Ideas for my rig upgrade?

Was wanting to get opinions on my build.
Got it a few years back for about $1600NZL and looking to upgrade in the next 12 months.

Was originally built as workstation PC for 3D drawing and some* gaming, some may have become more frequent but besides that I do want to throw in a GTX970 but would love some feedback on the build overall.


Current build running triple monitor 24'' 1920x1080:
CPU- INTEL i7 3770 IVY BRIDGE 3.4 - 3.9Ghz, LGA1155
MOBO - ASUS P8B75-M B75
RAM - Strontium Hynix 16Gb (8 x 2) DDR3
GPU - Power Color HD7850 2Gb 260Mhz/1200Mhz x 4 256bit
HDD - Wester Digital 1TB 7200RPM
PSU - AcBel CE2 550W

Cheers

The Rig is not too different from my own PC. The CPU is still a good solid processor, it might not be as good in performance as the latest i7 CPUs but in actual gaming it won't be so far behind them that new games will feel unplayable.

Having experienced using a 3 monitor setup on an AMD GPU first and then trying it on a PC with nVidia cards I found that doing this with AMD was easier at the time, that was maybe 4 or 5 years ago, so if you are planning on a 3 monitor configuration then I would recommend looking at YouTube videos to see how easy it will be to set up before picking your GPU.

The only thing that I see as an area of concern is your PSU, I think 550 watts should be enough power for what you have but I don't recognise the brand so I may be wrong in this but my main concern would be over the quality of components inside the power supply. Cheaper brands won't be using the best components, which in turn might not offer your PC the best protection which in turn could mean that a single point of failure inside the PSU could result and further component failures in the rest of the rig. My PSU offers Heavy-duty protection with Over Voltage Protection, Under Voltage Protection, Over Current Protection, Over Power Protection and Short Circuit Protection it scored very highly in the review carried out by JohhnyGuru who's website is considered my many to be the key reference point for PSU information.

Tech specs seem ok for PSU and I use ok loosely.

Reading things about AcBel their PSUs are hit & miss, were making PSUs for CoolerMaster at one point and this was the point when CoolMaster PSUs were not regarded well IIRC.

Not JonnyGuru but another knowledgeable source who's posts I've found good to ref, Link:- http://www.overclock.net/t/1431929/p...#post_22522080

Is that the right model? You've linked to a 500W one but you say it's a 550W model in your opening post.

Your system isn't old enough generally to be worth upgrading. If you want a higher resolution screen setup then maybe a more expensive graphics card would be worth it but otherwise I don't see anything that would be worthwhile gaming for gaming.

Although you haven't mentioned an SSD so if you don't have one and this is your main system it's worth contemplating that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EndlessWaves

Is that the right model? You've linked to a 500W one but you say it's a 550W model in your opening post.

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Sorry for creating confusion.

Opening post is by Reproved Rabbit and he has stated its 550W.

I (gupsterg) posted the link, if you see tech specs its states:-

OUTPUT SPEC.
Rated Power 500W
Max. Power 550W

I think this manufacturer markets it's PSU on MAX power rather than rated.

970 and a SSD will make it fly!

Yea The PSU is also a brand I dont know and was on my mind to change for a modular one when I do upgrade eventually. People I have talked to about the 970 I had in mind seem to think its also pretty straight forward to sort the triple monitors up the way I have on the AMD card.

Im always on the hunt to throw a SSD in as have never had a system with one. I really should especially how much i use this thing...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gupsterg

Sorry for creating confusion.

Opening post is by Reproved Rabbit and he has stated its 550W.

I (gupsterg) posted the link, if you see tech specs its states:-

OUTPUT SPEC.
Rated Power 500W
Max. Power 550W

I think this manufacturer markets it's PSU on MAX power rather than rated.

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It is a 550W but by no means a great one. Probably a piece of kit I am wanting to replace sooner rather than later but not sure how big to go with it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ReprovedRabbit

It is a 550W but by no means a great one. Probably a piece of kit I am wanting to replace sooner rather than later but not sure how big to go with it?

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The best thing is to work out what hardware you need then you can calculate the power requirements for it. The shorter route is to look at the power requirements for your GPU of choice and base your PSU selection on that, then some people add a bit to that for a safety margin. Unlike other components, bigger numbers on a PSU won't return better performance figures so if the recommendation is for a 550 watt to 600 watt then maybe go for a 650 watt or 700 watt max. I have a 750 watt unit myself as this was required for running an HD6990 some time ago, but now I have a GTX980 I would be ok with a 600 or 650 watt model, possibly even less.

Without doubt an SSD would be on my list.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ReprovedRabbit

It is a 550W but by no means a great one. Probably a piece of kit I am wanting to replace sooner rather than later but not sure how big to go with it?

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Good manufacturers market their PSUs on rated power output, thus you have a bit of a buffer.

Poor manufacturers market their PSUs on max power output.

Generally speaking :) .

For example have a view of this PDF, if you add W of the rails the V850 is coming out higher than marketed 850W, that's it's max (peak), but they market as 850W (rated/continuous output).

Do the same for your one using the tech specs I linked.

Regarding what size of PSU try this calculator, known to suggest slightly a bigger size of PSU IIRC, which isn't a bad thing.

Another thing that has bearing on how much power a PSU will output is operating temp.

When CoolerMaster used AcBel to make their PSU they were poor IIRC, the V850 is made by Seasonic for CoolerMaster.

Another term for MAX output is peak, have a google and see what you find.

Link:- http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/Even...tinuous_Power/

Another good Link:- http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3987