Seeking advice on what I should do about my computer.

[Tyranastus]

Hey there guys,

So about 1 1/2 months ago, my graphics card died. When I say it died, I mean that on start-up the image it would display would be funky colours, be covered in lines and black spots, and eventually result in a blue screen and system dump. I tried it in other pci slots, different plugs, cleaned it, etc. Honestly, it's not really that relevant.

The graphics card isn't really a great loss per se, as my build a bit ancient now.

It was a bit of an amateur build, don't judge me.
Antec 900 Case
Asrock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
Intel I5 2500K
MSI Geforce GTX 560ti Twin Frozr II
G.Skill Sniper F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR2 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3
Antec High Current Gamer 620W Power Supply HCG-620 Bronze

What I am hoping for, is a bit of a broad question, so I apologise in advance. I am hoping that people can give me some advice, on whether I should just replace the broken graphics card and continue using the system I have now, whether I should pick out a few upgrades up to perhaps $600aud to keep the system running, or recommend a whole new system that will obviously outperform what I have now for $1000-$1200aud.


Budget - As above: Cost of compatible new graphics card/spot upgrades on existing system for $600aud, or entire new system $1000-$1200aud.
Resolution - 1920X1080
Games / Settings Desired - WoW is my primary game, but when I'm bored I also like to play a few FPS games like CoD, HotS, Rift, SW,tOR. Nothing tremendously intensive.
Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc) - Nothing of the sort.
Country - Australia, more to the point, Adelaide, 5086. I will have to factor postage, especially if from multiple suppliers. And picking up parts from out of town is out of the question.
Parts that can be reused - I will use my optical drive from my current rig in a brand new one, and if really pushed, my existing HDD.
Do you need an OS? - If any builds suggest a new HDD, yes.
Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)? - My mouse, keyboard, monitors and headset are the only part of my existing rig I do like.

I know I am asking for a lot of legwork from people, and ordinarily I wouldn't. However, I'm hoping for some extra input from people, because whatever option I go with, I have to justify to my new wife. She does not understand computers, and certainly doesn't understand gaming, so it can be tough to justify upgrades and such, especially when everything in Australia is so damn expensive...

Also, I love everything and anything "Corsair", so any advice including Corsair parts is a bonus. :-P

[Kagthul]

The i5 2500K is still an extremely solid CPU, particularly if OCed. Your rig is still pretty solid, really. Just replace the GPU.

[Deleted]

Since your requirements aren't that high you can easily get away with a card in the 200-300$ range (e.g. gtx950 or similar a ~50% improvement over yours)

That way you could squeeze an SSD into the budget if you wanted to - which will make quite a difference to loading times and overall handling of the PC. (You should be able to re-use the OS from your current HDD)

Also if not done yet, looking into overclocking might be worth it (may require a better CPU cooler though).

[Deleted]

Agree, 950 fits the bill perfectly

[Blackmist]

Spend your whole budget on a new graphics card and an SSD (Samsung 850 is nice, fairly cheap for 500GB).

If there's some massive leap in CPU technology in the next few years, you can upgrade and take both bits of kit with you. Nothing on the horizon though, as Intel haven't had a large leap in performance since the 2500K and 2600K came out.

You might need 16GB RAM in the future, for now 8GB seems more than fine.

[Deleted]

As the others have said grab a new gpu and ssd if you haven't got one:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($145.00 @ IJK)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($498.00 @ Centre Com)
Total: $643.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-05 05:53 AEDT+1100

[Tyranastus]

First off, thank you so much for the answers guys.
Unfortunately I've been too busy with work this week to have done anything about it just yet, but I've given it some thought and such. I'm contemplating http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/graph...-vga-card.html, plus a cpu cooler and small SSD.
Unfortunately, the local place I'm contemplating to buy these parts don't have the Coolermaster Hyper 212X CPU cooler as part of their stock so I'm curious if either of these are comparable to the 212X. The lifespan on them isn't as good, but I doubt I will need 160,000 hours run time anyway. :-P
http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/pc-ac...pu-cooler.html
http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/pc-ac...pu-cooler.html
http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/cooli...pu-cooler.html
Are there any large drawbacks or benefits of either one of them? I think it's about time I overclocked my CPU, but even so, I certainly won't be pushing to break any benchmarks on it. One thing I'm especially interested is a cooler that won't gobble up a lot of dust. I unfortunately live in an environment (especially now in spring) where there is enough pollen, dust and shit floating through the air to choke a camel.

