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600$ upgrade

416 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  iquark, 
iquark
So there it is. The GF is lovingly allowing me to spend about 600$ on a computer upgrade, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what to do with it.

I'm headed into a masters program in a few months and should be spending even more time with CAD take home work. I also game, though only on 1680x1050, so it's not too graphically challenging.

So my basic thought line is to pickup an 80GB X25m G2 along with a 5770, and then hope to find a used C2Q for the best 'bang for buck'.

I could get mobo, i7-920, and some decent CL8 ram for 600$, but I'm not sure that will do much besides lower rendering times in solidworks. I would like a bit of gaming benefit out of the upgrade, but of course I'm undecided.

Also, I know I'm only on a P35 chipset, but I don't think a 5770 should saturate 16x PCIe 1.0.

Toss out any suggestions please! I cannot figure out what my best option is here.
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C
A 5770 is great for the money.
$170 give or take,
I say your plan to get one of them, a nice C2Q and mobo is your best bet for a nice boost.
Hell, that should'nt even use up all that $600.
Get some nice ram too.
Hope this helps.
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decimator
Are you near a Micro Center? You could probably go LGA1156 with a $150 Core i5 750 from MC. There are decent boards for under $200 and memory shouldn't be too overpriced. You should have some money left over to either get another 8800GTS for SLI or a 5770.

Even if you aren't near a Micro Center, I'm pretty sure you could fit a LGA1156 setup in your budget.
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iquark
Well no luck for a microcenter near by. I know for sure I can put an i5 system with good components in for under 600$.

I never really though of going i5/i7, and then picking up another 8800. That would be a nice boost while at the same time getting the additional processing power I need.

On the other hand, I really would like to get an SSD in there somehow.

The real decision is platform upgrade vs component upgrade. Is the platform upgrade the best use of the 600$?

2 votes platform
0 votes components
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decimator
I feel you on the SSD, but I don't think it's worth it at this time when they're around $3 per GB. For a regular hard drive, you can get 15 GB for $1.
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Z
New mobo/chip : D
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T
if you are going to do a lot of CAD work why don't you pick up a real good CUDA supported graphics card, like a used GTX 295 on this forum should be 350-400, 500 brand new. This will also tear through any games out there. This gives you around 150 extra so you can save up for an i7 system, get a ssd or whatever you want to do after that

hell you may even be able to sell me the 8800 GTS when the time comes
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P
go 1156
core i5 $200
mobo $200
4gb of ram $90
(aprox)

that leaves you with about $100 give or take
spend that on a nice new case or
get a cheaper board lets say $150
and with $150 left buy a 5770

i think that would really be your best bet.
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iquark
Quote:

Originally Posted by tha d0ctor View Post
if you are going to do a lot of CAD work why don't you pick up a real good CUDA supported graphics card, like a used GTX 295 on this forum should be 350-400, 500 brand new. This will also tear through any games out there. This gives you around 150 extra so you can save up for an i7 system, get a ssd or whatever you want to do after that

hell you may even be able to sell me the 8800 GTS when the time comes

Well even though the 8800GTS 512 is basically an FX3700, and I could flash the fx3700 bios onto it, it's not exactly worth it to me. Softmoding doesn't really do all that much as far as scaling goes. You get a little extra performance, but it's nothing compared to the actual quadro cards (in most cases).

A 295 has no quadro equivalent (that I know of) and would be far too much for my PCIe 1.0. Great suggestion though, made me think for a little bit about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PathogenX
go 1156
core i5 $200
mobo $200
4gb of ram $90
(aprox)

that leaves you with about $100 give or take
spend that on a nice new case or
get a cheaper board lets say $150
and with $150 left buy a 5770

i think that would really be your best bet.
That is very tempting, I tend to forget how good i5 really is. What I need to look up is how the i5 is performing under water.

Quote:

Originally Posted by decimate
I feel you on the SSD, but I don't think it's worth it at this time when they're around $3 per GB. For a regular hard drive, you can get 15 GB for $1.
The performance gain is so nice that I'm not too upset over paying 250$ for 80GB. The price/GB may still by 40 times higher than mechanical drives, but it's low enough for me to start using I think.

However, what I think I'm going to do is pickup the i7 or i5 upgrades and sneak in a 5770 in the next couple months. By that time SSD's will have gone down in price and should be a little less wallet shock. My GF spends 20$ a week on coffee easily, a new video card or ssd can be my coffee for 2 months!

The only game I'm looking forward to is Bad Company 2, so by March I figure I'll have tucked away an extra 150$ for a 5770.
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