Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Please recommend an upgrade option

Tags:
  • SSD
  • Graphics Cards
  • Processors
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share
December 24, 2013 6:33:11 PM

Hi, I am trying to upgrade my computer since some time lately but due to bills and spontaneous expenses I have been hitting walls. First things first I need to know which area should I invest in so saving for it is less agonizing. Due to the presence of a strong 2nd hand market, I can do one upgrade after every 1-2 months though.

I am a gaming enthusiast and less importantly a casual video encoder. The thing that has prompted me to do this is that I recently reinstalled Skyrim with some of the new breed of graphics mods which made my system to crawl. I have not experienced any slowdowns in any other games yet and I play all of them, well those of my liking (RPG, RTS, SIM, MMORPG etc).

Current Specifications:
Core i3 Sandybridge 2100 3.1GHz
ASRock B75 Pro3-M (Supports 32GB RAM at 1600MHz)
Kingston 2x4GB 1.3 GHz
XFX HD6950 1GB Stock Card
Kingston V+200 60GB SSD SATA3
WD Cavier Green 1TB SATA3
WD Cavier Green 500GB SATA3
Antec 500W PSU

I think any upgrade of motherboard, ram and HDDs will have less than significant impact here, unless I intend to overclock which I do not.

I have the following upgrade options in attainable range:
Core i5 non-K Sandybridge
Up to HD7950 3GB (Currently the new series is a rip-off with R9-280 starting higher than HD7970)
120GB SSD
Up to 800W PSU

Please recommend an upgrade and if you red everything then sorry for the rant.

More about : recommend upgrade option

a b U Graphics card
December 24, 2013 6:50:38 PM

First, a "k" series cpu would not do you any good on a B75 chipset mobo. If you upgrade your mobo to accomodate a "k" series cpu, you are adding cost for the better mobo as well as a new OS, since your original OS is tied to the motherboard being used when it was installed. Second, upgrading your RAM to 8 GB of DDR3 1600 or better would probably help (assuming your mobo will let you use anything above 1333 speed), for gaming a non"k" i5 would dramatically improve things but the i7 wouldn't do much good gaming-wise. However, the i7 might help with video encoding if you did intensive rather than just casual (not an expert with that). My recommendation would get the best i5 you can afford, then upgrade RAM. Performance-wise, the SSD will not help games much, they will just load faster (if they are installed on the SSD). As far as the PSU and GPU upgrade, Antec usually has good quality PSUs, so you may or may not need to upgrade, it will depend on what GPU you want to go to. See this page for an idea of what recommended wattage PSU a given GPU requires:

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

If you decide to upgrade your PSU, I'd recommend getting one from Seasonic, XFX, Corsair (except the CX series) or Antec.

The order in which you upgrade will be up to you.
December 24, 2013 7:02:17 PM

Hmm, thanks for the link really good info there. I was thinking about the GPU memory being low for the modded skyrim, but the bigger picture is after all dependent on the CPU and RAM. Thanks for the recommendations.

RAM is so cheap here and so much in demand that I can do that anytime, just wanted to ask whether buying enthusiast RAM modules with less latency will do any good? I have a very unfruitful experience with them in the past. The standard ones are C11 and the enthusiast options I have have C9.
Related resources
a b U Graphics card
December 24, 2013 7:05:16 PM

No, for overall performance, the cpu/ram upgrade first would be optimal. However, most games are GPU intensive so upgrading your video card would probably have the greatest gaming impact, although it's possible (depending on how large a jump in GPU you make)that its' performance might be bottleneckd by the i3 you currently have.
a b U Graphics card
December 24, 2013 7:10:16 PM

you would see a noticable improvement by going from 1333 to 1600/1866 (along with going from 4GB to 8GB total RAM) as long as your mobo supports those speeds. Just get the highest speed, lowest latency, and max GB you can afford. (recommend getting 2 x 4GB kit over 4 x 2 GB kit or one 8GB stick)
December 24, 2013 7:13:59 PM

wouldn't a single stick be bad as it will not avail the dual channel functionality?
a b U Graphics card
December 24, 2013 7:17:39 PM

fpga123 said:
wouldn't a single stick be bad as it will not avail the dual channel functionality?


sorry for the confusion , I was saying get two 4GB sticks over four 1GB sticks over one 8GB stick.........for the reason you just mentioned.:) 
a b U Graphics card
December 24, 2013 7:18:46 PM

the most reasonable upgrade, right now, would be an HD 7870 (really a great card to match your i3).To warrant an HD 7970..youd at least need to plan for a new mobo/cpu upgrade to a i5 3 or 4XXX series very soon down the road. A lot of the performance in this case will depend on the game. An Hd 7870 will handle most games at high or ultra settings at 1080p one monitor. The 7970 would be more oriented around an entire PC upgrade, since youd probably need a new PSU too, and mobo, and CPU (to get the most out of it, 4 core i5 with HT is ideal) ...sounds basically like a new PC anyways.
a b U Graphics card
December 24, 2013 7:19:19 PM

or r9 270 / r9 280x (= the 7870 and 7970 newer models, respectively). whatever is cheaper
!