whats my cheapest upgrade route here?

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dwaynedays

dwaynedays

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May 15, 2013
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I have a pc i built about 3 years ago or so and I havent really played anything on it in a while. Been more of a console gamer but im planning on playing a lot of marvel heroes and wanna squeeze as much out of this system as possible for not a ton more of money. My wife mainly uses the computer for photoshop and illustrator stuff and she kinda does a bunch of that. We just added a new ssd and did a complete reinstall of windows and cleaned everything out good added new fans new heatsink etc. just wondering what else i can do hardware wise to get the most out of this.

my specs are

mother is an msi p55-gd80
cpu is Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz
vid card is radeon 5800 hd series
and i have 4 gigs of ram I cant recall what type off of the top of my head if thats helpful i could search it up

my cpu temps seem to stay around 40 c atm. Any ideas? oh also running windows 7 home premium
 
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csf60

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May 11, 2012
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It actually seems a good PC. There's no cheap upgrade, as anything will cost 150+. I suppose you could buy and extra 4GB of RAM, that is cheap and will help with some applications and games.
 
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hizodge

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Nov 22, 2012
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You shouldn't 'add' RAM, you replace it due to possible conflicts with different kits, even if they are the same manufacturer, model number etc. Whether this is profitable or not depends whether you have a 32 or a 64-bit OS as 32-bit can only use 3GB in total.

Your cheapeast option since you added an aftermarket CPU heatsink would be to overclock your CPU above 3GHz as it would net you a performance boost and cost you nothing at all. Then I would switch out the GPU to a HD 7790/HD 7850 or GTX 650 Ti/GTX Ti Boost depending on what resolution you play; 2GB VRAM model card if you play at 1080p and 1GB model if below that. This would cost you $150-200.
 
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dwaynedays

dwaynedays

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May 15, 2013
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well by cheap I meant around 150-200 i should have specified. will overclocking be safe with my cpus temps? Will it make a big difference?

Checking out the hd 7850 they seem to be around 150ish on newegg will I notice a difference or is it a minimal upgrade? Also I run games at 1920X1200
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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Do some testing first.
To help clarify your options, run these two tests:

a) Run your games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 50%.
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.


Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
set to 50% and see how you do.


If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.

If you will upgrade the graphics card, make it a big jump, or you may be disappointed. Most likely, a $200 graphics card will be the best option.
That might be a 7870 or GTX660.

For photoshop, add some ram, assuming you are using 64 bit windows.

Your i5-750 has a passmark of 3718. If you want to change out the cpu, a ivy bridge i5-3330(passmark 5893) quad will be about $190, and a Z77 based motherboard will be $100 or so.
Actually, I would wait for haswell in early June for something like a 4570 which will be in the same price range and be somewhat faster.
 
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dwaynedays

dwaynedays

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May 15, 2013
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I think ill stick to just the vid card then and maybe some ram. I dont wanna have to buy a whole new motherboard just to switch cpus. Thanks for the suggestions so far guys

Oh yeah edit here. Where can I find info on overclocking? I've never done it before
 
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hizodge

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Nov 22, 2012
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You won't as long as you don't get too trigger happy with the voltages. You can google overclocking on p55 and read up on it in detail if you prefer it that way. Personally I can't read anything for more than 10 minutes so my first OC was just trial and error and I made it out just fine.

Basically you just want as high clockspeeds as possible with as low voltages as your CPU will allow. Test using Prime95 small FFTs and monitor specs with CPU-Z and temp with HWmonitor. The video has everything else covered.

You can try the OC Genie too, but it won't match up to a manual overclock.
 
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