Help me upgrade my set up!

[Twizted_3kgt]

Current rig is in my sig. Looking to upgrade the motherboard, processor, and RAM. No real reason other than loading times. I just bought a 2TB hard drive, 7200RPM 64MB cache 6gb/sec SATA, not an SSD, not interested in an SSD.

Want to keep it under $500. If it's far enough under, I might want to upgrade the graphics card as well, since the 1GB on the 560Ti isn't enough for Ultra on BF3 and I'm sure other games by now.

Thanks!

 

[PP Mguire]

Um, if you wanted to speed up loading times and your whole PC, then an SSD is the #1 item you should have purchased.

A Q6600 and 560ti can do ultra easy on BF3 as long as you don't use any AA at 1080p.

If all you do is game then simple getting a GTX 660ti, G41 based S775 board, and 8GB cheap DDR3 would be better than wasting some cash on the CPU. The new motherboard and RAM would be under 100 bucks. You would have enough money left over to buy a 64GB SSD most likely.

 

[Twizted_3kgt]

Um, if you wanted to speed up loading times and your whole PC, then an SSD is the #1 item you should have purchased.

A Q6600 and 560ti can do ultra easy on BF3 as long as you don't use any AA at 1080p.

If all you do is game then simple getting a GTX 660ti, G41 based S775 board, and 8GB cheap DDR3 would be better than wasting some cash on the CPU. The new motherboard and RAM would be under 100 bucks. You would have enough money left over to buy a 64GB SSD most likely.

Really? Upgrading the CPU would be a waste? I figured it's been so long there must be a cpu/mobo combo worth upgrading to.

As for the SSD, the cost to happiness ratio is way too high right now. I'll wait until they're the norm. But is that really all there is to increase loading speeds on my rig you think?

Also, any Ultra setting on BF3 causes the Vmem to go over 1GB, thus pretty much locking up the game. Although I haven't tried it since it first came out, so maybe it's been changed since.

 

[PP Mguire]

Really? Upgrading the CPU would be a waste? I figured it's been so long there must be a cpu/mobo combo worth upgrading to.

As for the SSD, the cost to happiness ratio is way too high right now. I'll wait until they're the norm. But is that really all there is to increase loading speeds on my rig you think?

Also, any Ultra setting on BF3 causes the Vmem to go over 1GB, thus pretty much locking up the game. Although I haven't tried it since it first came out, so maybe it's been changed since.

You can look at my article which explains why CPUs aren't so relevant anymore, and at the end I link a Hothardware article that actually uses the Q6600 and mates to a GTX 660.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/your-cpu-modern-games-guide-those-building-261626/

Well considering you can get some 120GB SSDs for under 100 bucks, I don't see why any one wouldn't. Not only do they increase loading speeds on games but boot times are drastically decreased, and the overall snappiness of any program installed (including your OS in general) is increase twofold. The HDD is the slowest component in your computer holding your file access back to around 80-120MB/s when RAM can process over 16GB/s in bulk. Just for example. The SSD not only increases raw file access to 285MB/s read/write sequential for SATA2 and 500MB+/s read/write sequential for SATA3 but also increases IOPS which means in and out operations per second. Reading and writing at the same time is about 5x faster.
The biggest increase an SSD has over a standard drive is access and seek times. There is none. No moving parts or searching for files on a platter means instant access to anything you click on. $/GB has decreased significantly in the past 4 years to where 120GB SSDs are pretty affordable for anybody with a mild budget. I mean, Sonic and 7/11 have SSDs now, you gonna let them out do you? Lol I'm jk, but they seriously do.

A 5850 can handle ultra with no AA at 1080p so a 560ti can surely do it.
Either way, if you want to upgrade the only real viable option would be the 660ti. It's slightly faster than a 580 and has more VRAM too.

If you want me to try and get your setup going for under 500 I can, but bare in mind to upgrade the GPU too would mean getting an i3 3220. It isn't a quad, but it rapes in the games.

