Curing the upgrade virus

[Afrodisiac]

Well, my title is misleading. There is no cure to the upgrade virus; you just have to give it what it wants and hope it leaves you alone. So this is more of an "assuage the upgrade virus" thread.

My rig:
Corsair VX550
CM690
Gigabyte 790XT-UD4P
Phenom II X3 720, stock cooling
6GB 3x2GB G.Skill DDR3-1600
WD Caviar Black 640GB
XFX 4890


I want to improve the rig and have some fun 24/7 gaming during Christmas while giving it more kick. I thought of picking up a second used 4890 but at 1680x1050, it would be pointless. Maybe selling the 4890 and picking up a 5850? I like 5850s.

A new monitor. My 20.1" 1680x1050 is getting dated. A 1080p 24 inch might be the best upgrade of my life. Confirm/deny?

A new CPU cooler is a must. Mugen 2, thoughts? My 720 can do 3.8GHz with enough volts (less than 1.55V). I did a suicide run on the stock cooler once. I think the Mugen 2 can handle 1.55V fine with a nice 38mm-thick fan on it.

A 4th stick of RAM has struck me as a thought, but I wouldn't know where to get a 4th stick of the same ram. If anybody has a stick of 2GB DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 RAM that is lying around, I can throw that in there right? I don't overclock my ram particularly high, just at its rated settings, so I don't think they would have trouble working together. I emailed G.Skill and they said it would not be possible for me to get a 4th stick since I bought an i7 triple pack.

Case, PSU, those are solid, don't think I'll be wasting money changing them out if they aren't broken. I might make my case look nice, paint interior, replace fans with 90CFM CM R4s, red LED, but not necessary. Do you think I should do those mods?

RAID0, worth it? I know RAID0 won't magically make your PC faster like an SSD can, far from it, but what kind of benefits does it offer?

[ColonelCain]

What volts is your ram?

Go with a Dell 2408 monitor. Or, 5850, and 2 more 1680x1050 monitors.

[Afrodisiac]

1.65V, i7 type.

[ColonelCain]

1.65V, i7 type.

I think that we are both on the same page.

[billdcat4]

+1 on the Mugen 2. Its great and loads barely above ambient (10d @3.6ghz)

A second GPU should give you some more horsepower without raising the cost that much. AFAIK the 58xx series is hard to get right now.

A new monitor would be nice, buy what you can afford, I bought a $150 ASUS 23.6" because thats all I could pay. If you have more money, get a more expensive screen. Whatever they say though, when properly calibrated, a decent TN panel does the job.

[Afrodisiac]

NCIX.com - Buy LG W2442PA-BF 24IN Widescreen LCD Monitor Black 2MS 10000:1 300CDM 1920X1080 1080P HAS Tilt HDMI DVI - W2442PA-BF In Canada.

Is it a nice monitor? The $250 should drop to below $200 for an NCIX Christmas sale event.

[Mandrake]

You don't need dual 4890s at those kinds of resolutions. A single 4890 will do you fine for all resolutions 1920x1200 and below IMO.

If I were you I'd look at a new monitor. I'm very partial to the Dell UltraSharp series, though they can be a bit pricey. If you look on sites like eBay you can sometimes pick up a good bargain. I saved $700 (compared to the new price) on my 3008WFP from buying one that this guy had used for less than forty hours total. Monitors like the 2408WFP are excellent quality.

I also recommend a 16:10 aspect ratio monitor with a resolution of 1920x1200 over a 16:9 with a resolution of 1920x1080. The extra vertical space/room comes in real handy.

[anticupidon]

+1 on the monitor
About curing the upgrade virus

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!!!!

[shdbcamping]

Exactly... for gaming the "monitor capable" resolutions will determine the MAX to pay for an AMD GPU (or multiples). With Nv GPU's, there is always an added advantage (with folding) of going past the monitor Max. With AMD... just pi**ing money down the toilet as they spend way too muck energy/PPD

You don't need dual 4890s at those kinds of resolutions. A single 4890 will do you fine for all resolutions 1920x1200 and below IMO.

If I were you I'd look at a new monitor. I'm very partial to the Dell UltraSharp series, though they can be a bit pricey. If you look on sites like eBay you can sometimes pick up a good bargain. I saved $700 (compared to the new price) on my 3008WFP from buying one that this guy had used for less than forty hours total. Monitors like the 2408WFP are excellent quality.

I also recommend a 16:10 aspect ratio monitor with a resolution of 1920x1200 over a 16:9 with a resolution of 1920x1080. The extra vertical space/room comes in real handy.

