Is my build still viable?

[ds.Ignis]

Hey guys,

So today I asked myself an existential question: Is it time for a PC upgrade? As my build is pretty old, I feel like I am limited in terms of pure upgrading options.

I mainly play WoW, Overwatch, Diablo and CS:GO. I do not have any problems running this games on medium and get very decent fps. However, I would love to try new game titles in the future and run my current games on maximum. Thinking about buying PUBG, I am not sure anymore if I can get an enjoyable experience with my current spec.

My (older) PC build:

CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 3.40GHz
RAM: 8GB Dual-Channel DDR3, 800MHz (9-11-11-29)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77M-D3H
GPU: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2047MB


Do you think I should just stick with what I have for another year or two? Maybe I could switch out some of the components, without going full out.

If starting from scratch, I thought of going for something like the Narwhal.

Thanks for your time!
Ignis

[Lathais]

I'd say grab a Graphics card and call it a day but right now is a very bad time to be buying a mid-range graphics card. Depending on budget you could though, or grab a 1080/1080ti. CPU is fine for at least a couple years. If you have the budget and felt like it you could grab some RAM but honestly not really needed. GPU would be a great upgrade, sadly, mid-range GPU market is all screwed up due to etherium mining. It should be clearing up soon I think? Vega is around the corner, if you are ok with AMD then might be worth it to wait 2 weeks and see what it has to offer.

[Blueobelisk]

I would do a whole new build rather than upgrade any individual parts of your build.

If you upgrade to Narwhal-ish ("ish" because someone on the forum will give you a more effective build for the price point, just post a thread stating your budget and exactly what you want to play/work on), then the computer should good you good graphics for a few years to come.

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mid-range GPU market is all screwed up due to etherium mining. It should be clearing up soon I think?

Yeah, I would use your build for another month or so and see how things turn out with the mining, OP.

[Kagthul]

Nothing wrong with this build that a new GPU wont fix.

the CPU is still extremely solid. A brand new Kaby Lake would only be about 5% faster clock for clock.

[chazus]

Personally, I'd sell the 3770 and get a 3570K and overclock it. You'll probably even make a few bucks on it. After that, new GPU (and sell the old one to offset some cost)

[Zeta333]

I'd say grab a Graphics card and call it a day but right now is a very bad time to be buying a mid-range graphics card. Depending on budget you could though, or grab a 1080/1080ti. CPU is fine for at least a couple years. If you have the budget and felt like it you could grab some RAM but honestly not really needed. GPU would be a great upgrade, sadly, mid-range GPU market is all screwed up due to etherium mining. It should be clearing up soon I think? Vega is around the corner, if you are ok with AMD then might be worth it to wait 2 weeks and see what it has to offer.

i dunno that ram is slow as fuck. its prob the most limiting part of his build, thats like default the lowest you can go with ddr3. he should have an xmp board, he can go much higher.

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I would do a whole new build rather than upgrade any individual parts of your build.

If you upgrade to Narwhal-ish ("ish" because someone on the forum will give you a more effective build for the price point, just post a thread stating your budget and exactly what you want to play/work on), then the computer should good you good graphics for a few years to come.

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Yeah, I would use your build for another month or so and see how things turn out with the mining, OP.

tbh if your not broke 1080s are fantastic prices now, iv seen them as low as low 400s

[ds.Ignis]

Tanks for all the comments so far!

Nothing wrong with this build that a new GPU wont fix.

the CPU is still extremely solid. A brand new Kaby Lake would only be about 5% faster clock for clock.

This was my thinking along the lines, BUT...

i dunno that ram is slow as fuck. its prob the most limiting part of his build, thats like default the lowest you can go with ddr3. he should have an xmp board, he can go much higher.

... is also true. I tried upgrading it with a Corsair 2x8GB DDR3 RAM a couple of years ago. However, it ended up not working and my system would only see both sticks as 1GB each. I am still not sure what caused my problem, but apparently I cannot go above 8GB RAM with my current CPU.

