I'm about to pull the trigger on upgrading my current desktop. I've been out of the "scene" for awhile so I would like a few of you experienced bros to check out what I'm planning on doing and give me some advice or let me know if I'm pointed in the right direction. My goal is to be able to kill any game on the market right now with out breaking the bank.

Current Specs:
Core 2 Duo e8500 @ 3.16ghz
16gb patriot ram @1333mhz
Old gigabyte mobo
1GB HD5770
550w cheap power supply
500gb 7200rpm seagate HDD
Creative sound blaster xfi titanium sound card
Antec 900 case
27" ASUS LED 1080p monitor
22" Acer LCD 1080p monitor
Steel series 6Gv2 mechanical keyboard
Logitech G5 Mouse
Windows 7 Ultimate

This is what I was looking to upgrade it to:
i5 3570k OC to 4ghz $239.99
Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H mobo $139.99
EVGA GTX 670 FTW edition $419.99
Crucial M4 128gb SSD (for the OS and some games) $109.99
Corsair HX650 Modular PS $139.99
Zalman CPU cooler $43.99
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound $11.99

Total(after rebates): ~$1080

I plan on keeping the same case, RAM, keyboard, mouse, monitor.

Do you think I will see a HUGE improvement? Is the extra ~$120 worth it for an i7 with hyper threading? Do you think I need to upgrade my power supply?On my current setup I can play skyrim on high settings, BF3 on low settings, and SC2 on ultra settings.

 

I think you should buy a PS3 and a projector.

 

 

Radeon 6850 is still an extremely viable GPU for a performance build.

It would save you ~$300 and have 75% of the performance of the 670...which means you'd still be able to play the most graphics intensive games at a lackluster 3,957 FPS.

And in 2 years, when the greatest game in the world comes out and you're down to only 200 FPS, you can upgrade to the 670 for about $150, and you're still $150 ahead of the game.

 

If you go ati 6000 get a 6950 and unlock to 6970. In fact I would you like to buy mine?

Also for i7 or a good amd, don't waste money on a i5.

Right now is a bad time to buy a hard drive, prices are jacked up and all the really good stuff they stopped making. All the flooding in Asia made everything crappy.

 

Oooh PM'd for pricing on your 6950. I'm local too so no shipping necessary.

 

550 watts PSU? Your video card alone needs more than half of that, think 800+ I got a black widow 850 watts the other day for 130-140 with taxes.

Either that or double up 2 cheap psus.

Also i found those the other day... Seems like a sexy start for multiscreen gaming.

http://www.frys.com/product/6287500?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Your current motherboard, how are the speakers connected? Soundblaster tends to be useless as far as quality goes with most motherboards today (most support up to 7.1 and have all the plugs u need).. If u plan on using surround sound headphones... they dont use the soundcard either so again soundcard is useless unless your motherboard doesnt have one.

Also find the max ram "the old mobo" can support. Wouldnt want to buy 4 4 gig sticks when the motherboard can only support 4 2 gig sticks.

At last ensure you get windows 7-64 bit as 32 bit does not support +3gb ram still. 16 is over kill IMO since most games only pull about 4.. i've never seen my 8gb ram maxed out.

 

Already installed my 16gb of RAM on my current mobo. Runs like a champ with Win7 64 bit. Memory is dirt cheap ATM. The power supply calculator for an ivy bridge CPU, GTX670, high end mobo, 16gb of RAM, and my 7200rpm HDD was like 492w.

http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell...alc/index.html

The new ivy bridge draws a lot less power than a sandy bridge.

Those displays are super legit. If anything though, I'd pick up another 27" like I have and wall mount the bitches.

 

16gb ram doesnt pull 8 watts like the chart says. Also i didnt see a 670 on there however the 680 is more efficient than the 670. According to nvidia, a 670 pulls 280watts on its own. You're still running fans each 80mm fan pulls about 3.5 watts which is miniscule but still count it.

30-40 for the motherboard alone, if you plan on using sound card i dont know how much soundblasters run but add that to it.

I have a feeling that 492W you are getting is at rest or near it.. at full load it will be a lot higher and the next thing is read the label on the PSU whatever you decide. Most are rated "at max power" with giant letters on the front of the box, but they put the continuous power with a tiny little print on the back of the box where most people dont look at..

I recently (month or two ago) burned my 600 watt psu after adding the extra sticks of ram (was at 4 now at 8) and a 2nd video card.. (9600gt - 60 watts) and mines a quad core at 2.66 each.

