I want to upgrade, where to start?

[Nidale]

Hello, I bought a Alienware Aurora-R4 in 2011.

Since then I have added a SSD to put my OS and WoW, and moved movies/music to my 1TO HDD.
The SSD I bought is a Samsung 850 EVO Pro 250gb.

I'm wondering what part should I upgrade next? Video card? Power supply?

Here is my settings:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3820 CPU @ 3.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660

I recently replaced my dual monitors (ASUS 27inch), headphones (openback senheiser), speaker (logitech), and both my mouse (naga) and keyboard (blackwidow) are fine and dont need to be upgraded.

My reasons for upgrading:
-I run WoW at Graphics 6 (recommended setting), I would like to run it at full with no FPS issue (60+). I tried to run at full but sometimes I get spike of 30-40fps and I don't like that. Running at Graphic 6 my fps is always over 60
-Sometimes with lots of fire I lag in raids
-My power supply is loud
-I play Overwatch and WoW only.
-Money to spare

[Nellah]

You didn't mention a budget.

I'd get the video card and power supply, the GTX 660 is gonna be the weak link but if it's the stock Dell/Alienware power supply I'd trust it about as far as my dog could throw it. You can get good power supplies pretty cheap, e.g. the BitFenix Whisper M, about which I've seen stellar reviews, and something like an RX 480 is a relatively inexpensive drop-in upgrade that'll really kick graphics performance up high compared to the GTX 660.

All depends on budget though. You can do more with a higher budget ceiling or pinch a penny or two if necessary.

EDIT: A lot of slowdowns are caused by CPU instead of GPU, though fire effects are probably the latter, upgrading the GPU alone will not solve ALL of the performance dips. A higher clocked CPU with fewer cores would alleviate much of the remainder, but if you spent money on an 8-core i7 you probably have a reason for many cores, many threads.

[Chickat]

You wont be able to run it at 10 with no drops below 60. Freaking Lorlathil at 8 drops me below 60 sometimes with my computer. Idk why I can get 150 in Highmountain but 50-70 in Lorlathil.

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Is there any way you can OC your cpu more?

Nvm realized that chip isn't a k model? Idk if chips back then even used a k model. My limited experience with tech started only around 2 or 3 years ago, and i only know some basics.

[Nidale]

You didn't mention a budget.

I'd get the video card and power supply, the GTX 660 is gonna be the weak link but if it's the stock Dell/Alienware power supply I'd trust it about as far as my dog could throw it. You can get good power supplies pretty cheap, e.g. the BitFenix Whisper M, about which I've seen stellar reviews, and something like an RX 480 is a relatively inexpensive drop-in upgrade that'll really kick graphics performance up high compared to the GTX 660.

All depends on budget though. You can do more with a higher budget ceiling or pinch a penny or two if necessary.

Budget: to the roof.

Are power supply one size fit all? It's gonna work with my case?
I was thinking of buying the recommended video card and power supply from the Narwhal set on MMO.
Powersupply: SeaSonic SSR-650RM 650W
Video card: GTX 1060

Would you go with those?

[Chickat]

Budget: to the roof.

Are power supply one size fit all? It's gonna work with my case?
I was thinking of buying the recommended video card and power supply from the Narwhal set on MMO.
Powersupply: SeaSonic SSR-650RM 650W
Video card: GTX 1060

Would you go with those?

Whats your current PSU?

[Nidale]

Whats your current PSU?

It's the stock one from Alienware that comes in the Aurora R4 2011 (not sure if that helps)

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Actually the thing that seem to make the most noise is the heatsink, not the PSU. Should I change that? and can I change that?

[Nellah]

AFAIK with the latest few sets of drivers the RX 480 outperforms the GTX 1060, but if your budget is "to the roof" don't bother with that, get yourself a GTX 1080.

Power supplies are USUALLY one size fits all. Dell briefly tried the proprietary power supply connector gig and got tired of replacing exploded computers so any old unit should work with your motherboard. A 600 watt unit will drive almost any single GPU, single CPU combination in existence, and Seasonic is a good brand.

