Looking to upgrade my 6 year old gaming PC

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n00b
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Aug 6, 2012
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Hello guys, new here, been wanting to get back in PC gaming after a 5 year break, last time I built at PC was back in 2006 and I spend over 3k on it, no idea why but I did that - it was really fun though. Anyhow I have no idea about the current specs for new gaming PCs these days, so could you please help me out... thanks.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
PC Gaming

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around $1200 AUD Obviously less is better for me.


3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Australia, Melbourne

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.
CPU, GPU, Motherboard, RAM, Hard Drive, Case - not sure what else I need!

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

I'm not sure what I can reuse, but here are my current PC parts from 2006:

CPU: Intel QuadCore Q6700 CPU
RAM: 2G Ram
GPU: 8800GTX
HARD DRIVE: 500GB Hard Drive
MOTHERBOARD: GA-P35-DS4 MB P35+
CASE: Thermaltake Soprano Case
PSU: Gigabyte Odin GT-800Watts
CPU COOOLER:Zalman CNPS9700NT CPU FAN

6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
27" Samsung S27A750 16:9 3D LED Black HDMI DP
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within 1 month

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I'm not sure, I'm not up to date with pc parts anymore.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Nope


So here's a list I came up with of the parts I think I could buy? I'm not sure at all!

$469.00 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX670 OC 2GB Gigabyte GeForce GTX670 OC 2GB
$129.00 - DDR3-2133 16GB Quad Channel [RipjawsX] F3-17000CL11Q-16GBXL
$315.00 - Intel Core i7 3770 3.40GHz LGA1155 Intel Core i7 3770 3.40GHz LGA1155
$99.00 - OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD
$255.00 - Asus Sabertooth Z77 LGA1155 Mainboard Asus Sabertooth Z77 LGA1155
$99.00 - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM
$128.00 - Antec Kuhler H2O 920 CPU Cooler Antec Kuhler H2O 920 CPU Cooler

Wanna get a new case too.

Total: $1,494

Don't wanna spend 1500 on new parts - so could you please help me out? I'm not sure what to get.

Thanks
 
Yeah that setup isn't good at all.

What online stores will you be buying from?
 
Ok I recommend this setup:
$235 - Intel Core i5-3570K CPU
$165 - Asus P8Z77-V LK Intel Z77 ATX Motherboard
$55 - G.Skill Ripjaws Series F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$319 - Gigabyte GV-R787OC-2GD Radeon HD 7870 2GB PCI-E Video Card
$119 - Samsung 830 128GB SSD
$93 - Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-650 650W PSU
$117 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$99 - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit OEM
-----
Total: $1202

It's within budget, includes a new PSU, faster and higher-quality SSD, and a new case. You're only gaming so no reason to get the 3770K when the 3570K has the same gaming performance.
 
if you really want to save money, you can upgrade what you have and become awesome. most of your stuff is fine. cpu, heatsink, case, power supply, and hard drive for storage. all fine.

the important thing to note here IMO: you're not running a crazy high resolution setup with high end games at max settings and bragging about it. you're going to just run normal stuff, and the high end hardware is overkill for that believe it or not. upgrade half your stuff now and the new stuff will transfer to a whole new computer later, and will cost half as much now... or less.

so: toss your RAM and get one new 8gb DIMM. cheapest possible please, none of this fancy fruity stuff. next install 64bit windows on a new Crucial M4 of whatever size you want. and finally get a mid range video card, a 660ti or below. $300 max on the video card. you can get a good one for $150 used.

7850 is good too, but I like nvidia drivers and I suspect you do too. and to save money on a video card, always look at the top end of a previous generation: a used 5870 might have unbeatable bang for the buck.

the three biggest differences between your computer and a brand new high end one are: ssd, 64bit with lots of memory, and new video card. you don't need a new computer for any of that.

there are those who will try to make you feel bad about your cpu. your cpu is good. there are people buying new low budget gaming systems with cpus that perform like yours does, and they're very happy with themselves. you aren't very far behind with a core 2 quad.

so, spend like $600 on upgrades and you can run crysis very well. that's all anyone needs to know right? http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/50?i=287.289.109.47.146.102.56.399.83.53.403

and when you decide to upgrade to a mini-itx haswell next year, making the ivy bridge people look out of date, then all the new stuff can come with you ;)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
baMTan2 is off the mark:

Any RAM you buy for that socket 775 setup is more than likely DDR2 RAM. Which means it's completely unusable for most new systems these days.

In addition, Crysis isn't a good benchmark to use for CPU performance due to how poorly coded it was. Not to mention that it's superceded by Crysis 2 and other more CPU heavy games (BF3, Skyrim, etc). Despite what he says, there are newer games where the Q6600/Q6700 aren't simply fast enough for high performance.

The case isn't good to reuse either since the side-fan isn't pointed where it's actually needed: towards the GPUs area. That side fan is pointed towards the chipset area which doesn't need that much cooling these days. Not to mention the limited cable management, relatively limited cooling, and relatively cramped interior.
 
Last edited:
Danny Bui said:
baMTan2 is off the mark:

Any RAM you buy for that socket 775 setup is more than likely DDR2 RAM. Which means it's completely unusable for most new systems these days.
Click to expand...

this part is true :) you'll have to hunt for some used DDR2 or buy some overpriced new stuff that will have no value later. but IMO that is a small price to save the money and the hassle replacing the rest.
 
bAMtan2 said:
this part is true :) you'll have to hunt for some used DDR2 or buy some overpriced new stuff that will have no value later. but IMO that is a small price to save the money and the hassle replacing the rest.
Click to expand...

Newer games are going to be quite CPU limited with the Q6700 unless it is overclocked to somewhere in the 3.8Ghz range.. and even then, some games are still going to be able to use more CPU power.

Upgrading the current system is not really worth it unless you just want to do a video card, SSD, and possibly power supply.

And that is only if you want to wait for prices on other stuff to come down some or want to wait for newer stuff to come out befor doing a complete rebuild.
 
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