Official "Upgrade Help" Thread

[FEN1X]

OK final draft:

Sell my current PC, put hardware into old case and keep current.

With money get:
P7P55D ASUS Intel P55, LGA1156, 4xDual DDR3 2133(O.C), 2xPCI-x16(CrossFire), 2xPCI-x1, 3xPCI, 6xSATAII(Raid 0,1,5,10), 1x eSATA, 1xATA133, Gbe Lan, 8ch-Sound HD, Max 14xUSB, 2xIEEE1394, ATX (For Core i-5) R 1,580 incl.
Core i5-750 Core LGA1156 2.66GHz 8Mb Cache R 1,822 incl.
2GB DDRIII-1800 Hyper X (Kingston) x2 (4GB) R1350 incl.
1TB-7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA II (Seagate) R 762 incl.
DVD Writer 22/12x DL (SAMSUNG) SATA R 199 incl
ASUS ATI Radeon HD5870, 1GB DDR5, 256bit (HDMI+2xDVI+ Display Port +VGA (using a converter) - PCI-Express + Dirt 2 Game R 4,672 incl.
650W ATX Power Supply- Huntkey Titan R 796 incl.

Anything missing/incompatible?

Total Price for awesome rig imo : R11181

[McDangerous]

That looks awesome dude, although if you want to save a bit of cash, I've seen Club3D 5870 at iKonicIT for like 3800, so maybe look into that if you don't really care for Dirt2.

Otherwise, you look set to be gaming with DX11 awesomeness in no time!

Post your build up for us to see though like CloudRatha did. It was really quite cool to see it all come together.

[FEN1X]

That looks awesome dude, although if you want to save a bit of cash, I've seen Club3D 5870 at iKonicIT for like 3800, so maybe look into that if you don't really care for Dirt2.

Otherwise, you look set to be gaming with DX11 awesomeness in no time!

Post your build up for us to see though like CloudRatha did. It was really quite cool to see it all come together.

TBH, its not so much Dirt2 (I prob won't even install it) than it is for the brand. Ive always been an Asus fan, their stuff is top quality. The last time I bought a generic card id died after 3 months.


As with the build up, Ill take a little time for the whole set (as I have to sell my PC first for the 5870), but it should be done my xmas.

Thanks for all the help guys :D

[Miz3r]

ok i know this has probably been brought up already but im still really undecisive about what make of 5870 too get its between

xfx
sapphire
asus
HIS
gigabyte

i know they all more or less have there own pros and cons but i cannot make up my mind which brand too go for , please help

[Wesley]

ok i know this has probably been brought up already but im still really undecisive about what make of 5870 too get its between

xfx
sapphire
asus
HIS
gigabyte

i know they all more or less have there own pros and cons but i cannot make up my mind which brand too go for , please help

Gigabyte= needlessly expensive. You can rule that one out. My bets are on the Sapphire and HIS versions. Maybe you can toss a coin or roll a die if you don't care for a copy of DIRT2.

[Chevron]

ok i know this has probably been brought up already but im still really undecisive about what make of 5870 too get its between

xfx
sapphire
asus
HIS
gigabyte

i know they all more or less have there own pros and cons but i cannot make up my mind which brand too go for , please help

I'd definitely take the Sapphire.

[maxdamage]

If that old UPS can keep your computer running for ten minutes, then its doing its job. If you want one that'll keep things running for hours, then you'll have to pay a rather handsome sum of money to do own it.

Yeah been really thinking of using my dad's Tripp Lite UPS as yesterday morning we had the 4th cable\power cut in our block in the last week and a half....My psu appears to be damaged every time the power "surge" happens :(

[Wesley]

Yeah been really thinking of using my dad's Tripp Lite UPS as yesterday morning we had the 4th cable\power cut in our block in the last week and a half....My psu appears to be damaged every time the power "surge" happens :(

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.

[Sven]

... I've seen Club3D 5870 at iKonicIT for like 3800, so maybe look into that if you don't really care for Dirt2.

I've seen quite a few Club3D cards floating about recently, and at relatively suspicious cheap price premiums. Surely they're using the same reference cards? Or am I missing something, like a non-existent warranty?

[McDangerous]

Nope, they're just not a big brand-name like Gigabyte or Asus. Funny thing is, Asus and Gigabyte both use reference PCBs and coolers, exactly the same as Club3D. They only charge more because they can. It's ridiculous really. The difference between a Gigabyte 5870 and a Club3D 5870 is about R1500 on average, for the exact same card. I had a Force3D 4670, which is also a "no-name" brand, and that little thing kicked ass and never gave me any hassles!

[Wesley]

Nope, they're just not a big brand-name like Gigabyte or Asus. Funny thing is, Asus and Gigabyte both use reference PCBs and coolers, exactly the same as Club3D. They only charge more because they can. It's ridiculous really. The difference between a Gigabyte 5870 and a Club3D 5870 is about R1500 on average, for the exact same card. I had a Force3D 4670, which is also a "no-name" brand, and that little thing kicked ass and never gave me any hassles!

