Upgrading current computer

shootersam · 2 Nov 2013 at 12:48

Turning 18 at the end of the month, so expecting a bit of money. Looking to spend around £250-£300 upgrading the following spec:

I5 2500k @ stock with Gelid Tranquilo Cooler
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 Motherboard
GTX 260 768mb around 10% overclock
16GB Kingston HyperX 1600Mhz RAM
1TB 7200 RPM HDD
BeQuiet Pure Power L8 630W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply
Zalman Z9 Plus Case
Windows 7
BenQ G2420HDBL 24-inch 1920x1080 monitor

I think my best bet would be to focus on upgrading my medieval graphics card, but not sure what to go for. I like nVidia, but just want best bang for my buck really. Battlefield 4 and Arma 2 are the most demanding games I play at the moment. What would you guys do?

Thanks, Owen

RJC · 2 Nov 2013 at 12:50

A little over

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7970 Matrix Platinum 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **FREE SHIPPING** £239.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £83.99
Total : £323.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

And Overclock that CPU!!!

honosuseri · 2 Nov 2013 at 12:51

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7970 Matrix Platinum 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **FREE SHIPPING** £239.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £69.95
Total : £309.94 (includes shipping : FREE).

GPU comes with some free games too

shootersam · 2 Nov 2013 at 12:54

RJC said:
A little over

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus HD 7970 Matrix Platinum 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **FREE SHIPPING** £239.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £83.99
Total : £323.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

And Overclock that CPU!!!

Overclocking is scary

RJC · 2 Nov 2013 at 12:55

shootersam said:
Overclocking is scary

You tart!!!

honosuseri · 2 Nov 2013 at 12:56

shootersam said:
Overclocking is scary

It's dead easy. The most basic method is just to gradually increase the CPU ratio in the BIOS. I've done several 2500K builds with that case and cooler and had all of them upto 4.4Ghz no fuss what's so ever

shootersam · 2 Nov 2013 at 12:59

RJC said:
You tart!!!

honosuseri said:
It's dead easy. The most basic method is just to gradually increase the CPU ratio in the BIOS. I've done several 2500K builds with that case and cooler and had all of them upto 4.4Ghz no fuss what's so ever

I did gradually get it up to 4.5Ghz and had it stable stress testing it overnight, but I just worry that something will go wrong.

Plus my case is surprisingly warm.

shootersam · 2 Nov 2013 at 13:21

Think I'll go with that graphics card, but will probably leave the SSD and get a new headset and/or keyboard. My current keyboard was £5 and is horrible, and my Plantronics Gamecom headset is on its last legs. Thanks for the advice guys, if I was going nVidia, what would be the closest to that card?

Doomedspeed · 2 Nov 2013 at 13:37

shootersam said:
I did gradually get it up to 4.5Ghz and had it stable stress testing it overnight, but I just worry that something will go wrong. Plus my case is surprisingly warm.

Common mis-conception, you don't have to stress test things for that period of time..

I stress it (prime 95) for 15 minutes (at most) then just do normal tasks with my PC (games, CAD, videos ect..), if its stable, you'll be fine.

See, EASY!