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.