Upgrading from a 5870 - Hardware & Software

Hi everyone. My desktop is: i7 920 Radeon 5870 EX58-UD5 Motherboard (Gigabyte) I had a lovely laptop which was powerful enough to max any games I threw at it, but one of it's SSDs died and I was given a full refund. I realised that I do not need a laptop for Uni so I'm going to go back to the desktop world! I'm thinking of adding in an SSD to speed up boot times, and a new graphics card to bring the system a bit more up to date. I'm also buying 2 new monitors and intend to use one for games and the other for browsing and stuff. It's been AGES since I last looked into computer parts and I never did trust random reviews that much so I was wondering what card I should get. Money isn't REALLY an issue but I'd like to keep it around £300 tops if possible (for the card). I'd also like to try and stay with AMD although if a GeForce card is truly amazing and at a good price I'll swap. I know very little about how to fit a new card and a friend of mine recently bought a new graphics card only to find his motherboard didn't like it and his PC kept switching itself off whenever he tried to change resolution. If I could get a card that avoided that, that would be nice. I currently don't play very demanding games although I would like to start playing the newer games and things like GTA 5 when that comes out - so I'd like to get it right this time and not need to upgrade again for a while. Does anybody know of a really nice reliable card that is within the price range and easy to fit? I *could* just buy a new desktop entirely, the laptop was refunded for £1600 so I have roughly that much to spend if need be, but I'm quite happy with this machine I just feel that it needs a new graphics card to let me start maxing things again. I've tried searching for cards but honestly the numbers don't mean anything to me and all I seem to see is people complaining about problems they've had - so I thought I'd ask here! Thanks :)

This should do you well. Should max out any games at 1080p, and gives you a roomy SSD for your OS plus some games. [url=http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/mnzQcf]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / [url=http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/mnzQcf/by_merchant/]Price breakdown by merchant[/url] [b]Storage:[/b] [url=http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct240m500ssd1]Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive[/url] (£79.51 @ Scan.co.uk) [b]Video Card:[/b] [url=http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9280xtdfd]XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card[/url] (£188.74 @ Scan.co.uk) [b]Total:[/b] £268.25 [i]Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available[/i] [i]Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-30 19:03 BST+0100[/i]

[QUOTE=Levelog;45545225]This should do you well. Should max out any games at 1080p, and gives you a roomy SSD for your OS plus some games. [url=http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/mnzQcf]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / [url=http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/mnzQcf/by_merchant/]Price breakdown by merchant[/url] [b]Storage:[/b] [url=http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct240m500ssd1]Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive[/url] (£79.51 @ Scan.co.uk) [b]Video Card:[/b] [url=http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9280xtdfd]XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card[/url] (£188.74 @ Scan.co.uk) [b]Total:[/b] £268.25 [i]Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available[/i] [i]Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-30 19:03 BST+0100[/i][/QUOTE] Ah thankyou that looks very nice. Is the 280X likely to work in the machine I have at the moment with no issues. A friend went from a 5850 to a 7850 and it was a nightmare I think he gave up and send it back.

There's no reason it wouldn't work with him unless his power supply wasn't good enough. No reason it shouldn't work with you either

I'm just worrying about things because it's in my nature to. That graphics card looks wonderful and I shall take a trip down to Scan's shop next week and purchase it - unless anything staggeringly good comes along to change my mind. I presume it's just a case of taking the old card out and putting the new one in the same slot - I should be fine with that.

Doesnt it make more sense to go with this ssd: [URL="http://www.scan.co.uk/products/256gb-crucial-mx100-25-7mm-ssd-sata-iii-550-mb-s-330-mb-s-85k-iops-inc-95mm-adapter"]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/256gb-crucial-mx100-25-7mm-ssd-sata-iii-550-mb-s-330-mb-s-85k-iops-inc-95mm-adapter[/URL] Over this?: [URL="http://www.scan.co.uk/products/240gb-crucial-m500-25-6gb-s-internal-ssd-slim-7mm-500mb-s-read-250mb-s-write"]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/240gb-crucial-m500-25-6gb-s-internal-ssd-slim-7mm-500mb-s-read-250mb-s-write[/URL] The first one has a higher read/write speed and a lil extra storage for the same price.

