Upgrade help (AMD Athlon & MSI 770) OR should I buy a new build?

[ERU]

Hi all. Being somewhat out of the game at the moment – I need some upgrade help? Here is my current rig:


PSU: Be Quiet BQT L67-530W

Mobo: MSI 770-C45 (MS-7599)

CPU: Athlon II X3 445

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6870 (GDDR5 1gb) 900MHz / 1050MHz

DDR: Crucial (BLS4G3D1609DS1S00) 2x4gb DDR3 PC3-12800 (800mhz) • 9-9-9-24 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1600 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64

HDD: Samsung SSD 830 120gb / Raptor 70gb / WD740GD-00FLA2 280GB

LCD Monitor: Acer X203H 20” widescreen << feels small

Peripherals: Saitek Eclipse keyboard / Zalman (ZM-GM1) wired gaming mouse


Looking to use it mainly for gaming, every few months, (Total War, Witcher 3) and Adobe Indesign/Photoshop. What are my current bottlenecks? Should I just bite the bullet and go for a complete rebuild?

[scaryjim]

How much are you willing to spend? How happy are you with overclocking?

The whole thing looks well balanced, if a shade long in the tooth; certainly not horrendous. Your motherboard will happily support any AM3 CPU, so I reckon there's definite mileage in a CPU and GPU upgrade. Not sure how well threaded InDesign/Photoshop are, but my experience of those kinds of programs are that, unless you're using a lot of filters and effects, your main bottleneck is yourself, followed by your storage subsystem.

Your RAM looks good, and you're on SSD, so no real need to mess with that.

You could definitely look at a 1080p monitor, new 22" 1080p monitors start at around £80, and 24" versions from around £100. That's probably something to do whether you upgrade or build a new system, tbh.

As far as hardware upgrades go, you'd definitely want to move to a Phenom II - ideally an X6; at least a high-clocked X4. Should be able to pick up something appropriate on ebay for around £60 - £70 - if you end up with one of the lower end X6s you can always overclock it.

Then there's the GPU - look at the Radeon 7870/R9 270/R7 370 - they're all the same GPU under the hood, and the first two can be picked up for around £100 on the 'bay.

I reckon for < £170 you can give your existing system a new lease of life, good for another couple of years. Go for a complete rebuild and you're probably talking an Intel Core i5, new mobo, carry over your existing memory, new GPU ... you could easily drop twice as much, and I'm not sure you'd get twice the performance improvement. Depends on if you're willing to wait for a complete rebuild to see what AMD's new Zen processor core brings to the party .. that's due in 2016, and could potentially shift the market one way or another....

[ERU]

Ok - thanks, an upgrade sounds good. What do these look like? How much should I be paying, for a cheap price?

CPU:
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) £45 +
AMD Phenom II x6 1055T 2.8GHz 6MB Hex Core AM3 125W Processors CPU HDT55TFBK6DGR £52.68 from Hong Kong
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8 GHz Six Core (HDT55TWFK6DGR) 95W CPU w/Grease £53.34 from South Korea
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T - 3.2 GHz Six Core (HDT90ZFBGRBOX) Processor £50 + <<< looks promising?
AMD Phenom II X6 1045T 2.7 GHz HDT45TWFK6DGR 667 MHz CPU Processor AM3 £56.91 from China
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition 3.3 GHz 6 Core Processor with Heatsink Fan £55 +


GPU: >>>> Bought the Asus R9 270 2GB DC2OC 2GD5 for £72 inc p&p!
Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 (2048 MB) Graphics Card £55 +
Asus R9 270 2GB DC2OC 2GD5 £67 + <<< PCI Express 3.0? Will anything above have its performance slashed to the bandwidth maximum of the MSI 770 C45's PCIe v2.x

Monitor:
LG 29UM55 29" LED IPS Ultrawide Monitor, Aspect Ratio 21:9, Res 2560 x 1080, Contrast Ratio 5000000:1, Panel Type IPS & VESA 75x75 £170
I've also been looking at this thread and thinking about buying this CrossOver 2795QHD from an eBay seller called 'dream-seller'. £204


~I live next to Eclipse Computers (Coventry) if it's easier to just pop in there. I'd rather get this sorted before/over the weekend if I can, but will wait if needed.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Broken link

I would try total war and the witcher before upgrading. The CPU is bit long in the tooth. I would skip the quads and look at the hexcores at a minimum but only if your software will support all the cores and it was pretty cheap, otherwise do the CPU and mobo.

