Upgrading my LGA1156 rig

[morashti]

I'm currently running a system I put together back in 2010 and made a few upgrades to – here are the specs:

CPU: i5-750 (LGA 1156)
MoBo: GIGABYTE P55A-UD4P
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600 (2x4GB)
GPU: Asus HD5850
PSU: Chieftec 750W (not 80+ certified)
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 932

I have recently bought another 8GB of the same RAM, Vertex 3 60GB SSD and a Corsair H80 cooling kit, but these are not installed yet.

My budget is flexible – around 600$-750$, and I'm wondering which of the following would be a better way to go:

1. Upgrade the GPU to something such as 7970, or even wait a month or so for the 7990 or nVidia's upcoming cards.
2. Upgrade the CPU/MoBo to LGA 2011 (i7 3820).

I mainly use the computer for games and watching HD movies on my connected HD TV.

I'm open for suggestions if anyone can think of other options…

Thanks!

 

[moffinator]

that cpu is still fairly solid, i would either get a new gpu or wait till ivy bridge before upgrading the cpu and mobo, dont bother with socket 2011

 

[Chaz21]

I would wait on the new GPU's and IB's also. If it's a "must upgrade" syndrome attacking then go with an ssd boot drive. That will keep you happy until the other new stuff comes out (and be usable in any build/upgrade you decide on later).

 

[AntiZig]

well, I'm not sure what you're looking to do here. upgrading just for the sake of spending money? or are you looking for specific performance gains? are you having issues with your current gaming experience and trying to improve it?

It's kind of hard to give advice as to what you should do while only info available is the current specs (which are pretty good by today standard) and a budget, it kind of leaves the main thing out of the topic - "what's the point?"

 

[morashti]

Thanks all for the quick replies!

AntiZig, since this is my first post I wasn't sure what to emphasize, but basically my games are getting more and more laggy and I was wondering which would be the better way to go to increase their performance - is the GPU the problem or is the CPU/Mobo bottle-necking the entire system...

Sorry I wans't clear about that...

 

[graemevermeulen]

I'm currently running a system I put together back in 2010 and made a few upgrades to – here are the specs:

CPU: i5-750 (LGA 1156)
MoBo: GIGABYTE P55A-UD4P
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600 (2x4GB)
GPU: Asus HD5850
PSU: Chieftec 750W (not 80+ certified)
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 932

I have recently bought another 8GB of the same RAM, Vertex 3 60GB SSD and a Corsair H80 cooling kit, but these are not installed yet.

My budget is flexible – around 600$-750$, and I'm wondering which of the following would be a better way to go:

1. Upgrade the GPU to something such as 7970, or even wait a month or so for the 7990 or nVidia's upcoming cards.
2. Upgrade the CPU/MoBo to LGA 2011 (i7 3820).

I mainly use the computer for games and watching HD movies on my connected HD TV.

I'm open for suggestions if anyone can think of other options…

Thanks!

Nice one. I'm always for hardware upgrades whether necessary or not.

To be honest, I'd go with a GPU upgrade. Although, you can see massive gains in performance if you feel your current CPU is bottlenecking? Which I doubt.

Check your GPU usage in a game like BF3 to see.

 

[morashti]

Nice one. I'm always for hardware upgrades whether necessary or not.

To be honest, I'd go with a GPU upgrade. Although, you can see massive gains in performance if you feel your current CPU is bottlenecking? Which I doubt.

Check your GPU usage in a game like BF3 to see.

How do I go about that? That'll be an interesting test! What kind of software will I need?

 

[graemevermeulen]

How do I go about that? That'll be an interesting test! What kind of software will I need?

I recommend MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision.

You'll see your GPU temps and GPU usage in graphs. Very useful pieces of software.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Afterburner-2.0.0-Final-download-2562.html

EDIT: Sorry EVGA Precision only for Nvidia cards.

MSI Afterburner for AMD and Nvidia