anyone's guess, but I'm wondering if maybe its driver-related. Probably not, seeing as microlag over time rendering the game unplayable is something one would experience if the card was slowly underclocking itself. That, or poor manufacturing. Send the card back, and ask for a refund.

If its in my budget do you think adding nVidia GeForce GTS 250 to my purchase will make a bigger difference ?

Then it will be :

GPU
CPU

But now I don't know if this Mobo can support quad core.

It says: "CPU (Max Support) Core 2 Extreme" does that include Core 2 Quad ?

The GTS250 would definitely be a good buy, it trades blows with the HD4850 and HD5750. As for the motherboard, don't worry about support since the "Core 2 Extreme" support is just lifted from older flyers, and is really just to reassure anyone who does buy a Core 2 Extreme QX9775 (a quad-core unlocked chip) that it will work. Your quad will be fine.

I bought a Quad Core Q8200 recently but in terms of gaming it hasn't done much of a boost compared to when I was running a Dual Core E2160 could this be because my 9500GT and my 3GB of 667mhz ram, which I plan on increasing to 4GB 800mhz now that I got Windows 7 64-bit, is bottlenecking my cpu or did the cpu upgrade not make much of a difference to my pc peformance?

Why, why didn't you think of upgrading your graphics card? That's the solution to your problem there, its too weak. Of course you wouldn't see much of a difference in gaming, the higher you go in resolution the more you depend on your graphics card to do all the heavy work.

[maxdamage]

When or if you get it, also consider buying yourself a surge protector plug. They're pretty cheap, and at least offer a small modicum of protection against surges and damage to your pc.

I have a surge protector I got as a birthday present last year and the light on it is still on but yet my psu appears to be damaged every time the power is cut and\or "power surge". :(

[Chevron]

I bought a Quad Core Q8200 recently but in terms of gaming it hasn't done much of a boost compared to when I was running a Dual Core E2160 could this be because my 9500GT and my 3GB of 667mhz ram, which I plan on increasing to 4GB 800mhz now that I got Windows 7 64-bit, is bottlenecking my cpu or did the cpu upgrade not make much of a difference to my pc peformance?

You graphics card is definitely the bottleneck.

[MonGooS]

Okay guys for all 3 I got a price of R4459. Cheapest I have found so far. Is that a decent price for those 3 parts ?

Just to confirm. My System wont bottleneck at the Mobo or RAM right ?

[Wesley]

Okay guys for all 3 I got a price of R4459. Cheapest I have found so far. Is that a decent price for those 3 parts ?

Just to confirm. My System wont bottleneck at the Mobo or RAM right ?

No, your system won't bottleneck at all. I'd be very surprised if it did.

[McDangerous]

Okay guys for all 3 I got a price of R4459. Cheapest I have found so far. Is that a decent price for those 3 parts ?

Just to confirm. My System wont bottleneck at the Mobo or RAM right ?

Dude, to be totally honest, I'd much rather go for a 5770 right now. It performs (a bit) better or on par with the 4870 which in turn performs better than the GTS250. You'll have DX11, and a bit of future-proofing. You'll be able to get a 5770 1GB from iKonicIT or Rebeltech for the same price that GTS250 is going for. Also, it isn't very heavy on power either.

Just my 2c, better performance and newer tech for the same price is obviously a better deal.

[Wesley]

Dude, to be totally honest, I'd much rather go for a 5770 right now. It performs (a bit) better or on par with the 4870 which in turn performs better than the GTS250. You'll have DX11, and a bit of future-proofing. You'll be able to get a 5770 1GB from iKonicIT or Rebeltech for the same price that GTS250 is going for. Also, it isn't very heavy on power either.

Just my 2c, better performance and newer tech for the same price is obviously a better deal.

It would be a better idea, but consider that ATI is suffering huge delays and shortages with its DX11 cards. Look at the price difference here:

TwinTech GTS250 1GB XT OC Edition (with Need For Speed Shift offer) @ R1774

That's a good bargain, getting Shift at half price, too. I'm assuming MonGoos want to stick with Nvidia for personal reasons/brand loyalty/Physx. His other options are:

Club 3D HD5750 1GB @ R1534 (out of stock, prpbably going to be back in stock in about 3 weeks)

Club 3D HD5770 1GB @ R1821 (on par with the HD4870, but sometimes slower, and doesn't come with the Shift option, and its also out of stock)

For the older Radeon generation, everything's in stock.

Sapphire HD4850 1GB @ R1615 (similar performance to the GTS250)

Sapphire HD4870 512MB @ R2101 (better in some scenarios than the newer HD5770, but automatically disqualifies itself because it only has 512MB of memory)

So then, the only other match would be the HD4850, but without the option of getting Shift for cheap (and Shift is godly). I'd stick to the GTS250, the newer tech may be better or cheaper, but its out of stock.

