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Hello, what should I upgrade next? Any bottlenecks in my build?

X

xKrazYx

Junior Member
Hi there, i'm new and i'm sorry if i'm posting this in the wrong forum, if so please redirect me. Anyway, I was wondering what I should upgrade in my computer next, and if anything I have is currently a bottleneck. Thanks!

Motherboard: 1 x GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55
GPU: GBT Radeon HD7870
CPU: Intel i7 860
PSU: 680w
Memory: 8gb (4x2gb) Corsair Vengeance
Harddrives: 640WD Blue, 500WD Blue

Nothing is overclocked, everything is stock parts.

I just upgraded from 5770 to 7870, and I was kind of worried that the 7870 wouldn't perform fully with just the PCI2.0 instead of 3.0.

Bonus question: I got the i7 like 3 and a half years ago, is there any need to replace the thermal paste or get aftermarket cooling? The temps don't seem to be off, but I just wanna make sure.

Thanks for any help!
 
If there's nothing wrong with your temperatures there's no reason to bother changing anything, unless your current cooler is too loud for your taste.

Also, there's no way for us to suggest upgrades without knowing what you use the computer for, whether anything currently runs slowly, and how much money you have to spend.

Also, the 7870 will be fine on PCI-e 2.0.
 
Ah sorry, my budget is mid-range, nothing more than 200$ per component (minus the 7870).

I use it mostly for gaming. Games don't run too slow, but overall the computer isn't as fast at opening things as it should be. SSD would be the next logical choice correct?

Is the i7 860 still a good cpu?
What about putting the 7870 in a PCI 2.0 x16 [x4] slot, would that bottleneck it? I would only put it there because if the card is too long it cuts off my SATA ports.
 
Putting the 7870 in the x4 slot will slow it down, probably by about 10-15%. That being said, I don't think you have it in the x4 slot. The x4 slot is on the bottom and that's what blocks the SATA ports. The x16 slot (top) is completely clear.

Given that your main issue right now is general responsiveness, I would highly recommend an SSD. The Samsung 840 250GB for $170 is perfect for you.
 
^ Agreed.

You need an SSD for sure.

The i7-860 and HD7870 are perfectly balanced. In fact, that's the exact set up I have in my HTPC, and I haven't yet experienced a CPU bottleneck at 1080p. You might try overclocking the CPU a bit - go for 3GHz first - that should be easy even on the stock cooler. If you're going to dig around with thermal paste, just go all the way and get a new cooler. Thermal paste alone won't do much.
 
Oh interesting about the PCI slots...I thought it was the other way around =[

Just for clarification, the PCIe2.0x16 is the one closer to the CPU right?

So that's why when I had my crossfire setup the top card was the first one to go...

Crossfire is kinda confusing too, since only the bottom one outputs any display...ugh.

Question about SSD: Is it hard to install? And would it be possible to transfer my OS without having to reinstall everything? I see the SmartMigration thing, but not any info on it. Thanks!

Thanks for the info guys! Much appreciated.
 
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Yes, the slot closer to the CPU is the x16 slot.

SSDs are not hard to physically install, they are just another drive. Assuming that the total used space on your system drive is less than the size of the SSD (or you delete stuff to make that so), you can indeed clone your HDD to SSD. That being said, I recommend doing a fresh install in order to make sure the partition alignment is correct, otherwise you will get slower than normal speeds from your SSD.
 
Cool, I probably should reformat after 2 years anyway.

Last question! If I have a SSD, and 2 HDD, is it possible to move all my data files over to one of the HDDs and reformat just the HDD with the operating system or does a reformat wipe ALL drives?
 
xKrazYx said:
Cool, I probably should reformat after 2 years anyway.

Last question! If I have a SSD, and 2 HDD, is it possible to move all my data files over to one of the HDDs and reformat just the HDD with the operating system or does a reformat wipe ALL drives?
Click to expand...

You can select which drive to format quite easily using Windows (as long as it's not the boot drive) - in fact, I'm not sure of a way to format all drives at once, so there's no chance of doing that accidentally.
 
Cool beans.

I know I said last question already, but new ones keep popping up sorry: the SmartMigration software that comes with it, would it be acceptable to clone the OS or is reformatting still a better option?

Also, what else do I need to do after I plug in the SSD? I read somewhere about enabling ACHI? Does anyone have a link to a good guide that covers everything SSD related for a first timer?
 
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xKrazYx said:
Cool beans.

I know I said last question already, but new ones keep popping up sorry: the SmartMigration software that comes with it, would it be acceptable to clone the OS or is reformatting still a better option?

Also, what else do I need to do after I plug in the SSD? I read somewhere about enabling ACHI? Does anyone have a link to a good guide that covers everything SSD related for a first timer?
Click to expand...

I probably would just give it a fresh install. Less likely to create problems, and you'll wipe out any junk that's collected. You have your other drive for all your data anyway.

I put together an SSD guide that might be helpful to you, available here.
 
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I agree about installing fresh. No real reason not to since you have a separate drive for backing up all your data.
 
xKrazYx said:
Cool beans.

I know I said last question already, but new ones keep popping up sorry: the SmartMigration software that comes with it, would it be acceptable to clone the OS or is reformatting still a better option?

Also, what else do I need to do after I plug in the SSD? I read somewhere about enabling ACHI? Does anyone have a link to a good guide that covers everything SSD related for a first timer?
Click to expand...

Another big thing to remember in addition to what Termie said, is that you should unplug all drives except the SSD while you're installing Windows. That ensures that Windows puts the bootloader on the SSD.
 
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