Thinking about an upgrade..Help!

Timmeh82

Timmeh82

Timmeh82

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Joined
4 Apr 2018
Posts
21
Hey all, seems like a few years since I spent money on any components, and my rig isn't holding up as well as it used to in newer games.. my setup is as follows:

Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor
Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard
Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit X2
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo CPU Cooler
Corsair Carbide 200R ATX Case - Black
OCZ-PETROL 128Gb SSD
Seagate 3TB 3.5" SATA HDD

I'm surprised it's lasted me so long, although at the time it was a relatively expensive build. Any ideas on what I should upgrade? Would one of the newer Nvidia cards blow me away with it's performance compared to my current card? I could probably stretch to a 1060 if it would be a big performance boost in games?

From what I understand upgrading the CPU will in turn mean I need to buy new motherboard and ram. Is it worth it at this point? Or could I just get away with upgrading the GPU? Bearing in mind I built this in 2013!
 
Space Monkey said:
What PSU do you have?

From your current spec, I'd overclock the CPU (if it's not already) and upgrade the GPU to the best your happy to afford, so a 1060 would go great. If you then still want more then consider a new CPU/MOBO/RAM upgrade?

[EDIT] What monitor and resolution do you use?
Click to expand...

Thanks Space Monkey

Without cracking my case, I recall it's a Corsair 750w PSU. CPU isn't overclocked at the moment, but the CPU cooler I have is pretty good I suppose and it has been overclocked in the past.

Using a Samsung 330HS monitor, so running at 1080p no plans to go above that as yet.
 
Yeah sounds like a good plan guys, thanks. This 7950 is quite power hungry and loud right now :)

I'll probably stick with my bare bones and just upgrade the card. Any recommendation on which card in particular as in bang for buck right now?
 
Just remembered, I replaced the board with a cheap board when it failed about a year ago. Currently using this board: Asus B85M-E LGA1150 Motherboard

Guess that may change things, as it's a pretty crappy board and probably not capable of a good overclock?
 
Yeah, I've got £500 burning a hole in my pocket right now, so might go with the 1060 and a replacement board that I can overclock. Any recommendations for a good cpu cooler?
 
Cool. Can anyone recommend a good socket LGA1150 board that will overclock well? I'm guessing it will be an ebay jobbie, don't think you can buy that socket now on most sites :)

Also, my memory is 2133MHz but I've never got it to reach that for some reason.
 
lee32uk said:
Yeah any of the Asus ROG lineup are good. And that is the downside of 2nd hand parts unfortunately :( Any Z87 or Z97 is capable of overclocking though. Might be better trying to find a lower end board then you are not chucking good money on old tech.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's a good point. One of the ram slots on my board is knackard so I'm not running all x4 sticks of ram I have, only have 12Gb not in dual channel at the moment. Just want a board with x4 ram slots that will take a bit of overclocking. Oh, and be able to accommodate my cpu fan (it's pretty big!)
 
lee32uk said:
This one in the link below ? If so then it seems you can get a decent overclock on it. Maybe see if you can knock them down a tenner if buying from the auction site. Not sure what the price was when new, but it is an entry level board so probably around £70 - £80 price point I would have guessed.

https://www.eteknix.com/msi-z87-g43-lga-1150-motherboard-review/


**Just noticed the retail price on the last page of the review. Seems it was around the mid £80's**
Click to expand...

It looks similar to that but has some red detailing and is marketed as a gaming board. It's missing the IO plate, but I can deal with that for £60 :)

Here is what it looks like
600.png


Already placed my order. I went with the MSI Z87-G43 gamingboard, the EVGA 1060 6Gb SC and a bigger SSD (which is also quicker then my current one) had a bit of cash left, so also got me a 2Tb storage drive so I can bin my old ones off (SMART errors.. everywhere!)
 
Thanks for your help guys.

Hopefully I can get a new board, ram and cpu in the not too distant future. This should hold me out for a few months at least :)
 
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