New build or upgrade?

[paul92]

I built a system up in around march and at the time i had very little money to spare, but now i have money to spare so im wanting a better pc for gaming when i get fed up of the xbox.

atm it is
AMD Athlon II X4 620
Kingston HyperX DDR3 4 x 1GB (1333MHz)
Seagate 500GB x 2

Also currently i have no graphics card, and am unsure wether to go for the GTX 460 or HD 6850.

The PSU of this PC is only 460W

also i run either a 1280 x 1024 or a 1680 x 1050 resolution so graphics card could be a bit overkill.

Anyway im wondering wether i would be better just buying a new graphics card and power supply or starting from fresh?

any advice is welcome thankyou!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you have a Coolermaster PSU??

What is your case??

What is your motherboard??

[paul92]

The PSU is a Coolermaster eXtreme Power 460W PSU

The case is Coolermaster Elite 330 Case, but i am more than likely going to order one of the Elite 430 due to the nice side window and black interior.

The motherboard is a MSI 760GM-E51 760G. (this was the cheapest i could find with 4 ram slots so id guess its junk)

[Pob255]

No the motherboard is fine

And yes ether a gtx460 or 6850 should work very well, although overkill for 1280x1024 but at 1680 x 1050 ether card will still happly go to max settings without being total overkill

You could go lower to a gts450 or 5750, esp at 1280x1024 thes cards will still happly max out settings on most games.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Mobo is fine. No point upgrading your rig until you try a gpu and I image it runs everthing okay at the moment. Next intel range arrives January and AMD should not be too far behind (crosses fingers).

The price of 5850s seems to be dropping due to the arrival of the 6850 and it going EOL. Seen going for £130 (went very quickly at CCL) and possibly £115 at play. I would try to pick one up or just get a 460. The 460 768mb models are quite good at about £115. The 460SE are a bit puzzling; the same price but worse performance. It depends how much you have to spend I suppose

[paul92]

Thanks people! and the info on the 5850 is good, think ill get that one if it stays at the price its at now.
so id be getting the HD 5850 and the Elite 430 case. i seriously doubt the 460w PSU with that card though :/

[Pob255]

I'd say stick with the 330 case

A 5850 might be pushing that coolermaster psu past it's limits but it is worth giving it a go first.

[paul92]

any reason why you would stick with the 330? the 430 is only £28 and my 330 is the black and silver one so it doesnt look too nice.
and yeah i can try the card and if its not enough ill just get a 600w, thanks anyway

[Pob255]

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...1&limitstart=0

Meh, I think it's better looking than the 430, the half and half bezel puts me off, the case just doesn't have a unified style.
Also the 330 is actually larger than the 430, the 330 is 10mm wider which may not sound like much but that extra width make a big difference when cable managing.
I prefer the look of the 370 to the 430, and I'd say £28 could be better put some where else

Overall I'd actually go for the HAF 912, I'm not amazing keen on the look of it but the size and layout are far better, yes it's more money but you're getting more for it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The GTX460 1GB consumes more power than an HD6850 1GB. You could probably run an HD6850 1GB off your existing PSU as it only requires a bit more power than an HD5770 1GB.

[Joe of Loath]

I run a GTX460 and AMD 450 (With an unlocked core, so a Phenom B50) on a 400w PSU, no problems here.

[paul92]

thanks for all the info! i think the psu will be okay because my old 8800 gts used more than a 5850 or GTX 460 id guess, and ill delay upgrading the cause until one is on offer or something.