Upgrade, or buy a new PC?

Dimwinkle · Dec 17, 2013

Good evening everyone,

My current PC is a few years old, and I am looking to upgrade it. My issue, however, is whether I'm best to upgrade various components now, or hold fire and buy a complete new PC later on down the line. I've tried doing a bit of research on my own, but I openly admit I am not too tech-savvy when it comes to these things, so was hoping the community could help me out a bit!

As I have said, my rig is mainly for gaming, and my budget is ~£350.

Here are my current specs...

MSI ATI Radeon HD 6870 HAWK Graphics Card

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 975 Black Edition 3.60GHz

Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X DDR3 Motherboard

Corsair XMS3 6GB RAM (3x2G DDR3)

Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 Power Supply

Any advice on how to prioritise upgrades, or whether I should just buy a new rig, would be hugely appreciated!

Regards,
Kenny

Supahos · Dec 17, 2013

To enable AM3+ AMD FX-Series CPU support, please update your motherboard with the most current BIOS found in your motherboard’s download section.

I would suggest making sure I got the F13 bios installed before any updates... but..

You can easily add an FX8320 cpu to that build an dit would already be a pretty nice upgrade, if you wanted to upgrade your GPU, Eventually if you wanted to you could add a 4th stick of ram for 8gb then you would have a pretty monstorous computer for not a lot of money.

imokgoca · Dec 17, 2013

AMD fx8350/fx6350 + second 6870 or r9 270x/280x. I would go with upgrade.

viper1979 · Dec 17, 2013

I personally feel that your computer could go another year with no problems if you upgrade two things.

Memory - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231611
Video card - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130825

The card has a newer, faster interface, but it is backwards compatable. Getting these two upgrades will also be good for later when you decide to build a new computer.

If you have a little bit more in funds available, pick up a SSD drive. Plextor makes a fantastic drive, M5P Xtreme. Can get a 128 for around $110 and the 256Gb version for $220 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820249033

-T

Guest · Dec 17, 2013

You should upgrade.
Here are the parts you need for a cheap gaming PC : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2lR9u

Supahos · Dec 17, 2013

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2lQGH

Slightly altered one, I actually matched the memory you have now, and choose a 670 over a 760 b/c its a pretty large performance increase and not a ton more expensive.

Guest · Dec 17, 2013

Supahos :

You should go for a Radeon R9 270X instead.
A 670 is 100$ more expensive than a R9 and isn't much better.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/directCompute.html

logainofhades · Dec 17, 2013

A GTX 760 is basically a rebadged 670. For around $300 you can get a 280x, when they are in stock that is. :lol:

Supahos · Dec 17, 2013

I just bought a 760 myself but it seems the 670 wins in nearly every benchmark still.

Supahos · Dec 17, 2013

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-760-vs-GeForce-GTX-670

they actually have a few noticeable difference in number of texture mapping units, and SMX units. Basically the parts in the 760 are faster but there is more processing power in the 670

logainofhades · Dec 17, 2013

The damn bitcoin miners are really making it difficult for gamers to get higher end AMD gpu's right now. :/

Dimwinkle · Dec 17, 2013

Thanks for the quick and detailed responses guys, much appreciated! So you reckon my Motherboard should be good for now, yeah?

logainofhades · Dec 17, 2013

Dimwinkle :

Yea your motherboard is fine. With a bios update you can get an FX 8320 and be set pretty good on the CPU side. If you can find one for a decent price, an R9 280x or 7970/7970 gigahertz edition would be a great GPU to get. I think even R9 290's fit your current budget. You would bottleneck it with that CPU, but it would be far faster than your 6870. I would go GPU, Ram, then CPU.

logainofhades · Dec 17, 2013

If you want to upgrade everything now, this would be a solid upgrade for you.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£109.98 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£39.42 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card (£123.90 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £306.29
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-17 20:19 GMT+0000)

Dimwinkle · Dec 17, 2013

Awesome, thank you!

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