27 replies to this topic

[Bubbafett]

Been lurking around for awhile, never posted much at all, but could really use some help.
I have a Aurora R1 I got in 2010, been wanting to upgrade the GTX 260 card but not sure what to get...got a budget of around $600..not gonna to be to get a new system till next year.

Dont know if should 2 gtx 560s, and SLI them.(was reading someware that the cards are 2 close together and get real hot) and i dont know that much about SLI.
http://www.tigerdire...CFYp_Qgod3jkAIw
Or should get 1 Really good GTX card like a 670.

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Alienware
System Model: Aurora
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 12288MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 12278MB RAM
Page File: 3779MB used, 20777MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode
PSU is a 875W with 2 6 pin connecters.
Motherboard is a Alienware 04vwf2


Thanks for anyhelp.

[Flapdrol]

I wouldn't go sli, especially with 2 mediocre cards, just get a fast single.

670's are very fast, you'll probably be cpu bottlenecked with that, at least in this game. Def. no point in getting something even faster. Minimum fps will probably stay the same, major cpu hog in big brawls. Other games should get a major performance boost though.

Edited by Flapdrol, 03 February 2013 - 04:10 AM.

[Bubbafett]

should I look into upgrading my CPU, been looking at some CPU's,I know mine is older with a 1366 socket they seem hard to find at a good price.

[Guchion]

Definately the single 670 rather than 560's, I dont thinks theres a SLI profile for this yet anyway.

Your Cpu is fine, you wont get that much extra power by going to a newer model anyway hold out for a while longer for sure on that I would at least until next generation.

Your weakest point in that machine is the video card, I would get that sorted and not worry about the rest.

[Flapdrol]

There are no real upgrades possible on that socket, there are a few sixcores but they only have marginal improvements in per/core performance so they wont improve minimum fps. Even if there were you never know if alienware supports it. Overclocking is probably also impossible.

Just get a nice single gpu and build a new system when you have the money for it.

Edited by Flapdrol, 03 February 2013 - 05:27 AM.

[Az0r]

How confident are you working on the system yourself? For $600 you could very easily upgrade to an Ivy bridge i5 + gtx660ti.

[Frostknight]

Um dude, you could definitely build a complete system with 600 bux to run this game perfectly. Just go with AMD stuff. Its cheaper than INTEL,I don't care what any of the intel fanboys say, It holds up just as well. You already have a complete system it looks like, get a board, a processor and a video card, and maybe you might have to change the ram. I built the computer im using now with $584 dollars. I get roughly 45 FPS at a minimal. But then again, i did a budget build and used an older sapphire card.

[Az0r]

Frostknight, on 03 February 2013 - 09:33 AM, said:

Um dude, you could definitely build a complete system with 600 bux to run this game perfectly. Just go with AMD stuff. Its cheaper than INTEL,I don't care what any of the intel fanboys say, It holds up just as well. You already have a complete system it looks like, get a board, a processor and a video card, and maybe you might have to change the ram. I built the computer im using now with $584 dollars. I get roughly 45 FPS at a minimal. But then again, i did a budget build and used an older sapphire card.

Going to an AMD chip from a i7-920 is a sidegrade at best.

[Barbaric Soul]

You won't get any performance increase worth the money of upgrading your CPU IMHO. The 920 is still plenty powerful for todays games, even MW:O. If a Phenom II can handle MW:O, your 920 can do it with no problem.

As far as the video card, go with a single card. SLI and crossfire is not as hassle free as a single card configuration, and MW:O currently does not support either. Go with a GTX660ti, GTX670, GTX680, HD7950 or HD7970, which ever card you can get the least money). Any of those cards, with some easy OC'ing, will give outstanding performance with little noticable difference between them.

Edited by Barbaric Soul, 03 February 2013 - 12:42 PM.

