Upgrade Advise

[roadkill1109]

Hello Gurus!

I'm an old school PC Gamer (since 1985) and my current rig is a Core 2 Duo E8400, 8Gigs Ram and a single HD4850 all of which I bought in 2008. But, thanks to the development of games that are also capable on running on console hardware, I've been able to put off upgrading all this time.

Right now, I have plans of upgrading my rig a little at a time. (As budget permits since becoming a family man, upgrades can no longer be done in one purchase)

So my question is this:

1. Should I invest in an i5-3570k processor, a cheap motherboard and use my existing HD4850?

or

2. Shoud I keep my existing processor and motherboard but buy the latest GTX 660 video card?

I'm leaning more towards the 2nd option as my old video card can only do DirectX 9, but i'm open to the 1st option.

Please, none of that both option, because I have only budget right now for either the 1st or 2nd option.

Hoping for some enlightenment.

Thanks a lot!

Happy Holidays!

 

[Sumukh_Bhagat]

Option 2 ofcourse.

 

[johnsonjohnson]

When the time comes to getting your motherboard, I suggest a quality Z77 motherboard for overclocking. I'm just assuming since you're going with a K Series processor.

 

[roadkill1109]

Option 2 ofcourse.

Thanks for the advise!

Followup question,

Is it better to get a 660 or a 560Ti? I think they are the same price now.

 

[roadkill1109]

When the time comes to getting your motherboard, I suggest a quality Z77 motherboard for overclocking. I'm just assuming since you're going with a K Series processor.

Thanks! I was looking at the offerings from Asus...or should I go Gigabyte?

 

[johnsonjohnson]

Go with the GTX 660 or the HD 7870 if you're going with AMD. You can't go wrong with either brand for the motherboard. The ASRock Z77 Extreme4 is another popular choice.

 

[roadkill1109]

Go with the GTX 660 or the HD 7870 if you're going with AMD. You can't go wrong with either brand for the motherboard. The ASRock Z77 Extreme4 is another popular choice.

Thanks for the help! My card of choice is the EVGA GTX660 SC, is that a good video card?

 

[Cons29]

660ti is faster than a 580, and 580>560ti

and yes evga is a good brand

 

[Sumukh_Bhagat]

^ We are talking about GTX 660, not the Ti version.

Well, Evga isn't good with coolings
I mean look at this : No fans

But I found this, it might be helpful.

For more about your Card, Go here : http://www.bjorn3d.com/2012/09/evga-geforce-gtx-660-sc-superclocked-2gb-video-card-review/#.UNMsrINIn98
I own a MSI GTX 660 TF III OC. And suggest you the same.