Time to upgrade?

[jha1223]

I'm doing some occasional gaming, Planetside 2, Battlefield, etc. I've had this current system for a while and conventional wisdom tells me I need upgrade. However, I'm a bit out of the hardware game and don't want to spend the time and money for a negligible boost in performance. Hoping the experienced eyes on this forum can give me a nudge in the right direction.

Current setup:
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
Intel Qx6700 2.67 Quad Core Extreme
H80 Liquid Cooling
8GB DDR2
AMD 6950 Unlocked/OC

So, with about $500 to burn, am I wasting my time even thinking about upgrading? The motherboard and processor were very much top of the line when I got them. I would have never been inclined to spend that much on a cpu/mobo but someone owed me a bit of money and that was all he could do to pay me off.

What do you guys think? If I replace memory, mb or cpu, I have to replace all three essentially due to their age.

 

[swifty_morgan]

occasional gaming, Planetside 2, Battlefield, etc

why do you need to upgrade?

 

[halfblazed]

If I were you, I would save up some more money and wait a few months for Intel's Haswell chips to come out.

The best thing you could do now to see a big leap in performance is get an SSD if you don't already have one. It won't make your games play any better but your computer will feel brand new. SSD's are really dropping in price; some are at 1$/1GB.

If you want gaming performance now I would get a 7970 but the MB/CPU/RAM are going to be a huge bottleneck.

Hope this helps.

 

[spawnkiller]

Just overclock your CPU and you'll get a huge bump in your FPS, a 6950 is pretty fast even today so you only need to get 3+ghz (really easy i had a Q6600 @ 4.05ghz)

 

[jha1223]

occasional gaming, Planetside 2, Battlefield, etc

why do you need to upgrade?

Should have put BF3 and also upcoming fps games. I don't know if I need to upgrade, hence the question. Probably more specific of an answer to your question is that I has been six years or so and I'm scratching my head on which next game that I buy is going to push me in to running on low settings. I like to take time researching but if I drop the money on a game and it runs like crap, I'll have to upgrade pretty much on the spot.

 

[jha1223]

If I were you, I would save up some more money and wait a few months for Intel's Haswell chips to come out.

The best thing you could do now to see a big leap in performance is get an SSD if you don't already have one. It won't make your games play any better but your computer will feel brand new. SSD's are really dropping in price; some are at 1$/1GB.

If you want gaming performance now I would get a 7970 but the MB/CPU/RAM are going to be a huge bottleneck.

Hope this helps.

Great point on the SSD. Need to get on that. I cringe because I'm sitting on sooo much storage. I guess I can start with a 128GB os drive to start. Thanks.

 

[swifty_morgan]

i game on a slightly faster 775 quad core. only 1 game slowed it down. i run a 6950 also ( 2gig ). if you want to spend money try a cache drive. run your machine into the ground some more and wait to see what the end of this year brings.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171667

 

[jha1223]

Just overclock your CPU and you'll get a huge bump in your FPS, a 6950 is pretty fast even today so you only need to get 3+ghz (really easy i had a Q6600 @ 4.05ghz)

I remember trying to OC this thing years ago. I had one hell of a nightmare trying to navigate all the different settings. Basically, so much was set to auto and I kept trying to get everything to manual that I spent days screwing with it and never could get the OC right.

This combo with B3 stepping on the proc was supposed to be an adequate OC potential. I just couldn't get it myself. Memory is 5-5-5-18 OCZ pc2-6400. I'm sure a lot of you guys could OC this thing blindfolded. I eventually got pissed off/bored/impatient and set it back to stock. Stock temps are 33-35 on the proc at idle, 48-52 at full load on prime95. Not a lot of headroom. Ambient temp is really high, which is something I can't do a ton about. The mrs likes it warm in the house

 

[jha1223]

Hate to necro a thread, but I figured the back story might be helpful. Maybe not

I ended up going with a Z77, 3570k, new ram and kept the old video card. Guess Planetside 2 is a cpu hungry as I was told. Frames are between 80-100 now. Lots of room to crank up the settings and see some beautiful graphics.

Now that I've got all that behind me and, I assume, I still can stretch that GPU for a little while longer, I am turning to my case. Its an old gigabyte with terrible air flow.

Keeping in mind that I have an H80 and need to be able to fit that radiator somewhere, what case would you recommend? I want maximum airflow. I'm OCd to 4.2 right now and its running fine, but ambient temps are just horrible.

If I get a new case and temps aren't much better, but I know I am getting good airflow, so be it. Its just the next logical step while waiting for the next video card purchase.

 

[swifty_morgan]

thanks for the come-backer.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Check out the Cooler Master HAF cases.