This mining thing totally pisses me off. The 1080 GTX would be around €550 and the 1060 (6GB) around €350 where I live. But can I just switch the GPUs? After my experience with the RAM, I fear that there would be other compatibility problems. Am I also correct in assuming, that as long as I have the processor, I am stuck with a DDR3 RAM of max 8GB (1155 socket for the motherboard)?

[Kagthul]

. is also true. I tried upgrading it with a Corsair 2x8GB DDR3 RAM a couple of years ago. However, it ended up not working and my system would only see both sticks as 1GB each. I am still not sure what caused my problem, but apparently I cannot go above 8GB RAM with my current CPU.

That's not true. There had to be some other issue. Sitting in my basement now is a rig i built for a friend with an i5 3750K in it and it has 2x8GB DDR3-1600. (Also, the other poster apparently didn't realize that DDR3-1600 will read as 800Mhz RAM on a system specs test because its... DDR. Double Data Rate). So your RAM is plenty fast, and RAM speed matters almost not one iota for gaming.

This mining thing totally pisses me off. The 1080 GTX would be around €550 and the 1060 (6GB) around €350 where I live. But can I just switch the GPUs? After my experience with the RAM, I fear that there would be other compatibility problems. Am I also correct in assuming, that as long as I have the processor, I am stuck with a DDR3 RAM of max 8GB (1155 socket for the motherboard)?

Yeah, makes it hard to purchase right now, that's for sure (the mining thing).

as for the RAM thing.. no. 70-series motherboards supported up to 32GB (for four-socket motherboards).

I have no idea what would have caused your issue.

Also, 8GB is plenty for gaming.

[Blackmist]

GPUs continue to be the only part where performance is improving at a worthwhile rate. A 1060 or 1070 should give you a solid boost.

[Vertigo X]

tbh if your not broke 1080s are fantastic prices now, iv seen them as low as low 400s

please direct me to those 1080s.

[Miyagie]

tbh if your not broke 1080s are fantastic prices now, iv seen them as low as low 400s

500$ maybe, the miner bought all the middleclass cards and now even the bigger cards had a price increase.
3 month ago was a good time to buy a 1080, i even got a msi one for 520/470€ at amazon during a cash back event but now i would pay around 600€ in germany for a 1080.

[Lathais]

i dunno that ram is slow as fuck. its prob the most limiting part of his build, thats like default the lowest you can go with ddr3. he should have an xmp board, he can go much higher.

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tbh if your not broke 1080s are fantastic prices now, iv seen them as low as low 400s

That RAM is fine. Its DDR, so while the system reports 800, it's 1600. Standard DDR3 is 1333, so 1600 is fine. Benefits beyond 1600 for gaming are about nil.

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Tanks for all the comments so far!



This was my thinking along the lines, BUT...



... is also true. I tried upgrading it with a Corsair 2x8GB DDR3 RAM a couple of years ago. However, it ended up not working and my system would only see both sticks as 1GB each. I am still not sure what caused my problem, but apparently I cannot go above 8GB RAM with my current CPU.

This mining thing totally pisses me off. The 1080 GTX would be around €550 and the 1060 (6GB) around €350 where I live. But can I just switch the GPUs? After my experience with the RAM, I fear that there would be other compatibility problems. Am I also correct in assuming, that as long as I have the processor, I am stuck with a DDR3 RAM of max 8GB (1155 socket for the motherboard)?

Sounds like you got defective RAM. Still, what you have is fine.

[ds.Ignis]

Thanks all for the answers! I think I will stick with the build for now and wait for the GPU prices to go down. Maybe the RX Vega will turn out to be a good competitor, even though I was never fond of AMD...

[Kagthul]

Thanks all for the answers! I think I will stick with the build for now and wait for the GPU prices to go down. Maybe the RX Vega will turn out to be a good competitor, even though I was never fond of AMD...

Not looking like it.

At least in the EU, prices seem to be somewhere between the 1080 and 1080Ti while performance is solidly "1080-ish".

So its more expensive, performs... about as well or a little worse than the 1080 (and this is FE 1080, not OCed, and from what we can tell there is NO OC headroom on RX Vega), and consumes 2 1/2 times the power.

