Upgrade Advice

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20 Jun 2006
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i have literally been agonising over an upgrade to my current pc since July on and off (mostly off). Something always seems to come along and make me put it off for a few more months.

It still seems to cope with bf4 quite admirably, which is why I am now leaning towards a 2 step upgrade where i replace the graphics card first before replacing the cpu and motherboard etc later on in the year.

This is my current spec which is used in a dual monitor setup for gaming mainly, with the odd bit of development.

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366)
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA775)
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD 2560MB GDDR5
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W ATX2.2 Modular SLi Compliant Power Supply
Coolermaster Storm 'Scout' Gaming Case
Samsung 840 Series Pro 256GB SSD
CORSAIR CMX12GX3M3A1600C9 12GB (3 x 4GB) (one stick failed so down to 8GB)

would just the graphics card give me a performance boost or is it time to just bite the bullet and go Haswell?

in total I have around about a £1k budget for a complete rebuild but, looking to spend no more than 300-350 on the graphics card (mainly because i'm resigned to having to replace the case and psu).

Appreciate any input in advance as always.
 
8gb Ram is perfect for gaming, anymore is kinda wasted in all honesty, i have 16gb and notice no difference if i run 8 or 16.

If your lobbing £300-350 at a GPU, then your choice is either going to be 280x, Reference 290, or this week only offer on an Nvidia 780 at £360. Which unless your going to get the 290 is the better option, and as someone who owns a reference 290, you will probably want a non ref version as they are cooler and quieter but cost around £380.

Rest of your systems fairly decent and most can be used for your next build. I would look at spending the rest on a 4770k and a decent z87 mobo, check if your psu is haswell compliant as that might need an upgrade (definitely will need upgrading if you want to run a 290 btw)

Not sure if your cooler is compatible with an 1150 (1155) mobo, so cant comment there.

Case is a cosmetic choice but can also dictate cooler choice too.
 
No need to upgrade to Haswell as of yet, that i7 is still decent. If you want a new graphics card, go for a GTX 780 or an R9 290 to boost your performance.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x OC Rev2.0 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N780OC-3GD) £399.95
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 780 Lightning LE 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £389.99
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 780 Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
Total : £1,489.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
Appreciate the responses guys, seems to be a choice between the 780 or the r9 290. The last time I replaced the gpu I had a few issues with my case (card length) so may need to find a suitable replacement and possibly a decent psu. I'm guessing I should be looking at a good quality 750w?
 
If you are going to do SLI in the future, then go for about 800/850w, but otherwise 600/650W should be more than enough
 
Few cases and PSUs

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £129.95
1 x Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Silverstone Strider Plus 750W Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply (ST75F-P) £109.99
1 x Antec P280 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £99.95
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Black £99.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black/White (CC-9011013-WW) £99.95
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £89.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced USB3.0 Dominator Case - Black £85.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £73.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
Total : £1,121.96 (includes shipping : £43.60).

 
Your case will fit GPUs up to 270mm - the MSI 780 Gaming is 266mm (not to mention a bargain at £360).

Your PSU will be absolutely fine unless you have reason to believe it is faulty.
 
Last edited:
Fulax said:
Your case will fit GPUs up to 270mm - the MSI 780 Gaming is 266mm (not to mention a bargain at £360).

Your PSU will be absolutely fine unless you have reason to believe it is faulty.
Click to expand...

+1

The be quiet psu's are top quality. But If you want to xfire/sli then you will need something with a bit more muscle.
 
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