1055t based gaming system upgrade. (my final thread, you can move previous threads to this one)

[azor7878]

First of all, a big sorry for all the mods for making another thread, if you want you can move all the posts from the previous threads to this one, I thought that it would be better to separate problems in their own threads but now I see that I want to replace just too many parts I would have to make like 6 threads, sorry for the trouble.

And now right to the business:
This, or the very next week I will be buying all the parts and performing an upgrade, I have some final questions about this build. I say build because after consulting with a few forums, reading threads and generally researching my parts I came to the point where i'm basically buying a new pc and what's left from my is a DVD burner, HDD, RAM and a CPU. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

As I said, I would like to replace almost all of the parts in my pc, I'm buing a new case:
Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 bia³y LED - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
A new CPU cooler:
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
And a new power supply:
Corsair CX Series Modular 80 Plus Bronze 600W - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl

I would also like to change my graphics card from the current HD5770 to something more suitable for 1080p gaming, as I discussed on this forum, I was planning on getting a MSI 760, but for a 2/3 of the price I can get 660 which after overclock and considering my Phenom II x6 2,8Ghz bottleneck should perform not that much worse then a 760, I'm thinking like 5-6 frames less? And with this money I could also get a new mobo. I've read that my current one is very bad, there were cases of it catching on fire, I've read. I was thinking about a ASUS M5A97, because of its am3+ support, which would give ma a ability to replace my phenom with some of the AM3+ based FX chip later and because of its auto tune feature which would take care of a overclock that i'm very afraid to perform on my own. It doesn't seem to have a front panel usb 3.0 connector and it doesn't support sli, even though it has two PCIe x16 slots. What are you guys thinking? Is a 760 worth getting stuck with no upgrade possibility for my cpu? Should I even consider a new mobo? Which mobo does have AM3+, sli support and a usb 3.0 front panel connector? I would like to get a Asus motherboard becouse of the Auto Tune feature. Is the MSI 770-45c really that bad? I'm afraid of putting a 760 on it becouse my mobo can burn my whole system, it's a 4 years old $50 mobo, I think it really needs changing. My budget for a mobo is about $100, if it has 4x 3pin fan connectors +4pin cpu fan connector and usb 3.0 front panel connector I can throw like $10-$20 more.

And finally, take a look at my current specs:

MSI 770-45c
Modecom Carbon MC530
Phenom II x6 2,8Ghz 1055t Stock cooler
Radeon HD5770 1gb
ADATA 2x2GB 1600
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM
Tracer Tornado cheap 30$ chinese case

And at the parts i'm planning to buy:
Corsair SPEC-03
CM 212 evo
Corsair CX600m
Asus 660 OC
Asus M5A97

And tell me, do I choose good components to upgrade? Should I upgrade something else instead of a part I choose? What would you upgrade in this PC? Did I choose good upgrade parts?


tl;dr:
1. What do? 760 on old mobo or 660 on new mobo?
2. How much faster is bottlenecked 760 tan OC'd 660? (If Asus Auto Tune mobo Phenom will be OC'd too)
3. What mobo if 660? (Preferably one of the Auto Tune Asus, has to have SLI, AM3+ and usb 3.0 front panel connector. Budget is $100 in polish shop agito.pl, if it has usb 3.0 front panel connector and 4x 3pin fan connectors +4pin cpu fan connector I can add $10-$20 to the mobo budget.)
4. What parts would you upgrade in this pc (specs higher)

 

[PP Mguire]

Don't bother with a 660 as the 760 is actually a deal better than the 660. The 760 is more like the 670, which is over a 660ti, which is over a 660. I have a 955BE right here and I can tell you, your chip isn't bottlenecking as much as you think. To put it into perspective, even the GTX580 is better than the 660 and it's 4 years old.

