Upgrading PC Suggestions.

[BlackBark]

I saw someone else's question about building a new PC, but not wanting to hijack their thread, I've made my own.

My PC is four years old now and is in need of an upgrade. I've been meaning to make the switch to an SSD for the OS for a while, and now that I'm finally getting around to doing it, I thought I may as well see what else needs done. There are a couple of games I'm really looking forward to and I'm hoping to play them at max settings.

At the time I built it, I had done a fair amount of research, but I'm not that clued in anymore on all the new tech, so I was hoping to get some advice.

Here are my current specs:
CPU: Intel I7 930 @ 2.8GHz. (1st gen I7, I think) I did have it overclocked to 4GHz, but it seems to have reset itself? (Heat sink - Titan Fenrir)
GPU: GTX 470
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R.
RAM: 6GB, DDR3, 1600Mhz (3 x 2GB)
Case: Antec 1200
PSU: Corsair HX 850W
HDD: A couple of ancient relics I kept from and even older computer. Should probably replace these.

So, definite plan is to get an SSD for the OS. I don't know much about motherboards at all, but I'd like to keep this one if possible. It would be kind of a pain to change it all out. Likewise, I don't really want to change the case if I don't have to, but I'm not sure how big GPUs are nowadays. My 470 is already quite a big bugger.

I suppose one option is to add another 470, but I'm not sure how that compares to new GPUs and if it's better to just change. Also, the 470 always got to dangerously high temperatures. Nice in the winter, but it is a bit concerning.

I'm guessing the PSU is fine for now, so I'm mainly wondering about the CPU, GPU and RAM, but I'd welcome any thoughts and suggestions.

In terms of preferences, I'd like to stick with Intel and Nvidia. In terms of price, it's difficult to say. The original PC cost around £1100 or so to build, so obviously I don't want upgrade prices to go too close to that or I might as well build a whole new one.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I have decided that the first purchase I'll make will be to get new hard drives, including SSD. After that, I'll get a new gpu, but only once the new ones have come out so I can have a better idea what's available. Potentially upgrade ram after that, depending on how much I've already spent.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

If you change the CPU you'll need to change the motherboard as well. That's usually how it works. If you wanted a Haswell processor you'd need a socket 1150 motherboard for example.

But here's the thing. You still don't need a new CPU. Not for gaming anyway. If you do more than gaming then you could use an upgrade. But first gen i7 is still enough for games and it will not bottleneck any GPU. Especially if you can overclock it to 3.5Ghz or 4Ghz. Then you're golden. You just need a better GPU and more RAM. I'd suggest that you switch to 2x8Gb instead of your 3x2Gb modules.

And you might want to wait for AMD to release their next GPU's which should be in the next couple of months. That will lead to price drops on all current GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia and you'll have a better idea about what you want and how much you can get for your money. I know you said that you'd like to stick with Nvidia, but the new AMD GPUs will be the first to use High Bandwidth Memory instead of GDDR5, which might be worth checking out. And AMD is usually cheaper than Nvidia. Considering that GTX970 and GTX980 are pretty affordable for what they offer in terms of performance, my bet is that AMD will either offer something better for the same money or something similar for a lot less. That's the only way to compete with Nvidia.

 

[Faeanor]

If you're serious about upgrading the graphics card, Tom's Hardware always has a helpful up to date guide on what's the best value for money. It even has a handy hierarchy chart that has a rough estimate of performance levels.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

If you really want to cut down on heat, the new Nvidia architecture is doing much better for the performance given. The 750 ti and 970/980 are great choices for that. But the 750Ti will give you about the same performance you have now.

 

[BlackBark]

If you change the CPU you'll need to change the motherboard as well. That's usually how it works. If you wanted a Haswell processor you'd need a socket 1150 motherboard for example.