Also, if anyone could please second what Iloewe said earlier; Will I definitely be able to copy my current copy of Windows 7, 64bit onto a SSD, and perform the Windows 10 upgrade afterwards? I just want to make sure that if I get a SSD I won't be up for a copy of Win10 if I want to run my OS from it.

Thanks in advance lads.

[Deleted]

Also, if anyone could please second what Iloewe said earlier; Will I definitely be able to copy my current copy of Windows 7, 64bit onto a SSD, and perform the Windows 10 upgrade afterwards? I just want to make sure that if I get a SSD I won't be up for a copy of Win10 if I want to run my OS from it.

Search the web for SSD OS Data migration - that should yield in plenty of tutorials and instructions how to migrate an OS to a new SSD.
Some SSD Manufatures even offer tools to handle this themselves (e.g. Samsung Data Migration).

The SSD needs to be big enough to hold all data of the old disk (it can be smaller than the maximum hdd capacity though).
You may need to change the disk controller interface to AHCI first if it isn't already (this is a bit tricky since you need to enable it in the OS first via registry changes and then activate it in the BIOS).

Once you've migrated you should have two disks with your windows 7 system on it. Replace the HDD and it should boot your old system from the new ssd.
Under normal circumstances replacing the drive should not trigger reactivation, even if it does it should activate just fine since the mainboard and other hardware is still the same (call MS if it doesn't - they should manually activate it after you've explained what you did).

Since this is a normal Windows 7 system you should be able to upgrade to W10 just as before.

[Tyranastus]

Search the web for SSD OS Data migration - that should yield in plenty of tutorials and instructions how to migrate an OS to a new SSD.
Some SSD Manufatures even offer tools to handle this themselves (e.g. Samsung Data Migration).

The SSD needs to be big enough to hold all data of the old disk (it can be smaller than the maximum hdd capacity though).
You may need to change the disk controller interface to AHCI first if it isn't already (this is a bit tricky since you need to enable it in the OS first via registry changes and then activate it in the BIOS).

Once you've migrated you should have two disks with your windows 7 system on it. Replace the HDD and it should boot your old system from the new ssd.
Under normal circumstances replacing the drive should not trigger reactivation, even if it does it should activate just fine since the mainboard and other hardware is still the same (call MS if it doesn't - they should manually activate it after you've explained what you did).

Since this is a normal Windows 7 system you should be able to upgrade to W10 just as before.

Just responding to your first paragraph Iloewe, this is the SSD I was thinking; http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/hard-...ate-drive.html

I figured 120g would be enough, as all I plan to have on it is OS and WoW. I checked the size of both and figured that together, they may take up roughly have the capacity, however I'm not 100% confident on that. As it is, my computer only have a 500gb HDD, and I'm a touch short of the 400gb mark. In general, I don't keep a lot on my computer. I assume the 120gb would be plentiful for my purposes?

I appreciate the advice, but admittedly that does intimidate me a little. I'm not fantastic with computers, only the bare basics of putting together a very simple build. Your instructions are easily comprehensible, but they intimidate me for the fact that unfortunately, as I am fairly new to my city, I don't know anyone who can bail me out if I get myself in trouble doing what you've said.

[Deleted]

I figured 120g would be enough, as all I plan to have on it is OS and WoW. I checked the size of both and figured that together, they may take up roughly have the capacity, however I'm not 100% confident on that. As it is, my computer only have a 500gb HDD, and I'm a touch short of the 400gb mark. In general, I don't keep a lot on my computer. I assume the 120gb would be plentiful for my purposes?

I take it by "being a touch short of the 400gb mark" you mean you have ~400gb free on your 500gb hdd, i.e. you use 100gb?
In that case 120gb would not only be sufficient to hold OS plus WoW, but cloning your OS should work as well, since the ssd has more capacity than you currently use.

Having said that, I'd still recommend going for the 250gb model as it offers more bang for the buck and SSDs perform better if they have some free space on them.
Plus if you are using 100gb now and want to install windows 10 later things might get a bit tight as during the process you'll have both OS on the disk for some time (iirc it is recommended that you have 20gb free to install w10).

