Thread: Upgrading my PC

  1. #1
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    Upgrading my PC

    So as the title says I'm going to upgrade my "old" PC as it is starting to feel a bit to slow with the new games.

    I mainly play World of warcraft on a 1600x900 resolution but aside of that I like having a buttload of programs active.

    I would also like to be able to stream WoW on high quality, wich I Heard my CPU is pretty good at.

    When I bought this computer back in 2009 I knew quite a lot about computers so the specs are pretty decent even today but I lost interest and now I hardly know anything anymore. Wich is why I need your help!

    On with the rabbling here I have some specs for you:

    CPU: AMD FX-8350 (yes I bought this one just a few months ago, it's a loud bastard :P)
    GPU: AMD HD Radeon 6870 1GB
    RAM: 2x2GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz
    HDD: 1TB Seagate Dekstop (fairly new aswell)
    Motherboard: MSI AMD 970 (bought it together with the CPU)
    PSU: Recently bought a Fractal Design Integra R2 because thunder messed with my old one...might've afffected my whole system but I'm getting it tomorow so I'm waiting to see
    SSD: Nope, dont have one. If this is REALLY important to have then also explain why as I have little to no experience about them.

    I assume that this is enough information to determine what needs upgrading, if not dont hesitate to ask. Also all advice/comments are welcome, even the bad ones :P

  2. #2
    you didn't mention your OS your running? I've read that windows 8 runs 10% better for AMD then windows 7, if thats an issue.


    is your hardrive 5400 rpm or 7200rpm? hopefully atleast 7200 rpm.

    SSD's help you to boot up faster to desktop....if you get a 120 gb ssd you most likely have room to install wow to the SSD but installing to the mechanical drive is still fine.


    Personaly i'm a fan of Intel. The only thing AMD has on intel is cheap overcloaking CPU.s that do it yourselfs use, but now that the pentium G3258 is overclockable with onboard haswell it should take over AMD.s market share for that nich IMHO. Intel also has smaller micro architecture and uses less energy which shows AMD is behind in technology. AMD may make decent AP.s but most gamers don't even use onboard graphics even though they are starting to get decent enough to use.

    As far as having a ton of programs active goes.....i would guess you need more memory...4GB is really kind of a minimum now.


    Personally if i was remaking a cheap gaming rig now i'd go with a G3258 pentium rig overclocked.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...king,3888.html



    decent system builder site:
    http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/



    I assume you know how to re-install your OS from scratch and reload your drivers? that would help a little.


    The main thing i see is you should go with more ram.

  3. #3
    Herald of the Titans Cyrops's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    So as the title says I'm going to upgrade my "old" PC as it is starting to feel a bit to slow with the new games.

    I mainly play World of warcraft on a 1600x900 resolution but aside of that I like having a buttload of programs active.

    I would also like to be able to stream WoW on high quality, wich I Heard my CPU is pretty good at.

    When I bought this computer back in 2009 I knew quite a lot about computers so the specs are pretty decent even today but I lost interest and now I hardly know anything anymore. Wich is why I need your help!

    On with the rabbling here I have some specs for you:

    CPU: AMD FX-8350 (yes I bought this one just a few months ago, it's a loud bastard :P)
    GPU: AMD HD Radeon 6870 1GB
    RAM: 2x2GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz
    HDD: 1TB Seagate Dekstop (fairly new aswell)
    Motherboard: MSI AMD 970 (bought it together with the CPU)
    PSU: Recently bought a Fractal Design Integra R2 because thunder messed with my old one...might've afffected my whole system but I'm getting it tomorow so I'm waiting to see
    SSD: Nope, dont have one. If this is REALLY important to have then also explain why as I have little to no experience about them.

    I assume that this is enough information to determine what needs upgrading, if not dont hesitate to ask. Also all advice/comments are welcome, even the bad ones :P
    So you mainly play WoW but you buy an AMD CPU? Did you consult with us about that? :P
    For newer games it's your GPU that is lacking, so you just need a new GPU, RAM and SSD for WoW. What kind of PSU did you buy? Wattage wise.
    About SSD's, it's highly HIGHLY recommended. Not only will it make Windows experience much better, but also, if you choose to have WoW on SSD, improve WoW dramatically. Recently I keep getting disconnected from Bnet ONCE every day, usually in my first raid, at random time, I get back into the game before anyone realises I got DC'ed, and I usually tank
    Didn't realy mention budget?

