Looking for some upgrade advice. Hoping streaming will be a possibility.

[ElfinHilon10]

Hey guys. I'm looking to upgrade my desktop computer, but I really don't want to spend a lot, preferably under 500, or close to.

For GPU: I'm looking at the GTX 960

For CPU: I have no idea what I should get. I have a LGA1155 socket, a B75. I'd really prefer an i7, but I'm thinking it'd be too much. Maybe a Xeon?

I should mention I also have an i3-3220 and a Radeon 6850.

Looking for 1080p, but if you can suggest something that'd fit the budget, I'd be more than willing to consider!

Not looking for any games in particular, mostly WoW is all I play, but I'd like to be able to run essentially everything, maybe not necessarily on the highest settings.

I am in the US.
I already have RAM sitting in my room that I need to install

Outside of that, if you guys could recommend another good SDD and a cool looking case, that'd be awesome.

Cheers and thanks for the help!

EDIT: I think I should be more clear. 500 is the max I want to spend for the CPU, GPU and the case, preferably. I know the SSD won't fit in that budget.

[Fascinate]

For WoW you really dont need a faster system than what you already have. I will say nvidia tends to do a bit better in WoW than AMD does maybe a GPU would give a slight boost in your performance.

If you really wanna upgrade id grab a 960 a case and an SSD. You can gain small increments of FPS if you get an overclockable i5 but you would also need a motherboard, so im ruling that out.

You didn't mention if you needed a PSU so ill just assume you do

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: NZXT HALE82 V2 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($65.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $448.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-17 00:43 EST-0500

They also make a white version of this case, if thats your thing.

[ElfinHilon10]

For WoW you really dont need a faster system than what you already have. I will say nvidia tends to do a bit better in WoW than AMD does maybe a GPU would give a slight boost in your performance.

If you really wanna upgrade id grab a 960 a case and an SSD. You can gain small increments of FPS if you get an overclockable i5 but you would also need a motherboard, so im ruling that out.

You didn't mention if you needed a PSU so ill just assume you do

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: NZXT HALE82 V2 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($65.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $448.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-17 00:43 EST-0500

They also make a white version of this case, if thats your thing.

The system isn't just for WoW. I do play other games, and I'd prefer to upgrade the processor over getting more space. I do have an external HDD, another SSD would just be ideal.

How come I'd need another motherboard for getting a new processor? Don't they all use the same socket, assuming it's 1155.

I actually don't need a PSU. I have a 600 watt, I believe.

[Fascinate]

You said:

mostly WoW is all I play

WoW loves high CPU clockspeeds, you wont gain much FPS in WoW with a standard i5, you need an overclockable one to see real gains (which needs a motherboard that supports this).

In fact most games dont require more than 2 cores, and even when they can leverage more than 2 cores an i3 again is similar to an i5 in that it has hyperthreading which is two virtual cores which many games can take advantage of.

My recommendations above stand, remove the PSU if you dont need it.

I think whats happening here is you think your CPU isnt good enough, but it is. Most games run almost as well on an i3 an i7, here is a fairly recent game benchmark with your exact CPU against others that cost wayyy more:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ce,3996-4.html

Some games like more cores, some games like higher clockspeeds. But in general most games play similarly no matter what CPU is in your system, this is only going to be more true going forward with the invent of dx12.

[ElfinHilon10]

You said:



WoW loves high CPU clockspeeds, you wont gain much FPS in WoW with a standard i5, you need an overclockable one to see real gains (which needs a motherboard that supports this).

In fact most games dont require more than 2 cores, and even when they can leverage more than 2 cores an i3 again is similar to an i5 in that it has hyperthreading which is two virtual cores which many games can take advantage of.

My recommendations above stand, remove the PSU if you dont need it.

I think whats happening here is you think your CPU isnt good enough, but it is. Most games run almost as well on an i3 an i7, here is a fairly recent game benchmark with your exact CPU against others that cost wayyy more:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ce,3996-4.html

Some games like more cores, some games like higher clockspeeds. But in general most games play similarly no matter what CPU is in your system, this is only going to be more true going forward with the invent of dx12.

Would you still recommend the i3 even though I want to stream?? What about games like RIFT, LoL, Dota 2, etc., wouldn't a better processor be better??

[Fascinate]

GPU is far more important in games that arent world of warcraft. You can absolutely stream with an i3, have you tried it? OBS with game capture is not demanding at all to run.

On top of that the games you listed can run on a potato, seriously your system is fine lol.

[ElfinHilon10]

GPU is far more important in games that arent world of warcraft. You can absolutely stream with an i3, have you tried it? OBS with game capture is not demanding at all to run.

On top of that the games you listed can run on a potato, seriously your system is fine lol.

Seriously? What are demanding games? My system always has trouble running RIFT... Is that because of the GPU??

I tried steaming a while back with the i3, and it was extremely choppy. It would start for 2 seconds, crash, start, crash etc., and I know my internet was able to handle it. That is, I had the bandwidth for it. Do you have any other idea of what it could have been?

EDIT: Also, how come you recommended the ASUS GPU, instead of the EVGA one? It looks like a faster clock speed and and it's cheaper. Is that the one I should go with?

[Fascinate]

Rift is similar to WoW in that it likes high clockspeeds, like i said above the only way to accomplish this is with a new cpu and motherboard and overclock. The rest of the games you listed can literally be played on tablets.

