Upgrading CPU

[Walsingham]

The native resolution to my monitor is 1920-1200. So that might explain issues.

 

Hugely appreciate the advice. Particularly because it sounds as if I should just chill out. I will make some cardboard models of Russian chicks doing it by way of a thank you. <you know who you are>

[Drowsy Emperor]

While an SSD is technically a storage device, in terms of impact it's actually better to consider it a performance device. For desktops, their capacity is mostly immaterial, since you'll almost always be running a traditional spindle drive alongside - so psychologically it's more "I've bought this thing, and now my OS and applications respond instantly". I maintain it's the single largest performance upgrade anyone can make to their machine.

 

Unless you happen to pick a model that's known to be unreliable (*cough* OCZ), then I believe that statistics actually show SSDs to have both greater reliability and greater average lifespan than a typical spindle drive.

 

---

 

As for the rest of system advice, mk's covered it all really.

 

Wals, buy a new video card if you feel the need for a performance boost, though a 470 is still plenty unless gaming at more than 1080p. I'd move the target up to a 670 or 7950 though, not confident that any less is a sufficiently large upgrade.

 

Drowsy, any individual component upgrade you buy you'll only get a fraction of its actual potential out of, due to bottlenecking - however if your video card is truly dying then buying one now and transferring it to a new board+cpu in the future is a plenty viable and forward-looking move: just don't expect much actual immediate improvement until the project is complete (besides the stability of not having overheating parts). Seconding the 7850 suggestion here.

 

Can my 350W power plant actually power the 7850?

 

And will it work with my motherboard DG965WH:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15052/eng/DG965WH_TechProdSpec.pdf

 

I appreciate the help guys

 

 

Which of these models? Not all are available even though the prices are listed...

 

These four are available:

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-2gb-gddr5-11200-07/comp_comp_vga/130/3427

 

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-2gb-gddr5-11200-00-20g/comp_comp_vga/130/3171

 

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-gddr5-oc-11200-16-20g/comp_comp_vga/130/3327

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-11200-16-10g/comp_comp_vga/130/3319

Edited May 17, 2013 by Drowsy Emperor

[JadedWolf]

 

While an SSD is technically a storage device, in terms of impact it's actually better to consider it a performance device. For desktops, their capacity is mostly immaterial, since you'll almost always be running a traditional spindle drive alongside - so psychologically it's more "I've bought this thing, and now my OS and applications respond instantly". I maintain it's the single largest performance upgrade anyone can make to their machine.

 

Unless you happen to pick a model that's known to be unreliable (*cough* OCZ), then I believe that statistics actually show SSDs to have both greater reliability and greater average lifespan than a typical spindle drive.

 

---

 

As for the rest of system advice, mk's covered it all really.

 

Wals, buy a new video card if you feel the need for a performance boost, though a 470 is still plenty unless gaming at more than 1080p. I'd move the target up to a 670 or 7950 though, not confident that any less is a sufficiently large upgrade.

 

Drowsy, any individual component upgrade you buy you'll only get a fraction of its actual potential out of, due to bottlenecking - however if your video card is truly dying then buying one now and transferring it to a new board+cpu in the future is a plenty viable and forward-looking move: just don't expect much actual immediate improvement until the project is complete (besides the stability of not having overheating parts). Seconding the 7850 suggestion here.

 

Can my 350W power plant actually power the 7850?

 

And will it work with my motherboard DG965WH:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15052/eng/DG965WH_TechProdSpec.pdf

 

I appreciate the help guys

 

 

Which of these models? Not all are available even though the prices are listed...

 

These four are available:

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-2gb-gddr5-11200-07/comp_comp_vga/130/3427

 

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-2gb-gddr5-11200-00-20g/comp_comp_vga/130/3171

 

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-gddr5-oc-11200-16-20g/comp_comp_vga/130/3327

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-11200-16-10g/comp_comp_vga/130/3319

 

 

It would help to know what model power supply you have, some power supplies claim to deliver more than they actually do. A standard 7850 uses about +- 90W, so theoretically it is possible to power your system with a 350w power supply. This has to be a quality power supply though, not some cheap no-name timebomb.

[Drowsy Emperor]

Hmm I'll have to open my case, remove all the dead cats and missing relatives and see what I have.

[Walsingham]

I'd seriously upgrade the power. I did that last year and it made everything work so much better, even though it was the model shipped with the package I bought. I'm now on (from memory) 850w.

[Gorgon]

The ludicrous prestige card from Nvidia (Titan or Goliath or something) can be powered with 250w if memory serves. Not that it will ever pay for itsef in power savings, but it's the first time ever that I remember that a more powerful card had a massively reduced power draw. That IS pretty cool.

