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New CPU, GPU or SDD?

post #1 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:02am
Thread Starter 
Hi there,

I'm getting ready to upgrade my Gaming PC and need some advice (so many confusing reviews out there).

Current rig:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE 3.1 (OC'd to 3.5)
ASUS M5A97 Mobo
MSI GeForce GTS 450 1GB Cyclone
2x 4GB Kingston HyperX Blu 1600
2x 1TB Seagate HDD (one SATA2 , one SATA3. ST310005 24AS & 28AS respectively)
Windows Home Premium 64bit
Samsung BX2450 LED

* I use a max resolution of 1920 x 1080 for my gaming

What in your opinions would be the best order of upgrading?

* New FX CPU or older Phenom II?
* GTX 570 or ATI equivalent
* or a SSD

Thanks for your input.
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post #2 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:04am
A CPU i guess cause high end cards will seriously be bottle-necked with an x2.
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Athlon x2 250 oc'd to 4.05ghz at 1.54v MSI 760gm p33 MSI 6770 oc'd to 960/1250 6gb Corsair 
Hard DriveOSPowerCase
Seagate Barracuda 500gb 7200 rpm Windows 8 Cooler Master Extreme power 460 Watts Cooler Master Elite 335 
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post #3 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:05am
Welcome to OCN. smile.gif

If your mainly gaming, it would be GPU -> CPU -> SSD.
If it for all round, CPU -> GPU -> SSD.
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My PC
(17 items)
 
Home Server
(18 items)
 
Car PC
(10 items)
 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Intel Core i7 2600K ASUS Sabertooth P67 Gigabyte NVIDIA GTX670 16GB GSkill Ares 2133MHz CL11 
Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
Samsung 830 128GB SSD Samsung Green 2TB HD203WI LG 22X SATA DVD-RW XSPC Rasa RS360 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 8 Pro X64 Samsung UA40ES6200R 40" 3D Smart TV Logitech LX700 Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1200W 
CaseMouseAudioAudio
Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Logitech G7 Pioneer VSX-520-K Receiver Pioneer S-RS77TB Speakers 
Audio
Pioneer S-RS3SW Subwoofer 
View all
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD Phenom II X4 550 Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P ATI Radeon HD3100 8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600MHz 
Hard DriveHard DriveHard DriveHard Drive
WD Green WD6400AACS Seagate Barracuda 3TB ST3000DM001 Seagate Barracuda 3TB ST3000DM001 Seagate Barracuda 4TB ST4000DM000 
Hard DriveHard DriveHard DriveCooling
Seagate Barracuda 4TB ST4000DM000 Seagate Barracuda 4TB ST4000DM000 Seagate Barracuda 4TB ST4000DM000 Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX 
OSPowerCaseOther
Windows Server 2012 Standard AcBel 510W Bitfenix Shinobi IBM ServeRAID M1015 
View all
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
AMD E-350 Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 AMD Radeon HD6310 2GB Kingston DDR3-1333 
Hard DriveOSMonitorKeyboard
WD Blue 160GB 2.5" Windows 8 Pro X64 Liliput EBY701 7" LED WVGA Touchscreen None 
PowerCase
M2-ATX 160W Generic Mini-ITX 
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post #4 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:06am
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http://www.overclock.net/t/1296155/new-cpu-gpu-or-sdd/0_50
http://www.overclock.net/t/1296156/new-cpu-gpu-or-sdd/0_50

Wait. Which thread am I supposed to answer in?
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Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
Samsung 840 Pro Seagate Momentus  ASUS DVD Burner Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 
OSMonitorKeyboardPower
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit  ASUS VH236H Cooler Master Quickfire Pro Seasonic X-650 
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post #5 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:08am
Get a Phenom ii x4 960T with the potential to unlock to x5 or x6. It will also clock nicely since it's a cool 95W TDP chip.

Radeon HD 7850, 7870, and 7950s will have price drops very soon. Replace your GTS 450 with that.

As for SSD it's not completely essential but once you get one you won't look back. a 64GB Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or Intel 330 or if you can stretch a 128GB version. For the OS and some games.

For gaming performance I would say get a 7850 and 960T CPU.
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post #6 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:09am
Have you tried unlocking the 2 extra cores on your phenom II chip?
Jason's Rig
(13 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Athlon x2 250 oc'd to 4.05ghz at 1.54v MSI 760gm p33 MSI 6770 oc'd to 960/1250 6gb Corsair 
Hard DriveOSPowerCase
Seagate Barracuda 500gb 7200 rpm Windows 8 Cooler Master Extreme power 460 Watts Cooler Master Elite 335 
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  hide details  
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Jason's Rig
(13 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Athlon x2 250 oc'd to 4.05ghz at 1.54v MSI 760gm p33 MSI 6770 oc'd to 960/1250 6gb Corsair 
Hard DriveOSPowerCase
Seagate Barracuda 500gb 7200 rpm Windows 8 Cooler Master Extreme power 460 Watts Cooler Master Elite 335 
View all
  hide details  
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post #7 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:22am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I tried a bit in the bios. But did not want POST. But I'm rather new to the OC game.
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post #8 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:23am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, sorry guys. Bit of a noob mistake :-)
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post #9 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:24am
When you unlock the cores you need to increase the vcore. Did you do that? If you unlock the two extra cores then you wouldn't need to buy a new chip as games make use of 4cores a part from a few games like BF3.biggrin.gif
Jason's Rig
(13 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Athlon x2 250 oc'd to 4.05ghz at 1.54v MSI 760gm p33 MSI 6770 oc'd to 960/1250 6gb Corsair 
Hard DriveOSPowerCase
Seagate Barracuda 500gb 7200 rpm Windows 8 Cooler Master Extreme power 460 Watts Cooler Master Elite 335 
View all
  hide details  
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Jason's Rig
(13 items)
  		  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Athlon x2 250 oc'd to 4.05ghz at 1.54v MSI 760gm p33 MSI 6770 oc'd to 960/1250 6gb Corsair 
Hard DriveOSPowerCase
Seagate Barracuda 500gb 7200 rpm Windows 8 Cooler Master Extreme power 460 Watts Cooler Master Elite 335 
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post #10 of 31
8/19/12 at 8:28am
If you can't get your chip to unlock with extra Vcore, then definitely a new CPU. Then again, even a GTX 460 would be a nice upgrade too.

Do you play any games that want/need 4 cores? If not, then go for the GPU. If you play something like BFBC2 or BF3, etc, then the CPU is important. Back when I first got my i5 I couldn't believe how much performance could be squeezed out of my 5770. My C2D was holding it back terribly, even at 3.7ghz.

Get the SSD last. Prices are falling quickly, and you've waited this long.
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Why upgrade?
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Onna' budget
(12 items)
  		 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Core i5 760 ASUS 55i Sabertooth EVGA 460 1GB SLI 8gb 1600mhz Vengeance 
Hard DriveHard DriveOSMonitor
120gb Intel 320 Samsung F3 1TB Win 7 64 Dell U2311H Rev. A01 
PowerCaseMouseMouse Pad
NZXT Hale 650w NZXT Phantom - white Logitech G500 Steelseries 9HD 
Audio
X-Fi Titanium/HD 555s 
View all
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Phenom II 965 Asus M5A97 Evo HIS 6870 4GB 1600mhz Dominators 
Hard DriveHard DriveOSMonitor
128GB Samsung 830 120GB Vertex 3 Win 7 64 Viewsonic VX2250-Wm 
PowerCaseMouseAudio
EA430 Green Lancool PC-K9B Logitech G5 AD-700s 
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