Looking to possibly upgrade

GenesysJack

GenesysJack

GenesysJack

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Joined
2 Nov 2010
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12
Location
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Have a budget of around 400, possibly squeezing to 500 and MAYBE POSSIBLY 600! :D

I want to be able to run BF3 at basically ultra when it releases hopefully.
I was going to buy EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SuperClocked w/Backplate 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** [015-P3-1585-ER], however not sure whether it's necessary and maybe a CPU upgrade would bea better option.

Current specs are;
Gigabyte P55-USB3
ASUS ENGTX 460 TOP 768mb GDDR5 733MHz
Intel Core i5 760 3.8GHz Quad
Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3
Corsair Builder Series CX 600W ATX PSU

I've only recently actually gotten 'involved' shall we say with thinking building/upgrading, since the above specs are of my pre-build that i purchased for OcUK last year, therefore not quite 100% sure what would be the most beneficial upgrade.

Any advice greatly appreciated,
Jack.
 
stick with what you have for the time being, til bf3 is out and see how your system goes.

have you tried overclocking the processor, and does it have the default cooler or have you got a 3rd party cooler on it.

what monitor size are your running and what resolution do you game at.
 
WOW! You want to use a GTX580. Then you are looking for some top notch components to make sure there is no bottleneck on your system.

You are running a decent quad atm, but if you want a new pc/new build to run BF3 then this is what I would go for:

Mobo: Gigabyte Z68A-D3: £75.98
CPU: i5-2500k: £173.99
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 1600mhz 4GB: £23.99
GPU: Asus ATI HD6950 2GB: £184.99
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB: £30.98
PSU: CM Elite 500W: £40.99
CPU Cooler: BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced: £39.98

Total: £570.90

If you can, get a 1TB HDD. No need for a SSD drive, I don't have one and get into games fast enough.

This rig gives awesome overclocking to over 4.4ghz, a great and powerful ATI GPU (no need for the very expensive 580 and great graphics performance. This rig would do you for a good 3 years.

Hope this helps?

CinderzFTW
 
mp260767 said:
stick with what you have for the time being, til bf3 is out and see how your system goes.

have you tried overclocking the processor, and does it have the default cooler or have you got a 3rd party cooler on it.

what monitor size are your running and what resolution do you game at.
Click to expand...

Sorry i didn't really specify it properly in my OP, but the CPU is a 2.8 overclocked to 4.0 and i have a corsair watercooling system. As I said in the OP it was a pre-build from OcUK and since i didn't take too much interest into the guts of the PC (bought based on forum users suggestions aswell as friends) I'm not all the bright on whats actually in it!

I currently have a 19" monitor running at 1920x1080, but plan on purchasing 'Asus VG236HE 23" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black' and 'NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit with Duke Nukem Forever' (based on a seperate budget)

Like I say, this will be the first time actually getting my hands dirty so to speak, so any guidance on tutorials on upgrading would also be very nice.
Thanks!
 
CinderzFTW said:
Mobo: Gigabyte Z68A-D3: £75.98
CPU: i5-2500k: £173.99
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 1600mhz 4GB: £23.99
GPU: Asus ATI HD6950 2GB: £184.99
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB: £30.98
PSU: CM Elite 500W: £40.99
CPU Cooler: BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced: £39.98

Total: £570.90
Click to expand...


Rubbish RAM, this stuff has better timings - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-104-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Terrible PSU, this is better - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-003-LA&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2057

£40 for a cooler on this sort of budget is silly, get a £25 coolermaster Hyper212 and then get a 6950 2GB card.

And that Asus ATI card is not 2GB, its a 1GB version.
 
do you know what case you got as part of the build ?

i'd stick with the kit you have, don't really think its worth swapping for a sandybridge unless you can get decent money for your current processor/mobo/memory.

if you really want a gfx card have a look at the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB (on special offer at the moment £250) or the HIS ATI Radeon HD 6970 IceQ Turbo 2048MB (£275).

of course if you went with the ati card you'd need to look at another monitor .

if you want to go with the nvidia 3d then maybe go with the 570 gtx.

at the end of the day til bf3 is released and benchmarked not really going to know what's what, i believe nvidia used sli'd 580gtx's for it s demos.
 
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mp260767 said:
do you know what case you got as part of the build ?

i'd stick with the kit you have, don't really think its worth swapping for a sandybridge unless you can get decent money for your current processor/mobo/memory.

if you really want a gfx card have a look at the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB (on special offer at the moment £250) or the HIS ATI Radeon HD 6970 IceQ Turbo 2048MB (£275).

of course if you went with the ati card you'd need to look at another monitor .

if you want to go with the nvidia 3d then maybe go with the 570 gtx.

at the end of the day til bf3 is released and benchmarked not really going to know what's what, i believe nvidia used sli'd 580gtx's for it s demos.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the reply mate.
Do you think it'd be sensible to go with a 570 and maybe throw in another couple gig ram and wait around for bf3, by which time i'll be able to afford another 570 and SLI. (also probably enough money to upgrade other components) Or should i do that with a 580?

Jack.

EDIT: this is my case: Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
 
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Thanks a lot for the help lads, i appreciate it, especially as i'm pretty new to all of this.
Think i'm gunna go for the 580 since it'd be a nice upgrade and with maybe SLI in mind and other upgrades later on, it should be enough to handle what I want. Would you guys particularly recommend the 580 or the 580 ds as they're the same price at the moment?

Basket so far is
EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SuperClocked w/Backplate 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game**
Asus VG236HE 23" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black
NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit with Duke Nukem Forever
£734.06

I was thinking about maybe throwing in another 2/4gig ram aswell if I can get some at a good price, i know i've asked a lot so you're quite welcome to ignore this part !

Thanks again lads,
Jack.
 
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