What should I upgrade in my PC?

[Solloby]

My desktop is over 5 years old and apart from replacing my nvidia GPU that was causing me a host of problems, it's never seen any upgrades. I am wondering if there is something I can do to help planets load faster?

 

I am thinking of either putting more RAM in it, or swapping out one of my hard drives for a 1-2TB SSD since they are finally coming down in price and I've been loading my HD with lots of games. If I only do one of those things, which do you think would get me the most improvement?

 

My current specs:

Windows 7 64 bit

Intel Core i7 CPU 920

Radeon HD 7850 2GB GPU

6GB RAM (DDR3)

2x 500GB HD (one used for backups)

Antec case with lots of fans

Edited May 31, 2014 by Solloby

[redtornado]

Hiya.

 

Ram it.

 

Happy Gaming,

Red

[Alphasgimaone]

For this game specifically?

 

More RAM + SWTOR Unleashed.

[LoxSolo]

Personally, I would get an SSD and stuck SWTOR on it. I take it you have 4GB+2gB sticks or 3×2GB. If you have 4+2 then you could remove the 2 and add another 4GB stick, maybe the 2GB will work in there also, depends on how many slots your motherboard has, make sure the new stick is the same or compatible with the older sticks.

[akatokuro]

Given his specs, he's using tri-channel 3x2GB Ram sticks. (I have a similar i7 920 setup) I got the SSD and I do notice a bit of a bump on planet loading, and loading in general in other games. Unless you can find tri-channel 4GB sticks for dirt cheap or at least cheaper than what you plan for on the SSD, I'd go the SSD route.

[psandak]

You are lucky. My 5+ year old PC had DDR2 ram and so I had to update the mobo, CPU and ram.

 

More ram and SWTOR unleashed will work wonders.

Edited June 2, 2014 by psandak

[MSchuyler]

Be careful with the SSD. Don't over-commit to using them. Not only are they still expensive. they have a reputation for failing at a faster rate than conventional HDDs. I do use an SSD for SWTOR, but that's all I keep on it. They aren't nearly as expensive for a smaller one and if you do get into trouble, they can easily be swapped out.

 

Overall, I would vote improvements in this order:

 

GPU

RAM

CPU

HDD/SSD

[Solloby]

Thanks for all the suggestions

 

I am pretty sure I have 3x 2GB sticks, but will open my case up this weekend to have a look.

I guess I'll see what I need to buy to get that upgraded then compare it to SSD prices. If I do get a new hard drive, I can just copy and paste my SWTOR install across to it, right? I will still have my original HD hooked up, I would replace the backup drive with the SSD if I bought one.

[LordBarok]

I had a similar setup, a system I built from tax return money in 2009. I upgraded it in January this year.

 

The CPU is fine as is and will be fine for a long time still.

 

1. Upgrade GPU

A single R9 280X or Nvidia 660/760+ will handle the game great at highest settings. A 2nd for Crossfire or SLI is good as well.

 

2. Upgrade RAM

You can lose the triple channel and go with single or dual channels, your board probably has a max of 4 GB per slot, go with 4 x 4 GB DDR3 1600, totaling 16 GB.

 

3. Upgrade primary HDD to SSD

For overall system bootup and performance, go with a 256 GB or 512 GB SSD as your C: and keep the HDDs as data drives for storage. Get a 1TB or 2TB HDD to use for backup, Then use REDO backup to save an image of your current C: to the TB drive and restore it to the SSD. A second SSD for the game to run on separate from the OS is even better, You can do that with a 32 GB SSD, but I recommend a 64 GB SSD or 128 GB for room for future expansions and other games too.

 

4. Preventative Maintenance (every 1 to 3 months)

Make sure to blow out & vacuum dust out of the system, don't overspin the fans with the canned/electric air. And make sure you have a working UPS Battery Backup that the system is plugged into.