Yantelope Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 PSU's are generally no big deal. You take all the old plugs out and put all the new plugs in. Most ATX power supplies work with most ATX mobos too. You will want to make sure you have enough 12v rails to accommodate whatever gpu you want to buy though. 650w should be fine though. As far as the GPU goes, I think the 6870 is supposed to be really good. I've got the 6950 which is a step up and I love it. If you're wondering about Nvidia vs. Radeon then just check the benchmarks on the games you plan on playing and see which brand does better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 I got a 6870 and I have no complaints with it. It runs everything like a boss though... I am looking to Crossfire it up in anticipation for some sweet looking games so I know I can make it look very pretty. As for the Nvidia vs. Radeon thing... I just ignore it generally because it just seems like Nvidia has a upper edge in tessellation which in cases is kind of bull... Read the lastest at the Crysis 2 thread for more info. That and driver support I suppose. Installing the GPU and PSU shouldn't be hard. Just make sure everything has juice and plugged in correctly. Boot it up and install some drivers then you'll be good to go. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 650W is more than enough for that build, I think. You can get away with 550W or even 450W (from a quality manufacturer) if you need to as well. I'm a NVIDIA guy mostly, but the 6870 is a good card. As far as building new vs. updating your card, I'm always for building anew, but that looks like a good upgrade all around. Even though I had to RMA my recent 560 Ti, I still like EVGA and NVIDIA just because it's what I've always stuck with. In your price range, though, I think the 6870 is the best card in your price range. As for the NVIDIA vs. ATI thing, check your games as Yantelope said. For example, Borderlands and Bad Company 2 run better on my 560 Ti than my friends 6970, but Assassin's Creed and Fallout New Vegas run better on his ATI card. It's not worth buying a lesser NVIDIA card for one game in your case, but it is something to think about when you start getting in the $200+ range. I'd definitely check out the buildapc subreddit as well if you're still undecided on GPUs or PSUs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrowKnow Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the feedback everyone, looks like I'll probably be picking up the 6870. Still undecided on the PSU, will need to get around to measuring mine... going to take a look at that subreddit as well. Edited August 19, 2011 by ChrnoXIII Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 (edited) Yo Chrno... http://www.mwave.com...eOptionsBA25455 Just saw this on Slickdeals. Not sure if you can get it in Canada or wherever you are but here you go. Same (I think) PSU that you posted. "Unfortunately, we do not currently ship internationally. We do require a US billing and shipping address. We do apologize." Eh... Edited August 19, 2011 by MaliciousH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 I need some opinions here. Just some airflow pondering. I just got this: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150521 I got it to Crossfire it with my current card. (http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102909) I'm going to assume that the Sapphire one should go on the bottom to maximize the airflow while the XFX one goes on top. The double fan on it should be able to keep it cooler on top had the Sapphire one were there. Also, don't worry. I have a full tower case. So space isn't an issue. Just the airflow between the cards is making me think a bit. Maybe a bit stupid to think so hard on it but yeah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 Yeah, I suppose the cooler card on bottom would make sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 (edited) I am having problems... My system is not detecting the card. I put it in and out twice. AND Its not going into my desktop beside while in safemode. Well, let me wipe some drivers then reinstall and yeah... worst comes worst I'll restore windows. My Steam games and other stuff are on another HDD, separate from the OS drive so they're safe... I think? --- Card may or may not need to be returned or exchanged but yeah, let me see what can I do before I wipe everything from my SSD besides my OS. Currently, I can't uninstall the ATI/AMD video drivers. I think its something to do with a detection driver. Edited August 25, 2011 by MaliciousH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 Your PC definitely supports Crossfire yes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted August 25, 2011 Report Share Posted August 25, 2011 (edited) Yeah. Eh. As long as I can play around in Safemode I think I didn't kill my computer. EDIT: First thing first is I want to get back into normal mode. My first bootup had no major problems besides be all off resolution (Though, I couldn't get back into 1080) so, I tried to install some drivers but it seems that my system doesn't recognize the XFX card even though I a currently plug into it. So after a restart and with all bootups after that, I couldn't get back into normal mode. It just hangs in the Windows logo (Black) but I can hear it getting into it but all visuals are of that screen (http://fc06.devianta..._killer7ben.jpg) FYI, I can interact with my computer while its stuck on that screen. I can shut it down by windows key, right and enter. Let me go back to my original setup to see whats up........... Got through just fine. Now to see if I send the XFX card to the bottom... GOOD. Now for some final stuff. --- Drivers. I need to manually uninstall the display drivers I think since the AMD program doesn't seem to be running even though it seems like it is. Done. Done and done. Moral of the story... don't fucking alter your original setup when you add something in. Edited August 26, 2011 by MaliciousH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 yeah, generally best to do things one step at a time so if something goes wrong you know what you did. How did you get it working? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 I just reverted to my old setup with the Sapphire on top. Once I saw that worked fine, I added in the XFX card. Worked as well, so I just reinstall some drivers which got screwed up with me trying to get my proposed setup to work. It was oddly hard to do since I kept getting errors trying to do anything with the drivers. After a few tense restarts and some random Windows update, it finally worked for some reason like it tends to do on occasions. Software will forever vex me so. Hardware not so much. With this update, I think I am set for a few years. Ready for college and with little need for any next gen consoles that bound to pop up in the next 3 years. Besides, dat Steam backlog. This setup should be pretty solid. Maybe in 3-5 years time I will be pushed for an overhaul. From now till then, maybe a video card update only. All that assuming nothing major breaks like the mobo or CPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 yeah, the computer cares what is plugged in where. Did you uninstall the device drivers before you swapped slots? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted August 26, 2011 Report Share Posted August 26, 2011 Nope. I had a feeling I should of done it. Heh. If I find that the Sapphire card is overheating because of lack of space to circulate air, I'll do a proper swap. As for now, I'll keep it as it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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