My Rig

[Silverback]

Hello this is what I have.

I am thinking about upgrading and would love your input of what I should do.

Operating System
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz33 °C
Bloomfield 45nm Technology
RAM
6.00 GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 539MHz (8-8-8-20)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. X58A-UD3R (Socket 1366)22 °C
Graphics
LG TV (1920x1080@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series (ASUStek Computer Inc)26 °C
Hard Drives
977GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD103SJ (SATA)16 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50
Audio
AMD High Definition Audio Device
Graphics
Monitor
NameLG TV on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
Current Resolution1920x1080 pixels
Work Resolution1920x1040 pixels
Stateenabled, primary, output devices support
Monitor Width1920
Monitor Height1080
Monitor BPP32 bits per pixel
Monitor Frequency60 Hz
Device\\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0
ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
GPUCypress
Device ID1002-6898
SubvendorASUStek Computer Inc (1043)
Current Performance LevelLevel 1
Current GPU Clock156 MHz
Current Memory Clock300 MHz
Voltage0.950 V
Technology41 nm
Die Size40 nm²
Release DateSep 23, 2009
DirectX Support11.0
OpenGL Support5.0
Bios Core Clock850.00
Bios Mem Clock1200.00
Temperature28 °C
Core Voltage0.950 V
BIOS Version113-C00101-X01
ROPs32
Shaders1600 unified
Memory TypeGDDR5
Bus Width64x4 (256 bit)
Pixel Fillrate5.0 GPixels/s
Texture Fillrate0.0 GTexels/s
Bandwidth153.6 GB/s
Max Power Draw188 Watts
Count of performance levels : 1
Level 1
GPU Clock156 MHz
Memory Clock300 MHz
OpenGL
Version4.1.11079 Compatibility Profile Context
VendorATI Technologies Inc.
RendererATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
GLU Version1.2.2.0 Microsoft Corporation
Values
GL_MAX_LIGHTS8
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE16384
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_STACK_DEPTH10
GL Extensions
GLU Extensions
RAM
Memory slots
Total memory slots6
Used memory slots3
Free memory slots3
Memory
TypeDDR3
Size6144 MBytes
Channels #Triple
DRAM Frequency539.7 MHz
CAS# Latency (CL)8 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD)8 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP)8 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS)20 clocks
Command Rate (CR)1T
Physical Memory
Memory Usage33 %
Total Physical6.00 GB
Available Physical3.98 GB
Total Virtual12 GB
Available Virtual9.69 GB
SPD
Number Of SPD Modules3
Slot #1
Slot #2
Slot #3
Motherboard
ManufacturerGigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
ModelX58A-UD3R (Socket 1366)
Chipset VendorIntel
Chipset ModelX58
Chipset Revision13
Southbridge VendorIntel
Southbridge Model82801JR (ICH10R)
Southbridge Revision00
System Temperature24 °C
BIOS
BrandAward Software International, Inc.
VersionF5
Date03/11/2010
Voltage
CPU CORE0.944 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER1.520 V
+3.3V3.392 V
+5V5.080 V
-12V-12.480 V
+5V HIGH THRESHOLD3.656 V
CMOS BATTERY3.216 V
CPU1.248 V
PCI Data
Slot PCI
Slot TypePCI
Slot UsageAvailable
Bus Width32 bit
Slot DesignationPCI
Slot Number0
NameIntel Core i7 920
Code NameBloomfield
PackageSocket 1366 LGA
Technology45nm
SpecificationIntel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
Family6
Extended Family6
ModelA
Extended Model1A
Stepping5
RevisionD0
InstructionsMMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, Intel 64
VirtualizationSupported, Enabled
HyperthreadingSupported, Enabled
Fan Speed1275 RPM
Bus Speed134.9 MHz
Rated Bus Speed2428.9 MHz
Stock Core Speed2666 MHz
Stock Bus Speed133 MHz
Average Temperature34 °C
Caches
L1 Data Cache Size4 x 32 KBytes
L1 Instructions Cache Size4 x 32 KBytes
L2 Unified Cache Size4 x 256 KBytes
L3 Unified Cache Size8192 KBytes
Core 0
Core 1
Core 2
Core 3

Basically I would like a faster more powerful and better Graphics set up. I think I'm pretty dam good as it goes but always looking to improve.

I do not want a total rebuild.

