Upgrading my existing gaming system

[buildlearner]

Hello,
Today I run with a lynfield i7, evga P55 mobo, and patriot wildfire 128 ssd, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti. I am planning on upgrading the CPU to an i5-3570 with a z77 mobo, either asus or asrocks, still deciding. Going to have to live with my GTX 560 for a bit longer, but will be upgrading in in a while, so need to take that into consideration.
so now the questions.

1. This is my case, can I use it or am i going to need better cooling? http://www.antec.com/product.php?id=722&fid=4

2. Am I doing anything dumb in the above?

 

[Niklas_13]

the case link don't work, what i7 you have ? IMO a GPU upgrade VS a CPU/MOBO upgrade will yield more FPS then the CPU in games.

 

[buildlearner]

I'm way back on lynnfield, i7 860, running at 2.8 GHz, and my graphics card is not maxing out at this point. Sorry about the case link, was trying to make it easier for you, its an Antec 902

 

[Niklas_13]

OC it to 3.4 and upgrade the GPU to a 7850 or GTX 670 ( the CPU is still a true quad core and with a little OC it will hold its own

 

[Niklas_13]

BTW there is no way that your CPU is holding back your GPU

 

[buildlearner]

There must be something else I'm doing wrong then. I can be at 10fps lagging horribly and my gpu is less than 30% utilized. BTW this is with settings turned way down. Its way worse with them up. I spent a full month trouble shooting, playing with AA, shadowing, mobo, power supply etc and have been unable to fix it. This was kinda my last ditch effort

 

[Niklas_13]

What are your full Specs and the games you have problems with ?

 

[buildlearner]

P55FTW MOBO
i7 860, 1156m 4 cores, 2.8 GHz
8GB Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M3A1600C9
NVIDIA GEForce 560 Ti
Patriot Wildfire 128 SSD
HDD - Western Digital 1T Black Caviar 7,200, 64mb buffer
Internet FIOS hardwired connection to computer - 35 up 25 down, as measure on speedtest, ping usually around 9
PSU - Corsair professional gold 1200 - i know its overkill but i had to upgrade it recently and i decided i wanted it to have room for growth.

When I play wow in 25 man raids I can drop to 2-3 fps, usually sit at 30 in town.
SWTOR - 30-40 on fleet
Diablo, seems to hang around 30-40fps up to 60 sometimes

When I watch the GPU, it never really goes over 30% utilized.

 

[Niklas_13]

Windows 7 64 bit ?

IMO i would OC ypur CPU to 3.4 and make sure your have DX 11

Yes WOW is very CPU dependent but your CPU should not be getting you 2 3 FPS in raids

My old i5 750 OCed to 3.2 and HD 5850 could do 40 FPS

 

[buildlearner]

Thank you for your help. Yes windows 7 64, and I have DX11. I am a little sad though, need to put a home server together and was hoping to move my old processor/mobo to that job and get some new shinies, sounds like i should just get some low end stuff for the server.

I have never OC before, and have absolutely no idea what it takes so i'll look it up. Quick question though. Should I overclock the CPU and the memory? And will i need a water cooler for my CPU?

 

[Niklas_13]

You dont need water cooler to OC, This CPU cooler will get the job done http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

I have played around with OC with help from other at TH ( IMO it would be best to ask the pros ) http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-29.html

I just keep up to date on hardware

 

[lycros]

+1 to OC and if you get that cooler you can use it on a future CPU upgrade.

But if you're going to be building a home server and want to use your current mobo/cpu, you'd be happy with getting IB and Z77.

 

[buildlearner]

Lol, yeah that new hardware is calling to me

 

[Niklas_13]

lol if you have the coin then do it, i buy new stuff and the old sits around

I have a i5 3570K GTX 670

FX 4100 GTX 560

i5 750 HD 5850

I was going to give my kids my i5 750 to use with there GTX 560 ( but they don,t want my to interupt there game time lol )

So i think i will try to sell the i5 750 and HD 5850


gl with the PC Also ask around about the problem it might be Blizzard fault

 

[buildlearner]

Blizzard at fault? oh surely not.

If I do go with the new stuff does the case have enough cooling? Searched the web for any tables on required cooling and haven't found anything.

I'm really wanting to try OCing just havent gotten brave enough yet.

You happy with your 3570?

 

[Niklas_13]

Blizzard at fault? oh surely not.

If I do go with the new stuff does the case have enough cooling? Searched the web for any tables on required cooling and haven't found anything.

I'm really wanting to try OCing just havent gotten brave enough yet.

You happy with your 3570?

I do like my new rig http://s1154.photobucket.com/albums/p535/Niklas_13/?action=view&current=20120620_172138.jpg it sweet

my older rigs E8400 GTX 260 http://s1154.photobucket.com/albums/p535/Niklas_13/?action=view&current=DSC018972.jpg

http://s1154.photobucket.com/albums/p535/Niklas_13/?action=view&current=DSC01619.jpg

i5 750 HD 5850 http://s1154.photobucket.com/albums/p535/Niklas_13/?action=view&current=DSC01606.jpg

 

[buildlearner]

Nice, i'm so jealous.

Thanks again for the help