Computer Upgrade + Wheel

Hello all,

My ATI Radeon 4870 has decided enough is enough and has totally died on me So whilst this need's replacing I thought I should probably give it a small overhaul and would like your opinion.

At the moment it currently has this setup and in bold is what I am considering on changing:

Intel Core i5 2.6GHZ @3.05GHZ
Asus P7P55D-E Pro Intel P55 (Socket 1156)
4GB OCZ DDR3 1033MHZ Low Voltage Ram - Add another 4GB
ATI Radeon 4870 1GB DDR5 - XFX Radeon 5870 1GB DDR5
500GB Samsung F3 Hard Drive - Use to store data
Add 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD for OS drive and 120GB Version for Games Drive
600 watt OCZ Power Supply - Corsair 750watt Modular Power Supply
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

I have heard good thing's about SSD's and how they give a general performance upgrade? I just need a system that can be left alone for a couple of years and happily play games on high or medium settings, hence the move to DX11, SSD etc.

Do these seem like sensible upgrades or is it over the top? I mostly play rFactor and iRacing along with a bit of Football Manager. Obviously looking forward games I would like it to play are F1 2010, rFactor 2, Mafia 2, Dirt 2 in DX11 etc. I can get away with a small games drive as I don't really play a mass amount of games anymore

Also my G25 has been dying for a while now (been really good had it a few years and its had loads of use!) so im considering buying a Fanatec 911 GT3 RS V2 wheel and clubsport pedals. I heard a few problems about V1 but V2 is supposed to fix them?

Cheers for all the help guy's,

Matthew.

The new ATI (scratch that - AMD have removed the ATI brand) cards are expected to start showing up in November with widespread availability in December.

What's wrong with your HD 4870? Isn't it in warranty? I'd try and reach the new year personally - cheaper 5000-series cards or faster 6000-series - it's win win if you can wait.

If you prefer Nvidia, then the GTX 460 is out now which falls just under the level of the HD 5850 and is the only GTX 4xx worth getting - the others being overheating, power-guzzling piles of wank.

PSU: I prefer Seasonic to Corsair - especially as Seasonic make some Corsair PSUs (unfortunately not the 750HX, which is made by CWT). You don't need a 750W PSU anyway - unless you're going to Crossfire a couple of graphics cards, I would get a Seasonic M12II-620... or if you were really desperate to splash the cash, get a Seasonic X-650, the X-series being the crème de la crème of PSUs.

I won't comment on the value of SSDs other than to say there is none. They are faster, but are hardly decent value for money. If you find yourself waiting on the hard drive constantly, then it makes sense, but to me, once something is loaded into RAM, that's enough.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The new ATI (scratch that - AMD have removed the
> ATI brand) cards are expected to start showing up
> in November with widespread availability in
> December.
>
> What's wrong with your HD 4870? Isn't it in
> warranty? I'd try and reach the new year
> personally - cheaper 5000-series cards or faster
> 6000-series - it's win win if you can wait.
>
> If you prefer Nvidia, then the GTX 460 is out now
> which falls just under the level of the HD 5850
> and is the only GTX 4xx worth getting - the others
> being overheating, power-guzzling piles of wank.
>
> PSU: I prefer Seasonic to Corsair - especially as
> Seasonic make some Corsair PSUs (unfortunately not
> the 750HX, which is made by CWT). You don't need a
> 750W PSU anyway - unless you're going to Crossfire
> a couple of graphics cards, I would get a Seasonic
> M12II-620... or if you were really desperate to
> splash the cash, get a Seasonic X-650, the
> X-series being the crème de la crème of PSUs.
>
> I won't comment on the value of SSDs other than to
> say there is none. They are faster, but are hardly
> decent value for money. If you find yourself
> waiting on the hard drive constantly, then it
> makes sense, but to me, once something is loaded
> into RAM, that's enough.

Ah I see could be worth waiting for a bit then before I decide what to do, im pretty sure my card has run out of warrenty and I lost the box which doesn't help. It just crashes my system under any load like gaming, tried a fresh install of Windows 7 and no good, popped a mates 5770 in put the drivers on and bam all games running no problem :/

I always have been a fan of ATI, don't think I will go Nvidia any time soon

I will look into the seasonic PSU's then and basically it's not worth getting any SSD drives until Windows and games in particular are optimized for them?

Could also be the PSU (the 5000-series is quite a bit less demanding than the 4000 series), but I'd agree that the card is most likely at fault. Certainly worth giving the warranty a go though. Most manufacturers don't require the original packaging, only suitable packaging (the card in an anti-static bag and then well padded in a decent size box). You've nothing to lose - you could get a replacement card, which you could either sell to fund your upgrade or not bother with the HD 5870. Worst case is they say "sorry bud, but you're a few months out".

A small question for y'all

Im after just a legal product key for windows xp pro ( i already have the cd) as i want to run it along side my windows 7 installation, I cant use my old key as it was an OEM purchase.

I found this site - [www.microsoftsoftwarekey.com]

Is it me or is this dodgy looking lol? I can't seem to find anywhere else that sells just the key? If someone here is a technet subscriber i would happily paypal you some dosh for a key as long as it is legal to do so

I bought a legal XP Home key on ebay only last week for A$15-00. I gave the guy that rents the granny flat an old comp, all he had to do was put a HDD in it and an OS. He got an OS from where he bought the HDD for nothing (a copy) but no key. Anyway, I see no reason why you could not use the OEM key.

---

[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

Quote
mika
If someone here is a technet subscriber i would happily paypal you some dosh for a key as long as it is legal to do so

Whether it's legal or not, I don't know, but it's certainly against the terms of use. Technet is meant for "evaluation and testing" alone.

And yes, that site will almost certainly be dodgy. Whether the key will work or not I've no idea (they themselves may just sign up to loads of Technet accounts, but if they do I'd expect the keys to be blacklisted within weeks - abuse of the license is one thing, but selling on serial-numbers is just asking for them to be blacklisted eventually).

Mortal, at the very best I'd expect them to be OEM keys ripped from another PC, in which case you will be breaking the license agreement and may find the key blacklisted in the future. You can't buy Windows licenses for $15 AUS - the absolute least you should be able to get them for is around $50 AUS, and anything less and you will have been sold a pirate key.

OEM licenses can be used on 1 computer only - 'computer' deemed as 'motherboard' if you built the PC yourself. The only caveat is for warranty replacements in which an upgrade hasn't taken place.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2010 12:46AM by gav.

Hmmmm, I have the official Windows sticker, well, I don't really, the guy who has the comp now has it, and it did come from a second-hand pc, the seller being a pc_wrecker_sales or something like that. I knew that when I bought it, and it activated just fine. Apparently it was not an OEM key, and came from a trade-in/dead machine. Had it not activated, I would have sent it back and demanded my $15-00 be refunded. However, you are correct with the pricing, as the average is usually more. The guy who has the comp was quoted A$70-00 at the shop and I said for sure I can do better than that. I also got him some of that out of date ram for $30-00 (1gb) and an mmx400 card with 128mb for $10-00 which is the max the mobo can take, stupid Dell....Doh! Anyway he now has a comp that is adequate for his needs as he's a total n00bie.

---

[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central