what do I need to upgrade?

Cyanide

Cyanide

Cyanide

Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2006
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Nottingham
I'm thinking its about time to )update my ageing system. I've currently got -
Q6600 @ 3.4 with Thermalright Ultra 120
4gb Ocz gold
Asus P5E
Corsair HX620 psu
Crucial C300 64gb + about 500gb over a few Seagates
HD5770 1gb

I use it mostly for gaming and photoshop. I've got a 1920x1200 monitor that I use for photoshop and I'm about to hook up to the 1080p TV for gaming.

Modern games still run ok-ish but I prefer to run things on the highest settings ('cuz thats how the games were designed!) and its starting to struggle a bit these days. Every day running is still reasonable but as time goes by its gradually feeling slower.

I'll definitely be getting a new case (500R) but I'm debating whether I need to do a full upgrade or if dropping in something like a 6950 would do for now.

Budget for any upgrade would be around £450 (maybe up to £550-600 if the old stuff sells well), any suggestions?
 
There's always that leap to Sandy that needs to be done, but with Ivy on the way, it could be pertinent to wait for that to come along. But you could always up to Sandy and then sell your equipment when it comes along.

- i5 2500k (£160 ish)
- Decent motherboard, MSI Z68A-GD65, Asus P8Z68 Pro, Gigabyte UD7-B3, around £125-150 depending
- More RAM possibly, another 4gb isn't expensive at all.
- The 5770 is not exactly stellar, you could throw £200 ish at that to get a nice 560 Ti or even 570 at a good price.

It all depends, everything CAN be upgraded, but I'd definitely make the leap to Sandy if I were you.
 
that's what I was thinking... I know there's going to be the 'just wait a few months for new tech' crowd but it'll always be just a few months 'till something new and I've got the upgrade itch again!
 
Maybe try to OC the CPU a bit, I should think you've still got enough power there for most games. What about trying a new GPU, and if you're still not happy get an i5? If you're not bothered about rushing then maybe it's worth waiting for Ivybridge, perhaps not much of an improvement for performance but still nice to have the newest tech!
 
wait for now until IVY.

Add another 4gb of RAM for photoshop and look at a new GPU to improve frames. the Q6600 is a quality chip. Can you squeeze the chip any more?
 
What about:


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Dirt 3 PC Game** £263.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £41.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £602.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Is the case meant to be within that budget? If so sorry! Also , that motherboard doesn't support 8x/8x Xfire or SLI at all, so you'd want to spend more if you want that option.
 
beejjacobs said:
What about:



Is the case meant to be within that budget? If so sorry! Also , that motherboard doesn't support 8x/8x Xfire or SLI at all, so you'd want to spend more if you want that option.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that little lot will run things like Skyrim at 1080p alright seeing as it's not completely awful at the moment so I doubt I'll need dual GPU's.

The case could do with fitting in budget, maybe drop to a 6950 to free up some extra?

Or I could go begging to my Mrs for a few extra £ and stick a H100 in there too and clock the nuts off it :D
 
beejjacobs said:
What about:


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Dirt 3 PC Game** £263.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £41.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £602.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Is the case meant to be within that budget? If so sorry! Also , that motherboard doesn't support 8x/8x Xfire or SLI at all, so you'd want to spend more if you want that option.
Click to expand...


how do you get your basket into that format???
 
Cyanide said:
I'm guessing that little lot will run things like Skyrim at 1080p alright seeing as it's not completely awful at the moment so I doubt I'll need dual GPU's.

The case could do with fitting in budget, maybe drop to a 6950 to free up some extra?

Or I could go begging to my Mrs for a few extra £ and stick a H100 in there too and clock the nuts off it :D
Click to expand...

Oh yes it will, the 6970 is one the best GPUs you can buy atm, and the lightning version is even better :P

But yeah I imagine for a game like Skyrim a 6950 will do fine, or maybe a GTX560Ti 2GB (slightly cheaper and slightly worse than a 6950 I think.

Yeah a H100 would be sweet, bare in mind the Gelid will get 4.5Ghz out of it :P
 
Id go for a new GPU for now, 8GB of DDR3 (sell the OCZ RAM with the CPU/MOBO) and stock it ready. Id personally go for a new PSU too as the HX620 is clocking on abit (unless youve had it replaced and its a newer unit).

Then wait for Ivy to hit the shops, read a few reviews and see how prices go.


EDIT: Always go for the RETAIL version of the CPU too....extra 2 years warranty for like £10.
 
Rik1254 said:
Id go for a new GPU for now, 8GB of DDR3 (sell the OCZ RAM with the CPU/MOBO) and stock it ready. Id personally go for a new PSU too as the HX620 is clocking on abit (unless youve had it replaced and its a newer unit).

Then wait for Ivy to hit the shops, read a few reviews and see how prices go.


EDIT: Always go for the RETAIL version of the CPU too....extra 2 years warranty for like £10.
Click to expand...

It's quite an old PSU (coming up on 4 years) but I've never really stressed it very much... was kinda hoping it would be ok!
 
I had my HX620 for almost 4 years, coped fine with my old system and when I upgraded to an OC'd 2500k, but when I added my HD 6950 last week, it just flopped.
It will do casual browsing and all that, but I think its age is affecting its power delivery and wont let it give enough power to the GPU. Its now my spare, but will probably chuck it in my OH's computer to reduce the noise.

Ive now bought the TX650m, which is basically the same unit, but newer :p
 
Just been looking around and it looks like upgrading my CPU would make pretty much naff all difference at the res I'm using, might just stick a 6950/70 in and see what happens :p
 
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