Upgrading in stages advice needed

abercromb

abercromb

abercromb

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Joined
27 Aug 2009
Posts
67
Hi all.

After getting a lot of help when I was building my 1st machine back in 2009 and after checking back here from time to time. I think it's now getting close to the time to upgrade my kit.

Advice is badly needed. My current computer is working fine but as an avid gamer I have now had to start reducing my settings and cutting things out to get the frame rates I need. That obviously is not ideal. This upgrade is going to be in two parts. The 1st part mid July and the 2nd part Jan/Feb next year. I could squeeze some stuff inbetween but as thats when I get my bonuses so thats when I plan to buy.

My current set up is this:
Intel i5 750 2.66ghz @4.00GHZ
Gigabyte GA-55-UD5 P55 Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 4gb (2x2GB) PC3-128009 1600MHz DDR3
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5
Corsair H50 CPU Watercooler
Silverstone Fortress FT01S-W Mid Tower Case Silver Aluminum with Window
Pretty standard 500g hard drive + external storage drive
22 Asus LCD (3 years old & cheap at the time)
keyboard & mouse new (so no need to change)

My budget is pretty fluid. I have been looking at set ups including monitor that break 2k. But in reality I think around 1500 mark is probably realistic, although if the upgrade/new build is worth it then I could stretch. As this will be in 2 parts, I need upgrades that fit easily into my current set up in July then the rest in Jan (I assume the case, mobo etc will be then).

Things that I am not that flexible with (still up to suggestion though):
The case must be of a similar style to the FTO1 with a left hand window, no piles of plastic and must be a good air cooler (be nice to be able to access the top filter this time to).
Need a 120g Solid state hard drive or better (no clue on the differences though)
The monitor must be 24" or 27" and great for gaming.
The graphics card would need to be a 580 or similar but have no clue about the differences in makes.
Like the H50 so a similar new version would be great.

Thanks in advance for any help I get. My 1st build went very smoothly as a result of people here. I hope my upgrade goes as well
 
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Either im confused or being stupid....but your current still system looks pretty decent to me?

I take it you are looking to build a new monster machine? As im suprised you have to turn down settings to get a good frame rate with the above spec.

If you doing it in stages though i'd wait for ivybridge proccesor to upgrade that part...20% better performance over Sandy (or so they say) and can use the LGA1155 socket.

I've seen great reviews on 580 Sli performance (if you can afford that).

With regards to the cooler, hasnt the new Corsair H100 come out which look pretty sweet, if you can fit it in your case.

GL with you new upgrade though.
 
francky said:
Either im confused or being stupid....but your current still system looks pretty decent to me?.
Click to expand...

Your right the set is not bad. It was the best I could afford in Nov 09. But by the time this upgrade is finished it will be two years on and my top end rig will be mid range at best. I can't see it doing what I want for a further two years and the amount of time I spend on the computer a almost complete upgrade every two years is reasonable value.
 
Indeed.....im will be looking at upgrading every 2/3 years as well.

Unfortunetely keeping your PC as "High End" is almost impossible, as within 6 months, a new faster, better piece of tech replaces your rapidly ageing expensive kit.

Ive recently built my new PC (spec in my sig) which cost me nearly £1500 and I already feel im getting out dated with Sandy and Ivybridge.

Going to treat myself to a 250GB SSD and a Nvidia 580 GTX next month as looking at the Gameplay of games like Battlefield 3 you really need the best of the Best PC right now.
 
Personally, I would probably upgrade gfx, ssd, monitor now, then go ivybridge in jan/feb if you still want to. Although for gaming the gfx card is the main factor, and a couple of 6970/580s would serve you very well.
 
that rig is very good, but i can kind of see what you mean that the top end games will have started to slow down for you (ie, crysis, metro 2033)

your processor is very good, and your motherboard supports two graphics cards in crossfire/SLI, which is also great

theres also nothing wrong with your cooler and, short of getting a full blown water cooling system your not going to see much improvement on the H50.

my suggestion is (since you can afford it) is to go with two 580's in SLI with aftermarket coolers (like the twin frozr II), a 120GB SSD and a big shiny new monitor

since i know nothing about monitors, heres the cards and PSU:

YOUR BASKET
2 x MSI GeForce GTX 580 OC Twin FrozR II 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99
1 x OCZ ZX Series 1000W '80 Plus Gold Certified' Modular Power Supply £154.99
1 x OCZ Vertex 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTX120G) £124.99
Total : £1,051.97 (includes shipping : £10.00).

580 SLI vs 5870: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/308?vs=294
i went for the OCZ vertex over some of the newer SSD's because i didnt think the speed differences warranted the price difference on a 3GB/s slot:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/129?vs=351
or even with a 6GB/s card: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/129?vs=350

you may think otherwise though
 
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You have a very similar setup to me (spec in sig) albeit I have 8GB DDR3 and a 120GB Vertex 3. I'm in a similar boat to you and have been looking around at what to upgrade to in the near future and I think for both of us, it comes down to mainly the GFX card.

Reaper hit the nail on the head and it's what i've been looking at too, a new PSU and a GTX 580. That would give you a noticeable improvement in current games and leave you the option to upgrade CPU/mobo at a later date.

I've not noticed a difference in performance with the 8GB DDR3 but the SSD did speed things up slightly. That said, I've got a SATA III SSD but only have SATA II ports so it's not running at it's full speed.

Simply, upgrade GFX cards and then see how the system performs.
 
Well it looks like a 580, a 120 SSD and a shiny new monitor are the best current upgrades for me. Followed by the rest in Jan. Suggestions would be great as there are a lot of options on here.

One question though is will I see much of a benefit with 8 GB of ram? Or can that wait.
 
6GB is all you need...8GB would be a pointless waste of money unless your running virtual machines.

6GB of RAM, 120GB SSD and GTX 580 Overclocked with MSi and your rocking a sweet system.

Samsung 24" Syncmasters (Samsung SyncMaster B2430H) looks the biz and have a great picture and I personally like EVGA on the GC, but all manufactures follow the same blue print.

Dont know enough about SSD's to give advice on that front though.
 
francky said:
6GB is all you need...8GB would be a pointless waste of money unless your running virtual machines.
Click to expand...

Unless you get 3gb modules then you'll need either 4gb or 8gb for dual channel memory. Only the LGA1366 offers triple channel support.


At OP I would agree with what others have said. Any dual core with a core speed of 4GHz isn't exactly legacy hardware. I would argue that although not the latest, it's still high end stuff you have. The SSD will make a big difference. I'd hold on to the end of the year, see what Ivy Bridge has to offer before making the decision :)
 
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