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Which to upgrade

T

Tritonal1

n00b
Joined
Nov 7, 2013
Messages
12
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, mild video converting, web browsing
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$400 before taxes and shipping as possible.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
US detroit michigan area
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
This is the big question, see below for better answer
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I can't remember the exact model but the PSU is 1000w sli ready
6) Will you be overclocking?
most likely
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1680x1050
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
If I can find a good enough deal around black friday I will buy then. If not most likely tax return time
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.
Not picky on this one. I'd say if anything then SLI support for future possible upgrades



Now to the details. I currently have a q6600 @2.4ghz with 6gb ram on an 750ftw mother board and a Nvidia 560ti card. I need to upgrade one of the 2 components the processor/mobo or the card. I'm able to play all the games I normally play on highest settings which are Payday 2, Batman:AA, Skyrim and others but lately the newer games like COD:Ghosts, BF3 and others I can't really get much out of them so the big question is which part should I upgrade to get the most bang for my buck? I'm leaning more towards processor as I found an I7 bundle for $314 on Microcenters website. Then later in the year I could go for a graphics card. Any advice on this?
 
Can you get the model number of the PSU for us please? It's important to know that you have a good unit that'll last another build.

Seeing as how your video card isn't all that old and you're only gaming on 1680x1050 you should upgrade your CPU/Motherboard. However this will also mean you'll need new RAM as well. Let us know about that PSU and we'll see what setup will fit your budget.

I see that you say you're looking for Black Friday deals. It's just not going to happen. Black Friday sucks for computer components and Cyber Monday's aren't any better. With that being said, do you have the $400 to spend right now on a new setup? If not, then you're going to need to bump this thread when you have the money on hand. What we recommend right now will not be the same thing we recommend two weeks from now, much less when you get your tax return.

Also I wouldn't care much about SLI. With your resolution you have no reason for multiple GPUs. Secondly, if you was to buy a single card now and then wait months or even a year from now to get the second one chances are they'll have a single card out that's faster/better than a second card in SLI. So don't bother wanting SLI for future upgrades. Future upgrades is better done when you're replacing a part.
 
Don't go for the Core i7-4770K. No game benefits from Hyper-Threading, nor does any consumer-level video-editing software.

If you want to play Battlefield 4 and COD: Ghosts, then you need to plan the upgrades of the processor, motherboard, memory (especially if you're currently using DDR2 RAM), and video card. All you're doing by choosing either the processor or video card is trading one (potential performance) bottleneck in for the other.

We need to know which specific PSU you have, as well as its age. Some power supplies can't handle their rated loads.

Do you have $400 to spend now? If not, when is "tax return time" for you?
 
Thanks for the inputs so far, the power supply is a corsair GS700. Tax return time for me is around February. I only say I would hold out until then is if there is going to be a new processor or graphics card that will debut by then.

Tiraides the I7 bundle wasn't the 4770k it was a 3770k

Skillz I see your point on the SLI. I have only SLI'd once with two 8800gt and it was a really nice setup at the time, granted I got the second 8800 for really cheap.
 
Here's your shopping list for this weekend:

$285 - Intel Core i5-4670K and ASRock Z87 PRO4 Micro Center bundle
$67 - Crucial Ballistix Tactical LP 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM (price-match with NewEgg)
======
$352 - Subtotal
+$22 - MI sales tax
$374 - Total from Micro Center

Micro Center has bundle deals with select Intel processors, so go with the i5-4670K. Again, games don't benefit from Hyper-Threading, so it's not worth spending extra on a Core i7 processor.

You may want to pick up a couple of additional (though optional) items:

$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (if you wish to perform some overclocking right away)
$16 - LG GH24NS95 SATA DVD burner (if you're still using an IDE optical drive)

Yes, Micro Center price-matches with NewEgg and Amazon. Simply show the sales rep a copy (either a print-out or from your phone) of the current price of the item in question.
 
Whoa, kemosabe. The Micro Center processor-and-motherboard deal is an in-store special.

You'll have to make a trip to your local Micro Center. Is that too much to ask?
 
Nope not at all, I used to work at the local micro center. It's about 15 minutes away so theres no issue with that. After reading some reviews I tacked on the cooler as well.
 
Switching gears a bit, when are you planning the video card purchase? Is there anything you're considering?
 
I think I'll likely wait until early next year around feb. or so. I'm not really considering anything right now, likely a 770 or 760. Staying around the $400 range. Though since I am doing this big upgrade now I may just wait until the 800s since I'm not in a terrible hurry.
 
Tell us how the gameplay is after your Micro Center purchase. That will tell us what you need GPU-wise (and when).
 
I'll be picking up the stuff tonight before they close and hopefully it wont take long to get the parts swapped and I'll be up and running. I'll post something tomorrow on how things go
 
Got everything installed last night and it went as smooth as butter with the only little hiccup being the heatsink but youtube got me through it. As for the results, holy crap! It's a night and day difference now not with just games but the snappyness of it all.I can now play arkahm city on highest everything including physx which before I could barely play with low physx and getting 18fps. Now I'm in the upper 30s. COD: Ghost which is one of the new games I could barely run is now running good at most things turned to high. I can tell now my Graphics card is the bottleneck but I do believe I can hold out for a while longer now.

Also my handbrake encoding has gone from 15fps to 50 average! I have over 100+ 10gb files to convert and am cranking through them now like their nothing.
 
Keep an eye out for potential sales on the HD7970. If you can find a good one (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, XFX) for less than $310 shipped, I recommend that you jump on it.

It's overkill for your current resolution, but it's a steal at around $300. (The new R9 280X is essentially a rebranded HD 7970.)
 
Yes the 7970 is overkill for 1680x1050, but it'll play anything you want at the highest settings possible right now. I recommend it as well.
 
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