Advice on best upgrades for my gaming pc? Specs listed

Pretty much everything, what is your budget ?

My budget is flexible. However I would like to know, should I scrap and start over? Is there a relative patch here and there that might make the performance substantially better? It is a gaming rig for my college age son, he plays Guildwars2, Star Wars, and is looking forward to Elder scrolls online.

I also would like to know if there is a substantial upgrade to our router which is an linksys e3000.

Thanks

In addition, I usually use newegg for my technology/electronic purchases, is this still the go to site? Or are there better?

If there is not much value in patching this system up, I would like a recommendation on a new build from newegg, should I consider performance laptop or stick with the desktops? Everyone seems to be moving to Apple as well, is this a viable option, in my days the horsepower was in the pc's, that worm seems to be turning though.

In this situation I would say that its best to build a whole new system, that system is pretty old and is a dual core, the sames your son plays are utilizing at least 4 core CPU's and would benefit substantially from a upgrade. Especially with elder scrolls online. So yes IMO I would build a whole new rig. If you give me a definite price for what your wanting to spend I'll be more than happy to put some parts together that would suit his needs.

Sure, truly I would spend the money on a state of the art rig. However I want some good return in value. i.e. If the cutting edge graphics card is $500 and I can get a comparable 90% as capable for $300 than, I would take the $300. If the architecture of the newer one will support growth for sometime, then the $500 seems the better value.

What would you build for your own rig? I guess. Money is important, but not critical.

Heck, this system was the cat's meow when built, kinda disappointing to see that it is obsolete.

This is on my local craiglist:

"Selling an Ibuypower gaming pc... it has an i7 920 with 6 gigs of ram. I have a 700 gig HD in it as well as an 120 solid state hard drive. It currently runs windows 7 but has an upgrade for windows 8. I currently have 2 nvidia gtx 560s configured for SLI. It is a very capable system. There is nothing wrong with it I am just looking to upgrade. It comes with a razer gaming keyboard and mouse, as well as a 22.5 inch LG monitor w/ hmdi cable and a logitech 2.1 speaker system. I am looking for 900 obo for this complete system."

Is this worth anything or obsolete as well?

Here Ill whip up a system and you can take a look at it, but one question, you need peripherals, monitor, operating system and all that correct ?

No, for $900 thats not worth it, I could build you a way better one than that for about 500-600$ maybe even cheaper.

Also would you like a SSD or no ?

Another person is telling me to buy a powerspec g213 from microcenter near here in Denver, for the best value. I have always thought that you save more building your own. ?

Perepherals, not really. I can use the monitor from the system that I have above, unless you recommend a substantial upgrade. I will need OS. I have sound system, mouse, keyboard, cables. Should I take anything from the system that I currently have?

Yes you save a ton of money building your own.

I like ssd's, are they still better than anything else?

Hmmm... seems really reasonable. I could go more, if you think there are major upsides?

Yes SSD's are the best you can get right now, but there really expensive still and it wont help much in his situation as far as performance, he'll just be able to boot into windows and have faster load times when joining games. Other than that the good old mechanical HDD will do just fine.

Here is the build with a 500GB HDD:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/AxqA

Here it is with a 1TB HDD:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Axrg

He probably wont need that much but sense they are cheap might as well go with the a lot to have the extra space.

Casper, how does this build rate against this?

http://www.microcenter.com/product/388813/G213_Desktop_...

Hardly use dvd's now days, do you think it is necessary? I assume that you recommend it?

I put on in there because you'd need it to install your OS. Unless you use alternative methods to get an OS that I wont say on here. But I have my Win7 Ultimate on a thumb drive.

To be honest thats extremely overpriced, 2x 550 Ti is actually weaker than 1 GTX 660, if you wanna pay that much for a system I'd be more than happy to build a more future proof system that would last you another good 3-4 years.

Nice, *awesome* advice. Ok, definitely looking to build my own. And it looks like I will use your build. That price looks good. If you were to tweak it out to around $1000. What would you do? Hmmmm.... I hate to buy the drive just for the OS. Can I buy it on a thumb drive? I am definitely not into wasting cash. Anyhow. Awesome advice, I really appreciate the time. I would like to order everything from the next build you do. I am an hour from Denver, so I won't be picking anything up.

You cant buy it on a thumb drive, when you get the CD you can just burn it to an iso. And throw it on a thumb drive, ill help you with that if need be, or if you have a CD/DVD drive on your current PC just use that so you wont waste any money buying a new one. And yes I agree with you its a waste of money. I have the drive I linked and it just sits in my PC doing nothing. Here is the new build for you.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

Total comes out to $1082.42

This system will run any current game great and even future proof for newer games.

Casp,

That link, goes to the general page.

Casp,

I noticed the price went up bit, ordering it tomorrow. Would you recommend a wireless card? Also, I asked about the router that I was using (e3000), are there any fantastic new routers that I should buy with the upgrade?

If you absolutely need it, then get it. Wireless really sucks for gaming as you don't get a whole lot of bandwidth. As far as your router. No you don't really need a new one, if yours isn't working or something is wrong with it then yes get a new one.

Understood.

abCasperr, Parts are arriving everyday. Ordered it as you spec'd. Could you give me the breakdown on how to move the windows oS to the flash drive for loading onto the pc once built? Also, any assembly or other advice?

Thanks!

Yes I will private message you on how to do so. Also make sure your flash drive is at least 4GB.

Casp.. all parts are here. Would it be advisable to use the dvd drive from the old computer to install it on this one..(if it is easily interchangeable?) to install the os? Also any advice on assembly? We are starting it now....

hmmm... I don't need any parts from the computer that I orginally listed, I presume. I plan to sell this computer intact after building this one.

Did you get it hooked up?

Not yet.. assembling now... should I pull the dvd drive out of previous computer temporarily for the os install?

We are actually putting it together right now.

We found a problem, one of the plastic pins holding down a heat sink has popped out. The "nut" to hold it in is missing. I have a picture. I am guessing that the motherboard must be sent back?

Sorry for the delayed reply. Yes send me a picture if you can. Also so I can help you faster. Feel free to contact me on skype. My username is abCasPeRR

Replaced motherboard, computer is completely assembled.

We are now in Configuration for everything and installing OS phase. When you get a moment, we would love to chat via skype to finish the build.

Thanks abCasperr!

Best answer selected by arisch.