EDIT: Careful with the heat sinks, I wouldn't put it past Dell to have their own special clamp system for that. If you can pull a datasheet on the motherboard in that thing (good luck) or if you get a good ruler and measure the pin distance and compare it to standard LGA2011, you might have your answer.

[Chickat]

From what I can tell, your mobo socket only supports the 1000 dollar cpus, so upgrading to a lower tier model with overclockability is out of the question. It also seems like you have an 875 watt psu. If you have No budget, maybe just build a new pc from scratch? You could build one for 6 or 700 that would get better performance in WoW.

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AFAIK with the latest few sets of drivers the RX 480 outperforms the GTX 1060, but if your budget is "to the roof" don't bother with that, get yourself a GTX 1080.

Power supplies are USUALLY one size fits all. Dell briefly tried the proprietary power supply connector gig and got tired of replacing exploded computers so any old unit should work with your motherboard. A 600 watt unit will drive almost any single GPU, single CPU combination in existence, and Seasonic is a good brand.

EDIT: Careful with the heat sinks, I wouldn't put it past Dell to have their own special clamp system for that. If you can pull a datasheet on the motherboard in that thing (good luck) or if you get a good ruler and measure the pin distance and compare it to standard LGA2011, you might have your answer.

If hes going to spend that kind of money and only plays WoW, id recommend just building one from Scratch and the latest i5k and a 1060/480. Should be under 800 id imagine. Even a newer i3 would probably do better in WoW I think, but dont hold me to that. Might also be a good idea to wait for Ryzen chips in under a month to see how they fair. Could snag a nice 4 core/8 thread cpu for cheap.

[Nellah]

Good point, probably would need more cooling anyway to upgrade the GPU at all. If OP upgrades reasonably, the noise levels will only increase. I doubt Dell allows overclocking on ANY of their PCs, but I could very well be wrong on the higher-end Alienware rigs... they had it locked down when I worked for them at the dawn of the Core 2 era though.

So to solve the noise and performance issues you're looking at a new case, GPU, CPU cooler, and you've already upgraded the SSD. At this point you're a motherboard/CPU/RAM combination away from getting a new PC, but you can upgrade the first few parts without touching the second one and get a decent case to prep for a new build.

Transplanting your existing setup to a new case, adding a CPU cooler (consider an AIO waterblock with a 240mm radiator to keep that 140-watt beast cool), and tossing a GTX 1080 in there will really beef up the setup.

EDIT: Noticed Overwatch and WoW only in first post. If the ASUS 27 inch is a 1440p 144Hz monitor I'd still go with at least a 1070, but anything less (1080p 144Hz or 1440p 60Hz) I agree the 1060/480 will do fine.

[st33l]

I have a i7 quad running at 5ghz, a 1080gtx, Samsung 960 pro PCIe ssd, 2800 ddr4 - and *still* I drop below 60fps at times.
A lot depends on your resolution also I suppose - I run 4k.

[Deleted]

Cpu upgrade isn't worth the money imo, it turbo's to 3.8Gz so its not bad. If it was a lower clocked old i7 yes but this one should be fine. I would replace the psu with the seasonic you mentioned and grab a gtx 1070. Then check how it plays out and if you are happy before considering another upgrade (cpu/mobo/ram).

[jabbabot]

I would Definetly get a new Graphics card aswell as a new Power Supply to go with it!!
Another thing i might suggest is getting a small 120mm radiator 50 bucks or so ( or bigger 240mm )for your CPU since WOW uses a lot of it!

[Barael]

Graphic card upgrade won't help you much with higher settings unless you turn down draw distance. I have a 3570k@4.4Ghz + 980ti and I can run 9/10 settings 1440@60 as long as set draw distance to 6-7. At 9+ draw distance, I can't maintain 60 fps even with other settings turned down to dogshit.