Looking to upgrade

[Alster37]

Im looking to upgrade my 5200 to a nice phenom II 940. Ive got these in mind.

GeForce 8200 HDMI 1333Mhz FSB AMD Socket AM2+ DDR2 ATX SLI Ready Motherboard £67 ($100)

Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz Cache 8MB AM2+ 125W Processor - Retail
£125 ($190)


will it be fine with my 600watt PSU?

oh and it is better to have a great graphics card and a decent cpu rather than a great cpu and a decent grahpics card?

 

[raybay]

CPU's almost never fail, and you do not need a "hot" or super fast one.
Graphics cards fail way too often...
So do a google search on each video graphics card and read up all you can... A lot of those with suddenly lower prices are getting bad histories.
Look on all the sites, such as Toms, anandtech, and others for a few different reviews.
Go for reliability and long life over high speed for a specific game.
Your power supply should not be an issue, but some high wattage boards have an average failure rate regardless of the rating. It really depends on the brand and model... as a high wattage unit can has as many failures as a 230 watt Bestec if the engineering is bad.
Since you already have the power supply, you must know it works... so go on to other things.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

A more powerful graphics card is always better than a more powerful CPU. The only problem you would face is bottlenecking, but this is more or less offset if you have a chip that runs at 3GHz or higher and has 3MB or more of L2\L3 cache per core.

IMO get this mobo and the Phenom II X2 550BE, and grab a 9600GT with the leftover cash. Should cost you the same as the 940 and that motherboard you've chosen. It should also run fine on your PSU; the CPU and GPU do not consume much power at all.

 

[Alster37]

so wouldnt a x2 550 black fit my current board which houses a 5200?
Would an SLI board be more appropriate because i recently bought a gts 250 so i could buy a second?


Im sorry i forgot to update my system specs I have a gts 250 512mb now.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Nope, the Phenom II X2 isn't supported. The other Phenom II CPUs are though. The 720BE would be my recommendation.

Use the rest of the money to grab an HD 4890\GTX 275. I believe I saw the latter for £160 on OCUK.

 

[Alster37]

Ah i had a look at the 3 core 720BE and it is an AM3 socket cpu. My motherboard is AM2.

and I think It would be better just to get an SLI board of £66

GeForce 8200 HDMI 1333Mhz FSB AMD Socket AM2+ DDR2 ATX SLI Ready Motherboard

and then get another GTS 250 for £86 (novatech)
2 Gts 250's would surley beat a hd 4790?
And It means i dont have to dump my current card.

your thoughts?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

AM3 CPUs are backwards-compatible with AM2+ boards, so it will work fine. Why else would it be on the CPU Support list?

Make sure to update your BIOS to the latest version from Foxconn's website though, to make sure the CPU is recognized as soon as you put it in.

And I recommend against SLI. If you play at not more than 1680x1050, you should be just fine with the GTS 250. The extra power of the HD 4870 is meant for resolutions such as 1920x1200, which needs a big enough screen.

 

[Alster37]

well i am getting an acer 23" monitor so il be playing at 1920x1080. I did a search online using my motherboard model number and most sites claimed I was an AM2 board. Could I just get a average Am3 motherboard and a phenom940 black for £160?

I found the 940 at £105 at amazon.com

:stickout:

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

I would not recommend getting a new board when the one you have will work fine, unless you were to get a 790X\FX based board that uses DDR3.

For 1920x1080, I recommend the HD 4890, the GTX 275 or the HD 4870 1GB. The GTX 275 is the fastest of the bunch, and will give you the smoothest performance.

As for the CPU, unless you are getting the 940 for not much more than the 920 (£10 or so), stick to the 920BE.