Upgrading 2 Builds

[Uggers]

So after watching a load of Linustechtips video's recently and being pretty impressed I figured the best place to get some advice would be on the forums of the site.

 

Currently my partner and I use our PCs for mainly gaming, and I'm looking at upgrading both hers and mine but I'm honestly not sure how much needs upgrading in both machines and whether or not its worth using some hand me downs or her's first etc etc.

 

Usage wise;

She games in World of Warcraft plus most of Blizzards catalogue, plus some FPS like Borderlands, RTS and RPGS while on her second monitor (Both 23inch) for general browsing, youtube and movies

I tend to use mine for all sorts, I'm on a single monitor at the moment 2560 x 1400 so its almost always full screen games and honestly a wide variety depending entirely on my mood. Eventually I hook up my 2nd monitor for browsing etc as well, once I find the desk space.

 

Specs for Hers are;

• Intel Core i7 920 @ Stock
• ECS X58B-A
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti
• 12 GB Triple Channel Kingston HyperX
• 1TB WD Black
• 120GB Samsung Evo

and mine;

• Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4.4GHZ
• MSI P67A-GD53
• EVGA GeForce GTX 680 SC Signature 2
• ASUS Xonar D2X Audio Device
• 8 GB Dual Channel Corsair Vengeance LP
• 500GB Samsung Evo
• 2x 1TB WD Black
• 2x 120GB M500's

 

Things that wouldn't need upgrading for Both systems are Power Supplies, we both have decent Corsair ones hers at 800W mines around 1000+W

She could probably do with a new case, I'm happy enough with my 600T for the time being, and storage and SSD's are fine for me, hers too probably.

 

To be perfectly honest her gaming experiance is beginning to suffer a bit now, ever seens the latest WoW expansion her PC's got a bit more sluggish, Mine is what I would call OK. but I'm not sure I physically can upgrade her PC and leave mine alone   (I might be persuaded) although I'm not really sure were I can go with mine that isn't over the top entirely and more than my requirements

 

Budget really depends on how much bang for buck we get out of hers, It'd be nice to get her something thats pretty good at a budget, maybe around the £500-£800 range

for my machine, it really depends on where i'll see gaming performance increases that are worth spending the money on.

 

 

[Goodman2265]

Just upgrade the GPU thats about it and you could overclock they CPU's for the GPU's or get new CPU's aswell

 

Her motherboard is ECS tho and I would replace that cause ive had a bad time with them.

 

Heres some parts for both you're builds

 

Her: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/k9DPD3

 

You: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/tNbmjX

[WoodenMarker]

What case does she have and what coolers are you two using?

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey Uggers, welcome the the forum

 

It's always great when you see a couple both having fun with PC games.

As @Goodman2265 pointed out, you could replace the GPUs on both builds since this is pretty much everything that is holding them back from a modern gaming build. You could opt for newer generations of CPUs, but that's not necessary at this point. 

You could renew the motherboards of both systems as they are pretty old models, but again this is not necessary.

I would also suggest checking your storage drives for errors just to be on the safe side, since you have been using those builds for a while. I would recommend WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool for the WD drives. Here's a link:  http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=pRKp6z

 

Captain_WD.

[Sam Z Man]

Looks great all I would do is get a new graphics card for each of you.

For her with 1080p https://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr928xoc3gdrev3

For you with 1440p https://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-1003614l

[Uggers]

Hey Guys,

 

Thanks for the replies,

 

Cooler wise, I think she's using an one of the Arctic Freezer models, I know we upgraded it from stock a while ago just to help keep the temps down as we couldn't get hold of anything like the 212 at the time.

Mines a giant BeQuiet cooler that I swear is probably heavier than the PSU, with dual 120mm push/pull fans.

 

Her case, I honestly don't know, it looks like might be a rip off on an old Antec One I can't tell for sure, all I know is its cable management and airflow is a bit crappy, so it'd be nice for something a little roomier and allow me to route the cables a lot better.

 

 

It mostly sounds like her build is the one that could do with future proofing the most. So maybe spend cash on hers, then look at going for a DDR4 build on mine at the end of the year when I can probably double our budget

 

 

What are Radeon's like these days, I won't lie, I've always prefer Nvidia , I don't personally hate ATIs offerings, I guess I just always followed Nvidia and was impressed when the 600 series dropped and I heard that they sometimes had issues with Blizzard games (this might just be hearsay and complaints from gaming forums mind you)

[Scarymonkeys]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the replies,

Cooler wise, I think she's using an one of the Arctic Freezer models, I know we upgraded it from stock a while ago just to help keep the temps down as we couldn't get hold of anything like the 212 at the time.

