Need some advice on "older" system and today's standards

[nickeleye]

I've got a few questions for the gurus out there. Forgive the noobness, but I haven't been playing around with my PC as much these days. I built a "new" gaming PC what I thought was maybe about a year ago or so, but as it turns out it was more like two years ago. Here's what I've got:

Mobo - Asus P7P55D Deluxe
CPU - Intel i5 750 2.67ghz (OC'd to 4.0ghz STABLE)
CPU HSF - Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plu
RAM - 4gb (2x2gb) Corsair XMS 3 (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
Video - Evga GTX 570 Superclocked (stock timings), just upgraded from Gigabyte GTX 460
HD - WD 300gb Velociraptor
PSU - Corsair VX550w
Case - Antec 300
Monitor - Asus VW246 1080p

So, as I eluded to above, I just upgraded my system from the GTX 460 to the GTX 570 today. I can definitely already see a difference. However, this is where my questions come in.

1. Based on the rest of my components, what should I expect out of this sytem?

2. Would my system benefit from increasing to to 8gb or 16gb of RAM? This machine is really only used for gaming in terms of large memory requirements. My fear of upgrading the RAM is that I'll have to go through the whole system overclocking process again and HOPE that I get the same overclock I've got now.

3. Same goes with the CPU. I realize the new SandyBridge processors are out right now, but would I really see that much of a difference? I previously went with the i5 because it was much cheaper than the i7 and at that time the i5's were well known for large overclocking gains under air cooling. I think my system shows this. I just don't know how much I'd really notice a difference with an upgraded CPU. I'd then have to go through the OC process all over again.

4. My windows score is still relatively low due to my hard drive I guess. A SSD would be nice (I have them in my Macs), but I realize this won't do anything but load things faster and will make zero difference in my gaming experience from a detail and framerate standpoint.

Bottom line - What does everybody think of my current system in terms of being able to handle the video card properly without being a bottleneck? I have a feeling if anything needs an upgrade it *might* be the RAM.

Thanks in advance!

 

[cuecuemore]

Your system looks pretty well balanced. Your CPU would occasionally bottleneck your 570 if you were running it at stock, but you should be good with the overclock you're running. You might see some marginal improvement with some significantly faster RAM if you could get it stable and ratchet down the timings, but I have no experience with the last-gen i5's. So yes, grab an SSD for faster load times!

 

[ssantmyers]

What games are you trying to play. I'd recommend going to about 8gigs of
Ram, everything else seems fine

 

[cocoadragon]

With new bridges, cpus and buses coming out, I don't think your going to get any bang from your buck buying just yet. You pretty much have my "budget version" dream system. I would have gone with 8GB ram out the box as newegg actually has great deals on larger ram if you spend all day combing through it. ($80 for 16gb 16000 for a Phenom/Gigabyte OC combo I made)

IMO you are better off figuring out what the issue is with the games you are playing before paying for a part you don't seem to critically need. So save up for the next generation. You are sitting pretty Hardwarewise unless you are trying to go Professional Gamer. Go look for free tweaks online to get your speed up/bottleneck down.

 

[johnners2981]

Yeah grab some more ram, its really cheap and getting cheaper according to a toms news article.
I'd get 8gb of low latency ram and oc away.

 

[cadder]

I would save my money and do a complete replacement in 1-2 years.

 

[RetiredChief]

On Ram, yes to 8 gigs. Going from 8 ->16 will yield very little performance increase. 8-> 16 not cost effective for gaming, there are a limited number of applications tha can take advantage of more than 8 Gigs.
Going from a I5-750 OCed to 4.0 to a SB I5 OCed will give some boost but not enough to make it cost effective. If you have the money go with IB - BUT the cheapest UNLOCKED CPU looks like 500-600 Bucks on top of a new MB.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I would save my money and do a complete replacement in 1-2 years.

I'll second this. Your system, as Is, will run any game you throw at it for at least 2 more years. With your current overclock, I'd be loathe to try to so anything to tweak it that would affect the overclock. Maybe an SSD.

Keep it as is for now, and in early 2013 do a full system replacement with whatever replaces Ivy Bridge.

 

[nickeleye]

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful. The PC really is essentially used for gaming and that's about it. To be honest, I haven't been using it often at all over the last couple of years, but I started feeling guilty letting it sit. I guess my prior job really sucked away a lot more free time than a "normal" employee would have to give up and as a result I felt like I couldn't sit down and play a few hours of games each week. I know when I built it that I took a lot of time trying to put together a solid system that wouldn't cause me to go broke. It's just that I've been out of the PC gaming/building realm for the most part over the last two years that I don't know where I stack up.

Your advice really helps. I'd love to put in an SSD, but that will probably have to wait as I just upgraded my Mac to an SSD and, in the case of my Win7 box, I'd want a drive 200+ gig to take advantage of the speed for all my games and those ain't cheep... not to mention I just bought that GTX 570 for the gaming rig 😀

I know that RAM is pretty inexpensive overall right now so I figured if it'd give me a boost to help out my gaming performance more, maybe it'd be worth it. From your responses and a little more digging around, it sounds like it's probably not worth it right now. Not to mention I don't want to risk screwing up my current OC!

I think I like the idea of waiting out further upgrades for another year or two. I will take your advice since I've been out of the loop for so long. If anything I might try to eek out a little more OC performance out of the GTX 570, but that's not even a major priority for me at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I haven't been upset with performance with my current setup, I just wasn't sure if now that I added the GTX 570, if there was anything else in my system that I could swap out relatively easy that would help out the system. Sounds like the answer to that is pretty much no.