Been considering an update on my build

Hardware Hub Build a PC
1

Hello everyone,

Well, I'll jump straight to the point. I am considering to upgrade my current PC build, but I am entirely unsure on where I should upgrade on. Below are the specs of my PC...

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (Minor overclock to 3.6GHz at stock voltage)


CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper TX-3


Thermal Paste: Arctic MX-4 (Used both in my CPU and GPU)


Mobo: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3


RAM: 2 x 4GB G.Skill Rip-Jawz 1600MHz CL9


GPU: ATi Radeon HD5870 1GB GDDR5 Reference Card (Overclocked. Core clock: 900MHz, Memory Clock: 1230MHz)


HDD: 2 x 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm


ODD: LG 24x-/+ DVD Burner.... thing.


PSU: Aerocool Strike-X 800W 80+ Silver


Case: Antec Eleven Hundred


Keyboard: Ducky Channel DK9008G2 Cherry MX Brown Mechanical Keyboard


Mouse: Powerlogic GMX-1 Predator


Mosepad: Razer Vespula


Monitor: Acer G205HV


Headset: SteelSeries Siberia V2 Diablo III Edition


OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit


Okay, with that aside, budget wise, it does not matter that much as I would be buying the parts bit by bit over the course of a few months, about SGD$500 a month at least (Yes, Singaporean Dollar).

As of now, I'm using my PC for gaming, video editing, photoshopping, and typing my prose. The games I play are those in the lines of IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, World of Tanks, Saints Row III and IV, DiRT 3, Bioshock Infinite, etc. Basically, a wide range of games, to which I often set the graphical settings on medium high, or at least acceptable gameplay, around 40-60fps.

Video editing, I alternate between Wondershare Video Editor and Roxio VideoWave, and currently learning on using Sony Vegas Pro.

Photoshop, I'm still on the ancient side, using Photoshop 7.0, just for basic image tweaking, and simple signature and avatar.

Here's the thing, I'm torn between staying on the AMD side, not sure if it's worth going to the Piledriver, or should I jump camp to the Intel, and get on the Haswell. Not only that, even for the GPU, I can't really decide what to get, though I would prefer getting something from AMD. What do you think? Where should I upgrade from here?

2

The first thing i would upgrade if i where you is that tiny sub 1080p display. For gaming the x6 is fine, for video editing and encoding it is not bad, though something like a 4770k would give you better performance. I dont know how much editing you do, but more ram and a better cpu would make sense if you do a lot. Other then that a ssd would be nice for windows and applications, maybe another one for video editing and a few games. GPU wise the 9000 series is just around the corner, a 99xx card would most likely perform 2-3x as good as your 5870 and have way more vram.

3

Sell the 5870 then get a 7950 or gtx760 + 1440p monitor + ssd. 

Your cpu is still good. Really strong cpu you have there, you could push it deep into 4ghz+ territory with a little tweaking, may need a better h/sink though depending on your temps.

4

Thanks for the responses. For the GPU, I'll hold on till the HD9000 graphics cards are released.

Monitor wise, I'll consider getting a bigger variant, most probably an IPS monitor, like an Asus PA246Q. http://www.asus.com/sg/Monitors_Projectors/PA246Q/

CPU, I'll stay with the good old Phenom II, and maybe get a proper overclock on it. Of course, that would require me to get my hands on a liquid cooling solution. Would a Corsair H60, or H80i be good enough?

And here's one thing. My motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-970A-D3, is a revision 1.0 model, which meant it does not come with the MOSFETS heatsink (Uhh, the ones near the cpu socket?), unlike its updated variants. Should I consider upgrading my motherboard as well if I wanted to overclock the 1100T to 4Ghz? The only capable mobo that is still in stock here in Singapore is the Asus Sabertooth.

Hard drive, I'm still a little confused on porting over my OS from the mechanical hard drive to the SSD. I've read some of the manuals, and videos on how to do it, but is there a solution where only the OS gets ported over to the SSD?

 

5

Your mobo should be fine for further overclocking, a good tower heatsink should be enough, or go with one of your watercoolers if you like the look.

For migrating more or less only the os to the ssd

1 Make a backup of anything important

2 Make a big d partition using partition master

3 Use Symmover to  move stuff you dont want on your ssd to the d partition

4 Migrate c to your ssd, many ssds like the 840 come with mounting kits, software etc for a few bucks more

5. Boot from ssd, if everything is A-O.K you can erase the windows patition from your hdd and put it in your pc

6 you should now have a ssd with a c partition and a hdd with a d partition in your system, you can just  keep installing stuff on c and move some to d with symmover if it gets to full. Better leave your apps on the ssd, they start way faster that way and most use only little space. Those 20 gb games, videos etc. can go on d.

 

Do you know about the korean monitors from ebay? They start at about 350 SGD shipped for a 27 inch 2560x1440p Ips display (might have to pay a little VAT) and they are gorgeous, though propably a little too much for your 5870 1 gb in newer games.