[ERU]

Broken link

I would try total war and the witcher before upgrading. The CPU is bit long in the tooth. I would skip the quads and look at the hexcores at a minimum but only if your software will support all the cores and it was pretty cheap, otherwise do the CPU and mobo.

I've edited my post above. What's now cheap there? Thanks.

[Domestic_Ginger]

You're too organised

if the 1090 for £50 goes then why not? The multi threaded performance should be much better. I would avoid the foreign sellers.

A cheaper i5 sandybridge/ivybridge seems to be about £60-70. avoid the low clocked/low power models as overclocking is not an option. I went from a Phenom II x4 to a 3470 and it seemed a reasonable performance upgrade.

ie http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core...item20ff62d6ee

I reckon a motherboard should be about £30. so if you approach £90 it seems to better to get the intel setup.

I hate giving recommendations but I would consider the performance jump for £30-40.

[ERU]

Yeah, I am pretty organised - it gets me where I need to go

UPDATE
I've bought an £72 Asus R9 270 2GB DC2OC 2GD5 gfx card.

...and think I will have an 'AMD Phenom II X6 1090T' (inc stock HSF) bought for £55+ ish in the next few hours.

I'm also looking to buy a new monitor, namely the 27" CrossOver 2795QHD for £204. But to be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing here... Is it worth it? Apparently they overclock well?


How am I doing overall?

[DanceswithUnix]

The 1090T would be nice.

You want clock speed above all else. I would rather have a 3.2GHz quad than a 2.8GHz hex core. Only go this route if it is cheap though, don't get carried away in a bidding war. An FX8350 on a motherboard will cost £200 new, be faster and give you stuff like USB3.

Have you tried the "core unlock" feature in your bios? If that works, even if have to turn off the core you just unlocked, sometimes you get lucky and that can get often uncover a 6MB L3 cache converting your system into a Phenom II.

[ERU]

Have you tried the "core unlock" feature in your bios? If that works, even if have to turn off the core you just unlocked, sometimes you get lucky and that can get often uncover a 6MB L3 cache converting your system into a Phenom II.

Yep, I tried when I bought it and it crashed in Prime 95'

[UseItNow]

On the Crossover monitor you may be stung with Import charges?

[ERU]

On the Crossover monitor you may be stung with Import charges?

Yeah I did think of that - I'm happy to take the risk. I've got almost £100 Nectar points I can use to keep the cost down tho So it should work out as the best monitor upgrade I can think of.

[ERU]

I just got offered, for £230, a:
CPU: i5 4670K
Mobo: Z87 Gigabyte Sniper M5 mATX
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems in Black with One Silverstone Fan

Would this be much faster than:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T
Mobo: MSI 770-C45 (MS-7599)
CPU Cooler: Stock

EDIT:
Looks a bit faster according to this link and this link! But worth £230? Probably not for me...

[ERU]

Update
I just bought a 'AMD Phenom II X6 1090T - 3.2 GHz Six Core (HDT90ZFBGRBOX) Processor' for £68, so only the monitor to go. I think I'll go for the 27" CrossOver 2795QHD for £204. But to be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing here... Is it worth it? Apparently they overclock well?

[Kanoe]

What's the requirements and budget for the monitor you are looking for?

Does it need to be 27", does it need to be that res?

For similar money you could get a 24" IPS at the same res from a UK store which might be a safer bet: Acer Predator G247HYU £209.00

[ERU]

What's the requirements and budget for the monitor you are looking for?

Does it need to be 27", does it need to be that res?

For similar money you could get a 24" IPS at the same res from a UK store which might be a safer bet: Acer Predator G247HYU £209.00

From what I can see on this thread - which suggests to buy this 27" CrossOver 2795QHD off eBay - I'd be getting much more bang for buck. Everyone on the thread seems more than happy and the eBay feedback looks good too. I'd also get £100 odd off because of my remaining Nectar points. Or is the Acer just a better performing monitor?

Update
I think I'll pull the trigger on this - thanks all.