Four year old rig - which bit to upgrade?

9TurningMirrors

9TurningMirrors

9TurningMirrors

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With TL2, GW2 and D3 arriving soon I feel the need to upgrade my 19" monitor to a 24". Thing is my PC is beginning to show its age. Game loading times are getting longer, as is the machine's general responsivenessand I think that the extra screen size will only cause things to worsen.

While I would love to upgrade my gpu and board, chip, RAM I am can really only afford one or the other at the moment.


My gpu is a BFG 8800gtx (already baked from the dead once). E8400, p5q board and 4GB RAM (not over clocked).

With a budget of roughly £300 which would likely give me the biggest performance increase, bearing in mind I should have a similar amount to upgrade the other components in 3-4 months.

Thank you.
 
I'd probably bag a second hand Q6600 along with a decent cooler, overclock it to 3.4Ghz and then spend the rest on a decent GPU.

Or you could maybe just about get something like a Radeon 6850, cheap s1155 board, i3 CPU and 8Gb of DDR3 for about £300.

The latter would give you a much better upgrade path, but the first option probably more performance.
 
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Ah, sorry, wasn't too clear. I'm looking at spending £300 now and then another £300 a few months from now.

GPU wise I've been looking at either a 7850 or a GTX 560ti 448 edition (I'd need to get a new PSU)
 
I'd upgrade platform (cpu/mobo/ram) next week when Ivybridge arrives. Then in a few months buy a new GPU with the £300, By that time the 660ti/670 will be out and hopefully prices will have come down a bit on others.
 
Personally with £300 I would get a new psu and a new graphics card.

XFX Pro 650W Core Edition £65.00
GTX 560TI / GTX 570 circa £230

Then when you saved up another £300 buy an i5 2500K/Z68/8gb of ram ,circa £310

You could do it the other way around but if you're going to buy some decent kit, get a decent psu first.

Oh and clock the E8400 until you upgrade platform, sure they do 4ghz+.
 
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I would do the GPU and PSU first aswell, especially if your current GPU has had to be "revived".

The 7850 is a good mid range GPU with its 2GB of VRAM. I'll add a link so you can compare GPUs and find something that suits your needs/budget later.

In regards to the PSU yes a branded one would be recommended. Modular cables are nice but will add to the cost of the unit. If you have a feeling you might be tempted to dual card (Xfire/SLI) you need to take this into account now and make sure the PSU has enough juice to run two of your chosen GPUs.

With Ivybridge due so soon you might as well hold out and we can spec you with the offers that are on at the time :)

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=547
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £209.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £62.99
Total : £284.98 (includes shipping : £10.00).




With a bit of money left over for the rest later.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £101.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x Akasa AK-CC4007EP01 Nero 3 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/2011/AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) £21.98
Total : £349.31 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Prices will change as well. Probably save on the GPU a little, and maybe the CPU. CPU cooler can be put later too (cuts £25).
 
I would deffo consider a 120Gb SSD. You'll see an instant response to OS load times and primary games.
 
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