First time upgrading

Wiggz

Wiggz

Wiggz

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Joined
14 Aug 2012
Posts
14
Hey all,

I'm looking to upgrade my PC for the first time. In the past I've always bought prebuilt systems, so this is kinda daunting to me! Here are my current specs:

Case: Antec 300
Motherboard: H55M-UD2H
CPU: i3 530 (currently overclocked to 3.3ghz)
GPU: Radeon HD 5770
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance
PSU: 650w (not sure on the model)
Resolution: 1680 x 1050

I was looking to upgrade my graphics card as I assumed that would give me the biggest boost, but I also understand that my processor isn't that great. So am I right in thinking I should upgrade my graphics card, or would it be better to upgrade my processor first?

Any recommendations for a GPU (or CPU if that should be my priority) will be much appreciated. My budget is around £200 - £250 at the moment, and I'll mainly be playing games like Guild Wars 2, CS:GO, BF3 etc. I don't do any video editing or anything like that, just gaming.

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
A 7950 is within your budget, it would be a good upgrade in terms of performance. But it may bottleneck your processor, so not unlocking its true performance. Alternatively a 7850 would be a cheaper upgrade that may not cause so much bottlenecking.

You should try to find out more details on the PSU as sometimes the PSUs in prebuilt systems are of poor quality, not something you want to attach a £200+ graphics card to.
 
Hi and welcome to the forums. :)

As above, we really need to know the make and model of the psu. If you open the side of the case it should be written on the side of the psu.

If you upgrade your cpu then the only option you have without changing sockets is to drop in a i5 750/760 or i7 860/870. Personally i would overclock your current cpu more. You should get it to 3.8ghz easily enough with a half decent cooler. This should also reduce the bottleneck on a new graphics card.

Other than that you would need a new motherboard to go for a ivybridge cpu and that's going to set you back the best part of £300 for a half decent board and a i5 3570k.
 
Thanks for the help guys :)

I'm almost certain the PSU is an OCZ ZS 650W. I'm at work at the moment so I'll have to double check when I get home. Would that PSU be good enough?

I did think about trying to overclock this CPU a bit more seeing as when I got this system it was overclocked to 4.2ghz (I bought it from overclockers.co.uk) but for some reason it reset itself back to 2.9ghz. I'll have a look around and see if I can work out how to overclock it a little more. The cooler on the processor is an "Akasa Venom".

I'll check out the suggested graphics cards, any particular recommendations?
 
Yeah, I'll definitely be looking to upgrade my processor eventually.

I'll check out those graphics cards. Thanks for the help guys :)
 
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