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View Full Version : Need some upgrading advice.

sammy sung
07-19-08, 01:59 PM
The retail prices here for the 260/280 has dropped dramaticly and now i can buy 2x Asus GeForce GTX 260 896MB "TOP" GDDR3 650mhz for less than the initial retailprice of 1x GTX 280.This tempts me a great deal but i'm trying to limit costs here a bit so i will stay with my current mobo/ram and upgrade cpu/gpu/psu instead.

This mobo doesnt support the newer intel quads so i'm considering the 8500 dual core instead(supported through bios upgrades),with that i hope to hit ~4ghz for 24/7 use.So what do you guys think ? Is this a wise upgrade-route considering the fact that i wont change mobo/ram this time ? I's it cost effective ? I'd say this will net me around 1500$,would it be wiser to buy one 280 instead or will these 2 cards make enough of a difference to warrant the 260 sli choice ?

Im considering one of these two psus for this,Corsair HX1000W and the slightly more expensive ZALMAN ZM1000-HP.Will less be enough ? I've never gone the sli route before so i'm unsure of what i need,i know that Revs runs a similar setup,if you read this please comment :)
Feyy
07-19-08, 04:11 PM
Your rig is still pretty sweet, what would you think about holding out until christmas, with the arrival of Nehalem?
Xion X2
07-19-08, 04:49 PM
260s in SLI would be significantly stronger than a single GTX. And you wouldn't need anything more than a 750W quality PSU to run them with.

I might would hold off on the CPU upgrade until you get a new board. I doubt you'll hit 4GHz on an 8500; I remember that board of yours being really quirky when it comes to OC"ng. I used to own it if you remember. In addition, Intel's new X58 is on the horizon that will support SLI.
slaWter
07-19-08, 05:28 PM
About the PSU, I'm getting the same Corsair for my next upgrade in August. Should handle CrossfireX or in this case SLI/Tri-SLI just fine.
sammy sung
07-19-08, 10:16 PM
260s in SLI would be significantly stronger than a single GTX. And you wouldn't need anything more than a 750W quality PSU to run them with.

I might would hold off on the CPU upgrade until you get a new board. I doubt you'll hit 4GHz on an 8500; I remember that board of yours being really quirky when it comes to OC"ng. I used to own it if you remember. In addition, Intel's new X58 is on the horizon that will support SLI.

Yup but you owned the hybrid chipset version with 650 nb if i remember correctly,this one is 680 throughout.Ive heard mixed reports about how they do with the 8400-8500 cpus,some have been successful with approxx 4 ghz.I would settle for 3.8 though,a 600 mhz oc should be feasable i think.Same as you i had tons of 680 issues but this current board/revision i got replaced in may last year has been good sofar,no instabillity issues as of yet.Decisions like these are damn hard to make,its just that now with the massive price drops to counter ATI's offerings this looks like a good deal.I know the smaller process is on the horizon,but will they be as expensive as the initial price for the current 200 series ? Sometimes you end up having to pull the trigger but i'm not yet completly sure what i'll buy.
Xion X2
07-19-08, 10:45 PM
Yup but you owned the hybrid chipset version with 650 nb if i remember correctly,
Yep, I had forgotten there were 2 different versions. Mine was the "Plus" which had the hybrid chipset.

My E8400 (Xeon equivalent) is priming away at 4.2GHz right now and is stable w/ small FFTs for one hour. These little chips will fly.

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