Cost Friendly Gaming Upgrade Build Advice

[Brettfavor]

This is really an upgrade instead of a build, but I'm selling my old gaming PC to a friend and building my new personal PC with the proceeds. He wants to be able to play all current and upcoming PC games and I want to upgrade as little as possible as cheaply as possible, but without ripping him off. He plays a lot, but he won't be checking FPS or Overclocking anything.

Current Build:

Motherboard: MSI 77A-GD65
CPU: Intel i5-3470 @ 3.20GHz (OC to 4.0GHz)
RAM: 4 x 2GB OCZ Gold Series PC3 12800 - DDR3 1600
GPU: EVGA GTX260 (Black Edition) *Obviously needs to be upgraded
PSU: OCZ Fatal1ty 550w
Optic Drive 1: LG Bluray/HD DVD reader (can burn Bluray at 4x)
Optic Drive 2: Lite-On DVD Burner 12x (Can burn Xbox 360 games @ 4x)
SDD: 160GB Samsung SSD
HDD: 2 x 1TB Western Digital Black
Heatsink/Fan: ULTRA 120 Copper with PUSH/PULL Fan Setup
Case: Cooler Master 1000 (Black Edition)
OS: RTM Windows 10
Applicable Software: Virtu MVP 2.0 Control Panel


I will probably keep one of the 1TB Hard Drives as he says he won't need more than that. I'll probably keep the 2nd Optic Drive since it's solely for burning Xbox 360 Games. I WILL undo all the overclocking I've done and keep the ULTRA 120 Cooper Heatsink (It's my favorite heatsink of all time and I have the brackets to make it fit any new motherboard/cpu setup) and putting the stock Intel Heatsink/Fan back on or I think I have an older Zalman that will fit.

So really I'm asking what should I replace the GPU with?

I've been thinking just a 2GB GTX 750i probably ASUS or MSI. Maybe go for a R9 280 instead. The SDD is pretty old, but I think it'll work for his purposes. I think 8GB of RAM is plenty and will be for awhile, but if you think I'm wrong let me know. I'll be upgrading to 16GB personally, but that's just because of the cost. I honestly can't remember a time I saw my ram usage go over 4-5GB...

Thoughts?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

What resolution?
What budget?

 

[Brettfavor]

He'll be fine with 720p at high FPS and 1080p at decent FPS.

Budget is flexible, I want him to get a good lasting deal, but I want to save for my own PC as well. I'm not going to rip him off, although I probably could. He just wants a gaming PC that looks good to him graphics wise and will play all games for the next 2+ years. He's not going to care too much about FPS unless it's noticeable in a bad way and any overclocking will be done by me.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I'd take exactly what's there, throw in a 750 Ti, and call it a day

 

[bob4933]

http://gpushack.com/


wont get more "cost friendly" than that..

 

[EarthDog]

8GB is fine... I wouldn't go 16GB until you need it (save your money).

A 750ti is decent at 1080p, but, I would still do it right and get him a 280/280x or something from Bob's link.

 

[Janus67]

Agreed with ED/bob on that. I'd get a 280x/290 and call it a day. That will allow for good FPS at 1080p with some of the details on. Especially if it is desired to play upcoming games as well.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Just watch the PSU with a 280X/290

 

[EarthDog]

+1... should be good though. But if you have issues under load, that is the first place I would look.