I know absolutely nothing about SSDs other than one in my laptop failed so I'd prefer a reliable one over a fast one, but the one you posted does indeed look tempting. I shall check it out. Someone told me that Samsung 'Evo' SSDs are the ones to buy, is this true?

That shouldn't be an issue regardless of which SSD you choose since reliability isn't an issue with most SSD's. There were just a few bad models from OCZ amongst others that used untested and/or bad controller chips that would break down AFAIK the MX100 is indeed a better choice there

It is marginally better but the difference is only in benchmarks so you won't actually see the difference. Plus iirc 1366 only has sata 2

[QUOTE=Levelog;45552786]It is marginally better but the difference is only in benchmarks so you won't actually see the difference. Plus iirc 1366 only has sata 2[/QUOTE] This is correct my motherboard is only sata 2, it announces it happily on the boot up splash screen.

You'll still see an insane speed difference though

Honestly speaking why don't you just spend the money and get a GTX 770? That way you can max anything out at 1080p and games at highest settings with AA Turned off/4x AA at 1440p. It's wiser to go this route because the prices for 1440p monitors are going to drop even more and SSD prices are continuing to drop.

[QUOTE=Overflowing;45559672]Honestly speaking why don't you just spend the money and get a GTX 770? That way you can max anything out at 1080p and games at highest settings with AA Turned off/4x AA at 1440p. It's wiser to go this route because the prices for 1440p monitors are going to drop even more and SSD prices are continuing to drop.[/QUOTE] The 770 and 280x are practically neck and neck but it's cheaper, plus the higher memory/bus width would help more with 1440p

[QUOTE=Levelog;45559678]The 770 and 280x are practically neck and neck but it's cheaper, plus the higher memory/bus width would help more with 1440p[/QUOTE] True but the cooler on the XFX r9 280x is inferior to the other brands; I'd go with an ASUS or GIGABYTE for higher overclocks, 10-20 euro difference for higher overclocks is worth it

[QUOTE=Overflowing;45559753]True but the cooler on the XFX r9 280x is inferior to the other brands; I'd go with an ASUS or GIGABYTE for higher overclocks, 10-20 euro difference for higher overclocks is worth it[/QUOTE] It makes an extremely small difference, and XFX's quality is great, and their warranties are second to none. Not even EVGA. [editline]1st August 2014[/editline] And the difference a small OC like that is not worth much money whatsoever. You need a decent OC to make an actually noticeable difference. I've overclocked my GTX 680 to it's absolute maximum underwater and it makes a 22% difference. The change on air is much smaller.

I'm not going to overclock anything so provided the card will run stably at it's intended speed I am more than happy with it.

I would wait until October, when nvidia releases the 800 series, all signs point to October as being the date

Yeah, we'll see. If you want a card though, get a card. It unfortunately looks like the 800 series isn't going to be a really big bump in performance, more of a placeholder until Pascal since 20nm manufacturing isn't happening. If you can wait though, you'll either get a bit more performance for the money or the same performance for less money.

[QUOTE=Levelog;45567332]Yeah, we'll see. If you want a card though, get a card. It unfortunately looks like the 800 series isn't going to be a really big bump in performance, more of a placeholder until Pascal since 20nm manufacturing isn't happening. If you can wait though, you'll either get a bit more performance for the money or the same performance for less money.[/QUOTE] The only bench we've "seen " had just been 3d mark. Even then it's a 20% increase over a 780ti, and rumored to be 400$, with the 870 just as fast as the 780ti.

I might just buy two monitors now to replace the really shitty ones I have and wait then, I'm in no particular rush. Going to Scan today I think so I can ask them and see what happens :). I'm a bit scared of fitting a new graphics card so if that is a valid excuse to put off doing it then that sounds good.