But here's the thing. You still don't need a new CPU. Not for gaming anyway. If you do more than gaming then you could use an upgrade. But first gen i7 is still enough for games and it will not bottleneck any GPU. Especially if you can overclock it to 3.5Ghz or 4Ghz. Then you're golden. You just need a better GPU and more RAM. I'd suggest that you switch to 2x8Gb instead of your 3x2Gb modules.

And you might want to wait for AMD to release their next GPU's which should be in the next couple of months. That will lead to price drops on all current GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia and you'll have a better idea about what you want and how much you can get for your money. I know you said that you'd like to stick with Nvidia, but the new AMD GPUs will be the first to use High Bandwidth Memory instead of GDDR5, which might be worth checking out. And AMD is usually cheaper than Nvidia. Considering that GTX970 and GTX980 are pretty affordable for what they offer in terms of performance, my bet is that AMD will either offer something better for the same money or something similar for a lot less. That's the only way to compete with Nvidia.

Yeah, thanks. That's pretty good news really. I wasn't too sure how my old i7 would compare anymore. Half the time, I can't even find it on comparison sites. I will just be using it for games, so I'll try to overclock it again.

I'm not in any rush to buy now, so I think I'll take your advice and wait for the next AMD cards to come out. The High Bandwidth sounds like it's worth researching and I'm not a die hard Nvidia fan, I've just generally kept more up to date with them, so I may switch to AMD if the deal is worth it. Certainly, the GTX 980/970 look good at the moment, so if the price went down, that would be great.

If you're serious about upgrading the graphics card, Tom's Hardware always has a helpful up to date guide on what's the best value for money. It even has a handy hierarchy chart that has a rough estimate of performance levels.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

If you really want to cut down on heat, the new Nvidia architecture is doing much better for the performance given. The 750 ti and 970/980 are great choices for that. But the 750Ti will give you about the same performance you have now.

Thanks for the link. Looks like a good site for comparison. The 980/970 seem to perform quite well, so I'll keep an eye on them, but after what Adam Jensen said, I will probably wait to see how the new AMD cards compare. Certainly the 750 doesn't seem capable of reaching high graphics settings if my 470 can't.

 

[gorfias]

My PC is four years old now and is in need of an upgrade.

The only thing I personally would do to that build is get the SSD. I have a good computer but I used to power it up, go make a sandwich, check my phone messages, look through my mail, use the bathroom and when I came back, MAYBE I'd be ready to do something.

Same computer but added a 256 Gig Samsung SSD. I barely have time to sit down after powering it up before it is all ready to use. Night and day.

Your GTX 470 and I7-930 should be fine for most gaming. I'd play the heck out of the system till it dies. If you must upgrade, the I7-930 and 6 Gigs of 1600 RAM should be fine. I'd just be concerned about how well a 4 Gig DDR5 card will do on the older mother board (PCIe 2.0 ?). My guess is something like this would still fly.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+R9+290&id=2719

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-R9290-DC2OC-4GD5-ASUS-Graphics-Cards/dp/B00HWQUI02/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1418494340&sr=1-2&keywords=r9+290

PS: My older build that I have hooked up to a 42" LCD TV in the entertainment room is an I7-930 with a weak GTS-250 Black Knight video card and y'know what? It beats the heck out of, say, and Xbox 360 performance. Your GTX 470 can likely still get 30 FPS at medium settings on anything out there. According to this, your GTX 470 is still likely 4 times as powerful as my GTS 250. www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.htmlF

 

[BlackBark]

My PC is four years old now and is in need of an upgrade.

The only thing I personally would do to that build is get the SSD. I have a good computer but I used to power it up, go make a sandwich, check my phone messages, look through my mail, use the bathroom and when I came back, MAYBE I'd be ready to do something.

Same computer but added a 256 Gig Samsung SSD. I barely have time to sit down after powering it up before it is all ready to use. Night and day.

