Planning on upgrading a PC, need advice/help.

[luthie123]

Hello,

I'm planning to upgrade my computer that has been with me since forever. The parts are pretty old, with a few upgrades here and there, but I'm still not satisfied with the performance I'm getting. Of course, I'm using this computer mainly for gaming.

Here are my specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Motherboard
Intel Core i7 CPU 960 @ 3.2GHz
8GB of RAM (No specifics cause it's new and not planning to upgrade)
MSI Twin Frozr 4GB GTX 660 GPU
600W PSU

I can mainly run games on mostly medium with the exception of certain things like textures set to high, I tend to like my games pretty.

Money is KIND of an issue here, but I'd appreciate the option of being rich and having a load of money to blow. (Gives me a reason to save.)

Any help is appreciated.

 

[TopLuca]

I'd say upgrade the the GPU to something like a GTX 970 or R9 290X. Maybe you can upgrade the PSU to something new of higher wattage to be able to throw in more GPU horsepower in the future.

Another worthwhile upgrade for general usage is SSD , it offers fast loading and booting times and you'll feel like a champ with it

 

[luthie123]

I'd say upgrade the the GPU to something like a GTX 970 or R9 290X. Maybe you can upgrade the PSU to something new of higher wattage to be able to throw in more GPU horsepower in the future.

Another worthwhile upgrade for general usage is SSD , it offers fast loading and booting times and you'll feel like a champ with it

Thank you for the reply! Nothing on the CPU though? It's been with me for years and I feel like I'm missing out on the newer CPUs and Motherboards. I don't intend on overclocking or anything, but would it be worth it to upgrade?

 

[TopLuca]

The CPU is still tier 2 meaning that it will handle gaming just fine and even it won't bottleneck the latest of graphics cards !! That's the advantage of spending big , you get a product that stands the test of time

 

[spdragoo]

You have a Socket 1366 processor (Bloomfield 45nm series), so there's not a lot of room to upgrade.

Check the supported CPU list on the motherboard manufacturer's website to see if it'll handle a core i7-970/980/980X/990X; they're the next step up (Gulftown 32nm series), same TDP, each core is as fast or faster than your current CPU (3.2GHz to 3.47GHz), & they have 6 cores instead of 4. The "X" models are unlocked, but that's only important if you want to overclock.

 

[luthie123]

You have a Socket 1366 processor (Bloomfield 45nm series), so there's not a lot of room to upgrade.

Check the supported CPU list on the motherboard manufacturer's website to see if it'll handle a core i7-970/980/980X/990X; they're the next step up (Gulftown 32nm series), same TDP, each core is as fast or faster than your current CPU (3.2GHz to 3.47GHz), & they have 6 cores instead of 4. The "X" models are unlocked, but that's only important if you want to overclock.

Thank you for the reply! Do I need the upgrade though? Would I get a significant increase in FPS if I were to upgrade my CPU? If yes, then I'd definitely get the upgrade, not so much the 1366 processors though, maybe something from the 1155 processors? Then again, I'm new to these sort of things, so I don't really know what I'm saying.

 

[logainofhades]

Cheapest option: Make sure you have a good cooler, and give that chip a bit of an overclock. Get a better PSU. There is a good deal going on an XFX 750w silver, right now. Add another 660 for SLI.

More expensive option same as above, but get a GTX 970 instead

 

[luthie123]

Cheapest option: Make sure you have a good cooler, and give that chip a bit of an overclock. Get a better PSU. There is a good deal going on an XFX 750w silver, right now. Add another 660 for SLI.

More expensive option same as above, but get a GTX 970 instead

Thank you for the reply! I'd definitely take that into consideration. Though, I probably won't overclock my CPU, I do have an after-market CPU cooler, but I don't really know what I'm doing and I don't wanna blow my computer to pieces. Besides, I tried overclocking before using a program that I can't remember, ran some tests and didn't see an improvement, maybe I'm doing it wrong.

But thanks for the suggestion anyways.

 

[spdragoo]

Only if you have apps that can take advantage of multiple cores. While even the 970 has better benchmark performance over the 960 (between 30 and 55% improvement, depending on the benchmark), it's apparently solely due to the extra cores; the 960 & 970 have identical Cinebench R11.5 single-core benchmarks, which is expected since their core speeds are identical (the 970 using its smaller die size to squeeze more cores onto the same chip).

The other problem, of course, is the price. It looks like an i7-970 would run about $600-650 USD; for that price, MicroCenter is advertising bundle deals for a core i7-4790K and a new Z97-series motherboard, with enough left over to replace the RAM or other parts.

Bottom-line is, if your budget is a little limited right now, go for a GPU upgrade & start saving to replace the CPU/motherboard in a year or 2.