PC Upgrade Recommendations

Korvanica

Hi all,

Its about time I upgraded my desperately aging computer a bit so I said id post here for some recommendations on what I should upgrade.

Here's my current spec:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz
Motherboard: MSI Z68A-G45 (G3)
RAM: 8GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB
PSU: 650W AData Bronze+
CPU Cooler: CM 212 EVO

In work at the moment and cannot remember the make of the RAM or PSU so ill update them later.

I know the Graphics card will need changing. But will the CPU bottleneck the system if I don't change it too?

Currently playing Games like ARK, Rust, ARMA, LOL, DOTA and Fallout 4 to give you a baseline for what I need to run a decent quality. Currently I run almost all of them on low-mid setting for max performance.

I've about €500 to upgrade, but can probably stretch more if its necessary.

Xenoronin

Slight overclock on the i5 (may not even be needed) would be nice, especially since you have the cooler for it.

Throw a GTX 970 in that and you are golden for another few years. Nothing else is really required. Maybe look at AMD as an alternative, something like the R9 Nano is going pretty cheap now for 450€.

Redfox25

Ypu gaming at 1080p or 1440p?
If its 1080p then a new gpu and yoir laughing.
R9 390 or r9 380x even would be cheap enough. No need for the nano.
Your psu might not be up to a 380x or 390 though. 970 might be a better buy in this case

Redfox25

Ypu gaming at 1080p or 1440p?
If its 1080p then a new gpu and yoir laughing.
R9 390 or r9 380x even would be cheap enough. No need for the nano.
Your psu might not be up to a 380x or 390 though. 970 might be a better buy in this case

Korvanica

Cheers lads.

It'd be 1080p Gaming.

Just Checked, Ive a 650Watt PSU, (i'd forgotten id replaced a while ago).

Agreed that the Nano might be overkill for what I need. Seems the 390 might be the one for me. Any recommendations on Manufacturer?

Korvanica

Cheers lads.

It'd be 1080p Gaming.

Just Checked, Ive a 650Watt PSU, (i'd forgotten id replaced a while ago).

Agreed that the Nano might be overkill for what I need. Seems the 390 might be the one for me. Any recommendations on Manufacturer?

Eoinmc97

Sapphire and Powercolor offer the quietest versions, whilst XFX offers a cheaper version that's a bit louder.
They all perform the same roughly.

Eoinmc97

Sapphire and Powercolor offer the quietest versions, whilst XFX offers a cheaper version that's a bit louder.
They all perform the same roughly.

Dyr

MAybe check that MSI board will support the latest graphic cards

TerrorFirmer

Bambi wrote: »

MAybe check that MSI board will support the latest graphic cards

Why wouldn't it?

Eoinmc97

Bambi wrote: »

MAybe check that MSI board will support the latest graphic cards

It will lol, his PC ain't that old and new GPUs aren't powerful enough to be bottlenecked by PCI-e 2.0 yet

Dyr

Eoinmc97 wrote: »

It will lol, his PC ain't that old and new GPUs aren't powerful enough to be bottlenecked by PCI-e 2.0 yet

I've a five year old MSI motherboard running an i5 2500k and was told that I could forget about the higher end nvidia cards working with the BIOS

Nibs05

I'm in the same position, I have a 2500K sitting at 4.3ghz happy all day long, these sandy bridge cpu's are rock sold and great overclockers.

Now I'm having some serious driver issues with my HD7950, the drivers crash out on most games, especially in FSX and AMD no longer support it, I'll probably upgrade to a GTX970 when finances are better.

I have done some research though and found that my asrockz68 may have issues with newer cards as well.

Redfox25

You should be fine with the AMD cards as they are technically a few years old with the 3 series.
Worth checking out first though ofc.

Dcully

i5 2500K here @ 4.5 ghz rock solid with an EVGA GTX 970, playing games on max settings @ 1080 144hz monitor and very few games if any struggle to hit a solid 144fps and if they do gsync kicks in and keeps everything buttery smooth.
Them i5 are legendary overclockers at this stage.

Dcully

i5 2500K here @ 4.5 ghz rock solid with an EVGA GTX 970, playing games on max settings @ 1080 144hz monitor and very few games if any struggle to hit a solid 144fps and if they do gsync kicks in and keeps everything buttery smooth.
Them i5 are legendary overclockers at this stage.

Redfox25

If your considering changing your monitor to a gsync nvidea or freesync amd screen then that would push you to one card vs another.
If your not, get the best deal you can enjoy either card

Korvanica

Cheers lads. Went with a PowerColour R9 390 after.

Redfox25

We want pics when its in!

Korvanica

Redfox25 wrote: »

We want pics when its in!

Jaysus, it just barely fit. Probably 1cm of room left. Tidy cabling is not something I care about.:pac:

Great Success.

Redfox25

Now, is it a beast of a card

Enjoy it.

Lu Tze

Korvanica wrote: »

Jaysus, it just barely fit. Probably 1cm of room left. Tidy cabling is not something I care about.:pac:

Great Success.

You would have been out of luck if the power plugs were aligned horizontally instead of vertically!