Dell inspiron 620 best upgrade

[bowtietr83]

I have an inspiron 620 that I am looking to upgrade a little further. I primarily play FSX and I am looking for better graphics and smoother game play. The current specs are below, what would be the best bang for the buck for this system?

Stock board
8gb ram
i7-2600
Ocz 600w power supply
Gtx550ti
Samsung 830 series ssd

I have contemplated replacing the board, but of course that comes with a new case and Windows license. Is the board the bottle neck at this point? How much would I benefit from going to a gtx560 or another sub $200 card?

 

[jay2tall]

Your upgrade would be a new graphics card. Unless you plan to OC your CPU, a new motherboard won't yield you much. Granted a retail motherboard would probably perform a bit better, but nothing that noticeable to you.

A sub $200 card would be a GTX650Ti 1GB, which runs about $150 and many have MIR's. However, honestly your best bet would be to upgrade to a GTX660. They run about $230 + MIR's, but perform MUCH better than a 650TI. To me the cost difference is worth it many times over. That AMD equivalent of a GTX660 is the 6870, which runs about the same price.

 

[Alabalcho]

You might also want to replace the PSU, if you put hungry video card. Del have switched to using regular power supplies, so you have just to make sure it will fit.

 

[bowtietr83]

I already have a 600w Ocz modxtream in the system to power the Gtx550ti. Is a 650 or 660 a huge improvement?

 

[jay2tall]

Actually the more I look over it a 650Ti isn't even worth it. It's not really an upgrade at all. The GTX660 is a small upgrade. You would almost have to go to a 660Ti to make it worth any sort of decent upgrade. They are about $290-$300 with some having MIRs.

Page through this review. It has the 560Ti, 660, and 660Ti in the charts. http://www.anandtech.com/show/6276/nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-review-gk106-rounds-out-the-kepler-family

I'd just sit on your 560Ti for now. Maybe try your hand at overclocking. I know they are very capable of it with good performance increases.

 

[bowtietr83]

If I decided to go with a 670 or 680 would there be a bottleneck anywhere?