[Zeta333]

That RAM is fine. Its DDR, so while the system reports 800, it's 1600. Standard DDR3 is 1333, so 1600 is fine. Benefits beyond 1600 for gaming are about nil.

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Sounds like you got defective RAM. Still, what you have is fine.

i was assuming he was quoting the actuall ram he bought as when you buy it it could be listed as 800.

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please direct me to those 1080s.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/

one was on there yesterday on sale. just keep checking.

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Tanks for all the comments so far!



This was my thinking along the lines, BUT...



... is also true. I tried upgrading it with a Corsair 2x8GB DDR3 RAM a couple of years ago. However, it ended up not working and my system would only see both sticks as 1GB each. I am still not sure what caused my problem, but apparently I cannot go above 8GB RAM with my current CPU.

This mining thing totally pisses me off. The 1080 GTX would be around €550 and the 1060 (6GB) around €350 where I live. But can I just switch the GPUs? After my experience with the RAM, I fear that there would be other compatibility problems. Am I also correct in assuming, that as long as I have the processor, I am stuck with a DDR3 RAM of max 8GB (1155 socket for the motherboard)?

Memory
Number of Memory Slots
4×240pin
Memory Standard
DDR3 2400(OC)/1600/1333/1066
Maximum Memory Supported
32GB
Channel Supported
Dual Channel

your shit supports up to 32, can you link the exact ram you have?

[ds.Ignis]

your shit supports up to 32, can you link the exact ram you have?

I know that it SHOULD support up to 32.

What I posted was just a read-out from the program "Speccy". Now after I looked at the RAM myself, its:
2x TeamGroup 4GB, DDR3 1333Mhz, CL9-9-9-24

I honestly don't remember the exact specs of the RAM I bough that my system only recognized as 1GB. I recall it being a Corsair 16GB kit (2x8GB) DD3R 1600Mhz.

[Zeta333]

I know that it SHOULD support up to 32.

What I posted was just a read-out from the program "Speccy". Now after I looked at the RAM myself, its:
2x TeamGroup 4GB, DDR3 1333Mhz, CL9-9-9-24

I honestly don't remember the exact specs of the RAM I bough that my system only recognized as 1GB. I recall it being a Corsair 16GB kit (2x8GB) DD3R 1600Mhz.

did you trouble shoot it online or did you send it back after seeing only 1 gb. sounds like faulty sticks tbh as long as they were in the right slots and xmp was enabled.

[ds.Ignis]

did you trouble shoot it online or did you send it back after seeing only 1 gb. sounds like faulty sticks tbh as long as they were in the right slots and xmp was enabled.

Yes I did. For some reason, however, there is no easy way of enabling XMP inside my BIOS (Gigagbyte F15a). What I can do is set stuff like speed, timing and voltage by hand. I tried every solution I could find like putting in 1 stick, adjusting the voltage and playing with the timings/speed - everything to no avail. Might have been really a faulty stick or I was too dump to handle the BIOS.

[Vertigo X]

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/

one was on there yesterday on sale. Just keep checking.

bless you <3

[Amalaric]

Hey guys,

So today I asked myself an existential question: Is it time for a PC upgrade? As my build is pretty old, I feel like I am limited in terms of pure upgrading options.

I mainly play WoW, Overwatch, Diablo and CS:GO. I do not have any problems running this games on medium and get very decent fps. However, I would love to try new game titles in the future and run my current games on maximum. Thinking about buying PUBG, I am not sure anymore if I can get an enjoyable experience with my current spec.

My (older) PC build:

CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 3.40GHz
RAM: 8GB Dual-Channel DDR3, 800MHz (9-11-11-29)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77M-D3H
GPU: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2047MB


Do you think I should just stick with what I have for another year or two? Maybe I could switch out some of the components, without going full out.

If starting from scratch, I thought of going for something like the Narwhal.

Thanks for your time!
Ignis

When you can afford it replace your RAM with 16GB 1600MHz 8-8-8-24.