Your GTX 470 and I7-930 should be fine for most gaming. I'd play the heck out of the system till it dies. If you must upgrade, the I7-930 and 6 Gigs of 1600 RAM should be fine. I'd just be concerned about how well a 4 Gig DDR5 card will do on the older mother board (PCIe 2.0 ?). My guess is something like this would still fly.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+R9+290&id=2719

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-R9290-DC2OC-4GD5-ASUS-Graphics-Cards/dp/B00HWQUI02/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1418494340&sr=1-2&keywords=r9+290

PS: My older build that I have hooked up to a 42" LCD TV in the entertainment room is an I7-930 with a weak GTS-250 Black Knight video card and y'know what? It beats the heck out of, say, and Xbox 360 performance. Your GTX 470 can likely still get 30 FPS at medium settings on anything out there. According to this, your GTX 470 is still likely 4 times as powerful as my GTS 250. www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.htmlF

Yeah, I see what you're saying and I definitely built my PC to be future proof. It can still play anything new with reasonable graphics settings, but it's been struggling with the new Dragon Age, not sure if it's because of bad optimisation, though. There are a few games coming out, like MGS 5, where I would like to set it to high without any trouble, but yeah, so far it's always been a case of I can't justify buying new tech while the current stuff works fine.

The main reason why I'm considering it now is because I've finally decided to change my hard drives before the old ones die and to get an SSD. I just figure that if I'm going to make changes to the build, I'd rather do it all at once. I know I'm trying to find a shortcut and shift it back to like when I first bought it and it could play everything on max settings. I'm not too sure yet. I won't be able to buy the hard drives until January anyway, so I'll think carefully before making any decisions.

 

[fix-the-spade]

GPU: GTX 470
HDD: A couple of ancient relics I kept from and even older computer. Should probably replace these.

So, definite plan is to get an SSD for the OS.

Get a big SSD, the biggest you can afford and load some of your games onto it too. A 256GB SSD isn't traumatic to buy anymore and it will make life much faster.

As for the GPU, in Battlefield 3 a GTX 760 will double your frame rate over a GTX470, it's quieter and uses less power too. Whether that's worth the £160-ish a 760 will cost you is your call, but Nvidia's made some huge leaps since the 4XX cards.

Other than that, there's nothing that will get you much performance gain without spending silly amounts of money.

 

[Monk5127]

Just a suggestion on the CPU front, seeing as your motherboard will support it why not look into getting a Xeon x5650/x5660/x5670 on eBay? They're not all that expensive and OC very well! This thread should also give you some more info on that subject. ( http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2335636 )

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I'd suggest that you switch to 2x8Gb instead of your 3x2Gb modules.

Might be worth pointing out that there is an overall efficiency drop in RAM usage speeds going from triple channel to dual channel but I'm not sure it's big enough to be an issue for gaming. Could be worth getting slightly faster RAM if the price difference isn't unreasonable (and the mobo can support faster than what the OP already has).

 

[BlackBark]

Get a big SSD, the biggest you can afford and load some of your games onto it too. A 256GB SSD isn't traumatic to buy anymore and it will make life much faster.

As for the GPU, in Battlefield 3 a GTX 760 will double your frame rate over a GTX470, it's quieter and uses less power too. Whether that's worth the £160-ish a 760 will cost you is your call, but Nvidia's made some huge leaps since the 4XX cards.

Other than that, there's nothing that will get you much performance gain without spending silly amounts of money.

Yeah, I think 256GB is what I'll go for. It's not too expensive and the capacity is only slightly less than my current internal hard drives. As for the GPU, I'm still undecided, and probably will be for a while. It's too easy to end up spending a fortune on technology, but I just can't tell if the gain from the 760 will be enough to justify the cost.

Just a suggestion on the CPU front, seeing as your motherboard will support it why not look into getting a Xeon x5650/x5660/x5670 on eBay? They're not all that expensive and OC very well! This thread should also give you some more info on that subject. ( http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2335636 )

Thanks for the link. That's a lot of OCing, haha. I'm not sure if I'm going to change the CPU, but if I go down that route, the Xeon seems like a good value choice.

