How to UPGRADE my current gaming PC

dioblog · Nov 19, 2015

I built this back a few years ago when i was brand new to PC gaming. I still do not have a good knowledge of whats good and whats bad. This PC is not keeping up with todays games (obviously because its old and wasn't top of the line a few years ago anyways) I was looking to sell this and then start over but looking online and todays current builds I see a lot of gaming rigs still useing things like the Intel I5, the power supply I use and im seeing if maybe i just need to upgrade a few core components. Looking at the current list I was thinking the biggest area of improvements in order are the motherboard, the RAM and the video card. What are come compatible build i could do to make this pc better as a whole for gaming?

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card

ASUS P8Z68-V LX Intel Motherboard LGA 1155 Z68 SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 ATX Intel Z68

Intel Core i5-2500K Quad-Core Processor 3.3 GHz 6 MB Cache

4GB Corsair Vengence DDR3 Ram

Corsair TX750M -- 80 PLUSÂ® Bronze Certified 750 Watt High Performance Modular Power Supply

500GB 7200RPM

HAF Full Tower

stpierren90 · Nov 19, 2015

I would say new GPU, more/faster ram, and maybe a new HDD and/or an SSD.

Math Geek · Nov 19, 2015

gpu and ram are at the top of the list. an ssd if you have the funds will improve loads times a bit as well, but the gpu and ram are the most important things. you have plenty of power so no need for a psu change either.

what is your budget? 8gb of ram is about $40 and a new gpu can be as much as you want to spend.....

stpierren90 · Nov 19, 2015

Something like this could give you a nice performance boost. You could even go with 8GB of ram and a 1TB HDD instead and save a few bucks:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($79.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $312.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 19:24 EST-0500

Th3-Hunter333 · Nov 19, 2015

Yeah i agree with the rest, the 2500k is still a capable processor.

depending on your budget, toss a gtx 970 in there if you want and 8gb of ram

computertech82 · Nov 19, 2015

The cpu is not that far behind the ones sold today. something like 20% difference. Not really needed to get a new one. The video card, however, is a HUGE difference in cards now. Toms has benchmarks showing the difference. using newegg.com (if in usa), to check pricing.
As for the rest of the machine, that's up to you. Like adding more memory, like to 8gb or more. (Hint: 4gb will still work fine, but could slow down some games/programs if the computer uses more than 4gb and has to use the hd for memory).
A SSD drive can REALLY speed loading times, boot times. But not much difference in gaming.

dioblog · Nov 20, 2015

I know the RAM has been a huge problem, my gauges always max out when i play gamed but thats because the current GPU isnt great either. What are thoughts on that motherboard though? I was more concerned about that because last time I tried to upgrade my RAM it wasnt compatible and I didnt want to buy more ram or a newer graphics card and it not be compatible. I just remember that motherboard being pretty cheep.

stpierren90 · Nov 20, 2015

The specs say your current MB supports the following: DDR3 2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066

ASUS P8Z68-V LX

As far as a newer MB this looks pretty solid:

ASRock Z75 Pro3

dioblog · Nov 20, 2015

Also i was looking at the GeForce GTX 960, would this be a good card to run on this machine? Should i go with the standard, the SC, SCC, or FTW?

dioblog · Nov 20, 2015

stpierren90 :

I have a second stick of 4GB Corsair Vengence DDR3 Ram but when i install it my PC crashes and i think the manual says i can only have 4GB, to upgrade to anymore it required like 100$ sticks of RAM

Math Geek · Nov 20, 2015

that's curious. spec sheet says it has 4 slots and a max of 32 gb of ram. did you buy the 8 gb as a matched set? is it fast ram? often mismatched high speed ram has compatibility issues.

a matched set of 2 x 4 gb ddr3 1600 ram should solve this issue.

as for gpu, you should be able to handle anything you put in it. it has a 2.0 x 16 slot so it won't bottleneck anything you migth throw in. a gtx 960 would be a nice upgrade for you and bring the system into the modern gaming age. it will allow for 1080p on high settings for most games and give decent results.

stpierren90 · Nov 20, 2015

dioblog :

That seems odd. That MB supports up to 32GB of RAM. Did they come as a set or did you buy 2 separate single sticks? Is it the correct DIMM configuration? Sometimes, even if they are the same brand/model/speed/latency/voltage, 2 single sticks (dual channel) or 2 dual sets (quad channel) just won't play nice. Or it could be just a bad stick of RAM. Considering DDR3 RAM is pretty cheap these days (about $50 for 2x4GB @1866mhz) you may just want to get new RAM. You could also do a new MB and RAM, but I don't know your financial limitations so it's your call as far as that goes.

Also the 960 is a solid 1080p GPU. I personally would go with the 2GB SSC. I don't think you'll see much of a performance boost from either the 2GB or 4GB FTW cards. At least not enough to justify the price difference. And Newegg is has a decent deal on the 2GB 960 SSC ($169.99)

dioblog · Nov 20, 2015

Ya I dont really know motherboard limitation I just know that when i got it the manual it came with was very specific as to what brand of RAM i could use and h ow many sticks of what kind. It was a pack of 2x4GB and when i put both in it gave me an error on start up. When i removed 1 it worked fine so i never tried again. If i upgraded to GPU would i need the ram? or would the GPU be enough dedicated? also with the 960 how is there not a difference between a 2gb and a 4gb? i thought that would be a big difference (Excuse my noobish expertise)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleKWLess&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleKWLess-_-DSA-_-CategoryPages-_-NA&gclid=Cj0KEQiApruyBRCFqoDu1pbk9rkBEiQAF8EFdcruPppkJ8QDV6KLl7gEn1x8TY30kfIqyeLbuoFHRPEaAueq8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

dioblog · Nov 20, 2015

To give more context, I dont really have a budget. I just dont want to overspend or underspend. Id like the PC to last another year or so before I have to upgrade to play games but I dont want to drop 600$ to run it in 4k since im using a standard 1080 monitor. Im mostly interest in getting "Ark Survival Evolved" to run smooth on high-ultra settings. The game is unplayable currently and only decent on medium on my alienware laptop. That game is kicking my gears butt

stpierren90 · Nov 20, 2015

Looked up the manual for your MB and that RAM is not compatible. Model # CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B isn't listed as supported memory.

stpierren90 · Nov 20, 2015

After doing a little research it looks like the game isn't well optimised (as of about 2 months ago). It could be better now, it may not. But from what I saw you can get decent performance at medium settings on a 960.

dioblog · Nov 20, 2015

Its been optimized a lot since then. Im curently playing it on medium with a AMD Radeon HD 7970M

Math Geek · Nov 20, 2015

to answer your question about vram, it seems that the extra vram is most useful at higher resolutions. since the 960 is generally used at 1080p or less, going from 2 to 4 gb makes little difference. to need the 4 gb you would want to push it to higher resolutions (think of the 970's vram scandal. it only showed up at higher resolutions so it took a while to be noticed. lower res did not max the vram so it was not an issue) . but then the card would sputter to a halt and not give very good results. for this reason, the 4 gb 960 has been pretty much deemed to be not worth the added cost.

i have seen some folks suggest/kind of prove that the extra vram is useful in heavily modded games with added texture packs and such. so there does seem to be a use for it even at 1080p. so if you are one to use all the extra texture packs and mods and such, then the 4 gb may be worth the cost to you. otherwise, it is not worth it.

How to UPGRADE my current gaming PC

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