Upgrading my gaming rig, wisdom would be appreciated!

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TheNewPCGuy

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Feb 21, 2013
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Hey all, as the title implies I'm upgrading my rig. Back in 2013 when I built my PC I was cool with middle of the road specs, nothing special but nothing bad either. I just wanted something that looked and performed better than a console.

Fast forward to now and I'm in the market for high end stuff. I don't want to be content with needing to run games on medium to get a consistent 60, I want to be running things on high/ultra. The problem is that I've been out of the loop since 2013 so I don't know what's high end anymore. I'm looking for a new motherboard CPU, and GPU. I guess the PSU will need upgraded too if the other stuff is going to be getting beefier.

So basically, what are today's high-end motherboards, CPUs (preferably Intel) and GPUs (preferably Nvidia)? Keep in mind I don't want to go absolutely crazy with specs, like super high end, just high end... if that makes sense. I don't have a specific budget but obviously I don't want to be emptying the bank if possible. Any knowledge is very much appreciated!

(For reference, my current rig consists of an Asus P8Z77-V LX MB, I5-3570k, Radeon 7950, 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM, and a 660W PSU)

EDIT: I'm from the UK, budget is around £650, PSU is an XFX PRO 550W (not 660w as previously thought, derp on my part), case is NZXT Phantom 410, CPU cooler is a Cooler Master Hyper Tx3 EVO, I have a 1TB HDD and I'm playing in 1080p.
 
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rohitbaran

rohitbaran

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Do not uprade your CPU, it is still solid. Upgrade your GPU to a GTX 980 and you are ready to go. What PSU do you have currently? 660W is sufficient for the upgrade, but I am curious what make and model the psu is.
Also, add an SSD to your system. These are the only immediate upgrades needed that will bump your system to the high end region, to be honest.
 
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TheNewPCGuy

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Feb 21, 2013
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Of course, I should have mentioned all of that in my original post lol. I'm from Northern Ireland so the currency i'm working with is Pounds. My case is an NZXT Phantom 410, and as far as a budget goes I guess I would looking around ‎£650-ish. The reason I'm not sure about the budget is because I have no idea what to expect from component prices these days.
 
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TheNewPCGuy

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Feb 21, 2013
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Yikes, seems I left out a crazy amount of important info. Apologies for my ignorance, it's been a while since I've dabbled with PC stuff lol. All relevant info has been added to the OP, along with a PSU correction.
 
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Forever Oleg

Forever Oleg

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http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/9byMzy

You can get a GTX 980 Ti but the card is complete overkill for 1080p. It is a 4K card, so if you ever want a 4K monito or 1440p 144hz monitor then this card is golden.

There is nothing wrong with your PSU but I would switch to a newer, high quality unit.

For 650 pounds, you can replace your motherboard+CPU to Skylake (for less than 300 pounds), get a GTX 970 (perfect card for 1080p and even 1440p, around 250 pounds), a new PSU (65 pounds) and DDR4 RAM (45 pounds).

I can put together that build for you as well.
 
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TheNewPCGuy

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Feb 21, 2013
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You guys are awesome. It seems I have plenty of options to consider, and most of it is surprisingly cheaper than I expected which is excellent. The 980 Ti is most definitely overkill, so I'm going to go with the 970. I was looking at benchmarks and it seems to be an enormous upgrade from my 7950 which is exactly what I wanted. Thanks for all of the help! :]


Regarding the case, the phantom I have has a removable hard drive cage. It's removed at the moment and there is no obstruction at all from the front of the case directly to the back. Wouldn't that that solve the issue of the card being too large?

 
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Andrei-Florin Gogan

Andrei-Florin Gogan

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Well if you can do that and you are happy with your current case and it has good airflow inside then there is nothig wrong about that. Before I upgraded to a bigger GPU ( from R7 260x to R9 380 ) I had the CoolerMaster K350 case. It was a pretty decent case and the R9 380 did fit inside. But as soon as I put the big GPU inside, all my temps rose by 5-10 degrees because of airflow. The R9 380 does require 2 6pin connectors and the cables were everywhere in my K350. I have bought the Aerocool Aero 800 and the cable management is just 10 times better and it gave me my airflow back haha.
 
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