Help me Upgrade

[wanderingmonk]

Hi there. I've had my rig for a few years now, and I feel it's time for me to do some upgrades to the system, but I'm not sure where I should put the money. Here are my specs:

Windows 7 64-bit
Core i7 870 (2.93GHz)
P55A-UD3 Mobo
8 GB RAM
GeForce GTX 480 4GB
1TB HDD

Not sure what other info would matter, but please let me know. I don't think I need to do anything crazy to this rig, but I would like to see what you guys think would boost the performance here. More RAM? New Video Card? A SSD? I use this rig mainly for gaming.
I'll be using most of my 'gaming' time with Diablo 3 when it's released. I played some of the beta weekend and it ran well for the most part, albeit a few hickups when there would be a lot of monsters and FX on the screen at once (example, several monsters on the screen and a spell causes them all to die at once.) Couldn't tell if it was system lag or internet lag. Anyway, some pointers would help me out. Thanks guys!

 

[pauls3743]

Lets see...

Budget?
cpu/mobo combo - is still quite good and wouldn't hold anything back.
RAM - unless you're maxing it out doing photo/video editing, I wouldn't bother.
Graphics card - you don't really need to but you could look at something like a Radeon 7970 or the now elusive GTX680.
SSD - you will notice a difference in the booting of your computer and general usage but not in gaming (I use a SSD for the OS and main applications but run my Games and Steam folder from a spindle hard drive).

Of course, if you have money to burn I would upgrade everything to either Sandy Bridge-e or Ivy Bridge

 

[wr6133]

SSD would make things feel snappier.

Although your system is aging I wouldnt bother with any major overhaul yet. The cost of new CPU and mobo i don't think warranted and the 480 is still a solid GPU.

Problems in the Beta may have been down to the fact its a beta not final release.

 

[AntiZig]

Hello,
I believe your system is still quite good by today standards.

what resolution are you gaming at and what fps are you typically looking for and playing at now?

As others said the most prominent part of your build that would make sense to upgrade is to add an SSD, but it's been proven many times that SSD isn't needed for gaming, it's more of a bonus for your windows to load things faster.

So, long story short, unless your rig is falling short of your expected performance somewhere, I wouldn't upgrade anything yet aside from SSD.

 

[DM186]

^+1 to all of the above.

 

[HEXiT]

me 3 on the ssd. the rest of the system is fine and you wont really see much of an improvement over what you already have. the 870 is a fine cpu and the 480 is a beast of a gpu, even if its a little noisey and runs a bit hotter than id like...

if you were to upgrade i would consider selling the whole system rather than just replacing parts because at least that way you will get a fair wack back rather than drips and drabs...
then put what you got back which should be no less than 700 to the right buyer
i would jump to the i7 2011 with a pair of 680's which should cost around 1400 all in.
yes you would have to spend that much to see any real difference in performance.
from what you already have... thats why i say its not really worth it...

 

[wanderingmonk]

Thanks for all the help guys. I believe I'm running typically at about 40 fps and up. I'm pretty happy with the system and how it runs so far. I just thought I'd ask around and see if there were any places where the system could be improved. I think I may hold off on the SSD though. I'm liking the price ranges for them at the moment as I couldn't justify getting one when I had originally built this, but it couldn't hurt to wait a little longer and see the prices drop a bit more.
I will probably just reformat her and take her on the porch for a nice cleaning