Either way, I'll be waiting at least until January to make the purchases, so that gives me some time to do more research. Thanks everyone for the advice and tips to put me in the right direction.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'd suggest that you switch to 2x8Gb instead of your 3x2Gb modules.

Might be worth pointing out that there is an overall efficiency drop in RAM usage speeds going from triple channel to dual channel but I'm not sure it's big enough to be an issue for gaming. Could be worth getting slightly faster RAM if the price difference isn't unreasonable (and the mobo can support faster than what the OP already has).

Performance drop is nonexistent in games. You only see that drop in synthetic tests or if you're running servers.

 

[Signa]

OH boy, that build is basically my last PC. I only upgraded because it had been nearly 5 years, I had the money, and my work had me build 8 computers, so I got the buildin' bug in me. Lack of performance is not on that list. I think the only thing that I really am happy having is the new GTX 760s in SLI over the GTX 470. Everything else I could do without.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I'd suggest that you switch to 2x8Gb instead of your 3x2Gb modules.

Might be worth pointing out that there is an overall efficiency drop in RAM usage speeds going from triple channel to dual channel but I'm not sure it's big enough to be an issue for gaming. Could be worth getting slightly faster RAM if the price difference isn't unreasonable (and the mobo can support faster than what the OP already has).

Performance drop is nonexistent in games. You only see that drop in synthetic tests or if you're running servers.

Yeah, wasn't sure on that. Only people I'd heard talking about it were running resource intensive applications like commercial level 3D rendering or engineering physics simulators... and they traded up to proper workstations as soon as they could.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Get a 970 GPU and you are golden for 5+ years to come at 1080p 60 ultra. I will go for MSI one myself next week.

Upgrade to 8GB ram 1600hz..should be around 60$. You should also get a better CPU..either i5 2500k or something better (I still have i5 2500k OC'ed to 4.5 and still runs like a champ).

 

[Loonyyy]

-snip-

In terms of Motherboard, if you really want to upgrade your CPU, you're essentially going for a whole new build. CPU is dependant on Mobo chipset, and the i7-930 doesn't leave you with a lot of options. You might be able to find an upgrade to the CPU on the same chipset for cheap, since it'll be a few years behind. But that CPU's ok, it won't need upgrading so long as you know what you're doing.

I'd personally recommend fixing up the HDDs and replacing the GPU, and probably upgrading on RAM. The RAM depends on what your Mobo can handle, but I'l go with a large stick, if you've got 4 slots, and you have 2 4 gigs, you can still double your RAM later etc.

I also favour Nvidia and Intel, but I wouldn't pick up an Nvidia GPU. For me, they never hit the sweet spot for performance and price. AMD tends to have similar performance at a lower price. The only real downside here I see is the lack of PhysX means that some games will have glitches if you forget to turn it off. As has already been said, if you wait for the next GPU launch, the last gen will drop in price.

Lastly, clean up the hard drive situation. Running a bunch of old drives that you've scrounged together is just asking for a failure which takes down your entire system and loses all your data. I just fixed my friend's machine that had the same thing. He was running a bunch of old drives, the OS drive started failing, couldn't even boot Windows, finally got in with Startup Repair, couldn't write to the disk, couldn't even transfer stuff off. In the end, I had to use my brother's hack-y SATA to USB cable (It's really cool actually. He ripped the PCB with the power, and USB socket, out of an external that the HDD had died in) to hook the drive up to his laptop so he could recover everything. You want a big drive with a lot of storage, and you want to work out what you're doing with the current drives, how old they are, how reliable. If you're going with an SSD, you'll probably want to back it up with a couple of terrabytes on HDD. The real trick there will be deciding how you want to arrange your data, partitioning, etc. If you upgrade the HDD setup, it's almost certain you're going to have to run an install.

