Upgrade help

Poulter · 31 May 2013 at 19:08

Hello,
A friend is wanting to upgrade his computer, his current speccs are:

CPU: Intel 2500k @ 4.5Ghz
MOBO: ASUS P8P68 MPRO
RAM: 2x2GB @ 1600Mhz (1 in blue socket, 1 in black, second blue wouldn't post/possibly broken)
GPU: MSI 560ti 1GB
HDD: 1TB, unknown make
PSU: Corsair CX600
CPU air cooler is attached (Unknown make)
Case is an Antec 300
Resolution is 1920x1080
Windows 7 currently

He wants to play high-end FPS games like BF3 at high graphics.

His budget is £600-700

What would you guys suggest to upgrade?

Thanks for your help,
Poulter

Poulter · 31 May 2013 at 19:42

stulid said:
I would suggest a new GFX card like a GTX770 and a SSD to run the OS and games, then use the current HDD as a general purpose storage drive.

His MOBO only has PCIe2.0, would that make a difference with the newer GPUs?

Poulter · 31 May 2013 at 19:47

stulid said:
Nope, 1-2% at best performance loss.

Also are you sure the RAM shouldn't be in the same colour slots to get dual channel operation working? what does CPU-Z when you click on the memory tab.

Unfortunately it was impossible to get the screen to show anything with the RAM is the 'correct' slots, even when following guides to fix the issue.

Also the PSU only has 2x6 PCIe power connectors, will the GPU run with these?

CPU-Z says 800MHz and 2T for the RAM

Poulter · 31 May 2013 at 19:54

stulid said:
Your opening post says second blue wont work, what about in both black slots?

On the CPU-Z memory tab, at the top right is a section saying "channels" is it showing single or dual?

It depends on the card, if it requires a 8pin and 6pin, then it wont work.

It says single channel, I'm guessing that's bad. We have not tried the two black sockets yet on the MOBO.
Okay could be the need for a new PSU too if the new cards require it.

Poulter · 31 May 2013 at 20:01

stulid said:
Are you sure the PSU only has 2 X 6pin PCI-E connectors? can you physically check as I've just looked at the first review of a Cx600 I Googled and it shows 2 X 8pin (6+2pin)

Now i'm confused, I can see two sets of 6+2 (6 pins with 2 in the same wire but hanging out not connected to the 6 pin) but he already has a GPU connected.

Poulter · 31 May 2013 at 20:26

stulid said:
The 6+2 join together to make up a 8pin PCi-E, so a GTX770 that needs a 8pin and a 6pin PCI-E will work.

edit..your other concern is the amount of physical room available in the case to accept long gfx cards.

I've read that it can fit 279mm

Poulter · 31 May 2013 at 20:34

wazza300 said:
you can try the good working ram stick in the bad blue slot,see if it boots up,

if it does then you have a faulty ram stick rather than the slot

That's a good idea, will try that later but CPU-Z does say it's running 4GB :s Very confusing! (Using 1 in blue, 1 in black, still saying single channel)

Poulter · 31 May 2013 at 22:23

We will try this later tonight!

Poulter · 1 Jun 2013 at 13:59

Still haven't gotten round to trying out the RAM yet, but as parts go, what would you recommend?