Upgrading hardware :))

Kilau

Kilau

Kilau

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Joined
9 Nov 2014
Posts
14
Location
Aberdream
Hi guys, thanks for having me on the forum.

Basically, I use photoshop, manga studio and other art programs like that. I also do quite a lot of gaming on my pc (steam account: forbesbeedie).
I built this rig about 3 or 4? years ago and I'm finding it is now starting to lag a wee bit when being used with art programs.

I recently bought the new COD just to see how it fairs with a newer game and it doesn't play very well unless on lower settings so now I'm thinking its time to upgrade some of the hardware and your suggestions would be fantastic!

I've dumped my cpu-z file here: http://valid.canardpc.com/j8zv8q

My budget is around £500. I just want something that will comfortably run new art programs and will hold a good fps with higher graphics on modern games. Maybe I just need to upgrade my RAM or something (I'm not fantastically knowledgeable with computers) and none of it is overclocked. All suggestions welcomed! Thanks very much in advance.
 
Hi,

Your board will not take any of the FX CPU's, so you will have to swap that too.

If you are then going to swap the CPU+board you may as well switch to Intel.

You can keep your RAM if you have/want to.

What PSU do you have? what case do you have? are all your drives SATA?
 
The PSU I have is a Corsair HX650W, case is a Corsair Graphite 600t and all my drives are SATA ( I assume that means Hardrives? Sorry I'm a noob) if you do, then yes they are all SATA.

With the RAM, I have another spare card of it but the mobo didn't seem to support it.

Thanks!
 
Good!

Sounds like you just want this then,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £252.58
1 x XFX Radeon R9 290 DD 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-290A-EDFD) £229.99
Total : £492.17 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Get £30 off this GFX card - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18631947

If you have a aftermarket heatsink that has socket 1155/1156 support you can reuse it as they have the same mounting holes as 1150, just apply new paste, if you dont have one, the retail CPU comes with a stock heatsink to get you started.
 
Thanks very much Stulid,
could you give me a little bit of information about the benefits of the mobo and card in comparison to my current set up. Also is there anything that is say, slightly more expensive that would give much better performance?

Thanks!
 
Ok,

The board supports SLI+Crossfire as it runs the top slot at 16X with a single card fitted and 8X/8X when two are fitted so both get equal bandwidth, cheaper boards only support Crossfire and thats at 16X/4X.

The i5 CPU vs your current CPU - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1261?vs=146

I'm actually a bit surprised its not even faster but it could be because yours is 6 cores VS this quad core.



Im not actually sure exactly what card you have, I see its one of the 69** family. But even then the R9 290 beats easily the best from that family (i doubt you have a 6990 which is a dual gpu card) - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1061

You have DX11+ support, Mantle support and basically there is no game this card cannot run at 1080P or even run well at 1440P
 
Sorry for the bump, decided to upgrade the budget to around £1000.

Cpu, mo bo wise I was think of this bundle: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-012-GI
(Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K)

And a GTX 970 (need help picking what manufacturer)
or the R9 (the one with 8gb of memory)

I think I should also pick up some ram, what do you guys think? Is there anything better I could pick with the money. Thanks in advance!
 
Great bundle, it has these two offers on it,


http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18631511
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18637856

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A few GTX970s,

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (04G-P4-2974-KR) £275.99
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 EX OC "Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (97NQH6DNB4TX) £259.99
Total : £535.98 (includes shipping : ).



--------------------------------------

As for the RAM, you currently using 6GB but have another stick for 8GB so use that.
 
Which GTX would you recommend? And is that bundle the best bang for my buck?
I was thinking of getting more ram because they're DDR3 and I thought about getting more ram with more power. What do you think?
 
That is the best bundle/bang per buck. Whether thats the i5 or i7 bundle, both have that cashback offer (£22.50 or £32.50)

Any of those GTX970 will do, even the Zotac one which has a 5 year warranty will do.

You already have the RAM and a good amount, just keep it, if you were buying new then I would say get a faster 2x4GB kit such as,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £62.99
Total : £62.99 (includes shipping : ).

 
All that comes to about £717 (including RAM) so iv'e got about £280 left. Is there anything else you'd recommend? A SSD or something?
 
I picked the i7 bundle and I do'nt have a windowed case (it's the old Corsair grahite 600t) With the SSD I've still got over £200 left. Do you think I should upgrade my mouse and keyboard? I've got an old logitech MX518 and a crappy logitech compact keyboard.

Anything else you'd recommend?
 
Mouse and mechanical keyboard are nice.

Do you have a nice monitor? there is a 144HZ AOC 24" for £200.
 
Decided to go for a mouse and keyboard because I'm quite fond of my BENQ. Could you recommend me a cpu fan for this build please
 
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