I built my PC as a dedicated gaming machine about five years ago, and have made the gradual expected upgrades (gpu, added ram, added HDs, etc), until last week when I actually took everything (well, my cpu specifically) back a generation replacing my locked i5 3330 (3-3.3 ghz turbo) with an i5 2500k (currently ocd to 4.3):
i5 2500k currently clocked at 4.3 ghz (paired with 212 evo cooler)
MSI Z77A-G35 motherboard
16 GB DDR3 @666mhz (bleh...)
EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 GPU paired with a LG 34in Ultrawide 1080p (this is the best of all in the upgrades imo, snagged it for 250 bucks NIB. 21:9 is amazing)
120 GB Kingston SSD
1 TB Sandisk SSD
When I replaced my cpu, ran tests to ensure stability, then eventually started gaming...I am absolutely blown away with how much faster my pc now is after upgrading it with a six or so year old part. Everything loads faster, but oculus games specifically load up literally 2x faster than before.
Anyhow, besides being a happy camper, I got the bug to keep tinkering and have even made some low ball bids on eBay for some 1070s (glad I didn’t win, as I have some uncertainties you’ll see below).
Buying a new 1070 is not cost prohibitive for me at the moment, however, I could snag a used 1080 at the rate second hand cards are currently selling on eBay. I bid on a couple 1070s (there are basically 6 1070/1080s I can chose from which will fit in my case).
I’m glad I lost the auctions, because it never occurred to me these were likely used 24/7 for mining, thus explaining the ridiculously low prices (1070s are selling for less than 200 sometimes).
I know my cpu will bottleneck a 1070, heck it might bottleneck my 970 sometimes. However, I am also pretty confident, especially in vr and 1440 (want to upgrade monitor eventually, but I’m not smitten enough with 4k to make that kind of investment; would rather have 21:9 1440) the 1070 will out perform the 970, potentially making some games note playable and less like tech demos.
Also, I found that my used 970 is potentially worth quite a bit, relatively speaking. All in, assuming luck holds normal, I could go from a 970 to a 1070 for less than 100 bucks, maybe significantly less (live in the Bay Area where the Craigslist market for this stuff is pretty strong), which seems like a borderline no brainer.
That is, assuming the 1070 doesn’t explode (plan would be to use it on my next build, which I’ve successfully put off for three or so years now).
My question is three fold
1) would I see a performance gain worth (assuming patience combined with the buying and selling prices hold true) worth the 100 or so dollars and elbow work required
2) is buying a used gpu safe? If one is to break, is it going to be something like a fan that can be replaced, or will it be the whole kit and kabuddle going up in flames?
3) am I just riding the high from my recent successful install/oc, and I should just appreciate what I have until it’s time for a whole new build.
Let me finish by saying I love my pc currently, but wish it had a little more umph specifically for VR titles. I can’t believe I’ve been running this bad boy so hard for so long
....I truly do love the thing lol
i5 2500k currently clocked at 4.3 ghz (paired with 212 evo cooler)
MSI Z77A-G35 motherboard
16 GB DDR3 @666mhz (bleh...)
EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 GPU paired with a LG 34in Ultrawide 1080p (this is the best of all in the upgrades imo, snagged it for 250 bucks NIB. 21:9 is amazing)
120 GB Kingston SSD
1 TB Sandisk SSD
When I replaced my cpu, ran tests to ensure stability, then eventually started gaming...I am absolutely blown away with how much faster my pc now is after upgrading it with a six or so year old part. Everything loads faster, but oculus games specifically load up literally 2x faster than before.
Anyhow, besides being a happy camper, I got the bug to keep tinkering and have even made some low ball bids on eBay for some 1070s (glad I didn’t win, as I have some uncertainties you’ll see below).
Buying a new 1070 is not cost prohibitive for me at the moment, however, I could snag a used 1080 at the rate second hand cards are currently selling on eBay. I bid on a couple 1070s (there are basically 6 1070/1080s I can chose from which will fit in my case).
I’m glad I lost the auctions, because it never occurred to me these were likely used 24/7 for mining, thus explaining the ridiculously low prices (1070s are selling for less than 200 sometimes).
I know my cpu will bottleneck a 1070, heck it might bottleneck my 970 sometimes. However, I am also pretty confident, especially in vr and 1440 (want to upgrade monitor eventually, but I’m not smitten enough with 4k to make that kind of investment; would rather have 21:9 1440) the 1070 will out perform the 970, potentially making some games note playable and less like tech demos.
Also, I found that my used 970 is potentially worth quite a bit, relatively speaking. All in, assuming luck holds normal, I could go from a 970 to a 1070 for less than 100 bucks, maybe significantly less (live in the Bay Area where the Craigslist market for this stuff is pretty strong), which seems like a borderline no brainer.
That is, assuming the 1070 doesn’t explode (plan would be to use it on my next build, which I’ve successfully put off for three or so years now).
My question is three fold
1) would I see a performance gain worth (assuming patience combined with the buying and selling prices hold true) worth the 100 or so dollars and elbow work required
2) is buying a used gpu safe? If one is to break, is it going to be something like a fan that can be replaced, or will it be the whole kit and kabuddle going up in flames?
3) am I just riding the high from my recent successful install/oc, and I should just appreciate what I have until it’s time for a whole new build.
Let me finish by saying I love my pc currently, but wish it had a little more umph specifically for VR titles. I can’t believe I’ve been running this bad boy so hard for so long
....I truly do love the thing lol
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