Best Bang for the Buck Upgrade

[impulse89]

Hey Guys,
Iv'e really wanted to do a substantial upgrade to my PC for a while now, and I've got a budget of around $500 to spend.

My system right now is:

Phenom II X4 955
MSI NF980-G65
2x Nvidia GTX 275
4x2Gb DDR3 1600 Ripjaws
XION 1100watt PSU
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB

What I was thinking of doing was getting either a I5-2500k and a ASRock Z68 Extreme4 or a GTX 580.
I am kind of leaning more towards the CPU/Mobo because from what I've read, 2 GTX 275's in SLI are equivalent to a GTX 295 and thats not too far off from a GTX 580.
I could be wrong there though...

Can anyone give me any ideas of a better use of my money?

Thanks

By the way, this PC is 99% for gaming, just in case you had any second thoughts.

 

[rolli59]

Best use for the money would not to spend it on the computer unless you get yourself an SSD for OS and frequently run applications! There can not be many games that you can't max out with that setup.

 

[impulse89]

Honestly, any use of anti-aliasing or heavy shadows kills me.
I've always liked what I have seen from the SBM's AData ssd striping on the higher end systems.

 

[rolli59]

Depending on monitor resolution then the installed Vram could be the killer here with AA. What resolution are you gaming at?

 

[impulse89]

1920x1080

 

[impulse89]

I accutally have two monitors, my main is the 27'' 1920x1080 and I have a secondary at 22'' 1680x1050.. not usually gaming on that one.

 

[rolli59]

I am presuming that the GTX275's are the 896mb ones. Wondering whether that would be a limiting factor with AA on your 1080P resolution knowing that 1GB is enough and the new HD69xx 2GB cards start gaining on higher resolutions than that because of the extra Vram. Would be interesting to see if you get different results on the 1680x1050 monitor.

 

[geofelt]

I suspect you have a well balanced system now.
To help clarify your options, run these two tests:

1) Run your games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.

2) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.

 

[impulse89]

Best answer selected by impulse89.

 

[impulse89]

Thank you very much Geofelt, Ill run these tests and let you know the results.