Upgrading 2012 PC

[Feladore]

Hey all,

I'm looking at upgrading my system with a budget of about $1500-1600 AUD. There a few bits that I'd like some advice on, mainly the case and monitor because I have no idea what to look for in those. Case wise, I don't mind what it looks like, I just want something that is practical and Quietish, so it doesn't have to have side panels or any of that cool stuff and I want to OC the CPU a little bit aswell, up to 4.0Ghz. will these upgrades to my current system be worthwhile? Will I need a newer cpu cooler to what I have currently?

I'm aiming to play games at 1080p on high to ultra settings (Legion, Doom, Danksouls 3, Metro 2033) with a steady 60fps or higher.

My current specs:

• CPU: Inter Core i5-3330 3.0ghz
• Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO
• Motherboard: ASRock Z77-Pro4 M
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8gb DDR3
• PSU: Corsair CX-750 Modular (750Watts)
• Storage: 1TB seagate and Sandisk 120gb SSD
• Case: Coolermaster Silencio
• GPU: Asus GTX 660 2gb

I'm planning on keeping the CPU Cooler, PSU, HD, SSD, Operating System (Windows 10) and GPU from my current build, then upgrade to a GTX 1070/80 later on when prices drop.

New Build:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5ghz Link
• Motherboard: ASUS Z170-A Link
• RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V series 16gb Link
• Storage: Samsung 850pro 256gb SSD Link
• Case: I don't know :<

That's about 850/1500 - 1600 out of my budget on those new parts alone.

Thanks!

[Fascinate]

If i were you id grab a 2600k/2700k/3770k off of ebay on the cheap and then a 1060 when they drop. Really no reason at all to upgrade board/ram etc. In all reality you probably dont even need a CPU, its just nice to have some CPU clock headroom but a lot of games dont really care much about CPU.

[chazus]

You have a VERY similar setup to mine.

I have a Z77 as well, 3570K OC'd, and nvidia 660.

The 660 is starting to get long in the tooth, I know. However with that Z77 board, I'd definitely just pick up the cheapest 3570K or 3770K if its the same price or similar.

Maybe a bigger SSD but get something like the 950 or 850 EVO, not a pro. Some more ram wouldn't kill you.

Basically you can spend a ton of money on 95% of the upgrade of probably half that.

[Mythbredor]

Yeah I agree with chazus here. Grab a 3570k-3770k and keep your motherboard which will save you some money. Currently no CPU/Mobo combo will give you massively increased perfomance. If you want to pick up a 1070/1080 that's cool either of those cards would blow the 660 out of the water. Definitely pick up a bigger SSD and go to 16GB of ram. I sometimes (rarely) but sometimes go over 8GB and it's always nice to have the headroom.

[Feladore]

Cheers guys, ill sus out a 3570k. I know they aren't the latest CPUS, but if it saves me 200 bucks on a new mobo, then i think it's worthwhile especially if I can get an OC going. Reason why I was looking at a CPU upgrade in the first place was that I heard its the limiting factor for performance in WoW. Ill probably just stick with the case that I've got now. Its a pain in the ass to clean the fans, but I think I can deal with it.

Is the 850 pro SSD not quite worth the price tag for its performance gain?

[chazus]

Pro and EVO are virtually the same, except the warranty. 5 years vs 10 years... But you'll probably replace it before the 5 year mark anyway to upgrade so ... it doesnt really matter.

[Mythbredor]

Pro and EVO are virtually the same, except the warranty. 5 years vs 10 years... But you'll probably replace it before the 5 year mark anyway to upgrade so ... it doesnt really matter.

I've been doing some reading thanks to chaud about SSD longevity. I was pretty suprised how many read/writes they last for now. Basically any modern SSD the death of your SSD woun't be read/writes in any decent amount of time.

Here's a pcworld article theres a few other around aswell - http://www.pcworld.com/article/28560...ity-fears.html

[Feladore]

I've done some research on picking up either an i5 3570k or a 3770k, but most of the ones that I can find in Australia are preowned... It's annoying that they're out of production nowadays.

Is there considerable risk involved in buying a preowned CPU?

[Fascinate]

Not usually no, CPU's are one of the best PC products you can buy used. I would definitely look for a used i7 over i5 it really is worth spending that bit extra. Also keep 2600k/2700k in your search too, they are only slightly slower and can overclock better while staying cooler with higher voltages.