Okay, my current build is an i7 920 @ 2.67GHz stock clock cooled with a Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme on an Asus P6T Deluxe Motherboard with a Nvidia GTS 250 (since my GTX 560ti shat the bed), 6gb of G.Skill triple channel ram, a Western Digitial 1TB Green drive, which is all powered by a Coolermaster Silent Pro 850w Gold power supply, housed in a beautiful Fractal Design Arc Midi R2. I'm not afraid of buying used parts and saw this build on Craigslist. http://nh.craigslist.org/sys/4514631386.html Is this worth it? or should I stick with my X58 platform and add more ram and a current graphics card? Possibly upgrade to a six core i7 970?
Your CPU is still pretty damn capable. What do you want to do with your system? Also, full specs would help.
I just game, video editing, would like to start streaming and of course do the basics (music, web browsing, documents, etc.)
Full-Spec:
Current System:
CPU: i7 920 @ 2.67GHz (Stock Clock)
Cooler: Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme
GPU: EVGA GTS 250
RAM: 6GB G.Skill DDR3
Motherboard: Asus P6T (Non-Deluxe, my bad :P)
HDD: Western Digital Green 1TB
PSU: Cooler Master SIient Pro Hybrid 850W (Fully Modular,Gold)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2
Craigslist System:
CPU: i7 2700K @ 3.5GHz (stock clock)
Cooler: NZXT Havik 140
GPU: MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozr (3gb card :D, which is a plus)
Ram: 4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz (One Stick)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Pro
SSD: Corsair Force GT 120GB
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro 850 (Silver Edition)
Case: NZXT H2 (Not a fan, but I could always swap cases)
I would stick with your current system.
Overclock the CPU. To my knowledge x58 should be overclockable rather easily. A CPU like yours should be able to match the performance of something like an FX-8350. See how far you can get with overclocking to reduce any CPU bottlenecking.
Buy a new GPU. Many years ago, I also had a GTS 250 in my system. It's just not up to today's games, and mine caused many of my games to crash a lot. Something like this would increase your performance dramatically, but not cost a whole lot: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131570&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
I was look at the R9 280's, I've heard mixed reviews about drivers though. I won't buy another PowerColor card after the incident with my 7870 either. I was look more at 770's or something a bit more high end. So stay with X58, will do. Thank you for your help.
I wouldn't do powercolor, but XFX, Sapphire, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, etc.... all make excellent aftermarket cooling... a R9 280 would certainly help your gaming (and really no need to concern yourself with drivers, AMD fixed that problem years ago)... I would GPU upgrade before looking into a full overhaul of all the expensive parts... worst case, you still have the nice GPU and can upgrade the CPU/mobo later...
That's the plan. I'm gaming at 1080p, so a R9 280 is the best "bang for buck"?
beats the hell out of the 770 for price/performance... for the 770 price you might as well get the 290... which is FAR superior... there was a time not long ago when AMD's GPUs were WAY overpriced and the 770 was the best bang for buck... but the prices came back to reality and that time has passed...
if you can stretch for the 280x, I might do that...
Thank you for answering my questions! One more, would a 290 be worth it? Or are they still too expensive?
290's will run about $370 on the low end... for the scaling they bring to 1440p upgrades they are definitely a card that will last a good long while... I stick them into any build that has room in the case/budget for them... also, with the 290 you get the Hawaii GPU chip which is the new architecture from AMD, so it's a pretty big upgrade from a 280x...
PCPartpicker lists the Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 at $369.99 which is what I would go for if I were in the market... (
I spent about $600 after tax and shipping on my EVGA 780 Classified, just for comparison... and the 290 with Tri-X cooling is at least in the same ballpark performance wise) ..... Of course I sold my Sapphire 280x Toxic for $550 on ebay after the AMD GPU spike, but still...
So in a nutshell... get the best GPU you can afford if you're a gamer... they're always going to be the most expensive part of your computer... and they age the fastest
I'm most likely going to for a R9 290. Especially now that I only need to buy an SSD, 6gb more of ram (so I can have 12 and the fact it's only 50 bucksish) and a new GPU. Thank you much sir Drunken Panda
BTW is the Tri-X Cooler better than Asus' DCU II?
the DCU II is a really nice cooling option as well (for the 780, the DCU II was known as the best overclocker, but it had 100MHz+ to catch up with the Classified to begin with, so I went with it)... the Tri-x is the same cooler I had on my Sapphire 280x Toxic... both are nice... I do hear Asus redesigned the DCU II to better cool the R9 290 specifically... and Sapphire was the second to release a 290x as soon as they came out behind Gigabyte (both obviously didn't re-engineer it)...
If I had to bet, the Asus is likely a better cooling option, as they actually put some engineering into it rather than just slapping on the best cooler they had on the card... the toxic wasn't loud, and neither is any DCU II I've heard... if it's more than $10 more, I'd say it's a wash
I would take note, however... how much room do you have in your case? the 290's are BIG
I have a Fractal Design Arc Midi R2. So! 17 1/2 inches! plenty of room for the almost foot long card :D