Upgrade suggestions!

[heroes42]

Hello everybody! I'm new the forum and thought that as a first topic, I would ask for some upgrade suggestions. Basically I'm just looking for some recommendations on what I should upgrade now and what I should upgrade later.

Budget Range: I'm going to say my budget will be around $300. I may push that to $400 if I really think that it's worth it.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: I use this PC for just about everything, however the primary focus is gaming. Web surfing and movie watching are tied for 2nd place.

Current System Components:

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz (http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103849)

RAM: Kingston (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600MHz/Patriot (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333MHz (It’s either that, or vice versa with 8GB 1333 and 4GB 1600. I had a mix up when buying ram a year or so ago and accidentally bought 1333 instead of 1600, but installed it anyway and currently run 13GB @ 1333Mhz)

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128435)

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition OC 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102983)

PSU: APEVIA ICEBERG 680W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148028)

HD: Seagate Barracuda 1’TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433)

OD: ASUS 24X (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135221)

AUDIO: Rocketfish 7.1-Channel PCI Sound Card (http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/products/computer-accessories/RF-71SDCD.html)

CASE: NZXT Phantom Full Tower White (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146067)

MONITOR: Dynex 40” 1080p LCD HDTV @ 1920 x 1080

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Wherever is cheapest and despite breaking the "PC gamer code", I don't mind buying used parts as I have in the past and have had great experiences with it.

Location: Browsing a few topics, I see that everyone is really into Microcenter. I live in Dallas, Texas and there is one about 20 minutes from me, so that is good news.

Parts Preferences: Doesn’t matter to me, I just want the best bang for the buck. If it came to a tie between Intel/AMD or Nvidia/AMD, I would side with AMD.

Overclocking: I do plan to start overclocking, but for now I am studying guides on the best ways to do it.


All suggestions are welcome! And I'd extra appreciate an order in which I should upgrade my parts with some suggestions for each! Thanks.

 

[ASUS ROG]

I would suggests that you get an ssd for start, something like this for start

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-128GB...qid=1358630477&sr=1-2&keywords=crucial+m4+ssd

And this for watching bd movie

http://www.amazon.com/BW-12B1ST-BLK...0613&sr=1-3&keywords=blue+ray+writer+internal

 

[EarthDog]

Apevia iceberg PSU = trash. That for sure is the first thing I would upgrade. Not an SSD, not a BR drive. Cheap PSU's will potentially take out your system. Change that to something on the list in hte PSU Guide linked in my signature. Something like Corsair CX500 would be plenty.

 

[Knufire]

Definitely a new PSU, and a nice, large SSD for an OS drive.

You didn't list an aftermarket cooler. If you want to upgrade now, I'd go with a Corsair H100i. If you can wait a few weeks, you can get the better Swiftech sealed water cooler when it comes out.

 

[heroes42]

I hear you guys on the PSU being crappy, however i've seemed to have no problems with it for the two years i've had it. Some other people have recommended a new Mobo and CPU, so now i'm just not sure. An SSD sounds good as well, but they seem a little pricey to me.

 

[ASUS ROG]

Use the 128gb ssd for a boot drive make your system faster, more responsive, your hdd can be use a a storage
By the way, if you thing ssd are expensive now, you should have see it 7 months ago, price for ssd have drop about 35 to 40% for the past several month, don't expect them to go down any more.

 

[EarthDog]

They will keep getting cheaper...why do u think otherwise?

 

[Knufire]

I hear you guys on the PSU being crappy, however i've seemed to have no problems with it for the two years i've had it. Some other people have recommended a new Mobo and CPU, so now i'm just not sure. An SSD sounds good as well, but they seem a little pricey to me.

A new CPU and motherboard wouldn't be a bad upgrade at all. You'll probably need one soon. Figured that it'd probably be more worth it when the next line of CPUs came out a few months ago and that OCing your current one could push you until then, and if you got a really nice cooler you could use it on the new CPU as well.

 

[ASUS ROG]

Because i own a online electronic store that happen to sell ssd so i know, i have been monitoring, buying and selling a lot of electronic stuff include ssd for a long time so i know

 

[heroes42]

I understand the SSD as OS drive and then other as storage, I just think upgrading something that would improve performance in games (which is my primary goal) would be more worth while at the moment.

 

[EarthDog]

That would ne your videocard... which I wouldn't upgrade until you get a better Psu.

 

[EarthDog]

Because i own a online electronic store that happen to sell ssd so i know, i have been monitoring, buying and selling a lot of electronic stuff include ssd for a long time so i know

Riiiight.

 

[ASUS ROG]

Then get a second graphic card so you can run them in SLI or crossfire depending on what type of card you have, AMD or NVIDIA
Or maybe a good monitor will help too

 

[Knufire]

I understand the SSD as OS drive and then other as storage, I just think upgrading something that would improve performance in games (which is my primary goal) would be more worth while at the moment.

In that case, just grab a 3570K and an ASRock Extreme4 from Microcenter.

It's just that upgrading your CPU won't be a huge performance in games, but upgrading your GPU (which has a bigger effect on games) might be bottlenecked by your current CPU. Since you have a fairly balanced build, I figured spending it on the little things would be nice while you wait for new tech to come out, making a performance upgrade more worthy.

 

[heroes42]

In that case, just grab a 3570K and an ASRock Extreme4 from Microcenter.

It's just that upgrading your CPU won't be a huge performance in games, but upgrading your GPU (which has a bigger effect on games) might be bottlenecked by your current CPU. Since you have a fairly balanced build, I figured spending it on the little things would be nice while you wait for new tech to come out, making a performance upgrade more worthy.

A lot of other people have also suggested that MOBO/CPU combo, so I think i'm inclined to go with that.

I just picked up this 7870 listed above about a week ago. I'm not really planning on upgrading that again any time soon. I should have added that I wanted to upgrade performance increasing components EXCLUDING the GPU.

I'm a very casual gamer and don't mind playing games on medium - low settings as long as I can play them. Most of my parts are just discontinued and 3+ years old, so I just think they need a replacement.

 

[Knufire]

I would still strongly advise you to upgrade the PSU...it's just not worth the risk of it blowing and killing other stuff. $50 can get you a reliable one that will run those parts (Corsair CX500).

The SSD isn't necessary...but it's honestly such a worthwhile upgrade. It just makes everything "feel" extremely fast...using a PC without one is almost painful for me now.

And the cooler, well, if you want to overclock, get it, if not, don't bother.

 

[heroes42]

You know, I wouldn't have thought about the PSU, but I will head your suggestion. I don't want anything blowing up haha, and $50 is nothing.

Yeah, I've seen comparison videos of HDD and SSD, but I'm honestly a very patient person and so I don't mind the slower speed. When I come into some more cash, I'll go straight for a SSD.

Yeah, I'll probably just grab a Hyper 212 EVO.