Advice From The Tech Geeks?

[Kaiza]

Hi- I have the following system:

 

Phenom II X940 Black Edition

GigaByte GA-MA74GM-S2 740G Chipset DDR2/800 SATA RAID PCI-Express MBoard

4 GB DDR 800

GTX 275 GPU

 

I am looking to upgrade for under 300 bucks to keep me going on A-10c and Cliffs Of Dover for the next couple of years (if possible!).

 

Any thoughts on what I could do? I was thinking possibley O/Cing and upgrading to a 560Ti? What is the likely bottleneck here?

 

Any thoughts/help is much appreciated. Cheers!

[Bodo]

I'd say you've answered your own question. OC it a bit and upgrade your GPU. Best thing I can suggest, 560 would be a great addition. Mate just bought a 570 and it's superb.

 

I don't know much about AMD CPUs so I'll leave that for someone else to answer.

 

I'm looking forward to trying Cliffs of Dover on my system. Maybe see what yours performs like and ask this question again after it's release.

 

Hopefully in the next week or two we'll see the next A10 patch, that'll be a telling moment for many people, I think, with regards just how much performance we can expect to get from our systems. I'm fairly confident ED will come up with more patches in the near future, not only addressing bugs but also ironing out the performance of the simulation.

 

I just really can't wait for the BS patch...

[MTFDarkEagle]

My suggestion is to upgrade your GPU to a gtx560Ti, and maybe if possible buy a faster cpu, and if need be overclock it.

[mig29]

Yeah. Get a Geforce 560Ti and a good Heatsink fan for OCing.

[Kaiza]

Thanks guys. I have never o/c'd a CPU before. Can much go wrong/ is there much risk involved. I have a coolmaster V8 fan, will this be suitable for o/cing?

 

Thanks again

[MTFDarkEagle]

Yea that should do. Just make sure you do it with very small increments! There are a couple of tutorials on how to do it. And yes: there are risks involved, but if you're carefull, and do it in small increments you should be ok.

[mig29]

Thanks guys. I have never o/c'd a CPU before. Can much go wrong/ is there much risk involved. I have a coolmaster V8 fan, will this be suitable for o/cing?

 

Thanks again

 

 

Coolmaster V8 is good.

 

There are risks involved with OCing. You will void your CPU warranty. Also you may not only just fry your CPU but other components as well. I suppose your CPU allows changing the clock multiplier which may spare you from adjusting FSB and memory frequencies. As always, and as already advised by MTFDarkEagle, overclock the CPU in small increments. Then after every step use prime95 software to test stability of the system. Also keep an eye on CPU temperature while doing stress-testing (with prime95). Good luck.

[emenance]

http://pcper.com/hwlb.php

 

You can check the forum for people with similar setups and just copy what you are seeing as proven stable systems. No geeking.

[Kaiza]

Thanks mate

[cc.x]

560 Ti. Overclocking is Overrated. Get an SSD.

___________________

http://unitwan.co.nr/fsx.htm

[EtherealN]

Overclocking is Overrated.

 

Yeah, it only gives almost linear performance gains in these products. ;)

(For mainstream GPU-bottled products it's a different issue though.)

 

Agreed on 560Ti though. It is fantastic kit for the money.

[Kaiza]

560Ti it is then, thanks guys. Will have a bit of a think about this CPU. In peoples opinion will I be bottlenecking my sys if I get a 560Ti without o/cing?

[EtherealN]

Most likely you will, but the 560Ti will allow you more leeway with post-processing like HDR, effects, AA/AF and so on.

 

(Basically, almost any configuration you can get will bottleneck at the CPU, though there are some reports of bottlenecks at vRAM speed.)

[Kaiza]

Thanks mate

[Kaiza]

EtherealN- are you happy with your ASUS 560? I am thinking of going with the same model, or perhaps the EVGA.

[MTFDarkEagle]

As I remember yes he's happy with it :) A friend of mine has a 560ti as well, and he is very happy with it too.

[Kaiza]

Cool, sold on the 560, just making my mind up on which model.

[EtherealN]

Indeed, I love that thing. A 570 or 580 might have been "better" (though for these games I'd only see a little bit extra AA and AF as the specific gains - not worth doubling the price for unless you want double 2560x displays. For two FullHD displays this card does fine, even when having AA on and HD video on the second screen. :D ) , but for the price point this thing is stupid good, and the DirectCUII cooling solution is also very very nice. At this time I have my 560 working on some Folding@home, effectively maxing it: yet the unit is still only at 58 degrees C with the fans at the lowest (and almost soundless) setting.

 

So yeah, very very happy with it. :)

 

EDIT: Regarding model choice, I'd say you'll probably be fine with any model that uses something similar to the DirectCUII solution on the Asus unit. Basic idea being that with the larger surface area and twin fans you can run the card a lot quieter at stock and/or have cooling in place for any agressive overclocking you want to do.

Edited April 3, 2011 by EtherealN

[BHawthorne]

An X4 940BE should cap out around 3.8ghz depending upon the mobo. That particular CPU hits a brick wall around 3.7-3.9ghz.

[Kaiza]

Thanks guys. I finally pulled the trigger on the ASUS TC II TOP 900Mhz model. I'll see how she runs with that and then reassess the requirement to o/c.

 

Thanks for all the help.