Gaming PC upgrade...Where to go from here.

Ironmalk

Ironmalk

Ironmalk

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13 Apr 2013
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Hi guys,

Brand new to this forum. This is my first post (hope I put it in the right place).

I am considering an upgrade for my gaming pc, however I am unsure on what would be the best 'area' of my pc to upgrade. Here are my current specs:-

Intel i7 950 3.07ghz (OC'd to 3.9)
12 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR 3 Ram (not OC'd)
P6X58D-E Motherboard
Corsair H50 water cooling for the CPU
Corsair HX850W power supply
HAFX tower case
MSI GeForce GTX 680 (not OC'd)
Western Digital 1TB Hard Drives x2
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

I understand I could go down the SSD route but I would need a 500gb ssd as my C drive. Then theres the storage drive, my 'E' drive. Although, if it is the SSD's that would achieve my goal of increased gaming performance then so be it.

The option I am thinking is to maybe upgrade the CPU and motherboard.
Possibly a 3rd gen i7-3770k.

My questions are these as the primary goal is to increase gaming performance (not that I don't get good performance now, it's been approx a year since my last purchase and feel an upgrade is on the cards).

Does the above CPU comfortably clock to 4.5ghz?
What motherboard would be required?
Is the Motherboard and CPU the next logical choice in upgrading my system? If so would I need to upgrade the cpu cooler?
What do you more experienced guys think?

I have about £500 ( a little more maybe if I don't tell the wife! :) ) Spend it for me guys! :)

All the best guys
Ironmalk
 
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You're current PC looks fine, I would wait until June/July for Haswell to be released and the new socket.

In the mean time, I'd whack an SSD in there.
 
Thank you buddy. Much appreciated. Could you recommend a 'preferred' make of ssd or is it all down to personal preference as they all really do the same thing?
 
Samsung 840 pro made a huge difference with gaming for me loading times are a lot quicker and the ssd itself is great no issues read 540 mb/s write 520 mb/s on sata 3 6gb rock solid ssd
 
The Samsung pro's are very good, great choice.

Id wait til haswell and get a new CPU, mobo, ram and CPU cooler.. Will keep you going for a fair while. :)
 
you could wait til haswell but tbh for an i7 and a new z87 motherboard its going to be about 400-450+ quid and you'll have to wait 2 months until it comes out. you will gain maybe a 5-10 percent increase in performance and a better igpu but you have a 680...you dont need a good igpu if you did want to upgrade now you could get a 3770k and a new mobo your ram will fit the motherboard aswell
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £279.95
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
Total : £551.32 (includes shipping : £9.50).


3770k with ssd
 
Thanks for that Lep. So 2 months only to gain a 5-10% increase. Seems a lot of cash for little gain. Tell me bud is the Mount Doom cooler enough if I OC the i7-3770k to 4.5ghz? If I go down that road coupled with a sexy ssd Im good for at least a year I imagine.
 
Lep, we don't offically know the pricing yet, so you can't really base a decision on that. When it is confirmed (if it does end up being a lot more) leps spec is very good..

The Mt Doom, Is around the same as my D14 and at 4.5Ghz, it doesn't break a sweat, always under 60C.
 
Thanks for that guys it is much appreciated. So as you say Doom the price isnt confirmed but the gain is still 5-10% as Lep suggested. So the thinking is upgrade now with Leps suggestion and in a few years there will be a much larger performance gain percentage as opposed to upgrading every year or so.

So with that in mind I feel that Im not losing out by upgrading to the i7 3770k now and not waiting for Haswell.
 
Ironmalk said:
Thanks for that guys it is much appreciated. So as you say Doom the price isnt confirmed but the gain is still 5-10% as Lep suggested. So the thinking is upgrade now with Leps suggestion and in a few years there will be a much larger performance gain percentage as opposed to upgrading every year or so.

So with that in mind I feel that Im not losing out by upgrading to the i7 3770k now and not waiting for Haswell.
Click to expand...

You're right.

If haswell was going to be the Ivy it would have made sense to wait, better performance for the same price but that doesn't seem yo be the case... (although not confirmed)..

In 2-3 (maybe more) years time your rig will still be capable as much as any haswell rig and by then they should be a much bigger increase of performance from Skymount or Excavator (or whatever it'll be)..
 
although doom does make a good point i do not know that the price will be 450 but i am assuming using current pricing and adding a bit on beacuase it will be brand new but the 5-10% performance gain is to be expected
 
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