[JadedWolf]

I'd seriously upgrade the power. I did that last year and it made everything work so much better, even though it was the model shipped with the package I bought. I'm now on (from memory) 850w.

 

Unless you want to crossfire two 7950's, there really is no need for a 850w PSU. If you really do need a new PSU, and all you want is to build a budget system with a 7850, all you need is a nice quality PSU in the range of 400-500w. You could go with less, but having a bit of room for upgrades is a bonus and they won't break the bank. There's a nice list of good PSU's here, at overclock.net.

 

 

 

Personally, I would wait for the new generation of Intel processors to come out. Even if you don't want to buy the latest generation, it is sure to cause a pricedrop. As others here have said, if you are interested in gaming, your most pressing upgrade is the GPU. Considering that your current computer is three years old, you can pretty much forget about reusing your RAM. Also, be sure to check the quality of your power supply. You can buy expensive computer parts for everything else but if your PSU is a heap of junk you risk it all going up in smoke one unlucky day.

Intel don't typically drop prices of their previous gen, and although retailers might do so of their own initiative, it's probably a bonus rather than something to expect to happen. They just tend to quietly phase them out without fanfare.

 

And the RAM should be fine really - technically Intel has lowered the maximum supported voltage for DDR3 on their platforms (since Sandy I believe) to 1.575V (1.5V standard with 5% tolerance), true, but even the 1.65V requirement commonly seen in 'performance' RAM back in the day ought to easily run at the standard 1.5V, perhaps with frequency/timings set to the default rather than the XMP profile. Low voltage DDR is hardly a new thing, my 3.5 year old Lynnfield system was built with 1.35V DDR3.

 

It's a shame that memory prices have spiked lately, since the start of the year. It also seems that Samsung have stopped production of their 1.25V "magic" RAM, which was not only a bargain, but outperformed just about all of the stupid blinged-up "enthusiast" RAM around these days. (I particularly loathe the trend of massively tall heatspreaders)

 

 

TBH, when he said three year old build, I thought DDR2. I was thinking he probably had a budget build, not the state of the art build he actually has.

 

As for Intel not dropping in price, maybe not that much, but mobo's may drop in price when the new line comes out. Honestly, I wouldn't know for sure, but waiting a few months to find out seems worth it to me. When I bought my current graphics card, and a few months later it had a massive pricedrop, I wanted to bang my head against the wall :/.

[JadedWolf]

 

And will it work with my motherboard DG965WH:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15052/eng/DG965WH_TechProdSpec.pdf

 

I appreciate the help guys

 

 

Which of these models? Not all are available even though the prices are listed...

 

These four are available:

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-2gb-gddr5-11200-07/comp_comp_vga/130/3427

 

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-2gb-gddr5-11200-00-20g/comp_comp_vga/130/3171

 

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-gddr5-oc-11200-16-20g/comp_comp_vga/130/3327

 

http://www.itsvet.com/proizvod/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-1gb-11200-16-10g/comp_comp_vga/130/3319

 

 

Your mobo will be fine as long as it has a PCI-e slot. As for what 7850 to pick, I'd pick one of the two you linked with 2 GB VRAM.

[Walsingham]

Well, JadedWolf I got the gucci powerpack because under ANY circumstances, if I can go for the top of the line for a few bucks more I will do that.

[Gorth]

Slightly unrelated, but I'm curious to see what Intels plans are for the Xeon E5 series. They talk about a V2 on current technology to be followed by another version built on Haswell technology. So much for my plans for building an actual workstation early next year.

[Drowsy Emperor]

Turns out I have a 500W JVC power supply.

 

I assume its more than enough to power the 7850. I've seen it reach 230W under heavy load on a hardware test so 500 should be enough to run it and the rest of the PC.

[Humanoid]

Easy.

[Drowsy Emperor]

I ordered the ATI Sapphire Radeon 7850 1GB version. It showed up on a dicount...

 

It should be arriving in a day or two.

 

Finally I'll be able to play something without the graphics card imploding. 

[Moose]

You might find your CPU is still a bit of a bottleneck. A year or so ago I was playing Divinity 2 using I think an HD 4890, which is sufficient to meet the graphical needs of that game but regardless my CPU was still throttling over 75% most of the time causing a significant frame rate drop. I ended upgrading to an i5, usage went down to 20%~ and the problem was resolved.

[Moose]

Oh and I believe it was an E6600... one of the early dual cores anyway, 3GHz maybe.

[Drowsy Emperor]

Yeah, that's a bit better than what I've got now (if you're talking about the IntelCore2Duo series). I'm not expecting a radical performance boost, but at least the games wont freeze due to overheating.

