Recommendations for Computer Upgrade

[Bookhugger]

Hello wonderful folk of the LTT forum!

I'd like:

 -to upgrade my current computer setup to achieve better gaming performance.

 -to game at >60FPS at 1680x1050 with Ultra settings on any game

 -To spend under $800 for my upgrade

 

My Current computer specs are: 

 

Dual Intel Xeon Processors E5450 @3.00 Ghz; HP Workstation xw6600 Motherboard ; 16gb ECC GDDR3; AMD HD 7800 Series GPU; 650W PSU; 256 Samsung 850 EVO SSD

.

 

My MOBO Only has PCIE Gen 2 slots (Not sure if it matters)

 

 

 

Any and all recommendations would be greatly appreciated. If you have any more questions about my current setup ask away

•  

[LiamApex]

gtx 980ti or sli 980<- Done 

[Mug]

I'd probs get a GTX 970 for starters.

[shypin]

upgrading your graphics card will help a lot in games

 

you should also check to see if your games are cpu intensive because your cpu and motherboard are kind of old

[jhonny]

hmmmmm this is a pretty rare situation, before we start throwing names at you, what kind of case is this in? I'm curious for the airflow perspective

 

Also how many watts does dual xeon pull?

[BrinkGG]

 

Hello wonderful folk of the LTT forum!

I'd like:

 -to upgrade my current computer setup to achieve better gaming performance.

 -to game at >60FPS at 1680x1050 with Ultra settings on any game

 -To spend under $800 for my upgrade

 

My Current computer specs are: 

 

Dual Intel Xeon Processors E5450 @3.00 Ghz; HP Workstation xw6600 Motherboard ; 16gb ECC GDDR3; AMD HD 7800 Series GPU; 650W PSU.

 

My MOBO Only has PCIE Gen 2 slots (Not sure if it matters)

 

 

 

Any and all recommendations would be greatly appreciated. If you have any more questions about my current setup ask away

 

PCIe 2.0 is fine as long as its 16x. 

980 and a monitor.

Everything else is great. The cpus are scoring around a 4690k so I wouldn't worry about that. 

 

*Edit* 

980Ti even 

[HoiDaniel]

I'm planning to make this kind of a computer.

Get an intel i5-4690K

Get a motherboard with is capable of overclocking (Z97 chipset, for exaple MSI Z97 Gaming-5)

You're not running a FHD screen so a gtx 960 will max out every game at your resolution.

Get 8GB of 1600mhz DDR3 RAM

Re-use your PSU or just buy another one, 500W will be sufficient

Get any storage device, reusing is an option but a new SSD will be much much much faster, i recommend buying a new SSD.

Case is just.. Whatever you like.

 

You should stay within your budget with this.

 

Notice that this is a whole new computer, so you will have 2 lol

[Bookhugger]

hmmmmm this is a pretty rare situation, before we start throwing names at you, what kind of case is this in? I'm curious for the airflow perspective

 

Also how many watts does dual xeon pull?

This in the xw6600 Case.

 

I'm not very educated on processors, but here is the link for the processors: http://ark.intel.com/products/33083/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5450-12M-Cache-3_00-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB 

[byalexandr]

Get two used GTX 980s or a 980 Ti as @LiamApex mentioned.

[jhonny]

Ok getting Top end cards wont work, not only does that case have shit airflow, hes on a really low res AND hes only got 650W 200 of which go to the processors.

 

If your willing to do a little system building, id say a new case and power supply will do you well.

[JeffreyEagan]

Literally an SSD and a 980.

[jhonny]

Alright here's what i would go with, all prices are American newegg so sorry if wrong country.

 

1080 monitor : 179

Fractal Arc XL:  139 ( no idea how long MB is)

Corsair RM750: 119

R9 390 : 339

 

Total 776

 

that should handle 1080 no problem, if you wanna loose the monitor and stick with yours, grab an ssd.

[SteveGrabowski0]

a Xeon E5450 is in no way comparable to an i5-4690k, I don't know where that came from. The 4690k at stock gets almost twice the Passmark score a Xeon E5450 does. Xeon E5450 is more on par with an Ivy Bridge i3.

 

source: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=1236&cmp[]=2284&cmp[]=1472

 

You need a new board, new CPU, and new RAM. This would be a good upgrade for $800

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($44.49 @ Newegg) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($491.99 @ NCIX US) 

Total: $799.46

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-26 20:04 EDT-0400

 

This is assuming your case can handle ATX boards. Or you could go much cheaper with a GTX 970 for most of the performance of a 980. This would be my recommandation:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($44.49 @ Newegg) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  ($350.99 @ NCIX US) 

Total: $658.46

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-26 20:08 EDT-0400

 

You probably won't get 60 fps locked ultra on Witcher 3 at that resolution (which is 85% of 1080p), as my 970 gets 60 fps high on Witcher 3. But almost everything else you'll get 60 fps ultra as long as it's not a CPU bottlenecked game like Arma III.