Looking for upgrade advice on an old gaming PC

[jeff2231]

Hi everyone!

Firstly I'd like to apologize for repeating this topic, but after scouring over information I find on the net I'm more bewildered than when I started...

I have no knowledge on PC hardware despite trying to understand it, but what I do see quite often is that GPU upgrades generally get the best bang for your buck, providing it's not bottlenecked by your CPU or PSU, and I need to make sure that the new GPU is compatible with my Motherboard... and this is where I've become lost!

If anybody is able to help out I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm looking at this card http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php...=30668&zenid=043dd468b84925696d8fc9fedffa78c7 and was wondering if it would be suitable for the setup below as an upgrade.

CPU: Intel Core i7 920
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL8T-6GBRM
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
GPU: 2x Powercolor Radeon HD5770 1GB
DVD-RW: Pioneer DVR-218L
Case: Silverstone Raven RV02
Heatsink: Thermalright TRUE Black 120 Rev. C
Fan: Scythe Ultra Kaze 120mm Fan 2000rpm
PSU: ThermalTake Toughpower Qfan 650W
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB WD1001FALS

By the way, I'm happy to wait on load times, it's more in game performance that I'm looking for.

Thanks guys and girls!

Jeff

 

[Matt Dobe]

Which card are you looking at? What is your budget?

 

[superflypc]

An SSD is cheap (£50-60 for 240GB) and if you install your OS and games on there you'll get a very fast boot, and your games will load quickly. Personally, if I'm going to spend a couple of hundred on improving my graphics performance, I'd get an SSD at that price too, just makes things more smooth imo.

Agree with Matt, we'd need to know a budget.

A graphics card will no doubt improve your in game performance, allow you to run on higher graphics settings with extra effects. You don't need to worry about being bottlenecked by your CPU when you have an i7.

Personally, I'm in a similar situation. Built my PC a few years ago and the graphics card is becoming outdated, I know all there is to know about PC hardware because of my job, my issue is more with funding it (house, car, holiday, girlfriend to pay for!). My HDD is also awful, it's WD Caviar Green, awful HDD's, very slow speed. It actually came with a PC I bought before I built my own, and I chose to keep it.

When I upgrade, I'll probably put 250-300 pound into a graphics card, 60 into an SSD and 70 into a faster 1-2TB HDD. That's it.

Tell us about your budget and we'll work something out

 

[jeff2231]

Thanks Matt and Superfly,

Budget would be around $500-$600AUD so it should be around the money you mentioned Superfly.

I was looking at this card simply because it had good reviews and stuck out on one of the web pages I was looking at haha:

Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Vapor-X 3GB

Probably have a little more up my sleeve for a GFX card but wasn't sure whether my mobo would even support the newer models... And I'm in exactly the same boat with funding. Baby #2 on the way, paying off the mortgage and saving for a holiday and a new car on a single wage lol. Not easy!

I didn't even think about the speed of a HDD though tbh. I didn't realise that it would have an affect on performance!