[Humanoid]

Incidentally, I've just decided to refurbish my old PC - it's also a C2D E6300, heh. Bought a cheap SSD (120GB Samsung 840) plus an Accelero Twin Turbo GPU cooler to resurrect my HD5850 which had a failing fan. The 5850 was in my current system until last year, it'd replace the 8800GT currently in the C2D box. I'd also stolen the optical drive and all the SATA cables from this box, so I'll need to scavenge some replacements.

 

I'm not actually sure what I'd use it for, might offer it to my parents/sister who might be able to use a second desktop. Handily there's one remaining use out of their Win7 Family Pack licence.

[Drowsy Emperor]

The C2D E6300 isn't a bad machine. Win 7 and most apps fly on it with no problems. Its still many times better than a regular office PC, which in itself isn't too shabby for a 7 year old piece of hardware.

 

I have a question. The 7850 has a HDMI slot at the back, what can I do with these slots? Can I play games on the TV then? And since the HDMI transmits sound does that mean the TV speakers would play the audio as well?

 

And what the hell is the DP slot? 

[Humanoid]

Yeah, it served me well for a good while, overclocked to 2.66GHz (conservative for that chip) with a hefty Scythe Ninja cooler, was a very quiet machine.

 

And yes, that's a regular HDMI output (HDMI support is not-uncommon in modern monitors) which can bitstream audio as well, provided the relevant AMD driver option is installed, the device you're connecting it to can decode it (which any TV with a HDMI input can), and the correct output device chosen in Windows. You can use all the video outputs at the same time in any configuration you like, clone your desktop, extend it, etc.

 

DisplayPort is the next-gen video transfer standard, supporting higher bandwidth and therefore higher resolutions and refresh rates than DVI and HDMI, and also has the benefit of being royalty-free. It requires a compatible monitor of course. It's basically a better HDMI.

[Drowsy Emperor]

Yeah, it served me well for a good while, overclocked to 2.66GHz (conservative for that chip) with a hefty Scythe Ninja cooler, was a very quiet machine.

 

And yes, that's a regular HDMI output (HDMI support is not-uncommon in modern monitors) which can bitstream audio as well, provided the relevant AMD driver option is installed, the device you're connecting it to can decode it (which any TV with a HDMI input can), and the correct output device chosen in Windows. You can use all the video outputs at the same time in any configuration you like, clone your desktop, extend it, etc.

 

DisplayPort is the next-gen video transfer standard, supporting higher bandwidth and therefore higher resolutions and refresh rates than DVI and HDMI, and also has the benefit of being royalty-free. It requires a compatible monitor of course. It's basically a better HDMI.

 

Sadly my 22inch monitor only has a SVGA port. I got it when the whole craze with the large monitors started. A friend of mine has a DVI one but I didn't see much of a difference in picture quality to be honest. I use a converter obviously...

 

Well, I'll try hooking it up to the TV. 

Edited June 18, 2013 by Drowsy Emperor

[Humanoid]

Digital (DVI/HDMI/DP) vs analogue is a relatively minor factor in display quality, compared to the quality of the LCD panel itself. Analogue would be a bit more prone to interference, but most of its limitations (such as maximum supported resolution) are irrelevant in this context since it's a limitation of the monitor instead of the output device.

 

Another possible limitation I suppose would be inability to play Blu-ray movies on the monitor due to HDCP shenanigans, but I wouldn't imagine that'd be an issue for most people.

[Drowsy Emperor]

I have an Acer V223W or an equivalent. Its a decent monitor, I got it for 140$ at the time since Acer was giving out promotions and its served me well so far. 

 

The only significant difference in quality I've seen is the jump between mid range monitors and the premium ones but the price increase is steep indeed.

 

The best monitor I've ever seen (not that I've seen much) is an Apple one in a local copy store. Its something like 30 inches and the contrasts are incredible.

[Humanoid]

Google says the V223W has DVI input, for what it's worth.

[Drowsy Emperor]

Google says the V223W has DVI input, for what it's worth.

 

I know, I couldn't find the proper model but its the same in all respects. Maybe its just a new revision with a DVI port...

[Drowsy Emperor]

Well its been an ordeal but I seem to have profited from it.

 

My 1GB Sapphire 7850 arrived a week ago and I immediately noticed that the rubber insulation over the fan power cable was torn. The manufacturer's box was so tight (no styrofoam, only insulation baggie and cardboard) and it appears that the card was pressed against the DVI converter in the box, chafing until the cable  got damaged to the point of exposing the wire.

 

I immediately called and had it returned and its replacement arrived today. To my surprise I got an MSI 2GB 7850 in the mail. I assume they didn't have Sapphire's version so they upgraded me free of charge. The card comes in much better packaging, and appears to be in perfect condition. One small gripe is that it has one fan, instead of Sapphire's two but I'm not complaining, I just hope it works properly.