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Cant decide between a new build or upgrading components - help!

post #1 of 14
8/2/12 at 7:21am
Thread Starter 
It has been two years since my last build, and I'm starting to feel some slowdown in newer games. I really like keeping things at 60FPS, but with Guild Wars 2 coming out, my build is starting to show some slowdown. I was wondering if you guys could take a look at my current specs and let me know if you would upgrade the video cards, CPU, or both. Budget isn't much of a concern at this point, but if it's not much of an upgrade I guess I can keep this system for another year.
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post #2 of 14
8/2/12 at 7:37am
CF 5870's are still a powerful combo, beyond switching to a couple of 7970's or something of that nature, i don't think an upgrade would really be worth it. I would suggest getting a bit of an o/c on your system, it should easily be able to handle a 3.8 - 4 with a bit of tuning. Make sure that those 5870's are tuned to their full potential as well as I know they are able to squeeze a bit more juice if they are stock.
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post #3 of 14
8/2/12 at 7:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by appleg33k85 View Post

CF 5870's are still a powerful combo, beyond switching to a couple of 7970's or something of that nature, i don't think an upgrade would really be worth it. I would suggest getting a bit of an o/c on your system, it should easily be able to handle a 3.8 - 4 with a bit of tuning. Make sure that those 5870's are tuned to their full potential as well as I know they are able to squeeze a bit more juice if they are stock.

I agree , a lot of the time PC Enthusiasts , want to constantly Upgrade and keep up , but spending the 900+ for a new system isn't Necessary.
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post #4 of 14
8/2/12 at 7:42am
Thread Starter 
Everything is stock. I would really like to overclock - and I've tried a few times, but I'm pretty much a miserable failure at it.

I think it's due to my RAM. I think that it's the reason that I can't OC very well. I can't even get it running at the rated speed on my motherboard, even with the timings set. They are running at 1066 vs 1600. I might snag myself a whole new set of RAM and then overclock. I think that might be the cheaper route.
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post #5 of 14
8/2/12 at 7:45am
I agree with these guys, if you really want to upgrade too, might as well grab 12GB of RAM. LOL
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post #6 of 14
8/2/12 at 10:07am
In stead of spending lots of money on a new system, learn a new skill. Overclock the crap out of your current processor. You have the heatsink for it already. BAM, the performance you want, at no extra cost, and you're a little more badass when it comes to computers.

After that, you're looking at upgrading video cards. CPU performance really shouldn't be a problem, but with eyefinity & max graphics it might be reasonable to get SLI 670s or Crossfire 7950s or something like that.
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post #7 of 14
8/2/12 at 10:16am
I would also agree with the OC your stuff and keep it for awhile longer. If you aren't an enthusiast who wants to upgrade just to have the best, then I would keep that rig going. I've never overclocked on 1st gen i7s, so I cant be of assistance there. One thing that may be worth while is upgrading your SSD to a bigger drive that will hold more. It won't help your FPS, but certainly the speeds of applications you use that are installed on it. Also make sure all your drivers are up to date for your GPUs if you haven't been.
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post #8 of 14
8/3/12 at 12:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rpconrad View Post

Everything is stock. I would really like to overclock - and I've tried a few times, but I'm pretty much a miserable failure at it.
I think it's due to my RAM. I think that it's the reason that I can't OC very well. I can't even get it running at the rated speed on my motherboard, even with the timings set. They are running at 1066 vs 1600. I might snag myself a whole new set of RAM and then overclock. I think that might be the cheaper route.

Not sure if it could be the RAM or not. Modern processors and graphic cards can overclock by themselves without the need to overclock something else like the Front Speed Bus or RAM. It's best to get at least 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM. RAM speed hardly affects gaming performance compared to the processor and graphics card.
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post #9 of 14
8/3/12 at 4:31am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bitech View Post

Not sure if it could be the RAM or not. Modern processors and graphic cards can overclock by themselves without the need to overclock something else like the Front Speed Bus or RAM. It's best to get at least 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM. RAM speed hardly affects gaming performance compared to the processor and graphics card.

It was just my "noob-ness" with overclocking. I had a couple of drinks last night with some buddies from work and came home and started overclocking with some new-found courage. I was able to get it up to 3.8Ghz with 1.264 vcore which bumped the RAM to 12xx (or something I dont remember the exact number). I ran prime 95 overnight and it did not fail and the max temps were 80c with an ambient of 77 Fahrenheit.

When I OCed my old Q9550 years ago I actually lost performance according to benchmarks, so I need to run some tests on this machine today after work. What is the best CPU benchmark software to use?
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post #10 of 14
8/3/12 at 4:33am
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upgrade your cpu and mobo first, then the rest later
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