Upgrade help on an i7 860 system!

[ruuBEN]

Hey there!

My main system is a i5-3570k with a gtx 480 and 8 gigs of ram. Plenty for what I use, 0 complaints, 0 fps drops on any game. (Except maybe WoW occasionally in intense raid moments)

Tonight I just got a free system. It has a i7 860 Lynnfield series process with a GTX 5770 and 8 gigs of RAM. The only thing is it came without a hard-drive.

I'm going to get a 500 GB SSD for my main system and take that mechanical and put it into the i7 system, and that's perfectly fine for me. I'm going to use this computer as a fun second computer or (more than likely) have it as a spare gaming computer for my girlfriend who lives with me or for any friend who comes over and wants to play some type of game.

The system hasn't been tested in any game. I'm not 100% sure how well it'll work, because to *my* knowledge, this processor is just a tad bit better than a phenom x2 series processor. I had a 955 and I got *some* FPS drops when playing CS:GO and WoW, but I also had a HD4850 at the time.

ALL OF THIS HAVING BEEN SAID... Would it even be worth it to upgrade the video card, the 5770? If so, what *should* I upgrade it to? I know I shouldn't put in any series that's a GTX 500 or more (unless cheaper than any generation before) because it'll probably just bottleneck. And when I say "I know", I mean "I'm pretty sure."

Anyone have a cutoff for what to upgrade it to? Would it even be worth it potentially?

[Denpepe]

a GTX5770 does not exist as far as I know, should be either a GTX 570 or an ati 5770 either way a GTX 750 regular or ti is a pretty cheap and decent card which does not need extra power connectors so should be safe to use in that machine

[ruuBEN]

Err, I mean a HD 5770. Sorry!

And yeah. The power supply is more than capable of supporting any card I'd want, to be entirely honest.

[potis]

i7 860 is still a decent CPU and its not a "tad bit better" than the AMD from back then, its much better.

5770 isnt bad at all for how old it is, still better than a few media cards, cause it was a gaming card back then.

What you could do is get a 750 Ti for a cheap option, or find a cheap 760 since they are dropping a lot right now, or even a R9 280 and the system can run any Blizzard game more than decently, and if you put an actual video card like a 760/R9 280 it can run anything, not as good as today CPUs but more than decently.


And by decently i mean it can actually run High/Ultra depending on what card you put, obviously not talking about raid environments.

[Afrospinach]

Well I have an i7 920 sitting around that is still very acceptable, even in WoW. I am sure the 860s are overclockable the same way while being locked. Have a 650ti boost in it, only thing I have to really dial back on are the usual suspects(cryis, metro et al) at 1080p. 860 should be close to it in performance, if you snag a GPU you can always use it in another system, or you can get a 970 and bequeath the 480 to this.

TLR I think the 860 is still fine. The only time I notice the big difference in generations is loading some games.

[fixx]

i7-860 (and i7-920) has very low clockspeed which makes it kinda crap today, and those are 5+ years old already with ancient manufacturing tech. Even after you've overclocked the stock 2.8GHz to past 4GHz it'll still push lower FPS in WoW and most other games than Haswell i3.

Probably best budget-conscious upgrade for that kind of PC would be overclocking it to around 4GHz mark and get a new lower middle range graphics card like GTX750ti for example.

[Deleted]

I dont know what your budget is. But you could also get a new gpu for your main rig (970 for example) and put the 480 in the 860 system.

Otherwise any of the above suggestions are good. You could also look at the 265/270 from AMD.

[ruuBEN]

I dont know what your budget is. But you could also get a new gpu for your main rig (970 for example) and put the 480 in the 860 system.

Otherwise any of the above suggestions are good. You could also look at the 265/270 from AMD.

Honestly, this was something I considered, but I really don't need an upgrade in my own system.

I talked to my girlfriend, she doesn't want the system and neither does anyone in my family I'd be happy to give this system to.

Updated question, does anyone think I could potentially sell this? I mean, all it needs is a hard drive, and I'd recommend a better case. I could invest the money, but I wonder if anyone would even want to buy this thing for $300, y'know? ;l

[fixx]

Updated question, does anyone think I could potentially sell this? I mean, all it needs is a hard drive, and I'd recommend a better case. I could invest the money, but I wonder if anyone would even want to buy this thing for $300, y'know? ;l

Dunno what kind of markets your neighborhood has, but what I'd do is piece it.

Try to sell mobo+cpu+RAM as an "upgrade kit" for somebody who has even older system atm, and case, PSU and graphics card separately. I've been lucky and managed to sell old junk that way pretty easily. You wont get premium price but you'll get rid of the stuff and get some money.

[ruuBEN]

Dunno what kind of markets your neighborhood has, but what I'd do is piece it.

Try to sell mobo+cpu+RAM as an "upgrade kit" for somebody who has even older system atm, and case, PSU and graphics card separately. I've been lucky and managed to sell old junk that way pretty easily. You wont get premium price but you'll get rid of the stuff and get some money.

You know this just dawned on me, but holy crap that might work.

I have a AM3+ board and 4 other gigs of DDR3 ram lying around. I could probably use the video card and power supply (hopefully) from this and combine it with the board. HRMMMMMMMM

This is giving me ideas <3 Much appreciated!