I want to upgrade my PC but what should I upgrade first?

[waldo.depree]

Hi,

My PC:

Case: Coolermaster silencio 550
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 4770 @ 3.40GHz 31 °C
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
16,0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Intel Corporation DH87RL (CPU 1) 28 °C
Graphics
2590G4 (1920x1080@144Hz)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (EVGA) 29 °C
Storage
111GB KINGSTON SV300S37A120G (SSD) 26 °C
931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EZEX-00RKKA0 (SATA) 27 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224DB
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

My question is what to upgrade first. There are a few problems I'm encountering:
- My case has a bad airflow and is very small, while from the outside looking huge. It's not practical.
- My cpu is getting too hot but because of my case a lot of good cpu coolers don't fit in.
- When playing for example fortnite I get relatively low FPS, what is causing this? Maybe the temperature of the cpu?

I'm thinking about using a few parts (storage and graphicscard) and building a new pc with a better case and a new cpu and motherboard and DDR4 ram. I'm having doubts about this though because when I asked other people what cpu to buy they told me it wasn't worth it to upgrade now to another cpu.

In short a lot of questions Hope someone can help me?

 

[hendrickhere]

What PSU are you using? - it could be a matter of power.

With a 1070 and your CPU you shouldn't be struggling that much.
If you do upgrade, consider an i5 8400 and a less expensive MOBO and a reasonably inexpensive case with decent airflow.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

At 1080p, the CPU is important. Sure you could get more FPS in some games with a better CPU, new architecture, but not all games.

The 4770 is, as your previous replies have pointed out, a decent gamer still. 4c/8t CPU with base of 3.4ghz and a turbo of 3.9. It's still well capable. I'd agree with the advice you were given, which is, there isn't a whole lot of upgrading required for the hardware you have, and the res you game at.

Try, the easy things first. Get a new case, a couple of extra fans, and rebuild your system into that, and look at getting better airflow and decent temps.

With regard to fortnight, and the gaming FPS issue. That could be a number of things. Could be the CPU is overheating (try monitoring software like HWmon/info) and see what your max temps are in a demanding game or stress testing. For gaming you should really go over 65c, and for stress testing you shouldn't really go over 80c. If your temps are in that range, then it's likely the CPU isn't throttling, and you have something else going on.

Could be the PSU as hendrickhere has said.

Are the issues with gaming only with fortnight? When you say FPS is relatively low, what exactly do you mean.

Have you tried the obvious stuff, like updating system drivers/GPU/Bios etc to make sure everything is working as it should?

 

[vMax]

The current system is not too bad at all, especially for playing the likes of Fortnite...So new case and some better cooling might make a big difference and save you from a $400 to $500 spend on CPU, Motherboard and RAM.

The Phantex Eclipse 400 is a very good cost effective case, circa $60 and add to that a decent cooler like the Cryrig H7, Dark Rock Pro or even a 120mm AIO around $70 or much less would solve the cooling issues .

Saying that, with the 1070 GTX, the SSD, HD and hopefully a fairly decent power supply an upgrade to a i5-8400 $190, Z370 Motherboard MSI Z370 Pro for $100, so that you can upgrade later to the new 9th gen when you are ready...and 16GB of DDR4 around $135...will work wonders and drive the 1070 better. Same can be said for the Ryzen route with a 2600...

But you will be looking at around $500

You can go a bit cheaper with the 4 core CPU's from intel like the 8100 and also with Ryzen knocking a bit more of and bring it down to around $400...Not an easy choice but would really depend on your budget...

 

[coozie7]

^ +1.
For plenty of monitoring info I like Hwinfo64 but others like Aida64.
For ingame monitoring your one stop shop is Afterburner, CPU,GPU temps, fanspeed, usage all can be displayed in the Afterburner OSD during gameplay, it really is all you need! <Lighthearted but true nonetheless.

An old trick is to run with the case side panel off, preferably with some sort of fan blowing into the opening to drop the temperatures.

And Yes, I'd recase the current system as Keith12 suggests, the Silencio 550 isn't really a suitable place for high end gaming hardware.

 

[waldo.depree]

What PSU are you using? - it could be a matter of power.

With a 1070 and your CPU you shouldn't be struggling that much.
If you do upgrade, consider an i5 8400 and a less expensive MOBO and a reasonably inexpensive case with decent airflow.