[Bubbafett]

Wouldent even know where to begin with an Ivy bridge i5, have some pc hardware knowledge, but just a little. Around march next year gonna drop $2k, and learn to build myself a custum rig just need something to hold me till then.
I leaning toward the gtx660ti or the gtx670 will look for the best priced one when i get home from work.,I have had bad experances in the past with radeon cards. So i will stick with nvidia...
BTW thanks for all the help.
only games i play are MWOL and WOT, just got frycry 3 havent tried it yet, I work alot.

[Barbaric Soul]

FYI, this is all you'd need to upgrade your Alienware to i5 Ivy Bridge, provided your Alienware case is an ATX case.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819116504

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157297

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820233186

Not that the performance gain would be worth the cost.

Edited by Barbaric Soul, 03 February 2013 - 08:05 PM.

[Volume]

Az0r, on 03 February 2013 - 11:00 AM, said:

Going to an AMD chip from a i7-920 is a sidegrade at best.

http://www.cpu-world..._i7_i7-920.html

Benchmarks start halfway down the page...

[Bubbafett]

Well thanks for the help I settled on a GTX 760 FTW card, figure ill look into a new board and CPU a few months down the road.

[Juicebox12]

Don't upgrade that cpu..... There is alot of overclocking potential in that cpu that can be unleashed. I would invest in a good cooling solution for the cpu if i were you and up the clocks. I could see you comfortably clocking to 3.4 on stock voltage, and if you purchase a decent sealed loop water cooling setup you can reach 3.8-4ghz for daily overclock.

For a side note, amd processors are good for processes that can handle mutliple processor threads. The amd solution for controlling the multiple cores is a little shoddy at best at the moment. In the future the ground will narrow between the two but an amd solution would be a downgrade for him. ANY amd solution.

Before i get burned by all the forum flames i know this because i have a fx6100 oc to 4.8ghz as a workhorse machine, and i have completed many real life performance tests on games between my older i5 720@ 4ghz and the 6 core with exact same memory AND video cards and the i5 stomped over the amd all day every day except on 3dmark.

Edited by Juicebox12, 04 February 2013 - 07:44 AM.

[Catamount]

Bubbafett, on 04 February 2013 - 03:30 AM, said:

Well thanks for the help I settled on a GTX 760 FTW card, figure ill look into a new board and CPU a few months down the road.

You mean 670 right?

That's a really good card you've picked up there. I hope it works out well for you.

[Bubbafett]

yep i ment GTX 670 FTW.. ....
I have the R1 Liquid Cooling from aliewnware, I wouldent even know where to start or how to overclock. never tried it before. I remeber when i got this pc they paper work said it could be overcolak to a safe amount but not how to.

[Juicebox12]

Well, Do you know what motherboard comes in that computer? If so maybe i can look up a guide for you. It tends to be slightly different from board to board due to bios features and whatnot. Its usually really simple though. For a good overclock you will have to overvolt it a little. If your fine with it lowering the life expectancy for the cpu by a year or two then i couldnt see a reason not to overclock it. Let me know if you can figure out what board it has or the exact model of that computer and i will see what i can do.

Happy hunting.

Derp, ignore that i just seen the information i needed in your original post. I will get back to you in this thread asap.

Edited by Juicebox12, 04 February 2013 - 02:40 PM.

[Juicebox12]

Well, If you can get into your bios and find the frequencies/voltage tab in the bios i would like you to go in there and take a picture of it and post it somewhere to link it to me. Once you do that i can tell you what settings to put in to get your cpu up where it should be. f2 is the bios key at boot.

Just make sure when you go in to take a pic that you dont save any changes in case you make one on accident.

[Az0r]

Volume, on 03 February 2013 - 09:43 PM, said:

http://www.cpu-world..._i7_i7-920.html

Benchmarks start halfway down the page...

If you look at the single core cinebench that's a good representation of single thread performance of each chip. AKA almost identical. Games rely heavily on single thread performance. So my statement stands.

[Bubbafett]

here ya go..