Sure your motherboard is pretty bad, but if you just stick to stock clocks it'll be fine. If you're upgrading the motherboard, then it wouldn't be wise not to go Intel, even if it was just a Pentium G3258 for a temp chip (as it can OC too and rival i7 speeds in gaming) because later on you can get an i5. Not to mention, SLI doable AMD boards aren't cheap.

 

[azor7878]

I don't want an intel, i use my pc also for 3d rendering and photoshop where my hex core comes out pretty strong, when upgrading i wanna get a 8core fx for the same reason.

Guys on the other forum suggested me to go with the Asrock 990FX Extreme3 or the Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0, which one would be a better buy? Should i get asus and an ssd, wait for the money to buy 760 or get asrock and 660, wait for money to get ssd? In the future i'm planning to get another graphics card and this fx 8 core, that's why i wanna get a sli mobo and 600w psu instead of 450 that is good enough for now.

@edit:
Also, i found out that CM 212 evo won't feet in spec-03, spec-03 supports coolers up to 157 mm, CM is 158.5 mm tall. What should i get instead? My budget is around $30-50.

 

[PP Mguire]

You do realize that Intel comes out on top for those things, right? You also realize that the FX chips aren't really 8 cores, right? And that it's a dead and outdated platform. Your hex is fine now but the Pentium as a temp chip rips it up in gaming and your upgrade path is much stronger going with Intel. Your choice of course, but the guys that use the excuse "AMD is just fine right now" are the ones who bought into the Piledriver hype a few years ago.

Don't waste your money on SLI, as you'll need a better PSU than the CX600, especially if you go with something like an 8320 or 8350.

To the fitment, it depends on where your socket location is. The actual measurements aren't always spot on, and the side panel has a bulge that could easily accommodate any tower cooler depending on socket placement. Here is somebody with a 158mm tall Noctua cooler on with an Intel socket setup. Your AMD socket could be sideways which would put the EVO lower and into the bulge. Although the .5mm on the EVO is probably irrelevant.
Corsair Carbide SPEC-03 Review - Page 5 of 8 - Play3r

So to answer your question, if you were to not take heed of my judgement and do whatever you want, I would grab the 760, and either board that fits your budget if you're fine with the slow HDD. Just know that an SSD greatly increases Photoshop productivity.

 

[azor7878]

I realize that i7's are faster, in my y580 i have a quad core intel that is faster than my Phenom, but a 6-8 core intel that i would want to get are just too expensive for me, i just searched for hex core intel and it's 2200zł, $700, 8 core amd i found is 700zł AMD FX-8350 X8 4.0GHz AM3+ BOX - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
But besides that, can you tell me how fx chips are not actually octa cores? That's first time i heard that.

About that cooler, i really don't want to get the 212 and not be able to close the lid with it, so can you help me with choosing smaller cooler? These are the ones that i found, but i'm open for sugestions:
Cooler Master Hyper T4 - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
Cooler Master Hyper 412S - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
SilentiumPC Fera 2 HE1224 - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
I was also thinking about getting a liguid cooling block, but i'm really not sure about that, i never installed one and i'm a little bit afraid of screwing it up, again here are the ones that i found, let's say i can spend on cooler 220zł, but if the h60 is wortth it i can consider spending a little bit more:
Cooler Master Seidon 120V - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
Corsair Hydro Series H55 - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
Corsair Hydro Series H60 - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl

 

[PP Mguire]

You don't need the hex Intel. Something like the 4770k would be just fine, way more than the 8350, and even the i5 4670k rivals and sometimes bests the 8350 in multithreaded apps. Short answer, they have 4 modules, each having 2 cut cores sharing resources. Long answer here. Think of it as physical HT, which is why AMD FX suffers single threaded performance.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/your-cpu-modern-games-guide-those-building-261626/

Liquid AIO coolers are superior to air coolers and are actually easier to install. If you actually go with the 8350, I highly recommend using the stock cooler until you can save your money and get something larger like the H80i or H110.