 

[asdfen]

your i7 is still a great cpu https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
its def good enough for gaming
for gaming the first and foremost and maybe even the only thing you want to upgrade is GPU. look for something with DX11 support other than that whatever has best price/performance for your part of the world.
The next priority would be upgrading ram if whatever games you are planning to play require more than 6gb. look at MB specs what kind of ram you can get.

If the above does not satisfy then we are looking at new PC cpu/mb/gpu/ram with old psu/case//hdds

 

[BlackBark]

Snip

and

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Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

Yeah, HDDs are on the top of the list, they are the reason I considered upgrading the rest of the PC. I built this PC a little over 4 years ago, but I used the hard drives from my previous PC (due to lack of funds), which must have been quite old by that stage as well. I've always been meaning to change and now that I've left university and have a job, I can finally afford to. I've already had one of my desktop hard drives failing and that was really annoying. In terms of partitioning, is there anything you recommend? I've never put any thought into it before, because I've never had the space to work with. All I have set up now is a couple of small HDDs running in RAID 0.

In terms of cpu, based on the info everyone has given here and my own research, it doesn't seem worth changing. I will just overclock it again and put it back to or around 4GHz.

I will definitely get a new graphics card, since that has been the main upgrade suggestion from everyone, but I haven't decided what to get yet. I will wait for the next set to be released, as suggested already.

In terms of ram, I also haven't decided yet. I will probably get around to upgrading it, but it depends on how much the HDDs and gpu end up costing (I have six slots, by the way, but others have also suggested using large sticks, and it seems like a good way to go).

Basically, I'm going to get the hard drives sorted out soon, sometime after Christmas expenses have been dealt with anyway. Since I'm only going to be changing the gpu and (potentially)ram, those are super easy to swap out, so I have no problem waiting until the next gpu set comes out.

Based on the info here, I'm hoping to get at least another couple of years out of the cpu. I don't want to change the mobo now, so I'll wait and see what happens with new cpu tech a bit further down the line.

 

[Loonyyy]

Snip

and

Snip

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

Yeah, HDDs are on the top of the list, they are the reason I considered upgrading the rest of the PC. I built this PC a little over 4 years ago, but I used the hard drives from my previous PC (due to lack of funds), which must have been quite old by that stage as well. I've always been meaning to change and now that I've left university and have a job, I can finally afford to. I've already had one of my desktop hard drives failing and that was really annoying. In terms of partitioning, is there anything you recommend? I've never put any thought into it before, because I've never had the space to work with. All I have set up now is a couple of small HDDs running in RAID 0.

Yeah, I did similar, I had a 400 GB HDD with a bunch of stuff on it that was way too old, and I'd gotten it secondhand off a friend. It died and took it all with it. Learning experience.

In terms of cpu, based on the info everyone has given here and my own research, it doesn't seem worth changing. I will just overclock it again and put it back to or around 4GHz.

Sounds good. Just be careful with the heat. A lot of the recent model GPUs run quite hot, and while I'm not concerned with damage, since that's less likely, you're more likely to trigger a temperature shutdown, which will ruin your day if you live in hot climates.

I will definitely get a new graphics card, since that has been the main upgrade suggestion from everyone, but I haven't decided what to get yet. I will wait for the next set to be released, as suggested already.

In terms of ram, I also haven't decided yet. I will probably get around to upgrading it, but it depends on how much the HDDs and gpu end up costing (I have six slots, by the way, but others have also suggested using large sticks, and it seems like a good way to go).

Basically, I'm going to get the hard drives sorted out soon, sometime after Christmas expenses have been dealt with anyway. Since I'm only going to be changing the gpu and (potentially)ram, those are super easy to swap out, so I have no problem waiting until the next gpu set comes out.

Based on the info here, I'm hoping to get at least another couple of years out of the cpu. I don't want to change the mobo now, so I'll wait and see what happens with new cpu tech a bit further down the line.

