4 years on, in the market for an upgrade.

JoeyMcFool

JoeyMcFool

JoeyMcFool

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Joined
2 Oct 2013
Posts
15
Hello OCUK forum

I have been out of the pc scene for a couple of years due to travelling. I bought a solid system back in 2012 and as far as I know it's still pretty decent.

I am after some honest advice regarding the step to upgrade. Should I just upgrade components, potentially being more cost effective, or just blow it and get a new rig?

This is what I ordered back in 2012:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arkh...mited-edition-quad-core-system-fs-195-oe.html

My budget would be between £500 and £800 for the upgrade as I need a couple new peripherals.

I also see SSD seems to have become more affordable now and would definitely want to move to this.

To give an example of the kind of rig I have looked at:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/tita...9ghz-turbo-quad-core-gaming-pc-fs-095-og.html

With upgrading components I wouldn't really know where to start, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading peeps, and I hope you can provide me with some much needed info

Joey
 
Your system just needs upgrading, gaming at 1080p the below is a starting point but you have decent budget you could get a far beter gpu, etc.

There are many videos on youtube and articles on how to upgrade /build a system.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £280.97
(includes shipping: £0.00)
 
Wow thanks for such rapid, decent replies, I'll have a look for some upgrade guides but that price is awesome, I have the budget but if I can achieve great results for less that is even better!

Thanks again

Joey
 
If you want better graphics at 1080p very high settings then the next option i would go for a gtx 970 as your case wont take the length of a 390.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £370.97
(includes shipping: £0.00)


How much ram have you already got ? as the system you linked says 4 gb .
 
Pc is still currently packed up in the process of moving, from memory I think I went for 8GB. Also I think I would prefer to stick with Radeon, I guess a case change is nothing too serious? I have been looking at the 390 as a preferred option.
 
Mite as well get a new case there are some lovely ones about, have you picked one yet ? If you have got 8 gb i would stick with it as upgrading ram can affect the overclock.
 
Personally i would get a mid tower case rather than the full tower so I haven chosen mid towers with 1 full tower.

Note The NXZT H440 case will not take a dvd drive so you will need an external.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £707.64
(includes shipping: £52.80)
​
 
Micky, credit to you sir, your help has been awesome:

Finished idea is:

The 250 SSD you linked,
The 390 sapphire
Super flower 650 psu
Phanteks eclipse case

All in at £510

Any final thoughts you have would be awesome, Thanks again :-)

Joey
 
I would take the msi or asus 390 over the saphire just becasue of 3 years warranty over 2 years on the saphire.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £510.96
(includes shipping: £0.00)

I will give you some more advice tomorrow cus im having a few beers at present.
 
Hi there Micky

Have looked att both options, I think a fresh install will probably be best as it will give me that new pc feel and clean out 4 years worth of crap :P

Am looking at ordering the parts at some point this week.

What are your thoughts on fresh v clone?
 
A fresh install after 4 years definately.

Download all the latest drivers before you upgrade and also intel rapid storage drivers.

If you get the samsung ssd then download Samsung magician software, its a great program. Enable over provising and also enable rapid mode. I highly recomend the Samsung SSD

You may need some thermal paste for your cpu cooler if your going to swap cases.

When you install your SSD connect the ssd to the sata 3 port and make sure the storage confiagration in the bios is set to AHCI before you install windows. This will ensure the best performance of the SSD
 
Are you going to be playing Ashes of the Singularity? If not, you don't need a CPU upgrade.

An increase to 8 GB or 16 GB RAM is an excellent idea. Do note that if you currently have 32 bit Windows installed, you will need to reinstall but with the 64 bit version of Windows. But you're reinstalling anyway.

Are you going to be in the market for a new monitor? If so, hold off buying a new GPU because new cards and monitors will soon have Displayport 1.3. HDMI 2 is also an issue on many cards.

New DX 12 graphics cards from both AMD and Nvidia are in the offing. How important is DX 12 to you?

Instead of buying a high end GPU now, you may wish to temporise with a mid-range one like a GTX 950 or the R9 370 and buy a high end one when you upgrade your monitor.

A 550W PSU is entirely sufficient for any reasonable GPU. Your CPU has a TDP of 95W, single GPUs top at around 250W. That's 350W for the big two. 200W is plenty for everything else.

SSD is a top idea. A 250 GB or 500 GB SSD will transform your PC. Just do that and the RAM upgrade first and then take stock of what else you might need.
 
Hey Quartz, thanks for the input. Micky had mentioned a RAM change causing issues with the Overclock so I had dropped that idea.

To clarify I am currently running Win7 64 8GB ram.

The main question with going for a lower end GPU now, is a 370 going to top a HD6900 overclocked to 4gb?

Micky:

You mentioned download drivers, are you referring to the GPU ones (and Intel RSD), or others as well?
I also currently have 2 500gb HDDs, does this even leave space for an SSD to connect prior to the reinstall?

I will have a solid read of fresh install guides before I ask any questions around that.

Thanks again for all the advice guys, look forward to hearing more :)

Joey
 
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