Possible upgrade?

Pighardia

Pighardia

Pighardia

Soldato
Joined
9 Jan 2011
Posts
17,987
Hi all.

I have had my current system for over 2 years now without any upgrades, and I was wondering if it is worth doing any upgrading I need to do now(whilst I can afford it!).

Here is my current system, mainly used for gaming:

Phenom x4 965be
Asus M4A89GTD PRO, AMD 890GX Socket AM3 DVI VGA HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
MSI Twin frozr 2gb 6950
Some cheap SSD
2x samsung F4s
Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU
Bluray drive

Is there any area that it would be worth upgrading atm? I am not really struggling in any games, but I don't find myself maxing them out anymore, and have occasionally had to put up with FPS that others probably wouldn't.
My first thought was that the best upgrade I could do would be a mobo/CPU swap...or is that not really needed?

Staying ahead of the curve is not a priority for me, but not falling behind is;)...budget will depend on getting something for the existing parts really, but a few hundred or there about is most likely

Thanks
 
Hi Pighardia. I'm pretty sure we built our systems around the same time although your issues are probably slightly less pronounced than my current ones (see sig rig).

This is what I've gone for as of this week:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
HD-158-SA_60.jpg
Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
MB-390-GI_60.jpg
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
(£94.16) £112.99
(£94.16)
MY-158-GL_60.jpg
GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
£471 total from OCUK.

Should put a bit of a dent in the framerate problems and I'm guessing others on here might recommend something in the same vein for you.
 
 
Knew I missed something out!...also has 8gbram:p

Tazzfalcon said:
snip
Click to expand...

Something along the lines of a sandybridge cpu/mobo combo for less than £300 would be interesting for me, taking into account getting something back for existing parts. If I could be persuaded that the upgrade was truly worth it

dacads said:
hmm that's still a decent setup I would probably wait till June when Intel release the new Haswell chips
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am in no hurry to upgrade tbh, just thought I would test the water, so to speak.

I have fallen into a trap:
1. Not upgrading for a while
2. Recently put together a Sandybridge set-up for a mate, and it is goooood!
3. Talk, mainly on here from people claiming bad performance in some new games with much better hardware, even though I don't really have that problem myself

;)

The idea of a 7950 is appealing simply because of the games that come with it, which I would either end up getting anyway, so it will save me money(Crysis 3, Tomb Raider) or already have on pre-order so can recoup a bit(Bioshock)
 
The only thing i would upgrade would be the graphics card. Is your cpu clocked? If not then a decent overclock would help a lot. The 3570k with it's ridiculous price hike is simply not worth it especially with Haswell and a new socket just around the corner.
 
The 7950 would be the cheaper option, would see a bigger increase in gaming performance than an i5 and 6950. Just get the card and if you feel the 965 is still holding you back, upgrade when funds permit.
 
pastymuncher said:
The only thing i would upgrade would be the graphics card. Is your cpu clocked? If not then a decent overclock would help a lot.
Click to expand...

not atm, used to be but I removed the OC for reasons that escape me now....BF3 possibly had problems with it on. I think that is certainly a step to take.

getting a decent price for my 6950 then getting a 7950 with a few games seems like an idea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom