Gaming PC upgrade advice

myriad

myriad

myriad

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Joined
17 Nov 2003
Posts
270
The base of my system was bought in 2010, since then I upgraded to SSDs and a Nvidia 680 was added a long the way. I've waited and waited for a compelling CPU upgrade and each generation didn't seem worth it but I guess now there could be some decent gains? Not sure if it will affect gaming..

I want to keep the basics if possible, PSU, Case, heatsink/fan. What do you think? Just add some more RAM and add a faster GPU or go for a mobo/CPU/RAM/GPU upgrade? Unsure of budget, but something high end without going for the "£250 or more for 1.6% better performance" version of things.

Intel Core i7 860 2.80G s1156
MSI GTX 680 2GB GDDR5
GIGA/P55-UD3
4GB 2x2GB CMD4GX3M2B1600C8
Antec 650w Signature PSU
Asus Xonar DS 7.1 PCI Soundcrd
Noctua NM-13 1156 BRACKETS
Noctua NH-U12-DX 120MM XEON
Zalman MS1000-HS2 Black Tower
Samsung SAM 850 Pro 256GB
Intel 180GB 520 Series SSD 2.5" SATA-III
Asus VG236H 120Hz Monitor
 
The biggest performance upgrade will be a gpu, 4 gb of ram just dont cut it anymore. If you decide to stick with your 860 then get it overclocked

If you were to upgade cpu would you I-5 or I-7 ?
 
For highend but with price to performance in mind one of these is good direction.With the x99 your psu should be fine depending its quality.The i5 has 2x the performance of your current cpu in a good few benchmarks and the 5820k has even more. The 390x has 8gb of vram which will really help in modern games and at its price point i think is the best gpu for the long term.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £805.05
(includes shipping: £11.10)
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​

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £984.05
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​


​
 
mickyflinn said:
The biggest performance upgrade will be a gpu, 4 gb of ram just dont cut it anymore. If you decide to stick with your 860 then get it overclocked

If you were to upgade cpu would you I-5 or I-7 ?
Click to expand...

Based on old knowledge I would buy the best cpu I could afford but looking at the cpu market over the last 6 years progress has been slow enough that I think an i5 or an i7 would be good enough to last another 5 years.

Padraig said:
For highend but with price to performance in mind one of these is good direction.With the x99 your psu should be fine depending its quality.The i5 has 2x the performance of your current cpu in a good few benchmarks and the 5820k has even more. The 390x has 8gb of vram which will really help in modern games and at its price point i think is the best gpu for the long term.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £805.05
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​


​

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £984.05
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​


​
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, exactly what I was looking for, didn't know where to start. I did a bit of research on the 5820k vs 6700k seems there are mixed opinions on which is "better" for gaming. I suppose the fps difference is small enough that you wouldn't notice much outside of a benchmark. What's your reasoning on choosing the cores/x99 over the higher clock and newer cpu with newer mobo connectivity?

Looking at the 6600k and the cost saving would it be crazy to go with that and go all in with a 980 ti gpu? I assume the card wouldn't really be held back by the cpu?
 
 
Would an i5 really be that much of an upgrade, the cores will be better clock for clock and are clocked faster but you lose out on 4 threads. Personally I'd be looking in to an i7 setup if it were me or overclocking the existing i7 860 and buying a decent GPU and some more ram.
 
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