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View Full Version : Planning light upgrades for 2 computers...



ericFX1984
11-01-2010, 03:04 PM
so basically I need to know what needs upgraded and what really doesn't

planning on just doing video cards, but might need other things... if you think something else needs upgraded, please mention it (NOT UPGRADING CPU OR MOTHERBOARDS)

Planning to make both computers have water cooling on the GPU


System 1(my computer)

Primary use: gaming, web, looking cool :P

Issues: nothing really, I just have the Itch to upgrade :D

CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 @ 4.0GHz, 1.45v (on water cooling listed below)

Motherboard: Asus M4A88TD-V Evo / USB 3.0

GPU: EVGA GTX260 (55nm) OC's pretty well but can be a little loud (stock cooling)

Ram: 2x2GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 @ 1600 8-8-8-20-1t 1.55v

Hard Drives: 2x (old school) 74gb raptors in raid 0 (OS drive)
1.5TB Seagate 7200.11 (storage)

PSU: Coolermaster 700 watt Silent Pro

Monitor: craptacular Acer 22" 1680 x 1050

Water Cooling: 2x Swiftech 120x3 rads, 6x Yate Loon D12SH-12 @ 5v, D5 basic pump, EK Supreme water block

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System 2 (wife's PC)


Primary use: World Of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, also doubles as a HTPC, plays movies back on a 96" screen (720p)

Issues: low frame rates in highly populated RAID parties (15fps)

CPU: AMD Phenom II 555, Unlocked to quad 3.6GHz 1.35v (on water cooling listed below)

Motherboard: MSI 890GXM-G65

GPU: HD4850 1GB, nice OC, after market cooling, almost silent

Ram: 2x2GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 @ 1600 9-9-9-24-1t @ 1.55v

Hard Drives: 1.5TB Seagate 7200.11 (OS drive)
2TB Western Digital Green (storage)

PSU: PC Power and Cooling 520 Turbo cool SLI, modded to have 120mm fan

Monitor: Samsung 20" Widescreen 1680 x 1050

Water Cooling: Black Ice II XFlow with 2 GT AP-13 fans
Heater Core, shouded with 2 Thermaltake A1280 @ 5v
Original Enzotech Sapphire block
Swiftech Micro Res v2
MCP350 (modded to MCP355)


Budget: not much, lol, just kidding maybe %150 on the wife's and $250 on mine... max

thoughts, maybe I could use my GX260 in the wife's PC? GPU only block is cheap... or maybe a HD5770?

For myself maybe a GTX460? HD6850?

maybe a 30GB SSD for boot drive?

what about a PSU for system 2? do I really need it?

I figure the hd4850 would sell for about $60 shipped, the gtx260 I would say $90 shipped? thats at least half of my upgrade budget right there