Sounds like a plan! I couldn't give you good advice on the current lineup of GPUs out there, since I always end up drooling if I keep up to date on it. I'd recommend keeping price in mind when picking, specifically price/performance. It really makes a difference in picking one and being happy with it, which is what really matters.

 

[direkiller]

If you change the CPU you'll need to change the motherboard as well. That's usually how it works. If you wanted a Haswell processor you'd need a socket 1150 motherboard for example.

But here's the thing. You still don't need a new CPU. Not for gaming anyway. If you do more than gaming then you could use an upgrade. But first gen i7 is still enough for games and it will not bottleneck any GPU. Especially if you can overclock it to 3.5Ghz or 4Ghz. Then you're golden. You just need a better GPU and more RAM. I'd suggest that you switch to 2x8Gb instead of your 3x2Gb modules.

And you might want to wait for AMD to release their next GPU's which should be in the next couple of months. That will lead to price drops on all current GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia and you'll have a better idea about what you want and how much you can get for your money. I know you said that you'd like to stick with Nvidia, but the new AMD GPUs will be the first to use High Bandwidth Memory instead of GDDR5, which might be worth checking out. And AMD is usually cheaper than Nvidia. Considering that GTX970 and GTX980 are pretty affordable for what they offer in terms of performance, my bet is that AMD will either offer something better for the same money or something similar for a lot less. That's the only way to compete with Nvidia.

They alredy started offloading there stock
Cyber Monday had 290's for about 260 +3games of choice and Civ:BE

and yes second this: new GPU and new ram sticks. I would stick to 8 gigs (2x4g) as it fine for games coming out and there are already DDR4 mobo's on the market. So your next upgrade will not be able to reuse them.

Word of warning: If you are planing on getting a AMD 280 or higher, check the 12v wattage allowance(listed on the side of the PSU). As older(and cheeper) PSU's may not have the draw required despite adquite total wattage.
With a 4yr old corsair you should be alright, but it never hurts to check all the same.

 

[direkiller]

My PC is four years old now and is in need of an upgrade.

The only thing I personally would do to that build is get the SSD. I have a good computer but I used to power it up, go make a sandwich, check my phone messages, look through my mail, use the bathroom and when I came back, MAYBE I'd be ready to do something.

Same computer but added a 256 Gig Samsung SSD. I barely have time to sit down after powering it up before it is all ready to use. Night and day.

Your GTX 470 and I7-930 should be fine for most gaming. I'd play the heck out of the system till it dies. If you must upgrade, the I7-930 and 6 Gigs of 1600 RAM should be fine. I'd just be concerned about how well a 4 Gig DDR5 card will do on the older mother board (PCIe 2.0 ?). My guess is something like this would still fly.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+R9+290&id=2719

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-R9290-DC2OC-4GD5-ASUS-Graphics-Cards/dp/B00HWQUI02/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1418494340&sr=1-2&keywords=r9+290

PS: My older build that I have hooked up to a 42" LCD TV in the entertainment room is an I7-930 with a weak GTS-250 Black Knight video card and y'know what? It beats the heck out of, say, and Xbox 360 performance. Your GTX 470 can likely still get 30 FPS at medium settings on anything out there. According to this, your GTX 470 is still likely 4 times as powerful as my GTS 250. www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.htmlF

Popped in to say you should have a look at the R290. I have one, the only problem I have is the heat, runs at 90+, but the non-OEM models deal with this - I'd avoid the reference card (like I have) as it will make your case pretty hot. Peformance-wise, the card is absolutely brilliant, especially at higher resolutions, where it can challenge the Titan in certain games.

I would sugest getting more airflow to the part, cable management or better fans because 90+ is very bad for anything in the computer
for a perspective:
my 290 sits at about 70 under load
with 3 120mm fans and a 100CFM vent booster I got in a yard sale