BTW MY CASE IS ANTEC

 

[Cloggy]

fkkn hell start to rob the stores at 00:00 noone will notice hahahahah

 

[RobinHood]

You've got a good base CPU and plenty of RAM. I'd get an aftermarket cooler perhaps and try to OC to 3.5-4Ghz to get a CPU speed bump. This will help to prevent the CPU from bottlenecking your graphics speed if you upgrade your graphics card.

 

[Silverback]

Thank you for the reply. I know very little about building and upgrading. I have a surplus £700 burning a hole in my pocket that I have held in an account especially for my PC.

If I was to buy a new graphics card what should I be looking at? Is there anything I can do for my CPU other than what you have said? Is it possible to run two graphics cards with what I have already?

I'm not sure about the after cooling. I had a look and lots of people are talking about the x2. It may not fit in my Antec case
http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MTcyOA== 900

 

[RobinHood]

Hmm...that's a pretty good chunk of change for a decent upgrade,.

What's the X2?

One option would be to get a decent aftermarket cooler and bump the speed to 3.5-4Ghz as I said, but you'd need to be willing to read up on some basic overclocking and be willing to spend time fiddling to get something stable. Your case would be grand, I had the original version of it at one point and loved it. You can probably fit pretty much any aftermarket cooler in it (Although I think I removed the side fan from the panel)

If you don't have the time or inclination to overclock I'd recommend perhaps upgrading to a Sandy Bridge setup (Socket 1155).

You'd have to rebuild the PC (although you'd pretty much have to rebuild the whole thing anyway if you're putting on a heavy aftermarket heatsink to your current setup too as most require backplates on the motherboard).

But you would get an even better speed boost and it's even easier to then OC the chip to 4Ghz+ as some of the new motherboards have great OC features that make it a piece of cake. You can ask Macca about his. A good chip would the 2500k I believe.

You may have to get new ram though as I think it's dual as opposed to tir channel. So you could use your current RAM and just use two sticks, effectively downgrading to 4GB or buy a new lot of ram and get 8GB as DDR3 ram is pretty cheap at the mo.

Then again you don't necessarily have to upgrade your CPU at all, but depending on what graphics you upgrade too, it may bottleneck the speed, but then again it might not. You'd have to find some speed comparison charts.

I'm not too up to speed on graphics at the mo, but you could always check out last months best graphics card for the money article on Tom's Hardware.

Bear in mind too, if want to to blow a ton on the graphics the 7970 is due out soon, giving the 580 a run for it's money.

Alternatively you could install a second 5800 series card in SLI if your motherboard allows it. Do you have a 5850 or 5870? If it's a 5870, the two of them could be a decent upgrade, but again it would be worth checking graphics card benchmarks as it could be better value to flog the one you have an upgrade to a better single card as SLI doesn't always scale well (although it does scale suprisingly well in BF3...)

 

[Bornprouduk]

Hey ho Silver I would go for GTX580 the 590 is 2 580s strapped to one board and like the 490 will probably suffer after 12 months from heat exhaustion in addition go for a Corsair Hydro CPU cooler it really brings down the temperatures and leaves you lots of overclock potential. your processor will overclock to 4ghz without much trouble and there are lots you tube vids showing how to achieve this.
I have full liquid cooling and if you want to go down that route for a cooler silent pc, try the cooling shop
Personally I wouldnt go down SLI route as the 580 gtx will handle anything current and SLi can be a bugger to get working right on some games

 

[Silverback]

Thanks Guys for the info. Honestly this scares the crap out of me. I think I will find a Boffin who can build me something more awesome that is stable and will totally decimate.

I have looked at the Over clocking and I'm not sure. I'm a driver not an engineers.

Lots to think about here. Cheers Guys

 

[Bornprouduk]

Imagine the fear of first boot with all that liquid flowing,this was my first use of liquid cooling, have upgraded mobo graphics etc since this was taken but cooling is the same

http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q372/bornprouduk/P7300029.jpg

 

[Silverback]

come and build me one then

 

[Bornprouduk]

£500 for the radiator, reservoir, pump, and cpu cooling block, graphics cooling block, 3 top of the range fans to cool the rad give me a shout when you have that and i will come and build it

 

[God UK]

£500 just for cooling! makes me feel stingy when i spent £30 on my cpu fan :/ lol

 

[Silverback]

I found a local chap up the market who is into gaming he has a pc shop and he said he could build what ever i want

 

[Bornprouduk]

ASk him if you supply the parts will he build it as you can do better on prices online