Hapless Newb with $500-600 in Wife Allowance Seeks Help

ghatt

Distinguished
Jul 14, 2011
22
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18,510
[Edit: Removed Image and Components Listed at Bottom]

Hi All,
Thank you all so much for taking the time to look at this and to give me your input. Before I get started I just want to thank the TH community for being extremely helpful over the past few years. It warms the cockles of my heart to know that there are people out there who are willing to ply their expertise for a hapless consumer.

Basically, I'm an avid gamer and I've noticed that my system is falling behind in a lot of areas and I'm not really getting the performance I want out of current or even near recent games. I still have to run a lot of things on low and still have some framerate issues with the majority of titles released in the last couple of years. My adoring wife has agreed that I can spend $500-600 on upgrades but I have to be honest: I don't know my ass from my ankles as far as where I should invest it and what parts I should replace first.

I've scanned and posted a link to the list of components I currently have in my computer and I would be ever so grateful if anyone could provide any advice as to how I should proceed. I've never installed my own components before but I think I could be up the challenge (though the idea of installing my own processor still makes me freeze up and panic). Anyways if you find that the scanned image is annoying and would rather I type it out, just let me know. I'm at your mercy.

- Greg

Intel Core i5-2500k Quad Core 3.3Ghz
Gigabyte GA-Z68a-D3H-B3-Z68 ATX
Kingston Hyperx 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
Coolmaster Hyper 212+
Sapphire AMD Radeon HD6950 2G DDR5
Seagate 1000gb Baracuda 7200
Asus 24x DVD-RW Black Sata
Antec Dark Fleet Full-Tower
XFX Pro750w ATX12v & EPS12v
Windows 7
107GB SSD
 

ghatt

Distinguished
Jul 14, 2011
22
0
18,510
Approximate Purchase Date: Next Month/Two
Budget Range: (e.g.: 300-400) $500-600
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming / Movies
Are you buying a monitor: No
Parts to Upgrade: (e.g.: CPU, mobo, RAM): Unsure
Do you need to buy OS: No (Unless New Mobo)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg (but new to self-installation)
Location: City, State/Region, Country: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Parts Preferences: by brand or type: Whatever Fries Bacon
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: Depends on Suggestions
Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Newer games are not running well.
 
your list of components seem good. i wouldnt upgrade. the 6950 still plays games nicely. you will see an increase by getting a new GPU, but there is seriously no problem with what you have right now. id suggest turning down the AA, overclocking the CPU and GPU to squeeze more performance out of it, and thats about it

might want to install some things like Ccleaner to clear up old files. they can clog your rig with junk. i probably cleared 3gb off of my SSD from old BSOD dumps and another 10gb by wiping my free space on the SSD (wiping drive = deleting deleted files = recovery of files is not possible)