Upgrade question - What to upgrade?

Jagmoide

Jagmoide

Jagmoide

Associate
Joined
4 Jan 2012
Posts
51
Hello all,


It's that time again. The community were absolutely amazing when i was building my first rig and hopefully you can step up and help this idiot once more :)


Been awhile since i have had an upgrade, below are my parts:

Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics
Card

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor


Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard


Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX)


XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply


Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366)


Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) [KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX]




The question is, whats should i upgrade and at what cost? I don't really have a limit but i want to be cost effective. I need the best upgrades at the lowest prices, wonder if you pros can help me.

If you need any more advice give me a shout.
 
Is this for gaming?

Assuming it is then the only thing you need for higher FPS and better graphical settings is a new GPU. The GTX 970 and R9 390 are kings of price to performance at the moment.

I would also thoroughly recommend grabbing an SSD. 240GB SSDs can be found easily for £40-50 and will make using your PC for everything a lot quicker.

Also have go at overclocking. It's been a long while since I overclocked on a Gigabyte Z68 board but I am sure you will get some assistance if you ask.
 
It is just for gaming really,

I've started the Witcher 3 and it feels very jumpy and for the overclocking thing i'd be a complete novice. Is it easy to take a stab at? Or am i going to blow the whole thing up?


The SSD I could defo grab at that sort of price.


The graphics card the only thing? I'd hate to buy one and for my ram or motherboard not be able to keep up with it.
 
I started overclocking on a very similar board to yours. Actually it was a step below iirc.

This was the guide I used - it's quite in depth though so be warned. http://www.overclock.net/t/910467/the-ultimate-sandy-bridge-oc-guide-p67a-ud7-performance-review

You can also get some specific advice in the overclocking & cooling section. Just make a post titled "2500K & Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Overclocking advice" and I'm sure someone will be able to give you some good advice. It's hard to blow stuff up without making a big big big mistake - double check your settings before saving and rebooting. A lot of settings can be left on auto.

Graphics card is definitely the main thing that will improve Witcher 3 performance. I use the same CPU had 8GB RAM. I upgraded the RAM to 16GB and found it made no difference. The only time the CPU "struggles" is the city of novigrad in the main market square. It reaches 100% but the performance stays around 60fps with a GTX Titan (which is slower than a GTX 970)
 
A new GPU and you'll be golden. An SSD will certainly help stuff load quicker, but for games buy the best GPU you can afford - the rest of your system is fine.
 
What card should i get if i had the choice? GTX 970?

Thanks for the responses guys! and i had a little look at the overclocking stuff, scared the hell outta me :(
 
Just purchased

1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 390 PCS+ 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (AXR9 390 8GBD5-PPDHE)= £229.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU)= £59.99

Quick question, what cables will I need for my new Hard drive? I have a spare SATA but can't work out what pin connection ( power ) for my power supply.
 
You are a star! One more question, the Kingston HyperX Savage Red seems to have got bad reviews everywhere I look, can you recommend a different set of 8gb ram?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom