upgrade To Upgrade or to Replace?

[hagakure.s81]

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to help out if you can.

As per the title - I need a bit of help to decide if I should upgrade the system I have, or save for a new system? I think its not a terribly bad system, but dissapointingly, it seems to me I am at the max RAM capacity this motherboard will allow, and the GPU isn't a very modern one...

 

I'm thinking, the main stumbling block for the system will currently be the graphics card, but I have some concerns:

• I'm not sure how far I can upgrade with the existing motherboard. Should I consider replacing the motherboard? 
• And if I upgrade any of that, will I need to replace the power supply?
• What else should I upgrade?

Or am I better of waiting a bit and replacing with a system using the newest chips etc.?

Another question is; 
I recently replaced the RAM in the system. From what I could tell, I was getting the max ram my motherboard would allow. But after installing, I suspect perhaps the motherboard wouldn't be making full use of this ram unless I overclocked my system. Is this correct?

I've not exactly got a budget in mind. If I replace the system I would probably wait a bit longer, and get something around the $1200-1400 mark. If I upgrade I would do it as required.
I never like to buy something really budget, nor buying something at the extreme performance end that will be 1/4 the price 3 months later, but rather something that is a good balance of performance for value. 
One of the things I want to be able to do is play Star Citizen (hopefully 1 day) in a decent graphical quality.

This is the system I currently have;

• CPU : AMD Phenom II x6 1055T Hexacore 2.8GHz
• MOTHERBOARD : ASUSTeK M4N68T-M
• RAM: 2x 4Gb Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 512Mb x 64 (p/n BLT4G3D1608ET3lX0) [LINK] 
• GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5770
• POWER SUPPLY: AcBel ATX12V E2 Power 510 - Model PC7007 [LINK] Output 450W Max 510
• STORAGE: 1x Crucial SSD 500Gb - Model CT512MX100SS + 1x WD 2.0Tb HDD - Model WD20EARS-00MVW80
• OS: Windows 10 64bit

I think that should cover the mains... anything else?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, and perhaps this should be reserved for a different topic post later, but should I overclock? What do I need, and how to do it? Drawbacks these days are not as much as they used to be?

Sorry for the rambling post  

- Steven

[Kirky2k15]

11 minutes ago, Panopticon_81 said:

Snip

Sell the 5770 get a 390 problem solved

[BrinkGG]

16 minutes ago, Panopticon_81 said:

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to help out if you can.

As per the title - I need a bit of help to decide if I should upgrade the system I have, or save for a new system? I think its not a terribly bad system, but dissapointingly, it seems to me I am at the max RAM capacity this motherboard will allow, and the GPU isn't a very modern one...

 

I'm thinking, the main stumbling block for the system will currently be the graphics card, but I have some concerns:

• I'm not sure how far I can upgrade with the existing motherboard. Should I consider replacing the motherboard? 
• And if I upgrade any of that, will I need to replace the power supply?
• What else should I upgrade?

Or am I better of waiting a bit and replacing with a system using the newest chips etc.?

Another question is; 
I recently replaced the RAM in the system. From what I could tell, I was getting the max ram my motherboard would allow. But after installing, I suspect perhaps the motherboard wouldn't be making full use of this ram unless I overclocked my system. Is this correct?

I've not exactly got a budget in mind. If I replace the system I would probably wait a bit longer, and get something around the $1200-1400 mark. If I upgrade I would do it as required.
I never like to buy something really budget, nor buying something at the extreme performance end that will be 1/4 the price 3 months later, but rather something that is a good balance of performance for value. 
One of the things I want to be able to do is play Star Citizen (hopefully 1 day) in a decent graphical quality.

This is the system I currently have;

• CPU : AMD Phenom II x6 1055T Hexacore 2.8GHz
• MOTHERBOARD : ASUSTeK M4N68T-M
• RAM: 2x 4Gb Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 512Mb x 64 (p/n BLT4G3D1608ET3lX0) [LINK] 
• GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5770
• POWER SUPPLY: AcBel ATX12V E2 Power 510 - Model PC7007 [LINK] Output 450W Max 510
• STORAGE: 1x Crucial SSD 500Gb - Model CT512MX100SS + 1x WD 2.0Tb HDD - Model WD20EARS-00MVW80
• OS: Windows 10 64bit

I think that should cover the mains... anything else?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, and perhaps this should be reserved for a different topic post later, but should I overclock? What do I need, and how to do it? Drawbacks these days are not as much as they used to be?

Sorry for the rambling post  

- Steven

The best plan would be to upgrade the GPU, overclock the CPU with a new cooler, (hyper 212 evo) and try to get a decent bump in performance. Use a couple games and/or cinebench to make sure you are actually getting an increase, and watch the temps PLEASE. These AMD chips don't like to get very hot. My X2 240 would BSOD over 60C, so look at what your temps are now and what other people have hit when they OC similar generation chips. 

[FishTea]

24 minutes ago, Brink2Three said:

The best plan would be to upgrade the GPU, overclock the CPU with a new cooler, (hyper 212 evo) and try to get a decent bump in performance. Use a couple games and/or cinebench to make sure you are actually getting an increase, and watch the temps PLEASE. These AMD chips don't like to get very hot. My X2 240 would BSOD over 60C, so look at what your temps are now and what other people have hit when they OC similar generation chips. 

 

 

38 minutes ago, Kirky2k15 said:

Sell the 5770 get a 390 problem solved

he is right doe..... get a 390 for the mean time and OC the CPu and upgrade the cpu later 

[hagakure.s81]

Thanks guys for your replies

 

So by 390, I take it you mean the Radeon R9 390.

This card will not have any issues to work with my current motherboard?

 

PSU is enough to run this and the hyper 212 evo?

[Citadelen]

11 minutes ago, Panopticon_81 said:

Thanks guys for your replies

 

So by 390, I take it you mean the Radeon R9 390.

This card will not have any issues to work with my current motherboard?

 

PSU is enough to run this and the hyper 212 evo?

I'd assume the motherboard would be fine, but you'd need a new PSU, preferably 550-650W, if you can get all that get a Sapphire 390.

[hagakure.s81]

Thanks Citadelen,

 

Yes, from what I could find online, people seem to like the MSI and Sapphire ones the best, then perhaps Gigabyte and Asus. And it happens the Sapphire one I can get about $100 cheaper than the MSI. Easy.