Gigabyte charges the earth, really, but then its a very well-known brand. While the different partners may use the same heatsink design, you will find that their price differs due to other factors. For example, Samsung and Quimonda are two of the few memory manufacturers who make RAM for graphics cards, and I understand that the Quimonda modules are generally the more expensive and overclockable type. You might also find that while partners use the stock heatsinks and coolers, they might also tweak or alter the design of the cards a little to meet their acceptable standards, as Asus did with the HD4770's circuitry in order to clock it to 1Ghz. Force3D sticks to reference designs and cheap memory and cheaper (and consequently less durable) build materials. MSI does much the same for their motherboards in order to drop to a specific price point, hence their low reliability.

[@@GJC@@]

Nope, they're just not a big brand-name like Gigabyte or Asus. Funny thing is, Asus and Gigabyte both use reference PCBs and coolers, exactly the same as Club3D. They only charge more because they can. It's ridiculous really. The difference between a Gigabyte 5870 and a Club3D 5870 is about R1500 on average, for the exact same card. I had a Force3D 4670, which is also a "no-name" brand, and that little thing kicked ass and never gave me any hassles!

Same here i've got a Force3D 4890 "no name" that was preclocked to 900mhz, i agree not much, but still it kicks ass. Plus i got it on a special for R2300 about 2-3 months ago which was a really good price back then.

[X-Gamer]

Wesley, you say that Force3D sticks to reference designs, but since the prices of the Force3D 4000 series became so cheap at the start of the year, I havn't seen one reference design, there may well have been, but what they're selling now are definitely not reference designs.

And Gigabyte, well yeah, their HD5870 is not worth the extra R2500 more, that is just WAY too much, especially when ALL the HD5870's are the same (for now).

And let's not forget, that in the US, when these cards are released, pricing is pretty much identical (unless if they exclude things like the Dirt2 voucher and other things like cables and whatnot) , so why shouldn't this apply here.

[McDangerous]

I agree, Force3D's new cards aren't reference (hell, they even managed to remove the power connector from the 4850) but that doesn't mean we can't trust their non-reference designs when we trust any other manufacturer's non-reference design. Maybe they're just a company looking to give people some really good deals.

BTW, I checked out the Club3D homepage but didn't find how long their warranties last. Will investigate more!

[Wesley]

Wesley, you say that Force3D sticks to reference designs, but since the prices of the Force3D 4000 series became so cheap at the start of the year, I havn't seen one reference design, there may well have been, but what they're selling now are definitely not reference designs.

And Gigabyte, well yeah, their HD5870 is not worth the extra R2500 more, that is just WAY too much, especially when ALL the HD5870's are the same (for now).

And let's not forget, that in the US, when these cards are released, pricing is pretty much identical (unless if they exclude things like the Dirt2 voucher and other things like cables and whatnot) , so why shouldn't this apply here.

You're right about the coolers now, they're definitely not stock, but for quite a few months they were. Usually the main vendors (ATI, Nvidia) ban all non-reference cards for a period of two months to allow the company and it's partners to make a little profit off the cards and get everyone out the starting gate with an equal opportunity for market share. Later on, once costs are covered, they go crazy. Some partners don't even release anything for those two months, they're too busy working on souped-up versions of the cards. Also, Force3D works with very low profit margins to steal market share, and so far I think it's working.

As for the pricing, well our country isn't very well-known for its low import duties, go figure. Also, Force3D's factories are in Taiwan. Shipping from Taiwan to America doesn't cost much, and likewise for other companies who have factories that are located nearer to or within reach of the United States. We're a little further down the globe, so things cost a bit more to ship. This is probably why AMD's motherboards here aren't so cheap as they are compared to Intel ones in the North, the shipping costs more, although I'm inclined to think it has more to do with Intel doing some aggressive rebate-offering down here.

I agree, Force3D's new cards aren't reference (hell, they even managed to remove the power connector from the 4850) but that doesn't mean we can't trust their non-reference designs when we trust any other manufacturer's non-reference design. Maybe they're just a company looking to give people some really good deals.

BTW, I checked out the Club3D homepage but didn't find how long their warranties last. Will investigate more!

Your HD4850 is just another example of a partner taking the reference design and tweaking it when they can afford to do so. It used to be stock, but not anymore. I'm still puzzled though by that missing connector, its eating at my brain. There's gotta be something amiss there...

[McDangerous]

Your HD4850 is just another example of a partner taking the reference design and tweaking it when they can afford to do so. It used to be stock, but not anymore. I'm still puzzled though by that missing connector, its eating at my brain. There's gotta be something amiss there...

It's not my 4850. I am too. The power needed by a 4850 is a lot more than the PCI-E slot can put out, yet the cards are clocked the same as other "normal" versions and perform the same as well. Well, from what I've seen anyway!

[@@GJC@@]

Can someone please recommend me a speakerset i can use with my tv, xbox and maybe even electric guitar and pc. Preffrebly not more than R1500. I was looking at the Logitech 5.1 X530 Speakers @ R867. But im not sure if it can do what i want it to do. Also I would like to connect my XBOX to my PC and play songs on it through it and the speaker via Windows Media Centre. BTW can i connect my XBOX to my pc wirelessly?

EDIT: or would the X-540 be better for R1000?

[Chevron]

You need a speaker set with optical input. That means z5500. Will have to have a look for cheaper sets.

[@@GJC@@]

You need a speaker set with optical input. That means z5500. Will have to have a look for cheaper sets.

Is the optical input for the electric guitar or what?

[FEN1X]

I was told by someone that the i5 processors don't work with ram speeds over 1333, any truth to this?