PC Upgrade Help

[Nephyn]

A couple of things I wanted to ask any PC experts out there...

 

I am currently in the middle of upgrading my PC, I need a new Graphics card(s) but at the moment have 2x ATi Radeon HD 5670 crossfired and wondered if I should just swap em both for 1 good graphics card?

Also what card do you recommend?

 

Secondly, SSD.

I currently use 3 HDD and wondered is it worth upgrading to SSD? (I realise I would lose memory but I can cope with that) and do I replace all HDD with SSD? and reinstall my OP on there? I don't fully understand what would be best to do here, any insight helpful.

 

Lastly, my CPU. Currently Intel i7 920 @ 2.97 GHz. Worth upgrading yet?

 

Thanks for any advise.

[BuckyCameron]

SSD is just for loading times, if you upgrade RAM to 8GB or up, you'll see a major difference in loading times. Now, if you upgrade to SSD, you'll see a massive gain in loading times. You'll go from 1 minute loading times, to 5 seconds. Also, Id upgrade your CPU to an i7 2600, or AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition. The CPU, and just RAM upgrade will only cost you around $140-$200. I wouldn't go with SSD unless you're a major gamer, and very, very impatient with loading times.

 

EDIT: For GPU, I would go with Nvidia GTX 580 WINDFORCE. Here's my Rig

 

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition @ 4.1GHz

 

Motherboard: ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX

 

Ram: Muskhin DDR3 8GB @ 1600MHz

 

Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 WINDFORCE 3X @ Stock clocks

 

Solid State Drive: Patriot Wildfire 120GB

 

Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB

 

Power supply: Corsair HX 850W

 

Case Silverston Raven RV02 with the air penetrator fans

 

It runs BF3, TOR, LOTR: WITN, Crysis 1, 2, Halo 2, Batman AA, and AC maxed out for a minimum of 60FPS. It never drops below 60. It can jump to 78-123 FPS , so I just cap it at 60, so its a steady 60 no matter what.

Edited May 8, 2012 by BuckyCameron

[Nephyn]

Thanks for the swift response.

 

A friend can sell me a AMD Radeon 1GB HD 6950 pretty cheap, I can also get another one to crossfire if need be.

(It seemed to get pretty good reviews)

 

Then in a couple of weeks I can upgrade my processor to one you suggested (the AMD looked pretty good)

 

I am running 6GB RAM atm, I can also upgrade that at a later date and skip the SSD and just keep what I have.

 

What do you think?

Edited May 8, 2012 by Nephyn

[Mythsoul]

Thanks for the swift response.

 

A friend can sell me a AMD Radeon 1GB HD 6950 pretty cheap, I can also get another one to crossfire if need be.

(It seemed to get pretty good reviews)

 

Then in a couple of weeks I can upgrade my processor to one you suggested (the AMD looked pretty good)

 

I am running 6GB RAM atm, I can also upgrade that at a later date and skip the SSD and just keep what I have.

 

What do you think?

 

Take the 6950 AMD, It's a fantastic graphics card.

 

Get the i5 2500K, you won't notice the difference between an i5 and i7 on a desktop since they're both quadcore, also the i5 is only $225

 

Also you'll want 8gb of 1600mhz ram, you can use 1333mhz ram like in laptops but considering the price difference is minimal, might as well take the faster ram

 

 

Note: Don't be fooled my marketing gimmicks

 

A graphics card with 1gb or 2gb of ram won't impact your gaming because it's the type of ram which affects the games performance not the amount of vram

Don't buy 6-8 core processors thinking they're faster because you'll never use those extra cores and it's just a waste of power.

 

 

I'm no computer expert this is just some info I rounded up from my friends (who are experts) before I went out to buy my own computer.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Mythsoul

[Nephyn]

heh, just bought Corsair 8GB 1600Mhz CL9 DDR3

 

only processor to go

 

thanks guys

[Korikana]

http://www.ebuyer.com/251596-intel-core-i5-2500k-3-3ghz-socket-1155-6mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623i52500k

 

There you go m8, all the processor you will need for a while

 

and as for GPU, imo, i would crossfire 2x Radeon 6770 cheap and pokey as hell

[Muertepk]

power supply many times people overlook that component.

 

also if you find a new MB is needed please look into usb3. its the next step inusb . the plug is bigger and it is much faster. if upgrading might as well think about near future.

 

to be honest its not a good time to buy components, the part of the world where most of the chips and parts are manufactured is still drying out and retooling the lines from massive flooding. prices are still inflated.

 

early summer i read that supply and prices will be better. thats what i am waiting for, word that prices have stabilized and as a side bonus there is a lot of new stuff coming out in the next couple of months hardware wise, procs and main drives -wise. when new items come out older items get price drops.

 

good luck, and please if you are beefing up your set up, also consider liquid cooling or at least add a fan or two.

 

i have a 7 year old pc i custom built, all but the vidcard is original, and the vid card is the third one, one the fan melted, one 8800 got old and now theres a OC 220 gtx in here. everything else is original, works fine i play this game fine, except in pvp or warzones then i cant hardly participate due to system constraints. everything else and other games i play with some tweaking and prodding run fine.

 

i would check the PC gamer web site, they have some stuff for people building systems, base machines and they have done the quality/price/performance tests already giving us the end results.

 

have fun and good luck.