It's been a while!!

[Pinscher]

So I doubt anybody around here remembers me any more but I recognized some names after doing some browsing through the forums. Life has taken me in many directions over the years and I've had to put my PC building love to the side for a few years. I still game when I can and of course have my system but I think the last time I upgraded anything but my SSD was in 2009... I don't game heavily but I am starting to notice some slow downs and want to consider my options for upgrading.

Here is my system:
i7 920 @ 3.2 daily w/ custom watercooling (I used to run this at 4.2 daily stable, I fracking love the 920)
EVGA X58 Mobo
3GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 (I have no clue why I only got 3gb, I really regret that)
ATI 5970
256gb Intel SSD (Don't remember model off-hand)

So my question is, since I've been out of the loop for so long, could I get away with upgrading the ram or possibly something else to give me a decent improvement in gaming performance, or should I start looking into building a new rig?

Games I play primarily play:
SWTOR (I don't get very good performance here and I feel like my ram is maxing out and slowing me down)

Battlefield 3 on occasion and would like to play BF4.

What are the experts suggestions here?

Thanks everyone!

P.S. it is definitely weird being the one asking these questions when I remember so much time being spent advising people like me.

 

[PP Mguire]

Update your GPU, toss in some more RAM and you're good.

 

[Pinscher]

Thanks PP! What do you think of these two:

EVGA 04G-P4-2978-KR GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card - Newegg.com

G.SKILL Sniper Gaming Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9T-12GBSR2 - Newegg.com

 

[PP Mguire]

GPU great, but on the RAM it honestly makes more sense to just get a 16GB dual channel kit for the money. That way there if you do upgrade your board and CPU in the near future you'll already have the ram. It won't run in triple channel but you won't notice the difference at all except having a good amount of RAM to use.

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GXM - Newegg.com

 

[Pinscher]

Fair point, my reasoning on going triple channel though was that if I go the upgrade route here, I probably won't end up doing anything else to my rig until I get around to building a new one, which will probably be DDR4 by that time. I figured I might as well get the triple channel to match for now, especially since I recall the X58 always being picky with memory (I could be wrong here).

 

[PP Mguire]

Not ever to my knowledge, only specific boards were craptastic about RAM (eVGA Classified *cough*).

DDR4 won't be mainstream for a while yet. Intel has Broadwell which is DDR3 coming, and Skylake will be DDR3 and DDR4. That's the next 2 years. Even still, like I said you won't notice a difference between triple and dual so might as well just get more RAM for the same price. That's more than enough RAM that you should ever need on that platform.

That is of course unless later on you plan to drop a grand on an X99 setup within the next 2-3 years.

 

[Pinscher]

When I build, which is probably at minimum a year out if not more, I will build top of the line for the time. It is just how I like to do things. That being said, I don't know when I will be dropping the cash on a new system since my money tends to get sucked up into my car mods these days, as well as saving up for track days...

If I won't notice the difference between the triple and dual, I might just go with those Ripjaws though.

 

[PP Mguire]

Well my CPU is taking a proper dump on me and I have an X99 build in my cart waiting for when I pay off my latest batch of upgrades and it's 1100 with the 300 dollar i7 lol. DDR4 is properly expensive right now.

Car mods, sound like me. Except track day, I can't afford that yet.

 

[Pinscher]

I haven't hit the track yet, I want to get a few things taken care of first to make sure my baby is ready. It gets expensive real quick too...

Well considering I spend like $2.5k on my first build and then continually upgraded for a few years, $1100 for a new rig doesn't sound as daunting lol. I also have this itch to turn my glass-top desk into my computer case. I want to make a custom mounting plate to sit under the glass to hold all my components and show it off. I think it would look sick. Ugh too many projects sucking up time and money...

 

[PP Mguire]

1100 was just for CPU, motherboard, and RAM as a note. Although, your processor is fine for gaming right now.

What do you drive and what are you doing to it? Rally track or course?