The PSU I have is:
https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/271378/recom-power-engine-600-plus.html

 

[waldo.depree]

At 1080p, the CPU is important. Sure you could get more FPS in some games with a better CPU, new architecture, but not all games.

The 4770 is, as your previous replies have pointed out, a decent gamer still. 4c/8t CPU with base of 3.4ghz and a turbo of 3.9. It's still well capable. I'd agree with the advice you were given, which is, there isn't a whole lot of upgrading required for the hardware you have, and the res you game at.

Try, the easy things first. Get a new case, a couple of extra fans, and rebuild your system into that, and look at getting better airflow and decent temps.

With regard to fortnight, and the gaming FPS issue. That could be a number of things. Could be the CPU is overheating (try monitoring software like HWmon/info) and see what your max temps are in a demanding game or stress testing. For gaming you should really go over 65c, and for stress testing you shouldn't really go over 80c. If your temps are in that range, then it's likely the CPU isn't throttling, and you have something else going on.

Could be the PSU as hendrickhere has said.

Are the issues with gaming only with fortnight? When you say FPS is relatively low, what exactly do you mean.

Have you tried the obvious stuff, like updating system drivers/GPU/Bios etc to make sure everything is working as it should?

When I mean relatively low fps I mean settings all on low and still not consistent 165 fps. I have got a 144hz monitor so I really want to hit that number.

As for driver updates, I did all those apart from the BIOS.

 

[waldo.depree]

The current system is not too bad at all, especially for playing the likes of Fortnite...So new case and some better cooling might make a big difference and save you from a $400 to $500 spend on CPU, Motherboard and RAM.

The Phantex Eclipse 400 is a very good cost effective case, circa $60 and add to that a decent cooler like the Cryrig H7, Dark Rock Pro or even a 120mm AIO around $70 or much less would solve the cooling issues .

Saying that, with the 1070 GTX, the SSD, HD and hopefully a fairly decent power supply an upgrade to a i5-8400 $190, Z370 Motherboard MSI Z370 Pro for $100, so that you can upgrade later to the new 9th gen when you are ready...and 16GB of DDR4 around $135...will work wonders and drive the 1070 better. Same can be said for the Ryzen route with a 2600...

But you will be looking at around $500

You can go a bit cheaper with the 4 core CPU's from intel like the 8100 and also with Ryzen knocking a bit more of and bring it down to around $400...Not an easy choice but would really depend on your budget...

And another question: don't you think DDR4 would make a huge difference on gaming?

 

[vMax]

In the context of it being matched to an 8400/Ryzen 2600 it will of course be overall much faster than what you currently have in terms of pure frame rate gains coupled to the 1070GTX.

 

[madmatt30]

144fps constant on fortnite??

Not going to happen irregardless of what you upgrade to.

 

[waldo.depree]

Hmm alright. So you are all advicing to buy a new good case and good fans and cpu cooling?

 

[vMax]

At 1080P Ultra settings in Fortnite a 8400 matched to a 1070 GTX will provide just a tad over 105 FPS..

 

[King_V]

No. For Ryzen, faster memory makes a big difference, for Intel, not nearly as much.

Your existing system is pretty good - as suggested by others, check what temperatures you're running, to confirm or clear up your suspicions about temperatures and case airflow (lack thereof) being an issue.

It seems like, regardless of any other upgrades, a case that's well-designed for airflow and cooling could well be the only upgrade you need.

If it turns out it's not enough, well, whatever new system you build or upgrades you do will benefit from the better cooling.


You won't get 165fps (unless you disable vsync, then you get tearing) on a 144Hz monitor. The monitor can only display 144fps, no more.

EDIT: at max details, I'd guesstimate that the GTX 1070 could do around 100-110 fps on most modern first person games. I'm assuming Fortnite is less demanding. (take these guesses with a hefty grain of salt)

 

[waldo.depree]

Alright I'm buying a new case! Do you have suggestions for good cases, preferably not above 100 euros?

 

[vMax]

Hmm alright. So you are all advicing to buy a new good case and good fans and cpu cooling?

Best option for the time being saving you money to put forward to a proper upgrade when the time is right.

 

[waldo.depree]

Alright I found a nice case: nzxt s340 elite. Now what is a good cpu cooler also when looking for the future?