Time to upgrade! (Help!)

Emjay86

Emjay86

Emjay86

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2 Apr 2011
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Wales
Hey guys,

Its high time I start to upgrade my PC I think! Its been a good 3 years since I last did anything and as you can imagine its starting to flag a little!

Current Specs are: (copy/paste from Speccy)

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 2600K @ 3.40GHz 28 °C
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z68X-UD7-B3 (Socket 1155) 27 °C
Graphics
BenQ XL2410T (1920x1080@60Hz)
1535MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (EVGA) 29 °C
1535MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (EVGA) 28 °C
ForceWare version: 344.60
SLI Enabled
Storage
119GB M4-CT128M4SSD2 ATA Device (SSD)
931GB Seagate ST31000524AS ATA Device (SATA) 27 °C
465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AZRX-00A8LB0 ATA Device (SATA) 23 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS70 ATA Device
Audio
ASUS Xonar D2X Audio Device

Im currently looking at buying a GALAX GeForce GTX 970 "Hall of Fame Edition" in the coming days with an intention of further upgrading some other components after xmas.

My thinking was to upgrade my RAM next and ive recently read that DDR4 RAM is still considored overpriced for what you get back out of it and as such DDR3 is very much still the better option for bang for buck reasons.

Firstly is the graphics card choice a good choice with considoration of it going into a Corsair 800D (airflow?), secondly am I right about the RAM? Is it better for me to get DDR3 or would I be better looking at DDR4?

Also which RAM would be considored a good option.

Im looking to eventually get a gaming rig that can last another 2-3 years that is capable of running games at high graphical settings at a resolution of 1920x1080.

Any input is hugely appreciated!

Thanks in advance! :)
 
Last edited:
You will need a board upgrade to X99 for DDR4.

What CPU cooler do you have?

You have a very nice case so you will be of course fine with a GFX card upgrade.
 
stulid said:
You will need a board upgrade to X99 for DDR4.

What CPU cooler do you have?

You have a very nice case so you will be of course fine with a GFX card upgrade.
Click to expand...

Ah yes of course I forgot about needing a board upgrade for the DDR4. That in mind would it be worth it or could I get away with squeezing a few more years out of my current CPU with a new set of RAM sticks?

I have my CPU on a watercooling loop that is currently shared with my 2 580's but they will obviously disappear once I get the new card which would leave my CPU being cooled by a triple and single radiator, safe to say it will be overly watercooled! (I will start overclocking it from there I think).

Sugar I just realised its not a 900D its an 800D. I was thinking of getting the 900D once I upgrade a few of the 'essentials'. Sorry for miss-information, edited first post also!
 
All you need to do is overclock your current CPU, they do 4.5Ghz.

There is a thread somewhere that shows how to get a 2500K to 4.5Ghz on a different gigabyte board, but close enough that you should be able to use the same settings.

Do you want me to try and find it?
 
stulid said:
All you need to do is overclock your current CPU, they do 4.5Ghz.

There is a thread somewhere that shows how to get a 2500K to 4.5Ghz on a different gigabyte board, but close enough that you should be able to use the same settings.

Do you want me to try and find it?
Click to expand...

Thats fine ill find it, thanks for that.

What about the rest of the system? DDR3 RAM worth getting for the interim?

Im trying to balance out the fact that im currently moving houses and as such renovating my new one whilst being on a low income (I probably get around £100 per month spare to spend on my PC (That includes games!)).

Again feedback is much appreciated!
 
Keep your current RAM, its 8GB. Sure its not 2133+ RAM, but it is not an item that is in desperate need of being swapped out.
 
The GFX cards.

A GTX970 will be faster than even your SLI GTX580's

This is the closest comparison I can give you - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1355?vs=1185

The GTX590 is sort of 2x 580 on a single PCB.

The GTX970 is quieter, faster, more Vram (4Gb vs 1.5Gb, you do not double vram in SLI as both cards have the same data) newer features.
 
stulid said:
The GFX cards.

A GTX970 will be faster than even your SLI GTX580's

This is the closest comparison I can give you - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1355?vs=1185

The GTX590 is sort of 2x 580 on a single PCB.

The GTX970 is quieter, faster, more Vram (4Gb vs 1.5Gb, you do not double vram in SLI as both cards have the same data) newer features.
Click to expand...

Yea im looking forward to getting the 970.

Something I find interesting however is how on 'Shadow of Mordor' the high res textures apparantly don't 'activate' unless you have 6gb of Vram. Isn't that a bit strange considoring there are only 2 cards that have that capability? (Titan and Titan Z if im correct?).

Also I find it a little disappointing that SLI doesn't share VRAM. Considoring there isn't much support for SLI it kind of makes one wonder why bother getting it in the first place. It seems as time goes on less and less games are released that actually utilise the second card.
 
That shadow of modor game is an odd one. I have seen the results of peoples platforms in the GFX card sub forum.

I honestly wouldnt worry about it.
 
I have more a less the same system as you except I have a msi 970 I can play all my games at max settings at 1920×1200 so if I was you just upgrade your gpu and wait it out to see if any cpu 's come out that will make a massive difference. At the minute I don't think there is any cpu worth upgrading to
 
Thanks for the feedback ill put my pre-order in in a couple of days once my house purchase exchanges.

Thanks again for the help.
 
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