To upgrade or to build a new system?

PSGamer

PSGamer

PSGamer

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15 Nov 2008
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93
Hello!

Im currently umming and ahhing about a new computer... to be honest its partly sparked by the 4K TVs coming out... but I fear that it is a little early to start investing in 4k monitors and the like (I do currently have 3 1920x1080 monitors so i'm hardly struggling for resolution!!) But My computer's feeling a little sluggish... I still haven't made the hop over to a SSD so that something i'm thinking about. Basically I want to try and upgrade it so it'll play things like Assassin's creed Unity/current gen games without too much trouble on max/near max settings... I'm thinking of building a brand new computer but as this was my first real proper build (With a decent graphics card and stuff.) I dont wanna just resign it to the scrapheap as it were. Here are my current specs:

MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 3.2GHz
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 2x4GB DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
2 TB Hard drive that i cant seem to remember the brand of but it's 7200rpm.

I'm thinking of changing to a SSD and using the 2TB HD for storage definitely... and my other question would be if I were to update to a more current graphics card, how much would the outdated CPU/Mobo/Ram bottleneck it? I could upgrade the CPU/Ram too... but again would it be worth it over building new?

Any and all replies are much appreciated!
 
You certainly need a new GFX card. 4K demands a lot of GFX horse power to run.

A new CPU+board would be good too, you can keep your RAM as thats fine and 8Gb is plenty for gaming. Depending on which GFX card you get it will be more than likely your CPU will be the bottleneck.

What case+PSU do you have? do you have a budget? are all your drives SATA? do you have a 64bit operating system?
 
Hello, I'm not definately going 4k, but at minimum i'd be running 3 monitor (5760x1080 at the moment)

I have a Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case (Which I want to change anyway) and a Corsair CX600 PSU.

I was looking at going up to about £500 ish, my drives are all sata and I do have a 64 bit OS.

Thanks for the quick reply!
 
Well you can keep the case+PSU for the time being and spend everything on CPU/Board+GFX card.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £272.98
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £72.98
Total : £495.95 (includes shipping : ).



The GFX card has,

Dual-link DVI-I x 1
HDMI x 1 (version 1.4a)
Mini DisplayPort x 2
Click to expand...

So check you can hook up your monitors to it.
 
Thanks very much!

Would there be a severe bottleneck just adding the GPU? Just curious!

and yes those ports would be fine for my monitors.
 
Yes, you CPU will be he weakest link.

The i5 4690K will obliterate your CPU in games and benchmarks.

The other option is go for an 8core AMD piledriver which will free up a ton of cash for a much greater GFX card,


YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 780Ti "NVIDIA Reference" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £249.95
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320E Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £109.99
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £72.98
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £52.99
Total : £485.92 (includes shipping : ).



A £15 heatsink would be good too for this as the stock AMD item is a bit noisy.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black £14.99
Total : £14.99 (includes shipping : ).

 
I really appreciate the help!

Tempted to go with the AMD... after a little googling it seems that there's quite the debate between these too but I feel like the much better graphics card may make the amd route better.... Thanks again!
 
And make sure you don't squeeze the SSD out in favour of spending more on the other components - you describe your PC as being sluggish. An SSD will get rid of this problem in loading and Windows (though of course won't make your fps any higher) and will make your whole system much more of a pleasure to use.
 
Okay, thinking of biting the bullet sometime next week so I can build it on during the may day week, going to venture into overclocking properly this time also since i have a few days to just sit and fiddle!

I'm definitely thinking of going up in price to allow me to get the 780ti and the 4690k bundle, if I were to put my budget up to 700-800, would it be worth looking at something different in terms of graphics card/processor (perhaps a ram upgrade?) at all or would the performance increase be negligible to the point where I might as well buy a new case instead? Got my eye on the NZXT 340 you see....

I appreciate any feedback! apologies for the indecision.. its a little baffling with all the options available!
 
Before next Wednesday certainly!

looking like this so far:

WamoFhA.png
 
Last edited:
So the CPU+board bundle remains the same.

Your RAM is fine.

Your PSU should still be fine with this power hungry card.

the BX100 256Gb SSD is still a good buy.

So that leaves the case+cooler.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £277.98
1 x Asus Radeon R9 290X ROG Matrix 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (MATRIX-R9290X-4GD5) £249.95
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x NZXT Source 340 Midi-Tower Case - Red Window £59.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £687.90 (includes shipping : ).

 
No problem.

Also the case doesnt have space for a DVD rive in case you needed one go USB external.

Also I am half tempted to tell you to go and get a better PSU. I know you said it was a CX600, but do you know exactly what model/version of that it is?

CMPSU-600CX
CMPSU-600CXV2
75-001668 / CP-9020048
Click to expand...

There are three versions of it. Four if you count the modular one CX600M.
 
If it is then its lacking AMPS for 600W PSU.

40A on the 12V (there's a label on the side showing the specs).

Where as a good 550W PSU will have like 45A on the 12v rail while actually being rated 50W less.
 
Hm, the max amp on the 12v rail according to the box is 46A. Is the 45A you quoted average or maximum? I understand that its better to have headroom though!
 
If it says it 46A on the 12v then its a later CX PSU and fine.

45A on 12v is an approximate average to look for on PSUs around 550W range.
 
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