What to upgrade first if anything?

[Zdux19]

Hello everyone,
I built my first pc in February of 2012. Total cost of the build was roughly $1100. The build consists of the following:

Intel i5 3570k processor with stock heat sink

Asus P8z77-v lx motherboard

Evga gtx 560 ti videocard with stock overclocking

Ocz 750w modular power supply

8g corsair vengeance ddr3 1600 ram

Western digital black 1tb hard drive

Lg optical drive

Cooler master HAF X case

Windows 7 home premium

I mostly just play WoW but have also played games such as star wars and defiance. when I play wow it runs at 110 fps but when I raid it drops to around 40 at some points. I was wondering if there was a way to keep the drop from occuring. I am wondering what the best upgrade would be and around how much it would cost. Any help is much appreciated.

 

[lolcheckin]

Hello everyone,
I built my first pc in February of 2012. Total cost of the build was roughly $1100. The build consists of the following:

Intel i5 3570k processor with stock heat sink

Asus P8z77-v lx motherboard

Evga gtx 560 ti videocard with stock overclocking

Ocz 750w modular power supply

8g corsair vengeance ddr3 1600 ram

Western digital black 1tb hard drive

Lg optical drive

Cooler master HAF X case

Windows 7 home premium

I mostly just play WoW but have also played games such as star wars and defiance. when I play wow it runs at 110 fps but when I raid it drops to around 40 at some points. I was wondering if there was a way to keep the drop from occuring. I am wondering what the best upgrade would be and around how much it would cost. Any help is much appreciated.

Your ram and hdd are good enough (i assume your hdd is a caviar black?). You can upgrade your CPU/Mobo/GPU, but you have to give a budget to work on.
Think of getting an SSD, it can really ramp up your performance.
Also, I am a bit sceptical on your PSU, can you give details on the model?

 

[Zdux19]

Hello everyone,
I built my first pc in February of 2012. Total cost of the build was roughly $1100. The build consists of the following:

Intel i5 3570k processor with stock heat sink

Asus P8z77-v lx motherboard

Evga gtx 560 ti videocard with stock overclocking

Ocz 750w modular power supply

8g corsair vengeance ddr3 1600 ram

Western digital black 1tb hard drive

Lg optical drive

Cooler master HAF X case

Windows 7 home premium

I mostly just play WoW but have also played games such as star wars and defiance. when I play wow it runs at 110 fps but when I raid it drops to around 40 at some points. I was wondering if there was a way to keep the drop from occuring. I am wondering what the best upgrade would be and around how much it would cost. Any help is much appreciated.

Your ram and hdd are good enough (i assume your hdd is a caviar black?). You can upgrade your CPU/Mobo/GPU, but you have to give a budget to work on.
Think of getting an SSD, it can really ramp up your performance.
Also, I am a bit sceptical on your PSU, can you give details on the model?

The hdd is the black caviar. My budget would be about $500. The power supply is the OCZ ZT Series 750w psu. Would I benefit more by upgrading the mobo and cpu or the gpu?? Thanks for your help.

 

[lolcheckin]

Alright then, here are my recommendations:
1) Change your GPU; Get this: Asus GeForce GTX660 Ti 2GB (214$ @ newegg)
2) Get an SSD; Kingston SH103S3/120G (100$ @ newegg)
3) Get a new PSU; SeaSonic 650W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (106$ @ newegg).
4) If you are up for OC'ing, get a cpu cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition 89.5 CFM CPU Cooler (50$ @ newegg)

There you have it! Your PC will be up to par to today's standards for about 470$!
Just do yourself a favour, get the cooler and overclock your CPU. Since it is a "K" edition, it is unlocked and it is meant to be overclocked (you may not have known it but when you bought it, but you actually paid more to get an overclockable processor).
So, find a guide on the internet and OC your CPU. It can go from 3.4 to 4.2-4.6 Ghz easily with the aftermarket cooler. You are letting your CPU go to waste without overclocking.

Hope I helped!

Also, about the PSU: I am recommending you a lower-wattage one, and you might be confused from that. Thing is, OCZ PSUs are known to perform badly. The one I am recommending you is of a well-known PSU brand that will work better and for years. 650W are more than enough for your system.

 

[Zdux19]

Alright then, here are my recommendations:
1) Change your GPU; Get this: Asus GeForce GTX660 Ti 2GB (214$ @ newegg)
2) Get an SSD; Kingston SH103S3/120G (100$ @ newegg)
3) Get a new PSU; SeaSonic 650W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (106$ @ newegg).
4) If you are up for OC'ing, get a cpu cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition 89.5 CFM CPU Cooler (50$ @ newegg)

There you have it! Your PC will be up to par to today's standards for about 470$!
Just do yourself a favour, get the cooler and overclock your CPU. Since it is a "K" edition, it is unlocked and it is meant to be overclocked (you may not have known it but when you bought it, but you actually paid more to get an overclockable processor).
So, find a guide on the internet and OC your CPU. It can go from 3.4 to 4.2-4.6 Ghz easily with the aftermarket cooler. You are letting your CPU go to waste without overclocking.