 

Personally I would say that you have a good setup to plan for there. I will def recommend the 69502g as thats what I started with on my build and then got a gtx580 3g after, but the 6950 had the unlocked shaders for the 6970 and ran bf3 at release around 40-50fps without any lag or overheating issues. I used the sapphire model and it was amazing, and my friend is still using it in his rig atm. As for the psu you would be fine with a 750w with what you chose no worries. The 650 will be close but unless you are going to sli or xfire I would not go further than that. The biggest thing with a psu is obviously quality so id say the corsair will be able to handle what you throw at it. Only issue I would address is your case depending on the vga dimensions. I havent really looked recently as I wont have to upgrade for a couple years but I know my 580 is 12" long and its still tight in my HaF942 nvidia edition. I know the 6950 would fit in your 900 case no worries as it worked in my old storm scout but id double check the 670 just to make sure. Other than those few things it looks like you have a good plan so id say get it goin and enjoy your upgrades.

Oh also only advice id give is pick up a 1000w modular psu so you can sli the 670 if you go that way. Never hurts to pay an extra 50$ or get a shell shocker deal on newegg but be set for many years to come.

 

Spring for an i7 CPU, the performance increase over increased cost is worth it.

I also have that same SSD, you will not be disappoint.

Other than that, I'd add +1 to the advice on a bigger power supply if you wanna stick with that GPU.

 

Okay cool.

What are going to be the real world differences between an i5 and i7(not hyperthreading and hyperthreading) to make up for the $130? From the research I've done, hyperthreading is the ONLY difference and would help a lot with graphic design/rendering video but not as much for gaming. I know that it means the OS recognizes the cpu as 8 cores, but will I see a noticeable performance difference?

 

Hyperthreading (4 physical + 4 virtual) vs. non-HT (4 physical cores) has little real world difference, Palmtree.

I can count the number of programs I use that can make use of more than 4 cores on a single hand - and not a single one of them are a game, or even a mainstream program. They are all pretty hardcore development/database stuff.

HT is cool, but untill we start getting programs that are ridiculously multi-threaded, HT is just a gimmick for most users.

 

I gotcha. Yeah I'll probably go with a 750w. I think that will set me up for quite a few years since it seems technology is getting more efficient (the new gpus and cpus use less power).

I'm worried about my case as well... We will just have to see, but I would like to keep from spending money on a case, but if I do I'll be getting this guy:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119225

 

Sweet, yeah I'll stick with the 3570k thanks!

 

I can certainly vouch for the i5 processors. I've had one in my "big" computer at home for about two years now, and while my video card sucks *****, the CPU itself has thus far laughed at every workload scenario I've been able to throw at it, including having two or three VMWare virtual machines running simultaneously in the background while playing something like Portal2 or TF2 in the foreground.


What I do find a tad puzzling are some of these power supply numbers I'm seeing. Granted, I'm not running a fancy video card and I only have 8 gigs of RAM rather than 16, but I do have two 7200 RPM hard drives in addition to the SSD, and I often run fairly processor-intensive database apps. I don't think I've ever seen the whole machine consume more than about 200 watts on the primary side (as measured at the UPS).

Bear in mind that 100% of the power that enters the machine gets dissipated as heat. A computer which is pulling 600 watts on the power supply is going to be blowing nearly half as much heat out the back as a cheap hair-dryer.

 

Well the video card is by far one of the nastiest power taxers.. My old 460 pulls 150 at idle... thats at rest.. just the basic password screen on windows. Overclocked it pulls 300 watts at full load...by it self. No wonder it has 2 extra power cables connected just for it.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/gra...card-review/11

 

That's just unbelievable.

I mean literally, I do not believe it.

There's no way that a video card can be dissipating 150 watts at idle. Maybe the entire computer, but not the video card alone. Hell, I just checked the power consumption of my own system (I'm at the i5 machine right now) and the entire computer is drawing 46 watts on the AC side.

I can't even imagine how a designer could make a video card pull 150 watts at idle even if they tried.

 

You are correct that that is full system load, Joe.

There's no way to measure* video card-specific load. Well, you can do fancy math to extrapolate it, but there's no physical way.

*: Except by the manufacturers and people with extraordinarily expensive testing equipment. Which none of those reviewers have, they just use a kill-a-watt.

Advice to the OP: Think of power supplies like injectors. You don't want to run an injector at 100%, just the same as you don't want to run a power supply at 100%. My rule of thumb is 600watts for a basic system, and then 300watts for every video card in it after that.

 

"No way" really Blaen?

http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/.../index_2.shtml