Slowly Upgrading

CRANMERJS

CRANMERJS

CRANMERJS

Associate
Joined
18 Jan 2013
Posts
6
I built my PC a few years back now and I'm wanting to upgrade it bit by bit. I was hoping someone could help me by telling me which hardware I should probably upgrade first and what should I upgrade it with? The build will be primarily used for gaming.

My current build is:
- AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
- ASUS M4A78 770 Socket AM2+ 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
- Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Kit CL5 1.8v
- OCZ Stealth XStream 600W PSU - SLI Ready ATX2.2 12cm Fan
- XFX HD 4870 1GB DDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

I'm not looking to spend mega amounts to upgrade I'm a student so I'm just looking to spend a moderate amount on each piece of hardware no more than around £250-£350 altogether.

I hope someone can help and thanks in advance.
 
Your cpu is still very capable and motherboard will still do the job buti believe you will see more benefit from the above upgrade.

Especially as gaming is gpu intensive.

The ssd is lightning fast compared to an mechanical hard drive.

If you are happy with your gaming performance then go for cpu , mobo upgrade.

What do you think ?
 
The 7850 is a good idea, though i think a CPU/motherboard upgrade may be a good shout. You Motherboard is pretty old, though your CPU is still pretty good.

You've got two options, as i see it:

Upgrade GPU and motherboard, to a AM3+ and save up for a 8320 (only good AM3+ CPU)

Or

Spend a bit more and get a 3570k, Z77 motherboard and 7850. (if your not wanting to overclock a B75/H77 motherboard will be fine and cheaper. :))

Personally i'd go with the second but the first is more wallet friendly. :)
 
mickyflinn said:
Personally i would get a new gpu and an ssd.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £85.99
Total : £247.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).



The gpu will give you about twice the performance of your 4870 and an ssd will give your system a great performance boost.
Click to expand...

Write speeds are really poor on that model, you'd need the pro version:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £119.99
Total : £128.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).



There is the Plextor also, a very good contender for the Samsung drives. Also, the 7950 would be better than the 7850:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
Total : £351.34 (includes shipping : £9.50).



UK RMA on Gigabyte products too!
 
Doomedspeed said:
The 7850 is a good idea, though i think a CPU/motherboard upgrade may be a good shout. You Motherboard is pretty old, though your CPU is still pretty good.

You've got two options, as i see it:

Upgrade GPU and motherboard, to a AM3+ and save up for a 8320 (only good AM3+ CPU)

Or

Spend a bit more and get a 3570k, Z77 motherboard and 7850. (if your not wanting to overclock a B75/H77 motherboard will be fine and cheaper. :))

Personally i'd go with the second but the first is more wallet friendly. :)
Click to expand...

Great Idea from the wise Doomspeed:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £35.99
Total : £307.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).



You could always try and either use your current graphics card or get a second hand 7850/7870/7950!

If you can push an extra £100, you can get the SSD too:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £35.99
Total : £407.32 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
CRANMERJS said:
Thanks for all the replies guys, I really appreciate it. I think I'm going to go with Doomedspeed's idea and then save for the SSD later on.
Click to expand...

Haswell is being released in the next few months,so unless you are really desperate I would get that as it is a new socket.

BTW,I would say an SSD is the biggest upgrade I felt for normal usage for years,and that is even after upgrading from a Q6600 to a Core i3 and then a Core i5.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
BTW,I would say an SSD is the biggest upgrade I felt for normal usage for years,and that is even after upgrading from a Q6600 to a Core i3 and then a Core i5.
Click to expand...

Agreed , that combined with a 7850 will be a a bigger performane hit than cpu mobo combo.

Quote - An ssd is a luxury

Not anymore, a big performance boost. I remember paying £174 for 64gb ssd and they are both working still.
 
Last edited:
CRANMERJS said:
Thanks for all the replies guys, I really appreciate it. I think I'm going to go with Doomedspeed's idea and then save for the SSD later on.
Click to expand...

Good choice. An SSD would be a good upgrade but with your current motherboard your limited to SATA 2 speeds so you'd only get half the performance of the drive.
 
But upgrading the CPU and mobo will be so costly and held back by the GPU whereas slotting an ssd and GPU will yield better frames per second and deliver a system that feels much more responsive.
 
For gaming, upgrading the GPU first would make a million times more sense. The 4870 will hold everything back if you upgrade to a new motherboard/CPU/RAM combo.

And then there is the issue of the OS licence being tied to your current motherboard if you have an OEM version.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom