I come bearing a challenge! (Upgrading computer... :D)

[Bilbocard]

£20 is pretty cheap, i'm sure you could make more...(not much though)

I think, for you, in your situation the 8350 and 7850 or 7870 XT (which is basically a 7950) + and SSD would be the best thing you could do..

the 8350 and 3570k are pretty simular, may be the i5's a bit better but it's more hassle to upgrade...



@Martin1991: I've been reading his old thread No one told him to get a 4100, they were suggesting i3's and pentiums.. Though one guy helped him pick a AM3+ Motherboard.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaa I guess so.

Also, I don't like Intel, I've never liked Intel, I never will like Intel, Intel will never be able to buy my bottom. That is probably why I went with AMD.

When you're struggling in games, is your CPU maxed out (either all cores, or a single core?). What's your memory usage at the same point?

If you're not maxing your CPU (or a single core in the case of single threaded games), and have memory to spare, then you don't need to overclock/upgrade your CPU yet. If you are maxing the CPU, then you're probably bottlenecking your graphics card.

Looking at it, it's likely that your GPU is causing the problems - the 550 falls a bit short when it comes to FarCry 3 etc, whereas a 3.6gHz quad shouldn't be close to struggling yet.

IMO, check the CPU+RAM usage when games are struggling. Assuming it's neither CPU or GPU, get the card recommended. If the CPU/RAM are struggling, you'll need a heftier upgrade (although with £3-400 and the ability to sell the old components, you'll still easily be able to afford it)

Don't buy the SSD just yet. It's a really nice upgrade to have, but other than loading times it doesn't affect gaming too much. The last thing you want to do is buy an SSD then realise that you'd really prefer to have that £90 towards CPU/RAM/Motherboard. Get the gaming right first - if the GPU solves your gaming problems then by all means buy an SSD.

I'll skip the SSD then, probably go for 8GB RAM instead. I know the RAM and the GPU max out when in games.

 

[Bromhead]

I'd probably just go with card upgrade and ram upgrade to 8gb instead of 4gb. I wouldn't think your current cpu is struggling, I'd save that upgrade for this time next year and go with a new cpu