PC upgrades need opinions ( Gaming rig )

JamesGrimble

Honorable
Sep 5, 2013
17
0
10,510
So I recently had a problem with my PC where the GPU was overheating and I realised while fixing this problem it might as well be a good time to upgrade my PC anyways. So here is my original rig and its specs.

Case: Xigmatek Midgard
Power Supply: Corsair 500CX 500W
Processor: Intel Core i5 3450 3.1Ghz
Processor Cooler: Stock Manufacturer Heatsink and fan
RAM: 4GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3 1600Mhz/PC12800
Motherboard: ASUS P8H61-M LE
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB Hard Drive 7200rpm 16MB Cac


Now I was thinking about upgrading and so far the kind people on this site have reccomended these parts based on my budget of around £350.

- Xigmatek CCC-AD34BT-U01 Asgard 382 Mesh Midi Tower Case - Black

- Corsair Builder Series CXM 600W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU

- Sapphire 11199-19-20G AMD Radeon HD 7870 Dual-X OC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (HDMI, DVI-I, DVI-D, Display Port, PCI Express 3.0, 256-Bit, AMD CrossFireX Multi-GPU Technology)

- 2 x Corsair CO-9050004-WW Air Series AF120 Performance Edition 120mm High Airflow Fan Dual Pack

so I was wondering I'm trying to upgrade the PC to make it more gaming compatible and I was wondering would the upgrades be compatible with my current rig and if so what do you think could I be buying more efficent parts i.e the fans and so on?
 
I think the best GPU for you would be a Sapphire 7870XT. Is has great performance and is only about £150-200. Also I think you should spend another £50 or so and get another 4GB of RAM. (Make sure it's the exact same kind). The last think I would do it upgrade the motherboard to either the Z77 chip set (If you want to overclock, which you will also need a aftermarket CPU cooler.) or the H77 chip set which will give you some more functionality and also to upgrade to either a i5 3570K or a i5 3570, but for now your CPU will still be plenty powerful.