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Next upgrade for my aged system

Tags:
  • Cooling
  • CPUs
  • Intel i5
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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October 10, 2013 12:22:26 AM

I am looking for opinions and ideas on where I should go next in my current set up. I primarily game with my computer and not much else. I play games like: Planetside 3, Rome Total War II, BF 3. hopefully BF4 beta soon. Always @ 1080P

I am running this setup:
CPU: Intel i5 3570k 3.4GHz @ 4.2 MHz
CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Plus
MOBO: MSI Z77 M power Intel LGA1155
PSU: Raidmax 630w
HDD: Seagate barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
Video card: EVGA GTX 660Ti SC 2G
OS: Windows Home 64 bit
Case: CM HAF 912 ATX mid tower

I was wondering were I should go next in terms of upgrades. I was thinking of a new video card, but also wondering if I should go SLI 660tis.

More about : upgrade aged system

a b à CPUs
October 10, 2013 12:28:41 AM

If your are playing @1080p, 660ti is a pretty decent solution right now. How about adding a ssd?
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October 10, 2013 12:31:49 AM

tonyzet said:
If your are playing @1080p, 660ti is a pretty decent solution right now. How about adding a ssd?


I am a little bit of a skeptic when it comes to those but they seem to be here for good. If I were to go that rout, do you have any suggestions?
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a b à CPUs
October 10, 2013 12:38:36 AM

Well, right now some popular brands are samsung, ocz, adata, crucial and corsair. If you don't install many big programs, 120gb will be more than enough(like samsung 840 evo 120gb). Note that a ssd will not offer extra perfomance at applications like games, but it will dramatically improve load times of applications as well as the boot time of your os. Also note that you will have to reinstall the os to the ssd
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October 10, 2013 12:47:35 AM

tonyzet said:
Well, right now some popular brands are samsung, ocz, adata, crucial and corsair. If you don't install many big programs, 120gb will be more than enough(like samsung 840 evo 120gb). Note that a ssd will not offer extra perfomance at applications like games, but it will dramatically improve load times of applications as well as the boot time of your os. Also note that you will have to reinstall the os to the ssd


This is a promising avenue. my next question is: if I did get a ssd and I needed to reinstall windows do I need to purchase another copy of windows or will I be able to use the one I currently have? (I think I would do a clean wipe if so)
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a b à CPUs
October 10, 2013 12:57:31 AM

As far as i know, the windows dvd can be used multiple times
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October 10, 2013 1:02:56 AM

tonyzet said:
As far as i know, the windows dvd can be used multiple times


Excellent. Thank you for taking the time and helping me out. I appreciate the help.
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a c 165 à CPUs
October 10, 2013 1:42:45 AM

I would also suggest a SSD, get the biggest capacity you can afford. Its the biggest change in general pc performance, much much faster starting programs, booting up and general responsiveness.
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October 10, 2013 2:14:19 AM

RobCrezz said:
I would also suggest a SSD, get the biggest capacity you can afford. Its the biggest change in general pc performance, much much faster starting programs, booting up and general responsiveness.


Yeah I am thinking a Samsung 250gb, just doing my comparisons and research.
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a c 165 à CPUs
October 10, 2013 2:29:59 AM

Vamphyri12 said:
RobCrezz said:
I would also suggest a SSD, get the biggest capacity you can afford. Its the biggest change in general pc performance, much much faster starting programs, booting up and general responsiveness.


Yeah I am thinking a Samsung 250gb, just doing my comparisons and research.



I have the Samsung 840 250gb and its very good. The Pro edition is slightly faster, but the difference is not noticeable, so not worth the extra cost in my opinion.

To be honest, the performance difference between the fastest desktop HDD and one of the cheapest SSDs is still huge, but the difference between a mid range SSD and a "performance" SSD is practically nothing in terms of what you can perceive.
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October 10, 2013 2:35:51 AM

Well thanks a ton guys, I am going to pick up the Samsung 840 250 GB, I can get it from best buy for 134.99 @ for roughly .54 c a gig. (I have a rewards cert to bring the price down)
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a c 165 à CPUs
October 10, 2013 2:53:05 AM

Vamphyri12 said:
Well thanks a ton guys, I am going to pick up the Samsung 840 250 GB, I can get it from best buy for 134.99 @ for roughly .54 c a gig. (I have a rewards cert to bring the price down)


Cool. You may even be able to transfer your current C:\ over to the SSD using the samsung software if you dont have too much data.

I would also suggest not going below 10% free space on the SSD. Also, either store your page file on your HDD, or keep it on the SSD but limit it to 1Gb. And turn off Defrag for the SSD.

Finally, make sure its set as AHCI in the bios, not IDE for best performance.
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October 10, 2013 2:58:59 AM

I don't really have that much data but I love clean installs. Im sorry but I don't know what a page file is or how to limit it. It would be awesome if you could give me crash course on what that is. I still plan o keeping my 500 gig HDD and putting no essentials and whatnots on that.
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a c 165 à CPUs
October 10, 2013 3:10:53 AM

Vamphyri12 said:
I don't really have that much data but I love clean installs. Im sorry but I don't know what a page file is or how to limit it. It would be awesome if you could give me crash course on what that is. I still plan o keeping my 500 gig HDD and putting no essentials and whatnots on that.


Page file is also described as virtual memory, that the computer generally uses when its not using RAM. Its good practice to at least have a small (1GB) page file even if you have lots of RAM.

Heres a guide to change the size and location if need be:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-vista/Change...
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October 10, 2013 3:16:32 AM

Sweet! You rock!
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!