[Afrodisiac]

You don't need dual 4890s at those kinds of resolutions. A single 4890 will do you fine for all resolutions 1920x1200 and below IMO.

If I were you I'd look at a new monitor. I'm very partial to the Dell UltraSharp series, though they can be a bit pricey. If you look on sites like eBay you can sometimes pick up a good bargain. I saved $700 (compared to the new price) on my 3008WFP from buying one that this guy had used for less than forty hours total. Monitors like the 2408WFP are excellent quality.

I also recommend a 16:10 aspect ratio monitor with a resolution of 1920x1200 over a 16:9 with a resolution of 1920x1080. The extra vertical space/room comes in real handy.

Well the 1920x1200 monitors are quite handily more expensive than the 1080p ones, because IIRC they're trying to phase out the 1920x1200 and replace them with 1080ps. Is it worth the premium?

[YMAA]

Yes, 1200p is definitely worth it - take all the extra real estate you can.

There is one added benefit to a 1200p monitor...should you ever get a modern game console a 1200p/1080p display with HDMI input and DHCP will let you play on the console at its native res (with a PS3 and games that support 1080p anyway). AFAIK the 360 doesn't do 1080p.

[SirRobin4ever]

A monitor w/ 1920x1200 FTW!

Take a look at the numbers:
Pixel count:
1920x1200- 2,304,000
1920x1080- 2,073,600

Difference- 230,400
% Difference- ~10.5%


So, just from that, we can see that right off the bat, by going 16x9, you're losing more than 10% of the monitor's resolution! Also, the screen is physically smaller than the 16x10 monitor, despite the 24" rating. 16x9 is a cost cutting measure, because they realized that by doing so, they could make a smaller screen, with less pixels, and sell it at the same price.

[Afrodisiac]

1920x1200 it is then. Should I get larger sizes like a 25.5" 1920x1200 Acer, or should I just go straight up 1920x1200/24" to get the most pixels per inch?

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS
This one (Acer 25.5") is cheaper than most of the 24 1920x1200s.

*edit
Well I read some reviews on that Acer and it looks like it's mostly a shoddy budget monitor, so I think getting a high quality 24" 1920x1200 should be my priority.

[Afrodisiac]

Should I bother making a switch to i5/i7 or just stick with the 720? The switch might be messy although I do have the appropriate RAM for an i7 system.

[ColonelCain]

Yes, 1200p is definitely worth it - take all the extra real estate you can.

There is one added benefit to a 1200p monitor...should you ever get a modern game console a 1200p/1080p display with HDMI input and DHCP will let you play on the console at its native res (with a PS3 and games that support 1080p anyway). AFAIK the 360 doesn't do 1080p.

Yes, the 360 supports 1080p.

One BEAUTIFUL feature of the 2408 is that if you use the HDMI input for a game console, it has a built in stream decoder that transfers the audio to a 3.5mm audio out on the display, so you can hook up you speakers, or even headset.

[SirRobin4ever]

Should I bother making a switch to i5/i7 or just stick with the 720? The switch might be messy although I do have the appropriate RAM for an i7 system.

I doubt i5 would make that much of a difference in most apps, and i7 isn't cheap. You'll get better performance / $ out of other upgrades.

[Afrodisiac]

I doubt i5 would make that much of a difference in most apps, and i7 isn't cheap. You'll get better performance / $ out of other upgrades.

I thought i5 was similar to i7.

[YMAA]

If by similar you mean has half the number of cores, lacks triple-channel bandwidth, and uses a different socket and chipset, then yeah, they're pretty similar.

[billdcat4]

Should I bother making a switch to i5/i7 or just stick with the 720? The switch might be messy although I do have the appropriate RAM for an i7 system.

What you should do is get a 30" 2560x1600 LCD so your current GPU setup will become lacking and then will have to upgrade to a 5870 and then a second when a new game comes out.

The upgrade virus lives

[Afrodisiac]

If by similar you mean has half the number of cores, lacks triple-channel bandwidth, and uses a different socket and chipset, then yeah, they're pretty similar.

i5 is a dual core? I know about the socket and I had forgotten about the exploding sockets issue which might turn me away from i5. Also, since I have a triple channel kit, i5 would be silly. But, I meant performance-wise, because this is how it goes:

C2Q ~ Phenom II <<<< i7

Where is i5 in that?

C2Q ~ Phenom II < i5 <<<< i7

Or,

C2Q ~ Phenom II <<<< i5 < i7