Upgrade Help

[impulse89]

Hey Guys,

I'm seeing all new hardware out there and I'm getting a serious itch to upgrade again. Its really hard not to scratch.

Heres my current build:
Mobo: MSI NF980-G65
CPU: Phenom II X4 955 BE @ 3.7
Heatsink/Fan: ZALMAN 9500A
GPUs: 2 GTX 275's in SLI
RAM: 8Gb G.SKILL Ripjaws Series DDR3 1600
PSU: XION Power Real XON-1100P14HE 1100W
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB

I really want to either get a GTX 580 or completly flip and get a 2600k and new mobo (wish it didnt cost as much as it does)
Do you guys think there is any other options to upgrade my crap without a complete overhaul?
I've looked into SSD's but I just don't think thats a good way to spend my money as this build is 99% for GAMING.


Thanks for any and all input!

 

[CopaMundial]

You've already got a really strong foundation there.
It would be a shame to walk away from that mobo/CPU because you wouldn't get enough of a performance boost to justify the cost of starting from ground up.

I think you would get the most out of it if you focused all of your budget on the GPU specifically.
Right now that means a GTX-580. This one is my high end recommendation.
$560 (after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187127

and a lower priced but still beefy overclock version
$504 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127567



Hey if you want to go really crazy the dual GPU cards are coming. 6990 already released (though I haven't seen any for sale yet, and the GTX 590 rumored to be announced at PAX East this weekend).

Also, is your 8G of RAM in 2 sticks of 4? If so you could drop in another two sticks of RAM at the same time as your GPU upgrade.
Those two things combined would definitely scratch your itch.

On an unrelated question, do you use the Hybrid SLI feature on your system?
I really like it as a way to reduce power usage when I'm not gaming.

 

[christop]

For the price of the 580=$560 you could get a new motherboard and cpu then reuse your mem and other parts for a sandy bridge build. I had an i72600k and a Asus sabertooth board picked out on tigerdirect site at it was like 500.00

 

[impulse89]

On an unrelated question, do you use the Hybrid SLI feature on your system?
I really like it as a way to reduce power usage when I'm not gaming.

The feature is enabled, but honestly I don't really pay too much attention to it.
Ive never really been to worried about power usage... (why i got a 1100watt psu lolol)

As for the memory, sadly it is 2x2x2x2gb.

Besides the fact the GTX 275s are pretty aged, when in SLI in fullscreen, my games and even desktop sometimes are unplayable due to excessive screen tearing.
I have the latest drivers and SLI configurations. I have this problem on 99% of all games(Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Star Craft 2, Spore, DA2, Assassins Creed 1/2/BH etc..)
When i disable SLI the tearing does not happen. When I play games while not in Full-Screen it doesn't happen either.
I have tried 2 different bridges to the same effect.
For this reason I am kind of scared to try another multi-gpu setup..


Christop, you make a very good point. Im also very excited about z68, so if i go the cpu route, i'd wait for the new standard.


EDIT*** CopaMundial, why not the galaxy version ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162073 ) with similar heatsink/fan setup? Is this one superclocked or something?

 

[CopaMundial]

For the price of the 580=$560 you could get a new motherboard and cpu then reuse your mem and other parts for a sandy bridge build. I had an i72600k and a Asus sabertooth board picked out on tigerdirect site at it was like 500.00

Why do that when the only weak point in his system is GPU?

EDIT*** CopaMundial, why not the galaxy version ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162073 ) with similar heatsink/fan setup? Is this one superclocked or something?

The galaxy one is a little cheaper than the MSI one I listed, but the MSI is clocked higher (worth it for $5 price diff imo).

I suggested the big GTX 580 because you have a great system and could get away w/ upgrading just that one component so the extra cost might not hurt too much.
You could get a GTX 570 for ~$350 and it would still be an awesome card, or you could come down one more step to the current value (price/performance) leader which is the GTX560ti in the ~$270 range.

 

[impulse89]

Best answer selected by impulse89.