Mines a giant BeQuiet cooler that I swear is probably heavier than the PSU, with dual 120mm push/pull fans.

Her case, I honestly don't know, it looks like might be a rip off on an old Antec One I can't tell for sure, all I know is its cable management and airflow is a bit crappy, so it'd be nice for something a little roomier and allow me to route the cables a lot better.

It mostly sounds like her build is the one that could do with future proofing the most. So maybe spend cash on hers, then look at going for a DDR4 build on mine at the end of the year when I can probably double our budget

What are Radeon's like these days, I won't lie, I've always prefer Nvidia , I don't personally hate ATIs offerings, I guess I just always followed Nvidia and was impressed when the 600 series dropped and I heard that they sometimes had issues with Blizzard games (this might just be hearsay and complaints from gaming forums mind you)

A good 285/280X or even a 960 would be enough for her. Your CPU's are fine unless they're not meeting your needs. For her case a Corsair 230T, S340, Define R4, etc. are all good cases. For you if you need a new GPU I'd say 290/970 if you're at 1440p gaming. Keep in mind I'm not checking compatability.

[Sam Z Man]

Hey Guys,

 

Thanks for the replies,

 

Cooler wise, I think she's using an one of the Arctic Freezer models, I know we upgraded it from stock a while ago just to help keep the temps down as we couldn't get hold of anything like the 212 at the time.

Mines a giant BeQuiet cooler that I swear is probably heavier than the PSU, with dual 120mm push/pull fans.

 

Her case, I honestly don't know, it looks like might be a rip off on an old Antec One I can't tell for sure, all I know is its cable management and airflow is a bit crappy, so it'd be nice for something a little roomier and allow me to route the cables a lot better.

 

 

It mostly sounds like her build is the one that could do with future proofing the most. So maybe spend cash on hers, then look at going for a DDR4 build on mine at the end of the year when I can probably double our budget

 

 

What are Radeon's like these days, I won't lie, I've always prefer Nvidia , I don't personally hate ATIs offerings, I guess I just always followed Nvidia and was impressed when the 600 series dropped and I heard that they sometimes had issues with Blizzard games (this might just be hearsay and complaints from gaming forums mind you)

AMD cards are very good the 280X and 290X are very good performers for what you pay.

And don't do a X99 build if your only use it to game. DDR4 offers no real benefits when gaming and costs a whole lot more.

[Uggers]

Ah cool, wasn't sure about DDR4 I'd seen some reviews saying it was pointless for gaming at the moment,

[Sam Z Man]

Ah cool, wasn't sure about DDR4 I'd seen some reviews saying it was pointless for gaming at the moment,

After 1600mhz with a dedicated graphics card faster RAM is pointless. Also DDR4 requires different motherboards because they have 288 pins instead of 240 so they only work with X99 motherboards that have 2011-v3 cpus right now, and they are super expensive.

[WoodenMarker]

Cooler wise, I think she's using an one of the Arctic Freezer models, I know we upgraded it from stock a while ago just to help keep the temps down as we couldn't get hold of anything like the 212 at the time.

Mines a giant BeQuiet cooler that I swear is probably heavier than the PSU, with dual 120mm push/pull fans.

Her case, I honestly don't know, it looks like might be a rip off on an old Antec One I can't tell for sure, all I know is its cable management and airflow is a bit crappy, so it'd be nice for something a little roomier and allow me to route the cables a lot better.

It seems like her issue is lack of fast single threads. Getting an better cooler and oc'ing should help fix that issue.

Something like this should enough of an easy fix: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/CJ2PGX 

If performance is still lacking then, that would be an indication to moved up to something like an oc'ed 4690k. 

A good 285/280X or even a 960 would be enough for her. 

That's not much of an upgrade at all. 

[Scarymonkeys]

It seems like her issue is lack of fast single threads. Getting an better cooler and oc'ing should help fix that issue.

Something like this should enough of an easy fix: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/CJ2PGX

If performance is still lacking then, that would be an indication to moved up to something like an oc'ed 4690k.

That's not much of an upgrade at all.

A bit of a mistake there. Was thinking the 660TI was like 750 TI level for some odd reason. 960 is only a tad bit better as it's a bit more than a 670. Yeah, something around a 290 would be better. Though, now that I look at it more, I'd think a 660 ti could run those games @1080p just fine.