Upgrading Blues

[SirBenn21]

It all started with me wanting the ASUS Xonar Essence ST audio card, which is a bit of an audiofile card ($200). This PCI card needed it's own separate power plug to opperate. Knowing that my already stressed 550watt PSU needed to be replaced, I thought now would be a good time to upgrade. Besides My PSU had no more plugs to spare. Did a bit of reserch and decided to get the XFX 850W Black Edition ($200).

And while I'm about it a new CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced ($200)

Ahh hell and I'll through in some fans. All 7 in total ($100).
Man this was a fast financial downhill saga when I was just planning to get a Sound Card.
Anyway all jokes aside I was a few months away from my bi-anual upgrade anyway.

Here is the problem. Before any changes I could run 3dmark and Heavan Benchmark with out any problems on my only 550watt PSU. Now it gives me a blue screen and does a memory dump every time I try and run these. Also whenever I run any game there is a electrical buss that I've never had before. I cant pinpoint the location, but It's not the new PSU. That's the other thing that confuses me to no end, is that I can basically play any game, but not run the benchmark programs. I've removed the sound card. Tried different drivers.
All I can think of now is to try a different Display card. As I mentioned before a little early for my "usual" upgrade time, but a new Saffire HD 5870 ($550) is on it's way. "OUCH"
I know. I could have borrowed a friends display to check. But hey....

I'll get the rest - CPU & MB & RAM in the next few months to make a complete upgrade.

Ben

[SirBenn21]

Okay. Got the new Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X 1GB.


No more blue screens!!! :mixedsmi:

Obviously the new card is pretty good on power and ultra quiet!

I still can't believe my Coolmaster 550watt ran everything without hitches!?! :isadizzy:

Ran a few quick tests on a few games(FSX still needs to re-installed). Hmmm is this really an upgrade??? Maybe I need to do a bit of tweaking to get the best out of this card. I definitely seems to be way smoother. On CODMW it ran about 30fps faster in some places. On benchmarks only marginally better.
Anyway I'll give an update later this weekend. I just hope I don't feel anymore disappointed in the performance.

Ben

[stansdds]

The reason the recommendation is given for high wattage PSU's is that a lower watt PSU may run everything, but it's running much closer to its peak capacity. Running it close to its capacity generates additional heat and wears out the PSU faster.

[kilo delta]

Forget about the quoted wattage figures...amperage is the most important aspect of a PSU. That and the efficiency of the unit. My Dell XPS420 has a lowly 350 watt (??) PSU and can and has powered a power hungry Nvidia 8800 Ultra for a couple of years now.

Congrats on the upgrades,btw.

[SirBenn21]

Thanks Kilo Delta

What you guys think of CPU? Intel or AMD?

Is the Intel Core i7 950 any good for overclocking? This will be my next purchase, a CPU that is. Not sure which yet.

Thanks

Ben

P.S. Preliminary FSX performance tests are really looking good with the new display card!

[stansdds]

Ever since Intel released the Core2Duo, I think Intel has had the advantage over AMD. Back when most computers had single core CPU's and only Intel had the dual core Pentium 4, AMD was king. But times have changed and AMD has been running in second place, sometimes a distant second, for the past few years. AMD also developed a habit of coming out with new CPU platforms every one or two years, whereas Intel stayed with the LGA 775 from 2004 to today, but now the LGA 1366 (2008 debut) is their best platform.

[txnetcop]

As much as I like the AMD 6 Core 1090T and the new 1075T, they don't even come close overclocked to the stock Intel i7 1366 core in performance...so yes I would have to stay with the i7 1366 core motherboards and CPUs. We have applied the new 890 series BIOS upgrades to the AMD 6 cores and while the results are good still they are not even close to the Intel 1366 socket MB and CPU performance. If it is a budget issue there is always the 1156 socket motherboard with the i7 860 and 870 CPUs. The i7 875 is a little expensive then you would do just as well to move to the 1366 socket boards and their 900 series processors Sir Benn. If you can find a 950 CPU the prices are still great on that one.
Ted