Looking to upgrade/replace system.

[cpoustie]

Hi, I'm from Australia and looking for some advice on a system upgrade.
My computer system has the following specs:

AMD Phenom x6 1055T - stock @ 2.8GHz
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 Motherboard
12Gb DDR3 - Generic 667MHz
AMD Radeon HD6950 2Gb
Corsair TX850 PSU
Creative X-Fi Extreme
Viewsonic VX2370 23" IPS LCD
Windows 7 x64 SP1

I have about $800 to upgrade this system and am looking for some recommendations from the experts here as to which direction to go.

I was considering an Intel i7-3770K CPU on a Z77 chip-set motherboard such as the GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard, along with 16Gb of some nice Ram such as
Gskill F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL 16GB DDR3 RAM KIT PC-14900 1866Mhz (4 x 4GB) F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL Quad Channel. This comes out to around $700-$750 Australian Dollars.

I want this as a gaming rig, I don't play FPS games such as Farcry/Crysis etc but I do play a heavily modded Skyrim and lots of MMO's and strategy games like Total War: Rome 2. Future games would include Witcher 3, Final Fantasy 14.

Is what I suggested above overkill for my gaming needs at 1920x1080? Should I maybe go to an i5 CPU with only 8Gb of RAM and perhaps either upgrade to more powerful GPU as well like the HD 7850 or an Nvidia card (sorry i'm not familiar with power) like Gtx 670? Or would a crossfire solution with my existing GPU work better?

So, as you can see I have a few questions about the upgrade and would appreciate any suggestions.

 

[nokiddingboss]

Hi, I'm from Australia and looking for some advice on a system upgrade.
My computer system has the following specs:

AMD Phenom x6 1055T - stock @ 2.8GHz
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 Motherboard
12Gb DDR3 - Generic 667MHz
AMD Radeon HD6950 2Gb
Corsair TX850 PSU
Creative X-Fi Extreme
Viewsonic VX2370 23" IPS LCD
Windows 7 x64 SP1

I have about $800 to upgrade this system and am looking for some recommendations from the experts here as to which direction to go.

I was considering an Intel i7-3770K CPU on a Z77 chip-set motherboard such as the GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard, along with 16Gb of some nice Ram such as
Gskill F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL 16GB DDR3 RAM KIT PC-14900 1866Mhz (4 x 4GB) F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL Quad Channel. This comes out to around $700-$750 Australian Dollars.

I want this as a gaming rig, I don't play FPS games such as Farcry/Crysis etc but I do play a heavily modded Skyrim and lots of MMO's and strategy games like Total War: Rome 2. Future games would include Witcher 3, Final Fantasy 14.

Is what I suggested above overkill for my gaming needs at 1920x1080? Should I maybe go to an i5 CPU with only 8Gb of RAM and perhaps either upgrade to more powerful GPU as well like the HD 7850 or an Nvidia card (sorry i'm not familiar with power) like Gtx 670? Or would a crossfire solution with my existing GPU work better?

So, as you can see I have a few questions about the upgrade and would appreciate any suggestions.

we can hardly call anything as overkill in pc's nowadays. so to answer your question, the 3770k is quite ample enough for 1080p so is most i5's. buy what you think you really need (though a heavily modded skyrim demands nothing less). the 7850 is just a mid range card. the gtx670 is a lot more powerful than it. but even better is a gtx760 up to a gtx770 for nvidia and 7950 up to 7970ghz for amd.

 

[kookie3010]

Hi, I'm from Australia and looking for some advice on a system upgrade.
My computer system has the following specs:

AMD Phenom x6 1055T - stock @ 2.8GHz
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 Motherboard
12Gb DDR3 - Generic 667MHz
AMD Radeon HD6950 2Gb
Corsair TX850 PSU
Creative X-Fi Extreme
Viewsonic VX2370 23" IPS LCD
Windows 7 x64 SP1

I have about $800 to upgrade this system and am looking for some recommendations from the experts here as to which direction to go.

I was considering an Intel i7-3770K CPU on a Z77 chip-set motherboard such as the GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard, along with 16Gb of some nice Ram such as
Gskill F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL 16GB DDR3 RAM KIT PC-14900 1866Mhz (4 x 4GB) F3-14900CL9Q-16GBXL Quad Channel. This comes out to around $700-$750 Australian Dollars.

I want this as a gaming rig, I don't play FPS games such as Farcry/Crysis etc but I do play a heavily modded Skyrim and lots of MMO's and strategy games like Total War: Rome 2. Future games would include Witcher 3, Final Fantasy 14.

Is what I suggested above overkill for my gaming needs at 1920x1080? Should I maybe go to an i5 CPU with only 8Gb of RAM and perhaps either upgrade to more powerful GPU as well like the HD 7850 or an Nvidia card (sorry i'm not familiar with power) like Gtx 670? Or would a crossfire solution with my existing GPU work better?

So, as you can see I have a few questions about the upgrade and would appreciate any suggestions.

I would get the i7 over the amd.intel have a better architecture than amd.if you want to reduce cost you could decrease the amount of ram u want to 8gb as for now 8gb is more than enough for gaming.for future games i would go for the i7.its faster than your phenom and uses less power means much cooler.i would only suggest u upgrade the gpu once u have upgraded your system.highest u can go with ur system currently wihout bottlenecking the gpu or just a bit bottleneck will be a 7870 or a gtx670.

 

[cpoustie]

Thanks for the replies. After thinking a bit about what you said, I have changed my mind and I think I will try the following.

Downgrade to the I5-3570k
Keep the Gigabyte motherboard upgrade
Downgrade to 8Gb of the G.Skill Ram
Upgrade my GPU to HD7950

This is depending on prices as well. If there is anyway to keep the I7 processor I may do that if I find a great special price online.

Unless anyone has anything else to add?

 

[kookie3010]

Thanks for the replies. After thinking a bit about what you said, I have changed my mind and I think I will try the following.

Downgrade to the I5-3570k
Keep the Gigabyte motherboard upgrade
Downgrade to 8Gb of the G.Skill Ram
Upgrade my GPU to HD7950

This is depending on prices as well. If there is anyway to keep the I7 processor I may do that if I find a great special price online.

Unless anyone has anything else to add?

go for the i7. it's worth the money.and u wont be bottlenecking anytime soon