Upgrade advise

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PearlJam

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OK, this is my current system:

MSI Z77MA-G45 MB
i5 2500k CPU
8800GT 512MB GPU
4GB DDR3 Ram - 9-9-9-24

What would be the next step in upgrading this? Also, is it worthwhile or should I just wait till I can do a whole new pc?

Usage, is the normal stuff, with HD video viewing and basic gaming (nothing new)
 
Assuming you have an unlimited budget.

Defiantly the GPU, Nvidia late 500 or mid 600 series (EVGA,ASUS recommended).

Double the ram.

Thats what I would do.
 
Rickster said:
Assuming you have an unlimited budget.

Defiantly the GPU, Nvidia late 500 or mid 600 series (EVGA,ASUS recommended).

Double the ram.

Thats what I would do.
Click to expand...

+1 get Nvidia 600+ series or at least radeon 7870. But if you can wait till October then you can wait for AMD 9000 series. Also get a cpu cooler and overclock to about 4.5GHz
 
How are these two options?:

GIGABYTE® nVidia® GeForce GT640 OC- 2048MB DDR3, 128-Bit Memory Bus, PCI Express 3.0 Connections : 1x D-SUB, 2x DVI-D, 1x HDMI Core: 1050MHz / Shader: 1050MHz / Memory: 1800Hz

Asus NVidia GeForce-GTX650-DC-1GD5,1024MB, HDMi ready, No SLi , 1024MB 128 bit DDR5, Bus Standard Pci-E 3.0, support DirectX 11, Engine Clock 1058 MHz, CUDA Core 384, Memory Clock 5000 MHz ( 1250 MHz GDDR5 ), Memory Interface 128-bit, , HDCP Supported, D-Sub X 1, Dvi-I X 2, HDMi X 1, D-Sub, D-Sub Max Resolution : 2048x1536, DVI Max Resolution : 2560x1600, up to 150W 1 additional 6 pin PCIe power required, Dimensions 9.65 " x 4.72 "
 
I don't have a precise budget, let's say max R3k, basically will do anything that is bang for the buck type upgrade. But if I can get away with only spending R1.5k that would also be great
 
Rickster said:
I would forget about the ram for now and buy this.
Click to expand...

That looks quite a strong gpu for what I do. What would be a good middle of the road type GPU for lets say R1.5k and perhaps look at cooling and overclocking on the cpu to get more speed out of the pc?
 
Processor is still fine - there may have been a performance jump between SandyBridge and IvyBridge, but not enough to warrant an upgrade. Your best bet is to increase your RAM - you always want two identical chips for dual-channel to work properly. Also, a minimum of an nVidia GTX 660 Ti.

Buy an SSD to REALLY give your system a solid performance boost!

If you have such a limited budget, go with the SSD and the RAM!
 
GPU upgrade + maybe see if you can OC that CPU a bit. Most CPUs have a couple percentag of easy & free OC capacity in them.
 
HavocXphere said:
GPU upgrade + maybe see if you can OC that CPU a bit. Most CPUs have a couple percentag of easy & free OC capacity in them.
Click to expand...

The 2500K has quite a bit of OC ability in it, but when you really want performance gains you have to start looking at custom cooling, hence the SSD and RAM suggestion.
 
Sata 3 SSD + 4GB Extra RAM + Coolermaster Hyper 212+ (Then do an overclock)
 
OK, gotten myself a 256GB SSD

To work with the extra 4GB ram would mean that I need to switch to 64bit. I haven't done that before, does 64 bit Win 8 support 32 bit applications if I can't get it in 64 bit, or how does that part work?
 
PearlJam said:
OK, gotten myself a 256GB SSD

To work with the extra 4GB ram would mean that I need to switch to 64bit. I haven't done that before, does 64 bit Win 8 support 32 bit applications if I can't get it in 64 bit, or how does that part work?
Click to expand...

SSD is a great choice - I just installed my first one a week ago and it's amazing.
 
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