Just how dated is my system?

[rionrace]

Fellow Tom's Hardware users,

I've always been building computers, being well involved in the gaming and associated builds. But recently I've done less and less gaming - it's two years ago that I put my system together. I've lost track of what kind of parts are necessary to play some modern games. Please tell me what kind of hardware I'm running with nowadays. Cheers!


Intel Core i5-2400 (OC'ed to 3,4Ghz)
MSI MS-7680
G.Skill 8GB DDR3 PC3-10666
XFX Radeon HD 6950
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB (5400RPM)

 

[permanoob]

Pretty good setup still. You could use to throw an SSD in there for some better response on boot times, overall system and game responsiveness, and lower load times for everything across the board. Could you buy better? Sure. That setup can still bust out some good stuff though.

Edit: actually, 5400 RPM hard drive, that's pretty slow. 7200RPM is the baseline for pretty much any hard drive these days. Buy an SSD or at least a 7200 RPM drive ASAP.

 

[random5]

You're still good to go on likely any game,though on very latest you should keep your hands off from higher end settings,also the HDD seems really slow,hope you're prepared for extra-long loading windows!

 

[Rybo]

If you wanted to try and sell your 6950 online and pull like 80$ or so you can buy a brand new 6970 for 100$ on newegg, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202113&cm_re=6970-_-14-202-113-_-Product
I know it won't be much of an increase from your 6950 but it's a suggestion if you feel you wanted more performance for probably 30$ if you sell your old card.

 

[rionrace]

Edit: actually, 5400 RPM hard drive, that's pretty slow. 7200RPM is the baseline for pretty much any hard drive these days. Buy an SSD or at least a 7200 RPM drive ASAP.

If I'm correct, having an SSD or 7200 RPM drive does not affect games FPS-wise. It's just the loading times that are longer. Fortunately, I'm not really in a hurry for the loading times. I can live with it!

If you wanted to try and sell your 6950 online and pull like 80$ or so you can buy a brand new 6970 for 100$ on newegg, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202113&cm_re=6970-_-14-202-113-_-Product
I know it won't be much of an increase from your 6950 but it's a suggestion if you feel you wanted more performance for probably 30$ if you sell your old card.

I'm wondering upgrading my card would really be a sound investment. Having looked at the Performance Test by Passmark, the results are not bad at all. From the tests it usually came around second only to a GTX 680.

 

[Rybo]

It's definitely not a bad card, which it should be as 2 generations ago it was one of the top dogs. I was just suggesting if you wanted to try and sell yours for 80$ if possible you could buy the step above your card for basically 20-30$.

 

[gskill support]

An SSD as boot/OS drive would probably make the most difference. That 2TB can be used for storage.

Overclocking the RAM can give it a nice boost as well.

DDR3-1600 or DDR3-1866 with higher timings and voltage should be a good target.