    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

    Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
    Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($71.98 @ OutletPC)
    Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg)
    Total: $268.47
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-30 01:33 EDT-0400

    Though I would recommend 16GB of RAM personally.
    PM me weird stuff :3

  4. #4
    The Lightbringer Shakadam's Avatar
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    Just thought I'd add: You say your CPU is loud? Are you using the stock cooler? If so, upgrade to a decent CPU cooler (there are hundreds to choose from) and OC that CPU, it overclocks very well and will give you a lot more performance, especially in WoW which is CPU dependant.

  5. #5
    Deleted
    Thanks for the answers, advice and explanation regarding SSD.

    I'm currently running win7 32-bit but I'm doing my best to get a working 64-bit version to increase RAM. I also Heard win 8 is really bad, I dont know if the people I ask talk from performance experience or just a lot of customization cludder. Sounds cool though if it works better with AMD as I've always had those.

    They seem to give more bang for the buck if you know what I mean, Intel always looked overpriced imo both with motherboards aswell as the CPU itself. Ofcourse I understand that Intel does indeed perform better than AMD but once again, is it worth it? I'm also not very into overclocking as I dont feel I can Control it well enough and might just end up with me melting a 160$ CPU wich isnt much of interest

    Regarding the SSD; If it's only a matter of loading programs I'm perfectly fine with my current mechanical disk wich loads Everything Quick enough for me, my need for speed in that area isnt very demanding And yes the HDD I use got 7200 RPM and 64Mbit cache memory. I Heard there are disks with 10k RPM, Worth it?

    When it comes to the RAM I perfectly agree with you that I need more than 4GB even though that's standard today.

    Ever since I bought this PC I havent really been restricted in terms of what games I can play but when I was going to buy the new(flushed)MMO Wildstar it said it needed 4GB minimum and as I use 32-bit I'm topped at 3.25GB. So I'm in dire need of fixing that

    Cycrops: No I didnt ask anyone about it and I kind of regret it as I had a working AMD Phenom 850 x4, the main problem with that CPU was that the L3 cache was locked in BIOS and I had no idea how to fix that so I bought a new one. I started looking around on hardware sites where they did tests on current generation CPU's and the FX-8350 looked very promising.

    The wattage on the new PSU is 750w, I had 600 Before but I'm planning on getting a beefier GPU soon and wanted some swing space to be more flexible. It was also cost the same as the 600w ones for some strange reason, 80$.

    The GPU you linked look very good, but just out of curiosity why nvidia? I'm not very well read about the subject but I always thought ATI aka AMD was better on GPU's.

    The RAM you linked looks a bit expensive though, I dont know what the prices range from these Days but when I bought my computer it cost around 7$ per GB

    And as a last answer @Shakadam yes I'm currently using the stock cooler and I'm planning on buying http://www.inet.se/produkt/5322017/c...-hyper-212-evo

    Once again I'm not comfortable doing something I have no knowledge of so I dont know if I'm going to overclock my CPU. A followup question to that though, my FX-8350 is an 8core, is this good for games? When I read around about it most people tended to say that it was best at streaming gameplay wich ofcourse is a big plus for me BUT, is it any major difference compared to say a 4core CPU when you look at raw FPS in-game?

  6. #6
    Herald of the Titans Cyrops's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    Thanks for the answers, advice and explanation regarding SSD.

    I'm currently running win7 32-bit but I'm doing my best to get a working 64-bit version to increase RAM. I also Heard win 8 is really bad, I dont know if the people I ask talk from performance experience or just a lot of customization cludder. Sounds cool though if it works better with AMD as I've always had those.

