Go the upgrade urge...

[Jono8]

Good morning fine people of OCUK

I have started to get the "upgrade urge" and was wondering if now is a good time to do it? I currently i have an I5 2500k (running @4.3GHZ) on a MSI P67A-GD53 with a GTX 480.

Now, it does most things i ask of it very well and the 480GTX still seems to play everything i throw at it without much trouble.

My only real annoyances are:

A. Mechanical hard drives - i think i would like some fast boot up,short load time, solid state goodness.

B. It is noisy. My case fans are noisy, the GTX 480 is noisy (as i have it overclocked and therefore a loud fan profile set) and im thinking i would like to go pretty silent next upgrade,maybe even watercooled. I have also recently moved to a small flat so my pc is in the living room with the TV so the quieter the better.

To fix these things though requires lots of tinkering and also, reinstalling windows e.t.c ( i have a copy of Windows 8 still in it shrink wrap so might go the Windows 8 route as well), so i figure i may as well upgrade other stuff whilst i'm there.


Is there anything CPU/GPU (excluding SLI/XFIRE ofcourse) wise that will knock spots off my current set up?

Will there be loads of new tech coming up after March/April so should i wait?

Budget wise, i guess around the £500 mark. Maybe more if i can sell what ive got for fair money. the parts i would keep, would be the case, power supply(corsiar 620w),optical drives,maybe the memory depnding on what platform i upgraded to.

Any thoughts/advice would be most appreciated.


Edit: Title should say "Got"

 

[Jono8]

Thanks for the input guys

I am going to have to wait for decent SSD to drop to near £100 though because i let one of those M4's at £100 go in the lightning deals last November thinking i didnt need it so i cant actually bring myself to spend much more than £100 on one . they do drop occasionally still so i will wait it out.

Would a 7950 be that much of a step up performance wise compared to my 480GTX? I know it will be quieter and use less power.

Those SP120 fans look tasty though.

I was only going to go Windows 8 because i bought a physical copy while it was on offer for £25 and if im installing an all new windows set up i though i may aswell.

 

[Jono8]

The graphics card would be a great improvement from what you have at the moment, it will definately add some oomph to the system. Only thing that would hold it back slightly would be the CPU, however if you did decide to get a bigger/better heatsink you could overclock a tad more to get some performance increase but that's just an opinion.

Regarding Windows 8, I'd recommend it to everyone and anyone, it's great to use, and once you get used to using 3 extra keyboard shortcuts, Metro becomes the best thing ever, shortcuts for games/apps/emails is so damn useful! & Like I said, I can boot in around 4 seconds! It's worth it especially if you have it spare, and even if you don't like it, just use the desktop and download a third party start button and you have the best of both worlds!

EDIT: Also, what case do you have? Those fans are definitely worth installing!

I have a gigabyte aurora 570. It is old, but it is big and i like the look of it so i don't really think its worth changing. I might, as has been suggested, swap the fans out for something better.

In terms of graphics cards i have heard rumours that the Nvidia refresh is coming in March so maybe it might be best to wait it out till then as it is only a month?

 

[Jono8]

Thanks. The case is a black one and not silver, and i think it will be fine.

SSD definitely seems the way to go (ARGH why did i not by the M4 in the amazon lightning deals!!) and those super quite fans look good. Can you use those fans as case exhaust/intake ones as well?

For the rest, i'm not sure. I defniitely would like a cooler running/quiter graphics card. The 480GTX has been a fantastic buy.£190 i paid two years ago and it is still going strong today! I do think its time for a change this year though.

I guess CPU wise there isnt anything at the moment (that isnt silly money) that is going to give huge gains in that area is there?