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Upgrading x58 platform, a good idea?

PunishedSnake

PunishedSnake

Junior Member
I have a $2000 budget and considered starting off from scratch to build a new gaming rig. But, I've been advised in other forums to save my money and just upgrade basic parts, like a GPU and adding an SSD. As for RAM, I'm not sure if I should stick with my current sticks, or upgrading. In a way, I find it meaningless to get new RAM when DDR4 is about to come out. My plan is to wait for the new z97 platform to upgrade to Broadwell in 2014. So, I just want to ensure that my PCicon1.png maintains itself viable for about a year from now. Games I'm looking to play with my upgraded specs include, Tomb Raider, Battlefield 4, Skyrim, Deus Ex and Far Cry 3, among others. Games like the Witcher 3 and Star Citizen would then push me to completely do a full overhaul and upgrade CPU/Mobo setup.

These are my current specs.
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB
MOTHERBOARD: EVGA X58 SLI LGA1366
RAM: OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1066
DISPLAY: SyncMaster 2233SB,SyncMaster Magic CX2233SB(Digital) 1920 x 1080
HDD: Western Digital WD VelociRaptor 10000 RPM 300GB
OS: Windows 7 64 bit
PSU: Corsair 750TX

Looking into getting:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-TB 86.7 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $439.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-08 13:59 EST-0500)
 
Last edited:
Welcome to the forums, PunishedSnake!

The advice you received was definitely spot on. An SSD and video card upgrade are your first areas of great need. An i7-920 may bottleneck a GTX 760 even with a high overclock, but only slightly, which means it's a pretty good match. The fact that you want an aftermarket heatsink indicates that you're willing to try overclocking. If you're not interested in pushing your CPU above 3.5GHz or so, I'd step down to something like the Radeon R9 270X, which can be had for about $50 less than the 760.
 
Thanks for the reply and for the welcome. 🙂 Yes, I've been close to buying everything new and just get a Haswell platform, but again, every time I post something like this on the forums, people always tell me to re-consider and just upgrade more basic parts to keep the "cash flowing."
 
Termie said:
Welcome to the forums, PunishedSnake!

The advice you received was definitely spot on. An SSD and video card upgrade are your first areas of great need. An i7-920 may bottleneck a GTX 760 even with a high overclock, but only slightly, which means it's a pretty good match. The fact that you want an aftermarket heatsink indicates that you're willing to try overclocking. If you're not interested in pushing your CPU above 3.5GHz or so, I'd step down to something like the Radeon R9 270X, which can be had for about $50 less than the 760.
Click to expand...

I'm actually considering a Corsair h80i, to get a higher clock. Yes I'm willing to try it. It would be my first time doing so. In any case, I could always use the h80i for a future build.
 
PunishedSnake said:
I'm actually considering a Corsair h80i, to get a higher clock. Yes I'm willing to try it. It would be my first time doing so. In any case, I could always use the h80i for a future build.
Click to expand...

I dunno that you're really getting that great of value out on an H80i. That $84 can buy you a top-tier air cooler like the Noctua NH-D14 rather than a middling CLC.
 
Spend 100 bucks on a L5839 CPU upgrade. It's a 60 watt 6 core CPU that can be
overclocked nicely. Check out the big thread over on the CPUs and Overclocking forum.
 
I wouldn't change the whole system yet.

You can throw a 120-240GB SSD for the system drive, an AMD R9-280X and some OC to the CPU you'll have a solid system.
 
My 7950 was heavily bottlenecked by i7 920 @3,36 in BF3, so I expect a 280X will also be bottlenecked by i7 920 @4Ghz in BF4.
 
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