Help me upgrade! $500 budget.

spartakush

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Jan 16, 2011
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I built my PC around 2 years ago and I'm now looking to upgrade it.

i7 2600k
Palit GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5
8 GB G.SKILL RAM
ASUS P8P67 PRO RAM
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
650w PSU

I can run most games at med-high if I want a smooth & consistent FPS. However I'm hoping to upgrade now so I run games like ARMA 3 even smoother. Or Total War: Rome 2 on high when it comes out. I used to built in bios auto-overclock function. It's supposed to be safe and find an overclock for your CPU where it wont crash but it always gave me the BSOD so I had to revert to stock settings. I'm not sure if that's because of my PSU or if I need to buy more fans to keep my comp cool for overclocking. If I do need a new CPU then I can get any Intel CPU at $330 for around $150 (cousin works there).

Thanks
 

Marcopolo123

Honorable
If you want to change the cpu, you will also need to change the motherboard, but if i were you, i wouldnt upgrade anything, because you would not gain much performance...

But if you want i would replace the gpu for a gtx 770 for about 420$
 

spartakush

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Jan 16, 2011
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If I don't need to upgrade anything then I'm okay with that too. Because it's either upgrade or just buy a $100 headset and save the rest.
 

Darkman69

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Jun 6, 2013
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Cite the source to where the i7 2600K is a bad CPU for gaming LOL. The i7 2600K is overkill for running games and would easily run GTX 580 SLI let alone any single card on the market today.
 

khaledegy200

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May 8, 2013
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+1 Marco.

Go for 770 around 420-450 or get the 780 alot better but more expensive too for around 650.

As for the cpu still a beast and can eat any game for many years from now, wait for skylake or skymount.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator


You're not in dire need of a refresh. If you want to pep up new games, grab a GTX 770 and sell your used GTX 580 in the $150-$180 range or so. Really, any other changes (assuming you have a real 650W in there and not a Diablotek or something) will just be marginal upgrades that are likely not worth the trouble and cost.
 

spartakush

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Jan 16, 2011
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I believe my PSU is from Corsair. But 650 should be able to handle the upgrade from 580 to 770 right?

Thanks everyone!