3+ year old system upgrade opinions

[sdleelee83]

Three or so years ago I dropped a couple thousand on a system that in all reality still holds up ok for.most applications. Given a lot of the newer technologies out there I'd like some opinions on what you all would upgrade and why. This is from the view of someone who use to 5 box and would like to continue to do so with possibly better performance.

Mobo : ASUS P6T
CPU : i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz
RAM : 12 GB 1333 MHz dual channel ram (limited by Mobo)
GPU : Nvidia Gtx 285
SSD : none
HDD : 1.5 tb 7200rpm 16mb cache

Budget is about $1000 but not set in stone

Any replies would be greatly appreciated

[allenatkinson]

I am no expert, and this is also my first time posting on this site. I would suggest a mid-high range 600 series gpu upgrade or a other brand equivalent. I currently run a 660ti superclocked and it holds up great with 5 accounts. Then again if you want to be safe for a while you might want one step higher a 670 or higher. I really have no clue about motherboards.

[Pazgaz]

I'd go for a 670 (4gb ver) and a nice ssd.

[Ualaa]

If by better performance, you mean an improvement over your current system... almost anything is going to help some.

If you mean, an improvement in current performance over what you had three years ago with that system then...
Basically, you need to upgrade the processor, which means motherboard and ram too.



Depending how much you're looking on spending, especially if you want your system to perform as well now (or better) than that system did a few years back...
Either go with an i7-3930K (6 Core, one generation older than current) or a current generation i7 (4 Core).
Both would have a logical core per physical core.

I went with the 6 core system, as I'm likely to move towards 10-boxing eventually.
For purely 5-boxing, the 4-core (newer) i7s would cost a lot less and perform quite well.

Ram is relatively cheap, whichever way you go.
I'd likely get somewhere in the 32GB range, but you don't need that much for 5-boxing by any stretch of the imagination; 16GB would be overkill actually, for a 5-box.

I went with a GTX 670, 4GB card.
That is probably the best bang for the buck out there.
Not the top card, but close enough and 4GB is a lot of video ram.

The Intel SSDs seem to have the lowest failure rate.
I've personally had success with the OCZs, which others report as having the highest failure rates.
An SSD, for the gaming folder, is a good idea as it will help load times when zoning, entering the game, on a boat/zeppelin, when moving around SW/Org (and everyone's textures for their armors are loading).

Get a 64-bit version of windows.
Probably either Win7 or Win8.

You can browse the hardware forum, to see what others have had recommended for recent systems.



I ended up spending close to your budget, on my system this summer.
I went with this:

Ualaa boxes with:
OS: Windows 7, Professional 64-bit
Case: Antec 1100 Gamer
PSU: Corsair Modular 1050 Watt
CPU: i7 3930K (6 Cores + 6 Logical Cores)
OC: @4.5GHz, on Air with a Noctua NH-D14
Memory: 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz, CL8, Low-Profile Ram
Video: eVGA GeForce 670 GTX, 4GB Superclocked
OS Drive: OCZ Vertex3, 120GB SSD x2 Striped (Raid 0)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda, 3TB x2

Streaming on Twitch.TV with XSplit Broadcaster
Shaw Broadband 250 (250Mbp/s Download, 15Mb/s Upload)

[sdleelee83]

Thank you all for your input.

As far as a bang for my buck I'm considering upgrading my case and cooling and overclocking my CPU to about 3.6ghz. Also going to upgrade to a gtx 670 4 gig and a good SSD.

Figure that once all that is done ill be in a good place and the only bottleneck that should arise would be ram related.

[sdleelee83]

Ok kinda saw this turning into a new build... Oh well.

Case : HAF-XM
OS : windows 7 64 bit pro
PS : 800 watt
Motherboard : ASUS P8Z77
CPU : i5 2500k with Corsair h100i cooler (4 GHz overclock)
RAM : 32gb Corsair Vengeance 1600 MHz
GPU : evga Gtx 670 4 gig

Still up in the air about SSDs but ill browse through previous posts here to dig up already brought up questions and opinions.

[Ualaa]

An i7 2600K is about a hundred bucks more than an it 2500K.
The difference between the two is logical cores.
You don't get any with the 2500K, you get one per physical core with a 2600K.

You might be better off with a current generation processor.
But logical cores are very worthwhile, whatever processor you go with.

[sdleelee83]

Ok. Appreciate all this input.

Case : HAF-XM $113.98
CPU cooler : corsair H100i in push/pull $109.99
CPU : i7 2600k 4.3 GHz oc $319.98
Motherboard : Asus sabertooth p67 $198.84
Ram : 32gb (8gb x 4) corsair vengeance $187.98
SSD : m4 128 gb $116.55

Gpu would put me about 40 percent over budget if I stick with a evga gtx 670 4098mb

Debating now.

[Pazgaz]

Just get the gpu and ssd for now. If performance is still a problem upgrade the rest.

[sdleelee83]

With just the gpu and SSD upgrades what kind of results would you expect considering my other components. My goal is to five box and maybe be able to run something on another monitor like stream a movie or music etc etc.

[MiRai]

With just the gpu and SSD upgrades what kind of results would you expect considering my other components. My goal is to five box and maybe be able to run something on another monitor like stream a movie or music etc etc.
You can get a rough estimate of this yourself by playing at your desired framerate, turning your video settings to their lowest setting, loading up anything else you expect to be doing, and then monitoring your CPU and GPU usage. Each time you kick up the settings a notch watch the load of each component and make a note on where it sits each time.

