"I am getting an 800Watt quad rail psu soon."It sounds like you intend to upgrade your computer part by part?
If not, then that is far more power than you'll need. On the other hand I bought one like that a couple of years ago because it was on sale at a great price. But then, I knew that I would be replacing everything over time.
I looked up your mother board, the M5A78L-M, on
NewEgg.
If you intend to keep that motherboard then the 4 things that you could replace to gain more speed are (in order);
1) SSD,
2) CPU,
3) Video card,
and
4) faster ram.
4) Faster ram on the motherboard has never given me any noticeable speed improvements. They are there, but the improvements brought about by first 3 will far exceed that of faster ram on the MB.
1) You don't need to go the whole SSD route. There is a solution for only $60 (37.29 GBP). Read
Faster, Faster, Faster.2) What speed is your CPU? If it's one of the slower Phenom processors, you might want to replace that. An
AMD Phenom II X2 550 3.1GHz will only cost you $75 (46.62GBP).
3)
Graphics CardsIt's funny, but many people have
VERY strong beliefs
(rational & irrational) concerning one brand or another for CPUs, motherboards, and graphics cards.
I'm rather pragmatic. I want whatever will give me the best speed at a price that I'm willing to pay. In so far as graphics cards are concerned, the AMD HD Radeon graphics card with Eyefinity have proven to be a great deal for me.
On top of everything else, it's made to run 3 monitors right out of the box. It has very good speed. And it's cheaper than dirt!
What you have to decide is just what do you want to do with your current computer. That motherboard has PCI Express 2.0 slots. I'm sure, you can get better video with that motherboard, but there are limits.
Your motherboard will get little benefit from the fastest PCI Express 3.0 video cards out there.
Because of limitations, my system will not benefit from anything better than the Radeon HD 68xx series card that I have.
You have a similar problem. You
CAN put a PCI Express 3.0 card in your MB.
IT WILL WORK..
So if you intend to upgrade the motherboard & CPU later, go ahead and get the best card that you can afford. You can use it later.
On the other hand, I would not recommend a PCI Express 2.0 card. Even if you can't use the full power of a PCI Express 3.0 card, the updated design will give you better results.
With all that in mind I would recommend any Radeon HD graphics card.
And the
Asus AMD Radeon HD 7750 Graphics Card Would work very well for you.
It has 1GB of
GDDR5. It runs at 820MHz & 4600MHz internally.
It doesn't require a huge power supply. And you may have to listen carefully to hear if the fan is running.
In the end, you can go with option 2 and 3 for about 100 GBP and be quite happy. Much happier in fact, than going with a faster video card alone!
One last thing. If you go with option 2 & 3 you could use them later on a new system. Win/Win.
by zeberdee » Thu Nov 07, 2013 4:10 pm 
Again many thanks Chris