Upgrading a Prebuilt for recording PC games.

[TheMerc]

Hello everybody, as you can see above I am looking to upgrade my prebuilt PC, that I got cheap through my work, as it is now starting to show it's age (I'm sure at the time it wasn't very up-to-date either, but it was definitely a step above what I had before). Now, I'm interested in recording the games I play on Steam and throwing some stuff on Youtube for fun, but I want to upgrade before I do anything. (The games I play are a good mix of graphically intense games and indie games, although I'm sure you guys figured that out when I mentioned Steam.)

This is my rig:
Intel i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz
ATI Radeon HD 5700
8.00GB RAM
1TB HDD

Now I realize I may need a new video card and probably another 1-2TB HDD to record all of the raw footage but I want to minimize rendering times as well. I'm definitely picking up an external hard drive so I'm really just asking for your opinions on the rest. With that in mind what parts would be more of a priority to upgrade? Links are greatly appreciated.

I'm also not totally against building my own rig in a couple months but I don't really think that it is necessary at this point in time. Any opinions are great though, I'm certainly not the best when it comes to hardware haha

(And sorry if this is in the wrong sub-forum )

 

[WR2]

what kind of budget are you willing to commit to this upgrade project?

 

[unksol]

Also what is your monitor resolution? And PSU? I'd just be worried about the GPU and overclock the i7. Although with it having been a work machine I realize the board may not allow it as they tend to have crap for a BIOS.

 

[TheMerc]

Sorry, I have a good $1000 that I'm willing to put into this and my monitor resolution is 1680 x1080 and I'm definitely going to record windowed mode in 720p, but I'm sure that's fairly obvious. The PSU model is DPS-4600-B-3 A; 100-240VAC input, 8A, 47-63Hz, with a 460W max power. I apologize in advance if I've missed anything, I'm not the most tech-savvy person in regards to hardware.

Also a bit more clarification, this isn't a work PC, but I used a deal through work in order to get a prebuilt PC for cheaper.

 

[unksol]

ah. well you have a solid CPU, could get a good overclock with an aftermarket cooler if the board supports it. 3.8GHz+ doesnt seem impossible. You have plenty of RAM. if the GPU is a 5770 it ought to be fine at that Res, and especially in windowed mode. Unless your having issues.

Have you tried any recording or had issues?

I have never overclocked an Intel so others here no more, but seems to be some good info here:
http://www.overclock.net/t/858385/the-i5-760-oc-club/10#post_11209942

That being said still don't know about the BIOS with it being prebuilt. If you can't overclock you could either buy a different 1156 board that can, or just wait for ivy bridge and get a new CPU and board.