To the CPUs, when using Photoshop you will probably have a better visual and noticeable performance using an i5 4670k vs the 8350. For rendering it all depends on the program you use. If you use a program that can take advantage of GPGPU the GPU will do the majority of the work making "needing" an FX 8350/8320 moot. Just something to think about. On the flip side, you will get superior performance in gaming always with Intel.

 

[azor7878]

Well, i think i could get a h80i, i would have to add up all the parts that i would be getting, i will check and post back.
For now, how big of a difference is there betwen h55 and h80i? will i really benefit from using h80i right now? I'm planning on using the asus autotune feature to overclock my phenom, will h80i make any difference?

And the final step, dropping the gfx card leaves me with a little bit less than a $100 for an ssd, right now i'm looking at this crucial, but as allways i'm open for suggestions:
Crucial SSD MX100 (2.5", 128GB, SATA/600) - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl

 

[PP Mguire]

The H80i is thicker and uses copper tubing in the rad. The H55 although would carry your Phenom 2 well but due to its all aluminum and thin construction won't hold an OC well. One thing you either didn't know or you're forgetting is the 1055t has a locked multiplier meaning FSB overclocking. That requires high end RAM, high end board, and a chip that can handle higher HT and NB clocks. You can't simply raise the clock speed of the CPU itself. That's why I've been leaning toward just use what you have now and put your money into a good Intel setup instead of a heavy duty board and cooler.

As to SSD, MX100 or Samsung EVO. Whichever one you can afford.

 

[azor7878]

I added up everything and i can't afford a h80i, i have about 150-200zł (about $60) for the cooler, sorry for the formating, its copied from a excel spreadsheet:
cx600m 258 Corsair CX Series Modular 80 Plus Bronze 600W - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
corsair spec-03 biała 218 Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 bia³y LED - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
Asus M5A99FX PRO 495 Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
corsair h80i 319 Corsair Hydro Series H80i - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl
crucial mx100 265 Crucial SSD MX100 (2.5", 128GB, SATA/600) - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl

everything: 1555zł (~$496)
It's about $50 more than what i have without selling my current graphics card.

I can also afford this evo, should i go with it instead of the mx100?
Samsung EVO MZ-7TE120BW (2.5", 120GB, SATA/600) - Sklep internetowy Agito.pl

As for what you said, i know that my cpu is locked but i don't really know what that means, will the asus autotune take care of the overclock? I have read that people overclock this cpu to 4.5, all i want is anywhere from 3.8 to 4.2 to get rid of the bottleneck on a 760. I don't know how good is my ram but i can't replace it now.

 

[PP Mguire]

4.5? Ha, no, not unless under custom water. Even under custom water the most I could get out of my "cherry" 955BE was 4.2GHz and that has an unlocked multiplier.

Before making your decision, please read up on FSB overclocking. With an unlocked CPU (black edition, or FX chip, or K series Intel chip) you can raise the multiplier to only raise the clock speed of the CPU. With a locked AMD processor you need to raise the FSB which raises several clocks like RAM speed, HT speed, NB speed. You need to be experienced in overclocking to mess with stuff like this and that also includes raising voltages for said areas as well. I believe the autotune is probably geared for FX chips. If you want a heads up of what you're in for, read this thread. He's OCing a Q6600 but the basic principles are all the same.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f10/need-help-ocing-my-q6600-p35-ds3r-again-271576/

Your 2.8GHz clocked Phenom 2 will not be a bottleneck for that card. Something like an older Q6600 like that guy has is a bottleneck, but a Phenom 2 is more than capable. I could toss my 4GB 680 in my 955BE server and game no issues without OC. To cope with certain games you would only need to achieve 3.2-3.4GHz but that would only be necessary for like Watch Dogs or certain RTS games.

Edit: Sorry, the EVO is a superior SSD. If you can afford that, get it instead. But if it means the difference between getting a better setup or GPU the Crucial would be JUST fine for you.