[MonGooS]

Hmm ill do a bit more research. Ill only get the stuff between December 1st to 17th. So 3 weeks delay won't affect my choice. Ill find out what's available. I can get the GTS250 for R1624.

Questions:
-Wesley that Twintech GTS250 is a 512mb 512bit. Is that better than a 1gb 256bit ?
-Just again, I'm still worried. With this setup my system won't have a large bottelneck right ? Not like my current system.
-Is ordering from Take2 to your door reliable and trustworthy ?

[Wesley]

Questions:
-Wesley that Twintech GTS250 is a 512mb 512bit. Is that better than a 1gb 256bit ?

Wait, what? ...

...

Damn, it is a 512MB card, my bad. No, it's not better, but the Shift offer got my attention. Right, you were looking at this version.

-Just again, I'm still worried. With this setup my system won't have a large bottelneck right ? Not like my current system.

Nope, not bottleneck whatsoever.

-Is ordering from Take2 to your door reliable and trustworthy ?

Well, they have a good reputation with a lot of members on these forums, and they're very friendly and helpful. They have awesome game sales every second weekend or so as well.

[Tryxst3r]

What could be causing the performanc dip? That's anyone's guess, but I'm wondering if maybe its driver-related. Probably not, seeing as microlag over time rendering the game unplayable is something one would experience if the card was slowly underclocking itself. That, or poor manufacturing. Send the card back, and ask for a refund.

Thanks for the help man. :)

[MonGooS]

Okay i just got back from the shop I'm gonna buy from. They are very helpful and can get some good prices.

Two things though:

He can't get that motherboard. He had this one in the shop G31. Is it any good, will it bottleneck anything? Or should i look for something better. Can you give me any other suggestions that will be bellow R1000.

He said I should look at the C2D E8400 3Ghz 6MB 1333. Rather than the QuadQ9400. But I think ill stick with the quad. Its only a R100 price difference. Whats your advice on that?

[McDangerous]

Dude, Q9400 all the way. Check out this benchmark, it's pretty useful. If you just OC the Q9400 a bit, it'll match the E8400 in all the benches that aren't multi-threaded, and just take a gander at the FarCry2 score difference... FarCry 2 is multi-threaded, as quite a few games are these days, and most of them in the future will be, and look at how much better the 9400 performs, even with a 400MHz clock deficit.

Rather try get a P45 motherboard man, the G31 is orientated toward the entry-level segment like HTPCs and such.

What speed is the RAM you're currently running? Timings?

@Wes, I get what you're saying about the Shift deal, but spending R300 extra now on a better card will net Mongoose much more in the end than getting a lesser card and a cheaper game. I'd honestly not buy a GTS250 now. You could get a GTX260 from PCInt for the same price... The GTS250 is just too overpriced for what you get out of it!

[Wesley]

He can't get that motherboard. He had this one in the shop G31. Is it any good, will it bottleneck anything? Or should i look for something better. Can you give me any other suggestions that will be bellow R1000.

It won't bottleneck anything, but if you want to think about overclocking in future, you'll have to invest in a P43 or P45 chipset motherboard. If the dude you talked to has the Asus P5KPL-AM series of motherboards in stock, go for one of those rather, it has a higher FSB and the possibility of a slight overclock for your quad.

He said I should look at the C2D E8400 3Ghz 6MB 1333. Rather than the QuadQ9400. But I think ill stick with the quad. Its only a R100 price difference. Whats your advice on that?

For R100 extra, the quad is the better deal by far.

[MonGooS]

I don't plan on Over clocking. I have no experience in it and wouldn't trust anyone else withing a mile of my PC with the intention of over clocking it :P

The GTX260 is like R500 more expensive. It is 896MB 448Bit. Is that much better than a 1gb 256bit ? Ill find out a price for it. But again I don't want a mega powerful GPU and it can't run at its full potential because of my CPU or Mobo.

Ill ask him about a P43 or P45 and the Asus P5KPL-AM. But if getting the G31 won't make a performance difference and will only effect over clocking, then I think I might go for it.

[McDangerous]

Well, if you have a Q9400, your CPU should sustain it just fine! It'll actually be a pretty good performance match up. The GTX260 (as much as I hate to admit it) outperforms a 4870 1GB most of the time! They're really powerful cards, and now that the price has dropped, they're a really good buy. It'll definitely be worth the extra R500 if you can reach that far.

It's much quicker than a GTS250, by a solid amount too!

A few benches

Far Cry 2
Fallout 3

Also, the G31 won't just make a difference to OCing, it has very limited expandability options, only 2 RAM slots, ****ty cooling. It won't stop a GTX260 from performing to its full capability, but you'll be very limited to what you can add or use your motherboard for.