    They seem to give more bang for the buck if you know what I mean, Intel always looked overpriced imo both with motherboards aswell as the CPU itself. Ofcourse I understand that Intel does indeed perform better than AMD but once again, is it worth it? I'm also not very into overclocking as I dont feel I can Control it well enough and might just end up with me melting a 160$ CPU wich isnt much of interest

    Regarding the SSD; If it's only a matter of loading programs I'm perfectly fine with my current mechanical disk wich loads Everything Quick enough for me, my need for speed in that area isnt very demanding And yes the HDD I use got 7200 RPM and 64Mbit cache memory. I Heard there are disks with 10k RPM, Worth it?

    When it comes to the RAM I perfectly agree with you that I need more than 4GB even though that's standard today.

    Ever since I bought this PC I havent really been restricted in terms of what games I can play but when I was going to buy the new(flushed)MMO Wildstar it said it needed 4GB minimum and as I use 32-bit I'm topped at 3.25GB. So I'm in dire need of fixing that

    Cycrops: No I didnt ask anyone about it and I kind of regret it as I had a working AMD Phenom 850 x4, the main problem with that CPU was that the L3 cache was locked in BIOS and I had no idea how to fix that so I bought a new one. I started looking around on hardware sites where they did tests on current generation CPU's and the FX-8350 looked very promising.

    The wattage on the new PSU is 750w, I had 600 Before but I'm planning on getting a beefier GPU soon and wanted some swing space to be more flexible. It was also cost the same as the 600w ones for some strange reason, 80$.

    The GPU you linked look very good, but just out of curiosity why nvidia? I'm not very well read about the subject but I always thought ATI aka AMD was better on GPU's.

    The RAM you linked looks a bit expensive though, I dont know what the prices range from these Days but when I bought my computer it cost around 7$ per GB

    And as a last answer @Shakadam yes I'm currently using the stock cooler and I'm planning on buying http://www.inet.se/produkt/5322017/c...-hyper-212-evo

    Once again I'm not comfortable doing something I have no knowledge of so I dont know if I'm going to overclock my CPU. A followup question to that though, my FX-8350 is an 8core, is this good for games? When I read around about it most people tended to say that it was best at streaming gameplay wich ofcourse is a big plus for me BUT, is it any major difference compared to say a 4core CPU when you look at raw FPS in-game?
    You keep asking "is it worth it", that's the same as saying "is it worth buying cake over icecream". And the answer is "DEPENDS".
    PM me weird stuff :3

  7. #7
    The Lightbringer Shakadam's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    Thanks for the answers, advice and explanation regarding SSD.

    I'm currently running win7 32-bit but I'm doing my best to get a working 64-bit version to increase RAM. I also Heard win 8 is really bad, I dont know if the people I ask talk from performance experience or just a lot of customization cludder. Sounds cool though if it works better with AMD as I've always had those.
    Win 8.1 is perfectly fine, fixed most of the stuff people didn't like about Win 8. It's also faster than Win 7 and you're more likely to get a free or heavily subsidized upgrade to Win 9 later on. Obviously get the 64 bit version though. No reason to get Win 7 anymore really.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    They seem to give more bang for the buck if you know what I mean, Intel always looked overpriced imo both with motherboards aswell as the CPU itself. Ofcourse I understand that Intel does indeed perform better than AMD but once again, is it worth it? I'm also not very into overclocking as I dont feel I can Control it well enough and might just end up with me melting a 160$ CPU wich isnt much of interest
    It's basically impossible to "melt" your CPU unless you go into some really extreme overclocking. Normal "casual" overclocking is perfectly safe and easy. There are tons of guides on youtube for example if you're unsure of how to do it.


    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    Regarding the SSD; If it's only a matter of loading programs I'm perfectly fine with my current mechanical disk wich loads Everything Quick enough for me, my need for speed in that area isnt very demanding And yes the HDD I use got 7200 RPM and 64Mbit cache memory. I Heard there are disks with 10k RPM, Worth it?
    10K RPM discs are pointless, don't bother with them. SSD's on the other hand is THE most important overall upgrade to a computer you can possibly make. It makes everything so much faster, Windows starts in seconds, programs load instantly, loading times in games you have on the SSD is nearly eliminated etc. I very strongly recommend that you get an SSD, no other upgrade will be as noticeable as an SSD.


