Worth Upgrading?

Kuros · 29 Mar 2015 at 12:12

I've been umming and ahhing for a couple of months now for an upgrade to my machine, given it's getting on 4 years old now, but not sure if it's worth holding off or just biting the bullet.

Current Specs:
i5 [email protected]
16gb Corsair Vengence 1600mhz DDR3
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3
SAPPHIRE R9 270X 4GB
Samsung PM851 SSD 128GB
Antec TruePower 650W PSU
Areocool BX-500
1x BenQ GL2460 and 1x BenQ GL2450 both at 1080p

I'll be upgrading the graphics card, regardless. I did originally plan to pick up another one at some point for crossfire, but the prices haven't really dropped as much as I would have liked and I think it's worth spending a bit more to get something newer, looking at the 780Ti deal on the homepage or picking up a 970. Budget for any real upgrade will be around the 800 quid mark, with some scope to go higher.

Andreas.96 · 29 Mar 2015 at 12:17

What do you do with your computer? Gaming?

Kuros · 29 Mar 2015 at 12:21

Mostly gaming, to be fair. I did use to run various virtual machines whist at university for various things, programming and for sand-boxing, but since getting a proper job I haven't had the time or inclination to do anything like that. I do intend to get back into programming, but it'll mostly be phone apps and the like, so I wouldn't need much more in terms of resources for that.

Andreas.96 · 29 Mar 2015 at 12:24

The i5 should still be great for the time being, wait till broadwell or skylake to upgrade the CPU etc.

You'd see a marked improvement in gaming performance with a better GPU, something like:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290X LE Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £245.99
Total : £255.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Deus Ex · 29 Mar 2015 at 13:39

gpu for gaming and hold off. You'd have to spend a fair bit to notice an improvement if you replaced mobo/cpu.

ED209 · 29 Mar 2015 at 13:54

as others said, the system is fine just get a better gpu but then again the 270X is not a bad gpu and the amount it would cost for a 290x you maybe better off just waiting till the new amd cards come out in a few months (june/July time)

Voicon · 29 Mar 2015 at 14:20

You might want to get a bigger SSD, some games are huge these days, as others have said though I would only consider a new GFX card but in a few months when the new AMD cards are out.