Help/advice me with a minor upgrade

iAmAdrian · Mar 27, 2014

Hi everyone,

I might have around 300U$ extra cash within a month or 2. So I'm planning an upgrade.
I'm from the Philippines by the way. And I can't buy them all at once. Maybe 100U$ for this week and another for next

My current rig is;

A6-5400k
MSi FM2-A55M-E33
Seagate 500GB HDD
HyperX Black 1x4GB
Generic Case with 600W PSU

Fresh, no overclocks.

Reasons for upgrading is to play Battle Field 3 or 4 on high-ultra. And a few graphics hungry games like Tomb Raider, Hitman, AC: Black Flag or CoD: Ghost.

I can play Battle Field 3 single player on low settings but the dialogue is choppy. Like some sort of delayed. And some fields/areas are just plain lag.

I've also played and finished Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 on mid settings.
NBA 2K14 on High settings
Assassin's Creed 1 on low-mid settings.
StarCraft II WoL and HotS on low-mid settings
And Sims 3 on mid-high settings

I'd like to play them at an enjoyable level on my 18.5 wide screen.

I know I should change my PSU first and I'm looking at the VS450 from Corsair.
Is the HD7770 enough for my demands? Standard or OC version?
Should I sell my RAM and get a 2x4GB kit?
The Crucial M500 120GB SSD here will cost roughly 85U$ till they run out of stocks. Should I get that?
My case is a Frontier Iris with limited airflow so I'll probably get rid of this and get the CM N200 or Corsair R200.

Thanks,
Adrian

MaXimus421 · Mar 27, 2014

That generic PSU of yours is the biggiest danger to your system upgrade that before anything else. I seriously doubt that it even output's its rated wattage of 600 watts. Probably 350 if even that. When it dies, it will take some other hardware with it. Replace it asap with this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

Corsair makes great PSUs, but their CX and VS series aren't particularly great.

And a 7770 will give you medium settings on those games you want to play. Get 8GB of ram if you can, it will help (2X4GB).

St0rm_KILL3r · Mar 27, 2014

SSD is not really necessary unless you wan't it bad. I suggest you to get a nice cpu cooler like cooler master hyper 212 evo or if that doesn't fit in your case then get cooler master tx3 and oc your cpu. Then get more 4 gb of ram and make it 8gb.
The most important part, get hd 7770 or hd 7790 as they will match up with your cpu when oc'd.
Only change your cabinet if you are getting high temps because of low air flow. Any case with 4 or more fans will be fine.
Try to get a oc version of hd 7790 or 7770.
And upgrade that psu to a decent quality one. I think you'll still have some money left with you to buy some more fans for your new case.

iAmAdrian · Mar 27, 2014

I already busted my MoBo and HDD because of a defective PSU, luckily it's still within the full item replacement week.
Also I'm not certain if we have the XFX PSU's here. Can't be sure though. Will check this later.

The OC'd version of the HD7770 is only a bit higher than the normal version, is it wise to spend more for a few speed?

What upgrades should I need to play them at higher settings? I really want to play BF4 on high-ultra settings but even in low it's really bad.

Some of you might suggest to change the unit completely but this unit has been with me for less than a year. And I want to make the most out of it before I build another one, and maybe that time, I'll head on to Intel's.

St0rm_KILL3r · Mar 28, 2014

iAmAdrian :

Well, if you wan't to play bf4 on high to ultra then you need an hd 7870 or r9 270 gpu. I wouldn't recommend them because your cpu will easily bottleneck them and you won't get any better performance than a hd 7790-7850 when oc'd your cpu, even if you buy hd 7870 it's no use.
So if you wan't to play bf4 on high settings then you might have to heavily oc your cpu or get a better one with a hd 7850 or a better gpu.
And always try to get oc version of gpus as they are almost the same price and more value for money.

iAmAdrian · Mar 28, 2014

Oh, okay. I failed on setting up this PC since this was just a backup when I fried the gpu on my laptop and I needed a replacement ASAP with limited budget.

So what you're trying to say is, this setup can never play BF4 on high-ultra settings if I don't upgrade my processor?
Is there any other way of upgrading without changing my processor and motherboard?

St0rm_KILL3r · Mar 28, 2014

iAmAdrian :

I am sorry to say this but no you can't. But you can get playable fps on high if you buy a nice cooler for your cpu and oc it and pair it with hd 7850.
It's not an upgrade if you don't change your cpu. That's the reason I suggested overclocking to get around 20-30% cpu performance boost.

iAmAdrian · Mar 28, 2014

I'm not an experienced overclocker but there's this thing in the bios where I can just click on it and it will OC my cpu. Sorry I'm kind of new with the UEFI.

Tried it before and the speed went from 3.6GHz to 4.0GHz with just one click.
I'm fairly certain this was the time I busted my crappy PSU and took along with it my MoBo and HDD.

I'm afraid if I do this again, history would repeat itself.

Sorry if I wasn't clear with the word "upgrade", what I meant was "add-ons". Adding something aside from the processor and motherboard, to better the performance.

St0rm_KILL3r · Mar 29, 2014

iAmAdrian :

I am sure you will not be having any problems with overclocking once you get a decent quality psu. And I don't think besides getting a better cpu cooler it's worth spending money on stuff like sound card, network card(unless you need them). And those will not increase any performance in computing. So no, there are no such add-ons to increase computer performance. Getting an SSD will increase boot time and game loading time, but it won't increase fps.

iAmAdrian · Mar 29, 2014

I see, so getting a decent PSU and an HD7770 GHz edition will improve things a bit? I'm leaning on the HD7770 since it's a bang for a buck. Next would be a better cooler for OC, that hyper 212 evo is really good too. Then maybe OC my cpu.

St0rm_KILL3r · Mar 30, 2014

iAmAdrian :

You should get r7 260x if poosible.

iAmAdrian · Apr 7, 2014

Sorry for the late reply.

There is a roughly U$35 difference between the Sapphire brand HD7770 and the R7 260X.
Is the R7 260X really worth it? Should I be concerned with bottlenecks?

St0rm_KILL3r · Apr 7, 2014

iAmAdrian :

Depends on you, You will most likely not get any bottlenecks, and if you get hd 7770 then use that money to buy more 4 gb of ram.

iAmAdrian · Apr 14, 2014

Alright, but when I plug in an HD7770, will it help with my current issue of lag/delayed dialogue when playing BF3? Mid settings is fine for now.

And, is the HD7770 future-proof? Like when I plan to change my rig with an i3 or i5 Haswell someday. Will it work fine?

St0rm_KILL3r · Apr 15, 2014

iAmAdrian :

You will not get any lags with hd 7770. But if you want a future proof gpu you should get r9 270x or gtx 760 or a better one which will match the cpu like i5. You dont need to get i3 as there are better options from amd which are cheaper than i3.

iAmAdrian · Apr 15, 2014

I'll probably get the HD7770 for now and spend the extra for another 4gb stick of RAM.

I really appreciate you taking time answering all my questions man.

Cheers!

By the way, the

r9 270x or gtx 760

is way over my price range

St0rm_KILL3r · Apr 16, 2014

iAmAdrian :

r9 270x or gtx 760 is for high-ultra gaming, and today's games don't really much give graphics difference between low and ultra, I've seen it myself. So hd 7770 will be fine at 1080p. Good luck!

iAmAdrian · Apr 19, 2014

You're right. The difference I often see with low and ultra are just thicker shadows and minor texture improvements.

Thanks once again.

Help/advice me with a minor upgrade

Distinguished

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Share this page