Upgrades: Finding a direction.

[Abstract Hero]

Whale, whale, whale, what do we have here?
A wild Abstract Hero appears!

How's it going non-facebook peeps?

I gots some Q&A for ya'll as it's come to my attention that in a few months I'm going to be able to afford an upgrade.

My current specs are in my sig. Budget $400 (500MAX but you guys can give me unbridled advice if what I want is going to be more.)

So the deal is, I want to get my rig a bit more powerful. It's 90% for gaming. I just want to future proof it a bit and get a nice CPU that won't bottle up if I go SLI or upgrade my gpu all together.

Not included in the budget I'm buying a HAF XB. What I'm looking for is a new mobo, processor, cooler, and anything else I may need in that budget. Or if you guys think the 955 will last... idk, just work your magic. I'm a bit out of touch but I'm getting back in the game.

I do want my current rig to stay running, I have a gpu (GTS 450) and psu (Corsair 500w) that will replace the TX and GTX coming out but if I recycle ram I need a cheap set to replace the G.Skill so I can take those to the new rig since they're gooders.

 

[PP Mguire]

I would keep the CPU setup and get a badass GPU.

 

[Abstract Hero]

What about getting a AM3+ core and another 560? Are the AM3+ still crap for game optimization?

EDIT: Maybe not so much on SLI. I'd probably want a mobo upgrade at that point since my second slot is only x4.

How far will the Phenom go before bottleneck? How much longer will it last in the sense of being max gaming feasible?

 

[PP Mguire]

Gaming is basically 90% all GPU based. A 955 will go a long ways yet. TBH I will upgrade my GPU before I get another X79 board for my 3960x. If that says anything.

If you used all your money on a 680 by the time you would need a new motherboard for SLI you would need a whole new rig anyways. At that point, it would be more feasible to just go Intel for better performance.

Your 955 has a ways to go before bottleneck.

 

[Sean W.]

i agree with Mguire, inject all of that $400 into a current gen graphics card, it will give you the most performance gain by far.

you can get a 680 for $400 easy. you live in phoneix, there should be a nice market of 680s on your local craigslist, ive bought two 680s off my craigslist for under $350 each.

i just upgraded to a 680 from crossfire 6970s, havent looked back. destroyed them in every way!

 

[PP Mguire]

If you can find a used 680 and push the 500 I would try to add an SSD in there if you don't already have one. That'll give you very noticeable gains over your current setup whereas a new CPU setup wont even if it was to a 3570k.

 

[Abstract Hero]

Alright guys, that's serious help and exactly why I came to you and asked. I would have spent money I didn't need to otherwise. Looks like a 680 is in the cards. (Pun not intended.)

I do not have but certainly want an SSD. How big should I go? I rock a 500gb Barracuda main drive with a few small backups so I assume I want the SSD to be boot disk and games only?

 

[PP Mguire]

SSD can be OS and whatever you want it to be. I have a 120GB SSD and have rocked it for a while. As much as I want bigger and faster I don't actually need it. To kinda help, the only games I've personally noticed real noticeable improvement on is BF3, Skyrim, and Shogun 2. Skyrim modded with serious HD textures takes a decade to load on a HDD and takes me a mere 10 seconds on a second rate SATA2 SSD. 10 seconds is a guess too, could be less but no more.

So far, I have BF3, Shift 1/2, Hitman Absolution, Halo 2, Halo CE, Photoshop CS 5.5, F1 Race Stars, Chrome, the OS, and a few other smaller things like FRAPs and have 17GB left.
So I'd say a 128GB up to 256GB if you can afford it but those are still pricey.

 

[Abstract Hero]

Honestly, I've seen a few things you've said about Skyrim on SSDs on Facebook and that really caught my eye being a huge fan of modding it and knowing how hard it will work your machine. I'll look into a 100gb give or take to start but besides that it looks like the case and card are all I really need.

 

[PP Mguire]

Oh btw, if you wanted some brand recommendations:
Samsung 830
Corsair Force GT
Intel 520

In that order.

Edit: Yes the difference is retarded. No joke. I hate using that word, but it's pretty descriptive at just how bad an SSD makes a HDD look. Loading Skyrim to troubleshoot mods on my fiances computer is a nightmare and her drive is 7200RPM.