    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    When it comes to the RAM I perfectly agree with you that I need more than 4GB even though that's standard today.

    Ever since I bought this PC I havent really been restricted in terms of what games I can play but when I was going to buy the new(flushed)MMO Wildstar it said it needed 4GB minimum and as I use 32-bit I'm topped at 3.25GB. So I'm in dire need of fixing that
    8GB is standard today, 4 is minimum, most people go for 16GB in new builds just to be safe.


    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    The GPU you linked look very good, but just out of curiosity why nvidia? I'm not very well read about the subject but I always thought ATI aka AMD was better on GPU's.
    Both AMD and Nvidia have cards in all price segments which are largely similar in performance. 750 TI has a very good price/performance and at this point I'd argue it has a better price/performance than anything from AMD. Usually it's just a matter of preference though.



    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    The RAM you linked looks a bit expensive though, I dont know what the prices range from these Days but when I bought my computer it cost around 7$ per GB
    RAM prices have gone up a bit, you probably bought yours a few years ago when manufacturers were selling at a loss.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    And as a last answer @Shakadam yes I'm currently using the stock cooler and I'm planning on buying http://www.inet.se/produkt/5322017/c...-hyper-212-evo
    It's not a "top" cooler but very good for it's price, certainly much better than the stock cooler. You should be able to get some moderate overclocking done without any problems.


    Quote Originally Posted by Dexyn-eu View Post
    Once again I'm not comfortable doing something I have no knowledge of so I dont know if I'm going to overclock my CPU. A followup question to that though, my FX-8350 is an 8core, is this good for games? When I read around about it most people tended to say that it was best at streaming gameplay wich ofcourse is a big plus for me BUT, is it any major difference compared to say a 4core CPU when you look at raw FPS in-game?
    As I said, OC'ing is really easy, just watch some video guides, nothing to be afraid of.
    8 cores doesn't make much difference for gaming, BF4 can use 4 cores + hyperthreading so I imagine it can use 8 cores but that's the only game I know of that uses any more than ~4 cores. The thing with comparing 8cores vs 4cores is that it's different processors, so you can't just compare the number of cores. Intel gaming CPU's have 4 cores (+hyperthreading in some) compared to AMD's 8cores, but the manufacturing process is very different and Intel's processors are generally much stronger per core. So a game that can only use 4 cores will run much better on a 4core Intel processor than an 8core AMD, so the extra 4 cores on AMD's CPU do nothing and the remaining 4 cores aren't as good as the cores on the Intel CPU.

  8. #8
    Herald of the Titans Cyrops's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shakadam View Post
    10K RPM discs are pointless, don't bother with them.
    10K is not pointless, if you are sensitive to time.
    PM me weird stuff :3

  9. #9
    10krpm is pretty loud in my experience. don't really like it.

    everyone should experience the joy of SSD....be warned you can not go back to mechanical after.

    for memory ram speeds for DDR3 don't worry to much about the ram speed; from what i've read and seen from tech video.s is that the higher speed you go the longer the latency is so the net gain is really nothing over time. i just stick with 1600.s now.

  10. #10
    Herald of the Titans Cyrops's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by skitszo View Post
    10krpm is pretty loud in my experience. don't really like it.

    everyone should experience the joy of SSD....be warned you can not go back to mechanical after.

    for memory ram speeds for DDR3 don't worry to much about the ram speed; from what i've read and seen from tech video.s is that the higher speed you go the longer the latency is so the net gain is really nothing over time. i just stick with 1600.s now.
    Maybe you had an old 10krpm HDD? I bought mine last year and it's even more quiet than my old 7200rpm seagate (which was like 8 years old).
    The 10k RPM should be used instead of 7200rpm for storage, not instead of SSD, if you have the money :P

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by skitszo View Post
    for memory ram speeds for DDR3 don't worry to much about the ram speed; from what i've read and seen from tech video.s is that the higher speed you go the longer the latency is so the net gain is really nothing over time. i just stick with 1600.s now.
    That's why you buy high speed low latency?
    PM me weird stuff :3

  11. #11
    was a western black i think.....it was pretty loud.

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