Hope I helped!

Also, about the PSU: I am recommending you a lower-wattage one, and you might be confused from that. Thing is, OCZ PSUs are known to perform badly. The one I am recommending you is of a well-known PSU brand that will work better and for years. 650W are more than enough for your system.

If you had to do order on thing at a time would you recommend the new heat sink with overclock and ssd drive first, then the new gpu, and the the new psu? Or would you say it should be in different order?

 

[wip99gt]

New GPU first. For gaming it's what'll be holding you back the most.The OCZ ZT 750w psu you own is a decent one. I think it's a waste of money to replace it. I'd use as much of your budget as possible on the GPU if you game. For example if you had a $500 budget use $350 on a 7970, $50 on a cpu cooler, and $100 on a 120GB SSD. This will give you a solid upgrade.

 

[lolcheckin]

If you had to do order on thing at a time would you recommend the new heat sink with overclock and ssd drive first, then the new gpu, and the the new psu? Or would you say it should be in different order?

Get the GPU first; then the SSD and the cooler and save the PSU for last.

New GPU first. For gaming it's what'll be holding you back the most.The OCZ ZT 750w psu you own is a decent one. I think it's a waste of money to replace it. I'd use as much of your budget as possible on the GPU if you game. For example if you had a budget use on a 7970, on a cpu cooler, and on a 120GB SSD. This will give you a solid upgrade.

Getting a 7970 would indeed be a better choice, but remember that a 7970 is more power-hungry, and his 750W OCZ will barely make it. (Also, don't you think that it will get bottleneck'd by the CPU anyways?) Instead, if he gets a better PSU (like the one I recommended), his system will be much more stable.
For me, the PSU is the base of a good system, and, if you want to invest to something, PSU is the way to go. I myself have had numerous bad experiences with sub-par PSUs that were supposed to be 650W, barely held a 450W (max) system together, gave me higher electricity bills for no reason and finally gave in with a bang (e.g. burned out motherboard).

Still, if you want the best of both worlds, get a 7970 and the rest of the parts for now with your budget, and get a better PSU when you gather up enough money.

EDIT: If you decide to get the 7970 instead, here is my recommended build:
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card ($350 @ newegg)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition 89.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($50 @ newegg)
SSD: Kingston SH103S3/120G ($100 @ newegg)

There you go!
Just keep in mind what I mentioned above for the PSU, and try to get a new and better one soon.

 

[wip99gt]

I agree it's not the best psu out there but it is decent. It'll easily handle a 7970 and 3570k with 62A on the 12v rail. It isn't the newest psu out there and I do agree that the Seasonic gold is a much better PSU but it's not worth replacing.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=262
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/ZT_750W/
A stock 3570k will not bottleneck a 7970 at a 1080p resolution either. I ran my 780 gtx on a 2500k just fine. I did see an improvement on some games as I overclocked the cpu but not a lot. The 3570k is a littler quicker than a 2500k and the 7970 is slower than a GTX780 so there should be less of a bottleneck.

 

[Zdux19]

If you had to do order on thing at a time would you recommend the new heat sink with overclock and ssd drive first, then the new gpu, and the the new psu? Or would you say it should be in different order?

Get the GPU first; then the SSD and the cooler and save the PSU for last.

New GPU first. For gaming it's what'll be holding you back the most.The OCZ ZT 750w psu you own is a decent one. I think it's a waste of money to replace it. I'd use as much of your budget as possible on the GPU if you game. For example if you had a budget use on a 7970, on a cpu cooler, and on a 120GB SSD. This will give you a solid upgrade.

Getting a 7970 would indeed be a better choice, but remember that a 7970 is more power-hungry, and his 750W OCZ will barely make it. (Also, don't you think that it will get bottleneck'd by the CPU anyways?) Instead, if he gets a better PSU (like the one I recommended), his system will be much more stable.
For me, the PSU is the base of a good system, and, if you want to invest to something, PSU is the way to go. I myself have had numerous bad experiences with sub-par PSUs that were supposed to be 650W, barely held a 450W (max) system together, gave me higher electricity bills for no reason and finally gave in with a bang (e.g. burned out motherboard).

Still, if you want the best of both worlds, get a 7970 and the rest of the parts for now with your budget, and get a better PSU when you gather up enough money.

EDIT: If you decide to get the 7970 instead, here is my recommended build:
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card ($350 @ newegg)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition 89.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($50 @ newegg)
SSD: Kingston SH103S3/120G ($100 @ newegg)

There you go!
Just keep in mind what I mentioned above for the PSU, and try to get a new and better one soon.

Would the HD 7950 be a better choice than the 660 ti? The 660 ti is running $234.99 on Newegg and the 7950 is running $299.99. The 7970 is running 369.99. I haven't had an AMD card before. Would the 7950 be worth the extra $65 over the 660 ti and the $70 savings over the 7970? The 7970 is a little above what I was wanting to spend on a card.