Upgrade or Replace System?

learss · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:12

Hi all,

Need a bit of a helping hand. I bought a 'Titan Supersaurus' from OcUK back around 2010 and haven't upgraded anything since.

It has come to the time where I quite fancy a new setup but am unsure of whether to ditch the current one and buy a whole new system or whether I can just upgrade what I have now. Current specs:

Video Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 (build 10586) 64-bit

Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz

Intel Z77 Chipset

8GB DDR3 1600MHz

1TB HDD

60GB SSD

PC Power & Cooling 600w PSU

DX11 GFX, LG DVD-RW, Asus Xonar DG 5.1, Prolimatech Panther CPU Cooler

My initial plan was to simply upgrade to GPU to a 1070 and throw in 16gb's of RAM but am wondering whether it will be bottlenecked by the other components at all?

Also, I'm looking for a new monitor and have seen that a lot of the ultrawide monitors that are freesync and way less expensive than gsync and there are far more of them to choose from. Could I pop an AMD GPU into my current setup to take advantage of that or am I constricted to Nvidia in some way?

LASTLY (long post, many questions, I can only apologise), my current setup is pretty God damn loud. How easy is it to reduce that with fan replacement's etc or is it more to do with the case itself?

Quick Edit: I'm looking at spending £500 on a new system if need be, otherwise just the cost of a 1070 plus some RAM for upgrades. Budget mainly down to wanting to spend £500 on a b.e.a.utiful monitor

System is also primarily for gaming so with the new monitor looking to achieve some pretty demanding ultrawide, 21:9 gaming on the usual AAA games hence why I'm looking at a 1070

Thanks for any help guys, after typing this up I'm leaning towards just buying a new system and perhaps selling what I can of this for parts rather than trying to upgrade GPU, RAM, fitting new fans etc but would really like to hear some more informed opinions.

Cheers

wedrum · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:15

a 1070 is the way to go, are you overclocking the 2500k ?

learss · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:22

a 1070 is the way to go, are you overclocking the 2500k ?

Hey, just had a look in the BIOS and it has an adjusted ratio of 45 so running at 4500 MHz

wedrum · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:23

4.5ghz is still plenty for gaming, upgrade to the 1070 and enjoy the nice boost.

s452 · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:26

upgrade the graphics card, and if you have some spare change, maybe upgrade the SSD to something bigger than 60GB so you can have more programs on the SSD

Stazbumpa · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:27

I'm running the next generation chip from yours and I'm not planning to upgrade my internals until after January next year. I'm not sure bottlenecks are going to be a specific problem for you yet, although I stand to be corrected on this. Your mobo chipset and RAM is identical to mine and I doubt they need replacing right now.

Have you got a budget for a new rig?

Graphics card is a definite upgrade, and if you're going for a 1070 (good choice btw) a super wide monitor might not be your best bet but a good 1440p regular wide would run really well. The thing about Nvidia at the moment is that are just superior to AMD regardless of G-Sync.

As for noise, if you're not going for a new full rig then buying some quieter fans is a quick and cheap fix. My old rig used to sound like a helicopter taking off.

I would also get a 500Gb SSD, your mobo should have a 6GB/s port for it to plug into.

TL;DR: Upgrade in stages if it's more economically viable for you. Gfx+SSD and probably monitor for starters, CPU+mobo+RAM & case (and cooler) after.

Just my tuppence.

learss · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:34

Have you got a budget for a new rig?

I'd be looking at something around £600 or so mainly because I want to shell out a decent around for a monitor and the 1070.

As for noise, if you're not going for a new full rig then buying some quieter fans is a quick and cheap fix. My old rig used to sound like a helicopter taking off.

That's exactly my problem at the moment! In all honesty, I think I'd quite like to get a new, slightly smaller case than what I have now which is what made me think of possibly just buying a totally new setup.

What I think I can do instead though is get that 1070, grab a larger SSD, possibly some more RAM and some new fans and move it all across to a new case.

I'm no expert but it should be relatively easy to learn how to do/ not too dangerous right? RIGHT? haha

Stazbumpa · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:51

learss said:
I'd be looking at something around £600 or so mainly because I want to shell out a decent around for a monitor and the 1070.

In all honesty a good 1440p G-Sync monitor and 1070 combo will set you back nearer £800 (that's a Dell TN panel and Palit Jeststream 1070). If you're not fussed about G-Sync you can shave 50-100 quid off that.

learss said:
That's exactly my problem at the moment! In all honesty, I think I'd quite like to get a new, slightly smaller case than what I have now which is what made me think of possibly just buying a totally new setup.

Cases with good fans aren't expensive these days and will take your current bits and pieces.

learss said:
What I think I can do instead though is get that 1070, grab a larger SSD, possibly some more RAM and some new fans and move it all across to a new case.

I would go 1070/SSD and case, with an option on the monitor, and leave the RAM alone.

learss said:
I'm no expert but it should be relatively easy to learn how to do/ not too dangerous right? RIGHT? haha

The first PC I built was using an AMD k6 CPU in 1997.

My last rig build was in 2012 and I put the DVD drive in upside down.

I put my new GTX1080 in my case 3 weeks ago and forgot to plug it in.

You'll be fine