Classic upgrade questions

[Bazippy]

I have a 1055t running on a ga-970a-ud3 (I think it's that I'm at work so can't look it up) gpu is a 7990 with a decent 850power supply. I'm wondering where to go next I know ideally cpu and mobo but I doubt I can do both together. My mobo could take a new cpu or the cpu could run on a new mobo and upgrade the cpu later on. Either way I'd probably get a closed loop watercooler for over clocking the new or old cpu.
Or maybe i should be sensible and save up for the full upgrade of mobo, cooler and cpu.
secondly I wish I could afford to and be bothered to do a full water setup to cool the gpu as well.

 

[Doomedspeed]

If you could jump to a 8320/8350 the money wouldn't be worth it, they are not much better than the 1055T.

I feel a CPU and motherboard upgrade would be you're best bet..

Assuming you have £150-£200, you should look for secondhand items like the 3570k and a Z77 motherboard to support it.

 

[matt_fsr]

You're heavily bottlenecking that 7990 with that CPU right now.

I can't give you hard and fast details, but a friend with a far older ATi 4870x2 (i believe) recently obtained a new Xeon CPU, and went for a board and RAM to match up with it - benchmarks and games show typically 30-50% improvements in FPS!

His old CPU was a Phenom, but one of the quad core ones.

I'd vote for the 3570k if you can find one second hand, its a cracking chip, got mine at 4.2Ghz without much effort on stock voltage.

 

[ShivP]

Yeah sounds like a good idea, Z77 board used with a 3570k or even a 3770k if you wanted to spend more

 

[Bazippy]

Thats basically what i had concluded! Might have to wait till later in the year.
The cpu is holding back the gpu but its not exactly spoiling gaming for me right now so itll not be painful untill something really pushes the system.
Do we recommend using a closed loop watercooling system?