Where to go from here?

[pcfailure]

Heya my pc specs are:
The CPU is oc'ed to 4.5 ghz
Intel® 2nd Generation Core™ i5-2500K Processor
• MSI GeForce® GTX 460 Cyclone Overclocked Edition 1024MB GDDR5 Graphics Card
• 4GB Mushkin (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz 9-9-9-24 Silverline - 996768
• 1TB Samsung HD103SJ SpinPoint F3 SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive
• Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard
• Corsair Builder Series 600CX Power Supply
• Antec 300 Midi Tower ATX Chassis
• Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler
• Sony 24x DVD/RW
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

Just wondering were should I go from here, which will make the biggest differece for the price thanks :)

[Spaceboy]

Get an SSD in that build pronto :thumb:

Or if you need more "oomph" in games, SLI two of those delicious 460's - 600W Corsair should cope with that :)

(Although 2nd PCI lane is only x4 on that board :( )

[pcfailure]

Can u explain the bit in the bracket about the PCI, im new to pc's and have no idea what that means :D

[Spaceboy]

Can u explain the bit in the bracket about the PCI, im new to pc's and have no idea what that means :D

PCI Express is the slot you use for the graphics card, and various other expansion cards...

You get full length slots which run at 3 different varieties (x16, x8, and x4), and short slots which run at x1.

The x16 bit refers to how many physical connections there are to the slot.

Your motherboard has 2 PCI Express x16 slots, however when you use both of them together, the total number of connections available drops to x4 on the 2nd slot, but remains at x16 on the top slot. This means a graphics card in the 2nd slot will have less bandwidth or communication paths available to to so you won't get double the overall performance.

The sweet spot tends to be x8 x8, as this provides "enough" bandwidth for most cards.

There's some good articles on the subject with performance comparisons here
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p55-pci-express-scaling,2517.html
and here
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pcie-geforce-gtx-480-x16-x8-x4,2696.html

[pcfailure]

Thanks a lot :D

If this is the case would it be worth getting a higher end graphics card around the 580's instead of 2 460's? :)

[Spaceboy]

A single card would be the way to go yes, the downside being you'll pay more to get the same upgrade of performance. Of course you can then get some back by selling the 460 - they still go for a reasonable amount 2nd hand ;)

SSD would be my first choice... gpu is only worth considering if your machine is struggling with games.

[pcfailure]

My pc struggles a bit on the battlefield 3 beta on ultra, however im in the process of returning the overclock, it's sitting at 3.2 ghz at the moment so probs has something to do with it :)

[El Wayneo]

It'll be the gtx460 that's struggling not the CPU.

[pcfailure]

Any suggestions on a new card? :)

[Spaceboy]

Any suggestions on a new card? :)

depends on your budget ;)

[pcfailure]

Around £250

[Spaceboy]

Hmmm tough call...

Option 1) £254 GTX570 http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/NVIDIA/NVIDIA+GTX+570+Series/EVGA+GeForce+GTX+570+%22HD%22+1280MB+GDDR5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+%5B012-P3-1571-KR%5D+w%2F+FREE+Steam+Voucher+Batman%3A+Arkham+Cit y%21+?productId=45237
Option 2) £220 6950 Twin Frozr 3 http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/ATI/ATI+6900+Series/MSI+ATI+Radeon+HD+6950+OC+Twin+FrozR+III+Power+Edi tion+2048MB+GDDR5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=44455

or
Option 3) £253 GTX560Ti http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Asus+GeForce+GTX+560Ti+DirectCU+II+1024MB+GDDR5+PC I-Express+Graphics+Card+w%2F+FREE+Steam+Voucher+Batm an%3A+Arkham+City%21+?productId=43564 AND Crucial m4 64GB SSD http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Solid+State+Drives/Crucial+m4+64GB+2.5%22+SATA-III+Solid+State+Hard+Drive+?productId=44257

[Zaim]

Hmmm tough call...

Option 1) £254 GTX570 http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/NVIDIA/NVIDIA+GTX+570+Series/EVGA+GeForce+GTX+570+%22HD%22+1280MB+GDDR5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+%5B012-P3-1571-KR%5D+w%2F+FREE+Steam+Voucher+Batman%3A+Arkham+Cit y%21+?productId=45237
Option 2) £220 6950 Twin Frozr 3 http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/ATI/ATI+6900+Series/MSI+ATI+Radeon+HD+6950+OC+Twin+FrozR+III+Power+Edi tion+2048MB+GDDR5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=44455

or
Option 3) £253 GTX560Ti http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Asus+GeForce+GTX+560Ti+DirectCU+II+1024MB+GDDR5+PC I-Express+Graphics+Card+w%2F+FREE+Steam+Voucher+Batm an%3A+Arkham+City%21+?productId=43564 AND Crucial m4 64GB SSD http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Solid+State+Drives/Crucial+m4+64GB+2.5%22+SATA-III+Solid+State+Hard+Drive+?productId=44257

+1, The MSI Twinfrozr 3 570 is available for £240, that's what I would go for, shame Aria don't have that :( Although you can't go wrong with the EVGA 570 :thumb: