Cheap upgrade time (max £300)

Shashman

Shashman

Shashman

Associate
Joined
7 May 2012
Posts
426
Location
Bournemouth
Currently:

i5 2550k CPU
EVGA GTX 670 ftw GFX
Geil 8 GB DDR3 Black Dragon RAM
OCZ Vertex 4 240GB SSD
OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD
Asrock H77 Pro4-M Mobo.
Corsair HX620 PSU
Jonsbo Micro ATX case

It's been about 5 years since my last minor upgrade and even that was with second parts.
It runs the games I play well (World of Warships mainly but some Ghost Recon Wildlands, Fallout 4, Subnautica and a few others occasionally) but it's slowly but surely on its way out.

Poor thing has done me proud!

The catch is my budget is around £300 so I'm thinking new SSD, graphics card and PSU (as this one has to be at least 6 years old. Fair play!) should do me fine. I don't game half as much as I used to but I'd like to be able to get back into titles like ArmA III and whichever decent new game catches my eye and be able to run them decently.

Now I've been out of the game for years (I think my last post on here was about 4 years ago??) so I'm not too clued up but I've been doing a bit of digging and researching and I'm considering getting myself a second hand 970 or 1060 which can be had for around the same amount? How about a 1050?

Considering how well and how long the current components have (and still do for the most part, tbf) served me, I'm thinking this upgrade should see me through at least another couple of years?
 
Thanks for the input mate!

I must admit, I haven't even considered going red. My last red card was a 4870X2 and I have no idea what the balance of power is at the moment haha!

Edit: I'm surprised about the PSU. I was expecting people to have kittens reading how old it is :D

Edit 2: Seen a few 970 and 1060 Mini ITX cards within my budget here and there. Quite like the idea of them. Haven't seen any mini ATi (bloody hell, or is it AMD these days??) graphics cards?
 
Thanks for the suggestion.

Definitely planning on selling the 670 FTW. It's still a decent card to be fair. How much do you reckon it would be worth? It's just loud and hot, so not really suitable for my case which is also why I'm leaning towards a small card.

I'll look into that Vega 56, however I'm a bit apprehensive about spending that amount on a graphics card if I'm honest.

Edit: http://www.cooltek.de/en/jonsbo/u-series/92/u3
This is my little case btw http://www.cooltek.de/en/jonsbo/u-series/92/u3
 
Shashman said:
Thanks for the suggestion.

Definitely planning on selling the 670 FTW. It's still a decent card to be fair. How much do you reckon it would be worth? It's just loud and hot, so not really suitable for my case which is also why I'm leaning towards a small card.

I'll look into that Vega 56, however I'm a bit apprehensive about spending that amount on a graphics card if I'm honest.
Click to expand...

GTX 670, if it's in good condition and have the box etc. for it £50 maybe a bit more, especially with it being an EVGA model.

Well, I only mentioned it since you get the games, and it will give you a good scope for not having to change it for a good while. If you are primarily playing games on your system, the best thing you can do is give the GPU a significant boost, and the Vega 56 is great value, and if you ever bought a new monitor you can take advantage of Freesync with will make the card last even longer. :)
 
No box unfortunately (I got it second hand) but Ok cheers for that, I'll try and flog it for around 50.

I'm not even going to pretend to know what Freesync is haha!

If you were to classify the 970 (which I can get in Mini ITX format), 1060 and 1050 (also Mini ITX), Rx 580 and Vega 56, how would the chart look?
 
Shashman said:
Damnit, now I'm slowly sliding down that upgrade rabbit hole.

I've started looking at swapping out my i5 2550k for a better 1150 CPU now :rolleyes::rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Well you want to be looking at 1155, not 1150 or you are gonna be in for s surprise. :p

If you want low power, quiet and small card, at a reasonable cost the GTX 1060 6GB is a good shout - if you run them at about 70% of their power target you lose hardly and performance and the fans will barely turn on even when playing a game.
 
Oops, yes that's what I meant :cool:

So now the focus has kind of swayed towards GPU + SSD + possibly 1155 CPU :rolleyes: :D

Keeping in mind the budgetary constraints, do you think a 1060 + SSD + 1155 upgrade would see me out for a couple of years?

Sorry for all the questions, it's literally only been 3 days since I've started looking into this upgrade. My hardware knowledge is still in 2012 haha :confused:
 
Don't get the 56 @Shashman , I'd of suggested it if I thought your PSU could take it! 99% sure it can't, which is a shame as they're good cards :(

Don't bother changing the cpu, go for a gfx card update and then in a couple of years when you do a total refresh you can take the 1060/580 with you :)
 
Also note that the 1060 is better for power considerations as it drinks less than the 580 at about the same performance. Def get the 6GB one (I've had one as a temp card, was v impressed with it).

edit - Also see this bit about your case, keep it in mind;

Maximum length of VGA cards 260 mm


With such a small case I'd go with a 1060, it'll give off less heat.
 
Thanks for the suggestions JF!

Max VGA card length for my case is actually less than that. In order to be able to fit the 670 ftw, I had to remove the backplate then slide it back in after the card was slotted in. And yes, thermal properties are a big factor with this case.

I was considering a 3770k if I find one going for a good price?

I'm almost certainly going to go for a 1060. I've seen them going for around 130 second hand.

Oh yeah and I can stretch my budget to around 400 now :) Any changes with this in mind?
 
Yeah I get what you mean. Maybe I'm just getting carried away.

2550K is not overclocked. I have an H77 motherboard so thought it wasn't possible? Must admit, I've never really overclocked and certainly don't know how to now :confused: ... This forum needs an embarrassed emoji! :D
 
I'm just going to throw another spanner in the works here and re-suggest the rx580. It performs much better than a 1060 in most new games, has 2Gb more VRAM, is nearly £30 cheaper and you also get the 3 games with it. If they are not games you want, sell them and essentially you'd be picking up the gpu for like 150 quid. It consumes more power but it's still just a 185w tdp card. You won't notice any difference using it over a 1060 when it comes to electricity money.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £475.48 (includes shipping: £10.50)
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