Upgrade or New Build

Calhoun

Hi Guys,

looking for your opinion please current PC specs;

Main board = ASrock P67 Extreme 4;
Processor = Intel® Core™ i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz;
Ram = 8GB of Corsair ram DDR3;
Graphics card = 3 GB GFX card GTX 580;
Hdd 1 = Corsair solid state (128,GB)
Hdd 2 = 1TB

My main use is gaming and although i can play most games it feels like its losing a bit of poke that it used to have. I have also recently purchased the new X game which going on past experience are fairly high maintenance.

Appreciate feedback on whether i should upgrade what i have or a new build. If i upgrade, what would be best to upgrade?

marco_polo

Budget? Really a new GPU, overclock your CPU(You probably don't even really need to oc it yet but might as well) and you should oc be all set for another few years.

Calhoun

marco_polo wrote: »

Budget? Really a new GPU, overclock your CPU(You probably don't even really need to oc it yet but might as well) and you should oc be all set for another few years.

Sorry forgot that part.

Budget for upgraded between 2-500 euro if I upgrade I'll spend over 1k but I'd rather upgrade if possible as less hassle than a new build.

marco_polo

Forgot to say if you could include your PSU model and monitor resolution as well we'd have a more complete picture .

If you haven't overclocked the CPU then I'd get a decent cooler and do just that. An overclocked i5-2500k can still trade blows with the latest generation of CPUs.

After that it really is a matter of how much you want to spend on a GPU, really anything from a €230+ 7950 upwards would be a good upgrade and perfect for single monitor 1080p gaming (You since you have some cash you might as well aim a level or so above this). If you are happy with everything else then that is all you have to do.

Of course towards the upper end of your budget you could of course look at investing in a 1440p monitor and an SLI/Crossfire setup that would do it justice.

TerrorFirmer

One of the reasonably priced 280x would be perfect. GTX580 is still respectable enough and a 7950 isn't really much of an upgrade in my opinion, I'd be looking at 280x minimum. CPU as stated is still totally fine though. Selling the old GTX, and getting a 280, shouldn't cost you a total of more than about 120 or so. If you had the money, a 780 is a good bet as well, but a fair bit more expensive, albeit a much larger upgrade.

Calhoun

Powersupply = HVR750HXDE Corsair 750HX, 750 Watt;
Monitor = 1920 x 1080.

I haven't overclocked it much, i know my mate helped me do it a bit but the clock speed didn't go up to much before it started shutting down due to the heat so we set it fairly low. What cooler would you recommend?

How much would a 1440P + crossfire setme back and would you have recommendations for it?

Appreciate your help

Calhoun

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

One of the reasonably priced 280x would be perfect. GTX580 is still respectable enough and a 7950 isn't really much of an upgrade in my opinion, I'd be looking at 280x minimum. CPU as stated is still totally fine though. Selling the old GTX, and getting a 280, shouldn't cost you a total of more than about 120 or so. If you had the money, a 780 is a good bet as well, but a fair bit more expensive, albeit a much larger upgrade.

I'd probably go upward to a 780 as i prefer Nvidia, im not so much worried about the cost as its within my budget.

marco_polo

Calhoun wrote: »

Powersupply = HVR750HXDE Corsair 750HX, 750 Watt;
Monitor = 1920 x 1080.

I haven't overclocked it much, i know my mate helped me do it a bit but the clock speed didn't go up to much before it started shutting down due to the heat so we set it fairly low. What cooler would you recommend?

How much would a 1440P + crossfire setme back and would you have recommendations for it?

Appreciate your help

Can never go wrong with the good old Hyper 212 evo as a biudget cooler.

27" 1440p monitors are quite expensive (~€450+) unless you are willing to go the Catleap route, its much cheaper than the established brands but not without risk as regards warranty, dead pixels etc. I'd have a read over some of the megathread, maybe ask some of the resident owners club a few questions about them, and have a think about it (I'm pretty risk adverse myself so they're not for me personally:)).

If you decide to stick with what you have and can afford a GTX780 then definately go for it, if you did opt for a 1440p setup I'd probably look for to pair up two more cost effective cards like HD7950 or GTX 770's.

With one of the 27" Qnix monitors and 2 X HD7950 or something similar you'd still proibably be looking at the guts of €750-800 or so which is not exactly loose change.

The next besst thing might be something like a 24" IPS 1920 X 1200 monitor, you'd pick something like the Dell Ultrasharp U2412M for about €250, it would still be a decent upgrade from your average TFT LCD monitor and a single card solution would suffice.

If you just get a single GPU + cooler and keep your existing monitor, there are or course any number of other nice shiny non component things you could spend money on such as mechanical keyboards, 7.1 headsets etc

Calhoun

Thanks for your help, i think i will go with single GPU and cooler. I would like a new monitor but my wife wont really understand why im buying another one this year ( i had a monitor die on me).

Thanks for all the help guys.