Is it time to upgrade?

Afternoon all,

Help me! I've been using my current system for approximately 6/7 years - it's a pre-built machine from OCuk and has served me well. Spec is:

i5-2500k CPU overclocked to 3.60GHz
Gigabyte Z65X-UD5-B3 motherboard
8gb ram (guessing it's DDR2?)
AMD Radeon 7800

2 crappy monitors; Samsung SMS23A550H (Primary) and an Acer V223W (Secondary).

I've added a few SSDs over the years. Budget can go up to £1200/1300 including 2 new monitors. Don't need a mouse, keyboard nor headset.

Go for it!

Cheers

Depends what you use it for, apart from upgrading my graphics card I haven't felt the need to upgrade anything. I mostly use my pc to game.

Screenbeat said:

Depends what you use it for, apart from upgrading my graphics card I haven't felt the need to upgrade anything. I mostly use my pc to game.

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My bad, I should have stated it'll be for gaming; WoW, CS:GO and Hitman (I've only spent around an hour on Hitman as it runs pretty poorly on my current rig).

In all honesty it depends what you're after. If you're happy with the CPU then go for:

- New Cooler and overclock the 2500k to 4.5ghz
- New GPU

Your RAM will be DDR3.

Part Upgrade:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Black CPU Cooler= £41.99
• 1 x LG 34UM95C-P 34" 3440x1440 IPS WideScreen Super-Wide LED Monitor= £499.99
• 1 x MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X RGB 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card= £695.99

Full Upgrade, keep your Case & SSDs

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 - Intel Core i5 6600K Bundle **£10 Saving**= £316.98
• 1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 1070 HerculeZ Twin X2 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £379.99
• 1 x Super Flower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black= £65.99
• 1 x AOC G2460PG 24" 1920x1080 TN G-Sync 144Hz 1ms Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor - Gunmetal= £299.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M2B30= £89.99

Holding off until AMD have released Zen would be the best move.

The biggest difference you could make is a better graphics card, the 2500k is still a fairly decent chip. Your memory is ddr3 not ddr2. Like already mentioned overclock the CPU, usually they can hit 4.5ghz no problem with good enough cooling.

AdamScott85 said:

The biggest difference you could make is a better graphics card, the 2500k is still a fairly decent chip. Your memory is ddr3 not ddr2. Like already mentioned overclock the CPU, usually they can hit 4.5ghz no problem with good enough cooling.

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That was my question, albeit I didn't exactly ask it.. if the chip is worth keeping, I'll keep it and get a GFX card.

Thanks for the replies.

Your computer is neither six nor seven years old. That hardware came out in January 2011.

As others have said, unless you are a power user:

Better GPU
Better CPU cooler
Overclock CPU
Consider (optional) upgrading to 16GB of DDR3 (it's not expensive these days)

If you need more CPU power, wait for AMD's ZEN which is coming soon. It will compete with Intel's best CPUs and may be much cheaper. If you absolutely must buy now look at an Intel 6700K and a Z170 motherboard, or if you need loads and loads of CPU threads, look at something like an X99 board and a 6800K CPU.

If you upgrade to new Intel platforms as mentioned, you will have to swap your RAM for DDR4.