Decisions decisions

GIBURROWS

GIBURROWS

GIBURROWS

Soldato
Joined
13 Jan 2010
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The 'Shire'
I have an i3 overclocked to 4.0 with a 120GB SSD, 2 x 1TB F3's, an XFX Black edition 6870 and 16GB of RAM, it runs all my games very well (starcraft 2, BF3, GTA, Skyrim, Football Manager)

Would it be worth investing in a new PC, I could spend around 2k and then sell all this to make more funds but would I see any massive difference?
 
Because I'm an idiot who likes new things and enjoyed building my first PC so much I really want to do it again, I don't know for how long my Graphics card will be able to handle the games of the future. I'm sure I'm not the only one.........?
 
As Marky says, you have a nice PC there - so if it runs everything you play well then you may as well stick with it.

However, if you feel like a nice upgrade anyway and are willing to spend some money then you may want to shift the goalposts a bit and get a high resolution 2560x1440 monitor or a 120Hz 1080p monitor. Either of these will make your games look a lot nicer (though in different ways) and would require more graphics power to maintain good performance (assuming your current monitor is a 1200p 60Hz monitor or less).

Also, do you have a sound card and a good set of speakers/headphones. That is a nice upgrade you can make that will make your gaming and general PC experience a whole lot nicer.
 
I have a Logitech 5.1 system which I run from my motherboard which has Realtek 5.1 onboard and I have Plantronics headphones but sometimes plug my Shure 425's in there.

Monitor wise I have two Samsung p2350's.
 
GIBURROWS said:
Because I'm an idiot who likes new things and enjoyed building my first PC so much I really want to do it again, I don't know for how long my Graphics card will be able to handle the games of the future. I'm sure I'm not the only one.........?
Click to expand...

I know that feeling :p

If you have the money and it'll make you happy, then I say go for it :p But, you have a decent computer at the moment, I would say there is no reason to upgrade at the moment.
 
Ah, in that case a nice sound card would be a great upgrade. I would personally recommend a Xonar DX.

As for the monitors, have you considered adding a third 1080p monitor to create an eyefinity setup? If you did go down this road then you would be best upgrading to a new graphics card (or two) as a HD 6870 (or even two of them) wouldn't be able to handle very well the GPU and VRAM loads of a such a massive resolution.

Also, you mention you have an i3 dual core CPU, may I ask what model number it is? A nice and relatively simple upgrade (as you wouldn't need to change any software) would be to upgrade the CPU to a compatible i5 quad core CPU.
 
I was thinking about a 3rd monitor and it being 3D so I could see what all the fuss was but, then if I am upgrading the Graphics card and CPU I may as well go for the whole shabang and sell all the old lot no?

My head hurts!!!
 
Please bear in mind that if you go for a third monitor that is 3D then you will only be able to play games on that monitor if you are using the 3D mode. Also, if you want to use it in 120Hz 2D mode then you again will only be able to game on that single monitor - since the other 60Hz monitors can't keep up.

If you are happy with gaming on just the new monitor (with the other monitors used for desktop stuff perhaps) or setting the new monitor to 60Hz 2D for eyefinity then fair enough. Though if you want to play games across three monitors in 3D or 120Hz then you will need three new monitors.

If you are going down this route (where you will need a lot more graphics power) then selling the older parts does make sense. I wouldn't suggest selling the whole unit as you tend to get a lot less return that way compared to selling the parts individually.

May I ask what the full spec of your current system is?
 
Gigabyte H55 UD2H
I3 overclocked to 4.0 (stable)
1 x 60GB SSD
2 x 2TB Samsung F1's
16GB 1333 mhz RAM(pointless I know)
ATI Radeon HD 6870 XFX black edition
H50 water cooling
850w OCZ PSU

2x Samsung p2350
Logitech MX 55 revolution keyboard and mouse
Logitech 5.1 X540
 
Looks like a nice spec there.

Since your motherboard doesn't support proper SLI/CF then if you want to go for an high-end monitor setup with new graphics card(s) then a big overhaul would make sense.

Something like this Z77 board and this i5 3570K CPU would be good options. You can re-use your CPU cooler, PSU, HDDs, SSD and RAM (presumably it runs at 1.5V at 1333MHz).

Then add in some new graphics and the monitor option you want to go for.

That said, if you want to keep costs down then buying an i5 750 or 760 CPU for ~£80 second-hand will give you a nice CPU performance boost. Then replace the graphics card with a much more powerful single card. This option would still give you a big performance boost - but without spending nearly as much money.
 
Ok I will leave it for now, I think I need to stop coming on these forums and reading about other people buying and building new PC's and all the new stuff coming out!!

Damn you Overclockers!
 
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