Try streaming again with OBS, use game capture not window capture and dont touch any settings other than the needed ones like bandwidth (depending how fast your internet connection is).

If you are having issues with your PC its likely due to operating system corruption, not your hardware. Again a 960 would be a decent upgrade for you if you wanna try it, but for the games you listed the only one that MIGHT benefit is RIFT.

Asus has a better cooler on it, EVGA is also fine i own an EVGA 760 but if were talking cool+quiet asus strix is currently the king.

[ElfinHilon10]

Rift is similar to WoW in that it likes high clockspeeds, like i said above the only way to accomplish this is with a new cpu and motherboard and overclock. The rest of the games you listed can literally be played on tablets.

Try streaming again with OBS, use game capture not window capture and dont touch any settings other than the needed ones like bandwidth (depending how fast your internet connection is).

If you are having issues with your PC its likely due to operating system corruption, not your hardware. Again a 960 would be a decent upgrade for you if you wanna try it, but for the games you listed the only one that MIGHT benefit is RIFT.

Asus has a better cooler on it, EVGA is also fine i own an EVGA 760 but if were talking cool+quiet asus strix is currently the king.

Ah, I see.

So if I upgraded my GPU, I wouldn't see any sort of benefit at all? :/

That's good to know about the ASUS. Thanks.

[Fascinate]

Some games you might, others (like league, WOW, dota) you really wont. These kind of games do not scale well with high end hardware because they are meant to be played on a wide variety of systems so they can sell more copies. Next patch WoW is getting a few options like better lighting and higher anti-aliasing options (makes edges of objects smooth) so a faster GPU would benefit some next patch.

[ElfinHilon10]

Some games you might, others (like league, WOW, dota) you really wont. These kind of games do not scale well with high end hardware because they are meant to be played on a wide variety of systems so they can sell more copies. Next patch WoW is getting a few options like better lighting and higher anti-aliasing options (makes edges of objects smooth) so a faster GPU would benefit some next patch.

What would be smarter then? Get a new moba and processor?

[Fascinate]

No, not really lol.

A motherboard and overclockable i5 will get you some decent gains in WoW and a few other MMO's but most games dont care what your clock speed is (as shown by that benchmark i linked).

The other games you listed a 6850 is actually fine. I have a gtx 465 in my closest which is the card i used before this one, it is almost exactly as fast as your 6850 i could toss that back in my PC and most games i couldnt even tell i made the swap. Of course there are games that CAN take advantage of really fast GPU's (crysis 3, battlefield 4, metro last light etc..) but for the ones you listed a 6850 is actually plenty sufficient.

I will link you this also:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8962/t...dia-star-swarm

This is about directx 12 which i mentioned earlier, this is a big deal. When windows 10 comes out so does directx12, its the underlying code on how games are made. You dont have to read the whole thing but going forward in the future games will be far less demanding on the CPU and far more on the GPU.

[ElfinHilon10]

No, not really lol.

A motherboard and overclockable i5 will get you some decent gains in WoW and a few other MMO's but most games dont care what your clock speed is (as shown by that benchmark i linked).

The other games you listed a 6850 is actually fine. I have a gtx 465 in my closest which is the card i used before this one, it is almost exactly as fast as your 6850 i could toss that back in my PC and most games i couldnt even tell i made the swap. Of course there are games that CAN take advantage of really fast GPU's (crysis 3, battlefield 4, metro last light) but for the ones you listed a 6850 is actually plenty sufficient.

So then, in other words, I shouldn't really upgrade at all then XD

[Fascinate]

Pretty much. Like i said if you are having issues currently it isnt to do with your hardware there is something else slowing you down whether its a virus or tons of programs etc.

An SSD is a different story, that is something i can always recommend someone does.

[ElfinHilon10]

Pretty much. Like i said if you are having issues currently it isnt to do with your hardware there is something else slowing you down whether its a virus or tons of programs etc.

An SSD is a different story, that is something i can always recommend someone does.

I'm pretty sure I don't have a virus. I think it might be because my system isn't getting enough cool air. When I run a temp gauge, it sits really high while playing games.

[Fascinate]

Thats odd, neither a 6850 or an i3 should be getting very warm they are both super power efficient. What kind of temps are you seeing while gaming? Download CPUID hardware monitor, its the best program i know of and gives you all the temps in your rig.

[ElfinHilon10]

Playing WoW at the moment. Seeing temps of 50C, which seems good, but the load is almost always over 90%, assuming some sort of action is going on, like spells being cast or something.


I also only have the game on "good" settings...

[Fascinate]

90% cpu load? Ya see something is up with your PC.

Its very difficult to diagnose a pc over the internet with so many different programs out there that people use that could be causing problems, my best advice i can give is back up your data and reinstall operating system fresh this is almost always a fix.

And yes you are correct, 50c is very cool. Anything under 70c for a cpu and 80c for a gpu is in the safe zone (they can handle temps above this, but this is my recommendation to stay under).

[ElfinHilon10]

Everywhere I am reading is saying its a performance increase though.. :/

[Fascinate]

Everywhere I am reading is saying its a performance increase though.. :/

What is faster than what? In what game?

Have you read a word of what ive been trying to tell you? All games are coded differently, some like many cores some like high clockspeeds. In the future this is also gonna change with dx12.

Seems to me you had your mind made up before you made this thread, and nothing anyone tells you will make a difference. Just go buy an i5 already lol.