Upgrade this to play games

mediaman

mediaman

mediaman

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Joined
6 Sep 2008
Posts
137
Hi,

When I built my current pc, gaming wasn't on the agenda. I don't even have a graphics card in it. I want to get back into some flight sim and a few other games and I need a few opinions on whether to upgrade my current rig or start again.

Before I start, it might be worth noting that my current rig is a mini-itx build which limits my upgrade opportunities.

My current spec is this.

Ivybridge i5-3570K 3.40GHz CPU
Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 Mobo
8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz RAM

My boot drive is a sandisk 120GB SSD

My PSU is coming up for 8 or 9 years old so I don't know if it has the connections required for modern graphics cards as I have been out of the loop. But it was a good psu in its time. Its a Corsair HX1000 1000w PSU.

All of that is pretty snug in a Bitfenix Prodidgy case.

I stumbled across this...

GeForce GTX 970 "Mini-ITX" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N970IXOC-4GD).

That just about fits with a few mm to spare. Would I get away with simply chucking that into my current rig and expect to play games smoothly at 1080p? I don't use a monitor, my pc is permanently connected to my TV so no higher res is needed.

I am also looking at getting a larger SSD. Are these any good?

500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU)

So yeah, enough waffling. Thoughts and opinions welcome? Get some more mileage out of my current spec or start again?

Cheers. :cool:
 
Your ivy is still more than adequate, if you're sure it fits then go for the 970 and the SSD, I'd also look at getting a new PSU as well as you've noted it's aged.

But yeah that will drive your TV and allow you to play games.
 
Thanks for the reply mate.

Ive had a rummage about and I have found all of the cables to my current PSU so I would think it would still have a couple of years in it still? I am assuming the GTX 970 just takes a standard 8 pin pci-express connector from the PSU?

The card fits depending on where the power socket for it is. It looks like its at the top of the card just from a few pics I have seen which would be good.

Off topic a bit but I have also just found my old ati radeon 9700 pro graphics card. This is how long ago I played games on PC but what a beast that was in its time. :)
 
I believe 2 of the fixed cables on your PSU are PCI-E 6+2 so you`re covered. Its very overpowered for your needs and if its working fine keep using it, its good quality. The ssd you mentioned is also good quality and a good buy, you can clone your old one onto it if you want
 
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