I appreciate the advice, but admittedly that does intimidate me a little. I'm not fantastic with computers, only the bare basics of putting together a very simple build. Your instructions are easily comprehensible, but they intimidate me for the fact that unfortunately, as I am fairly new to my city, I don't know anyone who can bail me out if I get myself in trouble doing what you've said.

Well Samsung does provide tools to transfer the data to the SSD in a non destructive way, so even if you do not manage to copy the OS successfully you still have your old HDD. I think there are also some tutorials/videos on using those tools to help you get a better idea of the process.

Of course no one forces you to do it all in one step - you can upgrade your GPU now and install an SSD later.

[Tyranastus]

I take it by "being a touch short of the 400gb mark" you mean you have ~400gb free on your 500gb hdd, i.e. you use 100gb?
In that case 120gb would not only be sufficient to hold OS plus WoW, but cloning your OS should work as well, since the ssd has more capacity than you currently use.

Having said that, I'd still recommend going for the 250gb model as it offers more bang for the buck and SSDs perform better if they have some free space on them.
Plus if you are using 100gb now and want to install windows 10 later things might get a bit tight as during the process you'll have both OS on the disk for some time (iirc it is recommended that you have 20gb free to install w10).

I'm sorry for not being clear, I meant that I have used up a bit under 400gb of my 500gb hdd. So a bit more than 100gb left remaining on it.
As for the bang for buck 250gb ssd, believe me, I originally had that sitting in my cart, but unfortunately, even with a $500.00 budget, with the 125gb ssd, my wife isn't thrilled. She was hoping I'd only spend $250-$300. Hence why I downsized to the 125. So, I've given myself a revised, self imposed budget of $500.00. So if I went for the 250gb ssd, I would have to downsize to the 960 2gb. And I'm hoping to future proof my computer a bit. A better graphics card I can see being useful later, a bigger capacity ssd, not so much. My requirements for the ssd are unlikely to change any time within the foreseeable future.
I summed up quickly how much space is need on the ssd, to be about 60gb. Less than that once I upgrade to Windows 10. So I figured 125 would be plenty. Am I wrong in assuming that?


Well Samsung does provide tools to transfer the data to the SSD in a non destructive way, so even if you do not manage to copy the OS successfully you still have your old HDD. I think there are also some tutorials/videos on using those tools to help you get a better idea of the process.

Of course no one forces you to do it all in one step - you can upgrade your GPU now and install an SSD later.

I had a bit of a look at the Samsung software for migrating hdd and ssd, it does look fairly idiot-resistant thankfully. So that gives me high hopes.

Also, bit of a silly question; do I need to buy a ssd mounting bracket as well?

Sorry Iloewe, please check your quoted text, replying on my phone screwed up the editing, so most of my reply is in your quote.

[Deleted]

Also, bit of a silly question; do I need to buy a ssd mounting bracket as well?

Depends.
If your case comes with 2.5'' bays you can mount it there.
Some SSD kits already have mounting adapters included.

Also since SSDs are pretty light and do not vibrate you can simply attach them to a surface with (mounting) tape or velcro.

[Tyranastus]

Depends.
If your case comes with 2.5'' bays you can mount it there.
Some SSD kits already have mounting adapters included.

Also since SSDs are pretty light and do not vibrate you can simply attach them to a surface with (mounting) tape or velcro.

Thanks very much mate. Your advice is very appreciated.

Also, can anyone give me advice on if one of these will serve my purposes best?
http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/pc-ac...pu-cooler.html
http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/pc-ac...pu-cooler.html
http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/cooli...pu-cooler.html

[Deleted]

Thanks very much mate. Your advice is very appreciated.

Also, can anyone give me advice on if one of these will serve my purposes best?
http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/pc-ac...pu-cooler.html
http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/pc-ac...pu-cooler.html
http://www.msy.com.au/saonline/cooli...pu-cooler.html

Well I'n not an expert there but I think any of these should work fine.
You'll need to check for available space around the CPU and RAM though.

Generally it depends on what you expect from a cooler: the best cooling, silent operation, limited weight or a good price tag.
Try to set your requirements and check reviews and roundups to see which one fits in nicely. You can find some at
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/...=25&order=date