Need Advice Upgrading My Computer

[Broderick]

I will be getting a decent amount of money here soon and because my computer is running off of 4+ year old tech, I figure it is about time to upgrade. I however am having some problems figuring out what I should upgrade first, as well as what I should consider in the long run.

My question is can any of you recommend any great computer parts to me that are within the $250 price range or so and is there any advice on what I should upgrade first?

My specs are:

Spoiler: specs

Operating System Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1

CPU
Intel Core i5 760 @ 2.80GHz
Lynnfield 45nm Technology

RAM
4.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 662MHz (9-9-9-24)

Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. P55-USB3 (Socket 1156)

Graphics
DELL 1907FP (1280x1024@60Hz)
1279MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (Gigabyte)

Storage
111GB Seagate ST3120213AS ATA Device (SATA)
1863GB Western Digital WDC WD2001FASS-00W2B0 ATA Device (SATA)

Optical Drives
Optiarc DVD RW AD-7190A ATA Device

Audio
High Definition Audio Device

Note: I am aware one of my hard drives is quite small, so please suggest upgrades for other parts if possible. Also, I am aware my monitor is small, but that is because my old one crapped out on me recently; I am using a spare old one. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[AWAR]

A normally sized monitor would be the best investment. Any other upgrade will be a waste of money if you're planning on playing on a resolution that was phased out almost 10 years ago.

 

[Broderick]

A normally sized monitor would be the best investment. Any other upgrade will be a waste of money if you're planning on playing on a resolution that was phased out almost 10 years ago.

Oh yes, I should probably mention that in an edit. I actually am just in between monitors. My old one was a 1440 by 900. Unfortunately it crapped out on me quite recently, so I used a spare we had. So aside from that, any other suggestions?

 

[Supernova1138]

You might benefit from moving up to 8GB of RAM now, as the memory requirements for newer games will be getting higher, and 4GB might no longer cut it in the future.

A GPU upgrade might also be helpful, though the GTX 570 is by no means a slow graphics card. Problem is most of the significant steps up will likely hit a CPU bottleneck in certain games, eg. Crysis 3, Battlefield 3/4 multiplayer. If you do move up to a higher graphics card, you may want to buy an aftermarket CPU cooler and try overclocking your older i5, or consider a new CPU/motherboard combo, though I wouldn't recommend going any lower than a newer i5, so that may get a bit pricey. Don't bother with AMD if you go for a CPU/motherboard upgrade, even their best chip (that doesn't have an extreme factory overclock and thus practically requires water cooling) is only really a sidestep from your Lynnfield i5 for most games, and only really an upgrade if you use stuff like video editing software that can scale fully across 8 cores.

 

[Albino Boo]

Whats the PSU on you machine? If you want to upgrade you graphics card you will need to check the wattage on it. As to the card itself the GTX 570 is a fast card but the low ram means it will bottleneck. A GTX 660 ti or above will give significant improvement in graphics if your PSU can handle the card. As Supernova says whacking in another 4GB of ram wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Maybe get an 120gb SSD and ghost your OS on to it and you will have much faster start ups.

 

[Broderick]

Whats the PSU on you machine? If you want to upgrade you graphics card you will need to check the wattage on it. As to the card itself the GTX 570 is a fast card but the low ram means it will bottleneck. A GTX 660 ti or above will give significant improvement in graphics if your PSU can handle the card. As Supernova says whacking in another 4GB of ram wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Maybe get an 120gb SSD and ghost your OS on to it and you will have much faster start ups.

I believe my power supply is the Thermaltake Black Widow 850watt. Thanks for the suggestions for a graphics card as well. More ram, and a bigger hard drive or an SSD to put my OS in would help considerably I think.

While I did not get many replies, thank you everyone for your suggestions thus far.

 

[gorfias]

I believe my power supply is the Thermaltake Black Widow 850watt. Thanks for the suggestions for a graphics card as well. More ram, and a bigger hard drive or an SSD to put my OS in would help considerably I think.

I hope you get a big beautiful monitor. I personally have been using 1080P TV sets. Big, inexpensive.

As you write, what else besides the monitor?...

the GTX 570 is a fast card but the low ram means it will bottleneck. A GTX 660 ti or above will give significant improvement in graphics

This site says the performance of the GTX 570 is comparable to a 660 ti.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html Course, going from 5 series to 6 means you can play Project Shield.

Maybe get an 120gb SSD and ghost your OS on to it and you will have much faster start ups.

Probably this. Unless he is doing some heavy duty programming/compiling, even an extra 4 Gig of RAM may be hardly noticeable. I have plenty for fun, but I don't really ever see my usage hit 4 Gig. I'm thinking of getting an SSD.

If you really want to store lots and have plenty of SATA slots, get the 120 gb SSD to speed up certain fuctions, the added storage for larger and larger and more and more programs (lots from STEAM these days.)

 

[Albino Boo]

the GTX 570 is a fast card but the low ram means it will bottleneck. A GTX 660 ti or above will give significant improvement in graphics

This site says the performance of the GTX 570 is comparable to a 660 ti.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html Course, going from 5 series to 6 means you can play Project Shield.

In terms of the benchmarks in that test they are of equal performance but having the smaller memory means having a smaller frame buffer which will bottleneck and cause a drop in FPS. Also the Texel rate is something like doubled on the gtx 660ti