Looking to upgrade

Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2006
Posts
8,245
Operating System: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz Sandy Bridge 32nm
RAM: 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z68P-DS3 (Socket 1155)
Display: LG ULTRAWIDE (2560x1080@60Hz)
Graphics: 3072MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (MSI Gaming Edition OC)
Storage: 223GB Crucial_CT240M500SSD1 ATA Device (SSD)
476GB Crucial_CT512MX100SSD1 ATA Device (SSD)
1863GB Western Digital WDC WD20EZRX-00D8PB0 ATA Device (SATA)
Case: Silverstone Grandia GD08
Power Supply: Seasonic G Series V2 G550 550W Modular

The above is my current system. I was running at a 1360 x 768 resolution using my old 32" Samsung LE32B450 TV but I've ugpraded to a LG 2560 x 1080 monitor and... well, things are running a bit slugish with the much higher resolution and everything is running hotter, so much more noisy. The PC is a few years old now other than a PSU and graphics card replacement last year, as well as a 512GB SSD to replace a broken 128GB model.

I'd really appreciate any help with the right parts I should be getting as I'm out of touch with current hardware and what's around the corner. I'll be looking to buy in around 2 weeks but I wanted to get everything nailed down as to what pieces I need. Budget is up to £1000 to bring it right up to date and future proof where possible.

Thanks!
 
Honestly?

That should not be struggling at 1080P, but...

Overclock that CPU (add a big heatsink if you aint got one) and sit tight till AMD release the 300 series and Nvidia bring that 980ti out in june/july.

Intel Skylake later in the year and Z170 chipsets.
 
That's still an awesome machine on paper. Maybe take it apart and clean the dust out of everything if it's getting a bit noisy. Buy a beefy heatsink for the CPU if you don't have one and overclock it to 4GHz+, then blow as much as you feel comfortable with on a new graphics card (probably worth waiting for both AMD's lineup and the 980 Ti at this point) and you'd not struggle to run anything for a couple more years at least.
 
Honestly?

That should not be struggling at 1080P, but...

Overclock that CPU (add a big heatsink if you aint got one) and sit tight till AMD release the 300 series and Nvidia bring that 980ti out.

I'm finding it's struggling. 45 FPS or so average at medium to high settings in Witcher 3 (which granted other than Diablo 3 is the only game I've played recently since getting a new screen). Hard drives are heating up to 57 - 60c, graphics card up to around 82c, CPU up to 80c. It's an HTPC case which may be where the heat issues are coming from, therefore noise issues, but with it struggling in Witcher 3 and that the majority of the system is over 3 years old I thought it would just be a case of it being time to upgrade?

That's still an awesome machine on paper. Maybe take it apart and clean the dust out of everything if it's getting a bit noisy. Buy a beefy heatsink for the CPU if you don't have one and overclock it to 4GHz+, then blow as much as you feel comfortable with on a new graphics card (probably worth waiting for both AMD's lineup and the 980 Ti at this point) and you'd not struggle to run anything for a couple more years at least.

Struggling with temperatures as well as game performance in Witcher 3, so I don't have any headroom for overclocking. Do you think it's at least worth moving away from an HTPC case and redoing the whole cooling to allow me to bump the CPU up? Or is it not worth it right now due to how close some other hardware is?
 
With you mentioning the 980ti is so close, do you think it's better to wait? Upgrading isn't a must if you don't think it's necessary, I just presumed with a chunk of the PC being old and it having difficulties at the new higher resolution that it might have been upgrade time.

Any cases/cooling that you could recommend? Happy to just upgrade the cooling and case for now if it allows me to fix the heat and noise problems and get a me more FPS for Witcher (and Batman soon) with a CPU overclock then I can push the full upgrade back a while.
 
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Thanks, I'll wait for the 980ti for the graphics card then as that is very close. I'd still like to get a little longer out of my CPU though and I'll need a new case and cooling set-up for that, so if you have any recommendations there I'd be grateful.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Case - Black £119.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Case - White £104.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H110i GT 280mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060019-WW) £99.95
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Black CPU Cooler £39.95
Total : £387.79 (includes shipping : £19.10 Ex.VAT).



Take a pick.

Im going to assume your RAM is low profile for the air cooler.

I checked the RAM and also watched some videos for the clearance and there's enough space so that's fine. Watched a nice video on that white edition case showing a full review and it seems great, so went for that one and also got the Alpenföhn Matterhorn but went for the white model instead (to match the case) and a spare Phanteks PH-F140SP case fan. Hopefully that'll let me get my CPU overclocked and keep me going for a while, and also sort out the heat / noise issues I've been having.

Thanks again for your help.
 
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