 

[Twizted_3kgt]

Wow good write up, good read. I think I would have to agree about the CPU, it isn't bottlenecking my GPU and games really aren't getting any more demanding. If the loading times really are up to the HD, I should probably just go for a GPU and a decent sized SSD. Could still return the 2TB HD I bought from Best Buy with their 30-day hassle free returns....

The only thing about my CPU is, I remember reading benchmarks where i5/i7's did much better when it came to physx heavy games. Matter of fact, Batman: Arkham City did struggle with DX11 and physX turned on with my rig. Would a better GPU outweigh the lack of CPU in that regard?

 

[PP Mguire]

Wow good write up, good read. I think I would have to agree about the CPU, it isn't bottlenecking my GPU and games really aren't getting any more demanding. If the loading times really are up to the HD, I should probably just go for a GPU and a decent sized SSD. Could still return the 2TB HD I bought from Best Buy with their 30-day hassle free returns....

The only thing about my CPU is, I remember reading benchmarks where i5/i7's did much better when it came to physx heavy games. Matter of fact, Batman: Arkham City did struggle with DX11 and physX turned on with my rig. Would a better GPU outweigh the lack of CPU in that regard?

Just make sure in the NVCP (Nvidia Control Panel) that PhysX is set to the GPU. Then the CPU has nothing to worry about with that. I personally find PhysX to be quite over rated.

Edit: Have to correct now that I noticed what you said. Games will get super demanding after the next gen console release. The new ports will be DX11 native.

 

[Twizted_3kgt]

Just make sure in the NVCP (Nvidia Control Panel) that PhysX is set to the GPU. Then the CPU has nothing to worry about with that. I personally find PhysX to be quite over rated.

Edit: Have to correct now that I noticed what you said. Games will get super demanding after the next gen console release. The new ports will be DX11 native.

I've always been a fan of future proofing, but on a budget. I'm tempted to just say no budget and do my first top of the line build, but for now I still like the "best bang for buck" route. I would appreciate if you, or someone else who has already done the research, could save me hours of research and list the best bang for buck motherboard, cpu, RAM, and gpu setup in your opinion.

It is primarily a gaming rig, and I like to have all the settings at their max, along with modded configs, texture packs, etc..

 

[PP Mguire]

If you got the cash:
i5 3570k
ASRock Extreme 4 Z77
8GB DDR3 1600MHz
eVGA GTX 670

Which could all be run on your classic PCP&C PSU.

If you added an SSD like the Corsair Force GT to the previously mentioned list that is damn near top of the line minus going ridiculously stupid with the budget and parts.

 

[Twizted_3kgt]

If you got the cash:
i5 3570k
ASRock Extreme 4 Z77
8GB DDR3 1600MHz
eVGA GTX 670

Which could all be run on your classic PCP&C PSU.

If you added an SSD like the Corsair Force GT to the previously mentioned list that is damn near top of the line minus going ridiculously stupid with the budget and parts.

Perfect. Without the GPU it puts me at $415 on NewEgg. $785 with the GPU, so I'll have to consider whether or not now is the time for that. Thanks!

As far as the SSD, right now my SATA only supports 3gb/s. With the new motherboard my newest hard drive will use the full potential of 6gb/s. Will that make any difference in loading times in itself?

 

[PP Mguire]

Perfect. Without the GPU it puts me at $415 on NewEgg. $785 with the GPU, so I'll have to consider whether or not now is the time for that. Thanks!

As far as the SSD, right now my SATA only supports 3gb/s. With the new motherboard my newest hard drive will use the full potential of 6gb/s. Will that make any difference in loading times in itself?

No. HDDs don't even fill the bandwidth cap of SATA 1 which is 150MB/s. The SATA 3 bus support is just fancy marketing.

As I explained before, the no seek time or access time from the SSD along with the raw file transfer speed is what helps in loading times and general computing speed. I still feel an SSD and 660ti would be your best bet.