I say rough estimate because...

1) If you GPU bottlenecks before your CPU, then you don't exactly know where your CPU is going to bottleneck; but you should be able to guess by looking at how much each notch increased the load. I would assume that since the High and Ultra presets are pretty demanding while running multiple clients, that they may use up a little more CPU than Fair, Low, or Good.

2) Your GPU doesn't support DX11, so any DX11 results could possibly be skewed.

[sdleelee83]

Ok you all provided some great points. I'm going to go with an overclock on my CPU, the gtx 670 4gig, and an SSD. Starting from scratch this weekend. Do most of you all prefer using two installations of wow on the SSD or one per account? (i know its a software question I apologize)

[JohnGabriel]

Dont want to derail your thread much, but curious if one were to overclock should it be a water cooled system?

[sdleelee83]

Yes. I'm going to go with a self contained unit for just my CPU. Low maintenance, lower costs, and decent results.

Sorry but were asking about just overclocking in general or me personally?

[Ualaa]

There are plenty of air coolers that are fine to use.
Although in general, with a liquid cooler the system can be pushed further.

I'm using a Noctua NH-D14, which is an air based cooler.
It actually cools better than about half of the liquid cooling systems, from the benchmarks I checked out.
But any of the higher end liquid cooling systems would surpass that.

[sdleelee83]

Out of curiosity ualaa what do you keep on your SSD? Windows, and one or two wow installs?

[MiRai]

Do most of you all prefer using two installations of wow on the SSD or one per account? (i know its a software question I apologize)
If you know it's kind of a software-specific question, then... What software do you plan on using? If you're using ISBoxer there's no need for multiple installations (http://youtu.be/G5q17b7W74c?t=1m23s).

[sdleelee83]

Thanks for the reply and I do plan on using IS boxer.

[Ualaa]

Out of curiosity ualaa what do you keep on your SSD? Windows, and one or two wow installs?

I'm using a pair of OCZ Vertex 3, 120GB drives, striped into Raid 0.
I'm using 123GB of 212GB.

At the moment, I've got Windows and assorted system stuff.
Adobe, Cyberlink (Blu-Ray software), Firefox, iTunes (but the library is on a different drive), Java, Open Office, uTorrent, Ventrilo, Webroot (Anti-virus) and XSplit Broadcaster.

As far as games go: Diablo III, Everquest I and World of Warcraft.

[sdleelee83]

Thanks again for the help everyone. OCZ vertex 3 is in the mail with a CPU cooler, and a SSD. Come in tomorrow. Ordered an evga gtx 670 4 gig and will be in Friday morning.

[MiRai]

OCZ vertex 3 is in the mail
Unfortunately, OCZ is about to go bankrupt (http://seekingalpha.com/article/1177111-ocz-s-2-choices-bankruptcy-or-buyout?source=google_news) and I'm not sure you can expect your warranty to last as long as they advertise.

If you would have asked about SSD brands prior to purchasing one, we could have given you some better alternatives.

[sdleelee83]

Sorry. I went with the Samsung 830. OCZ was what I had saved on amazon. The Samsung 128gb was $95.00 shipped. Quit smoking and your confused all over the place. Heh

[MiRai]

Sorry. I went with the Samsung 830.
On the other hand, the Samsung 830 is one of the most reliable SSD drives money can buy. Good call. ;)

[sdleelee83]

Yea the shop owner here mentioned it when I ordered the 670. Said it ranked better then the 840. Ordered them both. Sadly he didn't have either on hand so now just waiting till Friday.

Final spec

CPU: I7 920 3.4ghz oc with liquid CPU cooler
Ram: 12 gb corsair dominator 1333mhz ram
Gpu: Evga gtx 670 4gb
SSD: Samsung 830 128gb SSD (wow install)

Hoping this will leave me in a good place to 5box and run something else like online video or music with decent graphics on all 5 clients.

[Feehza]

Q3/2012 you can upgrade your cpu with the new Ive-Bridge-E/EP/EX ~8 Core
:)

[Ñightsham]

Seasonic PSU sale SeaSonic X750 Gold
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151087&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL022113&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL022113-_-EMC-022113-Index-_-PowerSupplies-_-17151087-L0B)
$89.99 after rebate, use promo code EMCXVVW23 expires 2/23

[sdleelee83]

Good on my PSU. Got a corsair 800w through a online sale with the new case I got. Antec 1100. Honestly loving this case. CPU temps idling at 22 degrees @ 14 degrees ambient in southern California right now no overclock yet.

[Ualaa]

Q3/2012 you can upgrade your cpu with the new Ive-Bridge-E/EP/EX ~8 Core
:)

Is that a four core and four logical core processor, or eight cores and eight logical cores?
I didn't see anything on the Intel processor map, aside from four core chips... unless I missed something.

[MiRai]

Seasonic PSU sale SeaSonic X750 Gold (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151087&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL022113&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL022113-_-EMC-022113-Index-_-PowerSupplies-_-17151087-L0B)

$89.99 after rebate, use promo code EMCXVVW23 expires 2/23
Where did this come from? There isn't any mention of needing a PSU in this entire thread (I just quickly re-scanned through all 3 pages). :confused: