Thinking about building a new system but not sure what I need...

[stavroshamster]

Hi all,

I'm thinking (tentatively at this stage) about building a new system (to replace my existing system; details to the left) but haven't been keeping up to date very much with the latest CPUs/GPUs/Mobo combo's that are available, so I'm after some advice.

I use my current system for two purposes in general; gaming and photo editing. I think my existing GPU (standard 4850 512MB) is at the limit of its capabilities when it comes to newer games, and this is likely to get worse when I purchase a new 24" Dell IPS screen in the next couple of months (which will have much higher resolution than my existing monitor).

So I'm after the following:
A new cpu (and suitable mobo) which is fast enough to cope with photo processing and games
A new GPU which will cope with most of what's thrown at it at a resolution of 1920*1200 (both currently and ideally for when the next-gen consoles mean that ported games get more resource intensive). Have always had ATI/AMD in the past, but have no problem switching to NVidia if this offers more bang for buck.
An SSD for the operating system (probably sticking with Win7, with perhaps a Linux dual-boot)
DDR3 memory (as much as possible/affordable for photo editing)

I already have (see left):
A PSU (although whether this is sufficient wattage to support the new system may be an issue)
Enough non-SSD storage.
A case, DVD drive and peripherals.

Budget-wise I was thinking up to around the £500 mark, but am not sure if this is realistic or not.

Thanks!

[Willzzz]

Something like this?

CPU: Intel Core i3-2120 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor
Hard Drive: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card: Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card

Plus motherboard and 16gb memory will be easily under £500.

[Willzzz]

It's probably not even worth upgrading your CPU until you can afford an i5 tbh, will you not have another £100 to spend by the time you purchase your new monitor?

Plus maybe the GTX 660 will be out by then which may or may not be a better card.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I went from a Q6600 at around 3GHZ to a Core i3 2100 and the latter is faster. However,the main reason I did the upgrade was for reliability reasons,and it won't be a massive upgrade though.

I would say get the new monitor and an HD7850 or an HD7870. If you can wait,Nvidia will release a GTX660 in the next few months too.

[stavroshamster]

Thanks.

Yes, I think it would feel like a step back to go from a quad-core to a dual-core processor, so I'd be looking for an i5 I guess - could maybe stretch to another £100 if needed.

[stavroshamster]

I went from a Q6600 at around 3GHZ to a Core i3 2100 and the latter is faster. However,the main reason I did the upgrade was for reliability reasons,and it won't be a massive upgrade though.

I would say get the new monitor and an HD7850 or an HD7870. If you can wait,Nvidia will release a GTX660 in the next few months too.

So you would just upgrade the GPU in my current system? What risk is there that games then become CPU limited?

[Willzzz]

I mean if money is really tight you get get a non K version and a cheaper motherboard. Or stick with 8gb ram for now, not quite sure how memory hungry your photo editing is.

[Willzzz]

So you would just upgrade the GPU in my current system? What risk is there that games then become CPU limited?

The GPU will give a far bigger boost than the CPU upgrade. You will want to upgrade your CPU before long, but if you can't afford a decent upgrade wait until you can.

You run a lot of games under emulation? That might be quite CPU intensive, not sure.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So you would just upgrade the GPU in my current system? What risk is there that games then become CPU limited?

Some games might be CPU limited,but you will still see a decent boost in framerates, as the HD4850 is a relatively slow card by modern standards - it is around GTS450 or HD5750 level. You can always plonk in the GPU into a new system when you have got the budget for that. I certainly saw a big performance increase going from an overclocked HD4830 512MB(around HD4850 512MB level performance) to an overclocked HD5850 1GB(around HD5870 1GB level performance) on a Q6600 at around 3GHZ.

[rs4847]

I ran my GTX670 with my Q6600 (no OC) for a few weeks and it was fine and to be honest I enjoyed Max Payne 3 more on my Q6600 with GTX670 than I do on my new i7-3770K.

[simontompkins]

As power supply may be an issue you may want to use a power supply calculator. Thermaltake have an online one, as I've just joined this forum I can't post url's but if you put in "PC power calculator Thermaltake" it should be at the top of the list

[deejayburnout]

Make sure you get a good quality PSU, capable of running a modern graphics card that may require 1 or 2 power adaptors.

Check Scan and the likes for good mobo bundles.

[Pob255]

Well going from a q6600 to an i5 isn't going to be a major change in power demand, if the i5 is unoverclocked then it could well be a decrease, the difference between a 4850 (~145-150w) and 7850 (~125w) is actually a decrease of about 20w at full load.

if the ssd replaces a hard drive that'll be a decrease too, if it's in addition then that'll be a small increase.
A hard drive can go as high as 20w under heavy load, an ssd will be under 5w (around 2 - 3.7w depending on make&model)

[Willzzz]

Yeah, stick with your corsair 520w, it's fine.