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Should I update more than just my GPU?

I

inabinary

Junior Member
I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card from an Radeon 6950 to a Nvidia GTX 970. However, I have some concerns about my current build. It's quite old, by some standards, and I'm afraid there may be bottlenecks in some areas that would prevent me from utilizing the 970 fully.

As for usage, I mostly play Blizzard games, but would like the option to enjoy (decent FPS at 1080) upcoming games (Witcher 3, etc.). As well, I do some in-game recording and subsequent video editing.

My current build (2011):
  • 8GB DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
  • i7-2600K Sandy Bridge
  • ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
  • Radeon HD 6950
  • CORSAIR HX650 650W
  • Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSD, 120GB

Should I just take the plunge and update the whole thing? Or will I get what I need from the GFX card upgrade?

Thanks.
 
inabinary said:
i7-2600K Sandy Bridge
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You hit the sweet spot when you bought that chip. 😎 It's still very, very good. Have you overclocked it? If not, I suggest getting a nice aftermarket cooler and doing so. (Edit: Which cooler to get depends on your budget and your case.)

Otherwise, everything looks fine. You might also think about getting a fresh PSU and newer, larger SSD someday, but there's no rush on either.
 
Ken g6 said:
You hit the sweet spot when you bought that chip. It's still very, very good.
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Sweet, thanks past-me!

Ken g6 said:
Have you overclocked it?
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I have not overclocked it yet, no. I do have an aftermarket cooler though, this one specifically: Arctic Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2. Is this sufficient enough for overclocking? If not, do you have a recommendation? My case is the Antec 902 V3.

Ken g6 said:
You might also think about getting a fresh PSU and newer, larger SSD someday, but there's no rush on either.
Click to expand...

I have considered this actually, 120GB is a pain. And as I understand it, SSDs suffer performance losses after sufficient use, especially older ones.

As well, my PSU has been making a funny clicking sound lately. Do you have a recommendation for one?

lehtv said:
Possibly upgrade memory from 2x4GB to 2x8GB which would help in video editing
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I hadn't considered this, I'll look into it. Thanks for the product recommendations too. I've actually been looking at the GIGABYTE G1 for my 970, are there any known advantages the ASUS has over the GIGABYTE model?
 
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inabinary said:
I have not overclocked it yet, no. I do have an aftermarket cooler though, this one specifically: Arctic Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2. Is this sufficient enough for overclocking?
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92mm - meh. :| Minimum is a Hyper 212 Evo, IMHO. Budget affects how much more you get. Would you prefer a big heat sink or a closed-loop water cooler with radiator? Edit: Looks like water cooling is hard with that case.

It sounds like you might want to make several upgrades. How about putting together a list of what you want, and a budget, and we'll see what makes sense?
 
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A Freezer 7 Pro is sufficient for a mild overclock, so I'd see what I could get out of that before buying a new cooler.

A 120GB SSD that is nearly full is definitely now operating at peak performance. I think I'd buy a larger SSD like the Crucial MX100 256GB for $102 before I upgraded RAM capacity unless you know for sure that you're currently running out of memory under typical workloads.
 
Ken g6 said:
Would you prefer a big heat sink or a closed-loop water cooler with radiator? Edit: Looks like water cooling is hard with that case.
Click to expand...

I'll probably stick with air cooling. I had a water cooled system back in 2006 or so, one of those Koolance systems that sat on top of the machine, and I felt like it was too much hassle for what I got out of it, even though components did tend to run a lot hotter back then.

As far as shopping lists go, I'm looking at getting the following:


The immediate purchase will be the graphics card, the rest will come a bit later. I'm honestly very happy with my current RAM, and after some searching it looks like it doesn't degrade in performance too quickly, not within these sticks current life span for sure. If capacity becomes an issue I will upgrade. I could really use a bigger SSD though, I'd like to be able to install some stuff on it. I'm currently running most of my games from my 640GB Western Digital I bought who knows how long ago.

As for a CPU cooler I'm undecided. I've been out of the game for so long I don't really know what's the new hotness. This and this I found from a quick search, but I will defer to you guys. This is getting expensive fast though.

I've gone ahead and ordered a CORSAIR HX Series HX750. After saying "there's a weird clicking noise coming from my PSU" out loud it sunk in that I need to stop putting off getting a new one.

EDIT: Looks like I was mistaken. My cooler is actually a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus. I was going off my Newegg order history earlier. Ordered this guy from Amazon; I must have ordered the Freezer Pro and returned it when I was building.
 
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inabinary said:
Looks like I was mistaken. My cooler is actually a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus.
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With that, I agree with Mfenn. That's very close to a Hyper 212 Evo. Go ahead and use it and see how it does.

inabinary said:
I've gone ahead and ordered a CORSAIR HX Series HX750.
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Slightly over-powered for a GTX 970. But it does open up the possibility of getting an R9 290X instead. They've just dropped prices on them again, and they're similar in speed to the 970. The main drawback with the 290X is heat and power use.

inabinary said:
Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB *possibly upgrading to 500GB. Or, as mfen suggested, the Crucial MX100. It's just hard to ignore the new shiny.
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Technically, that's not the "new shiny". This is. It's about as cheap as the MX100, and faster, but its reliability is unknown.
 
Ken g6 said:
With that, I agree with Mfenn. That's very close to a Hyper 212 Evo. Go ahead and use it and see how it does.
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Excellent, I will give it a go.

Ken g6 said:
Slightly over-powered for a GTX 970. But it does open up the possibility of getting an R9 290X instead. They've just dropped prices on them again, and they're similar in speed to the 970. The main drawback with the 290X is heat and power use.
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I thought about that, but I'm very interested in Nvidia's Shadowplay feature. I know AMD has a competing technology, but Shadowplay seems like the more attractive of the two.

Regarding manufacturer of the card, would you recommend Gigabyte?

Thanks again for all your help, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.
 
inabinary said:
Regarding manufacturer of the card, would you recommend Gigabyte?
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Gigabyte cards are totally fine. What I usually do is pick out whichever card with a good cooler from a major brand is the cheapest. Definitely do not pay extra for a factory overclock, you can slide two sliders to the right yourself.

At current prices, I would go with the ASUS Strix for $340.

inabinary said:
  • Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB *possibly upgrading to 500GB. Or, as mfen suggested, the Crucial MX100. It's just hard to ignore the new shiny.
Click to expand...

There's no real reason to pay extra for a TLC drive. There's nothing wrong with one per se, but it doesn't make sense to go TLC when you can get MLC like the MX100 for less.
 
I would stick with the GTX 970 and a Corsair PSU. The 750 will do you well. I personally would go with something a bit higher if I ever decided to do some SLI down the road (also have to make sure the motherboard will support that, which I haven't looked to see). That CPU /mobo has plenty of life left in it.
 
psu clicking sound = new psu plx.

2600k = still ok. get a EVO 212 and hit 4.6Ghz.

8gb ram is fine.

add a second 120Gb SSD. if you fill it, add a third. etc.
 
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