2-year PC Upgrade Suggestion (GPU, SSD)

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KcThrows

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So it's been about two years since I built my first gaming PC. It cost me around 700-800$ at the time, and I'm looking to upgrade! The goal is to play the newest games on ultra (like most). I'd love to play Skyrim fully modded basically.

I'm thinking a GPU would be my biggest uprade, but I do have one issue with my PC freezing up as well. Now and than it will lock up, and I'll have to force a restart. Fresh OS install, and same issue before and OC so I'm worried it may be my SSD (but my 2TB HDD did report some warning on crystaldisk, which is only used for storage now).

Anyway! Looking at a GeForce GTX 760 possibly (but can't say I really know what I'm doing). May try to improve my cooling situation as well. (oh, and hopefully move up to multi monitor from dual!)

Here are my specs....

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz 33 °C ((OC 4.2GHz))
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z68X-UD3H-B3 (Socket 1155) 30 °C
Graphics
SMBX2231 (1920x1080@60Hz)
SMBX2231 (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Gigabyte)
1023MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (MSI) 34 °C
Hard Drives
466GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2 ATA Device (SATA) 33 °C
1863GB Seagate ST2000DM001-9YN164 ATA Device (SATA) 30 °C
2795GB Western Digital WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 ATA Device (SATA) 27 °C
112GB Corsair Force 3 SSD ATA Device (SSD) 30 °C
 
Solution
Jacob McIntosh
1) Get a new GPU, like a 680 or 670, depending on your upgrade budget.
2) Get a good water cooling loop. The Corsair H100/H100i are really good, and you should get a lot closer to the 5! GHz spectrum on your CPU.
3) In the future, get faster RAM. 1600 and 1866 is a good speed.
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Jacob McIntosh

Jacob McIntosh

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1) Get a new GPU, like a 680 or 670, depending on your upgrade budget.
2) Get a good water cooling loop. The Corsair H100/H100i are really good, and you should get a lot closer to the 5! GHz spectrum on your CPU.
3) In the future, get faster RAM. 1600 and 1866 is a good speed.
 
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Solution
K

KcThrows

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Thanks, I'll check one of those GPU out. Closer to my budget than what I was looking at. My RAM is also 1600! Doesn't come clocked at that speed, but had to do it manually. (I assume "speccy" doesn't show the current speeds).

Also, thanks for the 5GHz suggestion..didn't realize that was something I should aim for haha...it seemed very insane!

Oh, I have a "Coolit Systems Eco CPU Water Cooling System AUTO-REGULATED & Maintenance Free LGA1366/1156/1155/AM3" installed as well for my CPU. But that was only a 30$ unit. Would it be a smart to upgrade that to your suggestions? (I assume close to 5GHz is really gonna bump the temp up. )

 
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Jacob McIntosh

Jacob McIntosh

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Yeah, 5 GHz will definitely make the temps soar. The better water cooling system you have, the faster it will go. Now, if the Coolit is a good unit, you might be able to get to 5 GHz+. If it isn't, you will find out when your CPU stops gaining speed and stays at, for example, 4.9 GHz. The H100(i) will get you to 5 GHz, and if you want to get some extreme OC'ing, you could always go liquid hydrogen and get like 7 or 8 GHz out of the CPU. But hydrogen is only done by hyper extreme OC'ers.

**Don't forget to choose an answer!**
 
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KcThrows

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Thanks, I'll give the regular OC'ing a go :p No liquid hydrogen for me!

One question before I go! I was just booting up again since my PC froze on me twice this morning! I noticed some lights when I powered on. It was green, green, yellow, red on the MOBO for D4, D3, D2, D1. I'm going to look up my MOBO manual, but does that mean anything? (On a side note, not sure when it happened but one of my fan ports stopped working that plugs directly into my MOBO some time ago)
 
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KcThrows

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So to follow up, I ended up having in store credit and was able to pick up a 770 with little out of pocket expense! also solved my freezing problems! Can run skyrim fully modded np! Thanks!
 
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