Upgrade on my Desktop

[Halfabrain]

Hello guys I've had my PC from here over a year now and have had no problems. I'm approaching filling my harddrive and it does feel like some of the new games are outgrowing my system (although it can still play them I just prefer higher graphics). I thought it would be a good idea to selectively buy new parts to replace and thought if anyone could give any advice/help that would be great. I just want the system to continue running smoothly and play games to a decent standard. However, Im a student so my budget wont be too high-end!

Case PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard ASUS® P7P55 LX: USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM) 4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card NONE
3rd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£76)
Processor Cooling INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive NONE
Firewire & Video Editing NONE
TV Card NONE
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

 

[vanthus]

I would upgrade the graphics card to the best you can afford really & add a second hard drive.

 

[Fear]

As vanthus has already said above just upgrade your GPU as that will improve your future gaming.

 

[mantadog]

If your on a tight budget i wouldn't look at spending too much on a 2nd HDD, just a standard one will probably suffice. Just use it for storing videos and music etc, anything you need to load fast keep on your caviar black.

As for the GPU, depends what kind of money you have to spend but i would say something like a 7850 for just under £200 would be a nice card and a decent upgrade, or if you have something like £300 then a 7870 would be what i would get. However i would hold out a few more weeks, that way Nvidia will have launched their new mid range cards which will probably drive the prices down a little.

 

[ellspeedy]

Mantadog, when you say about nvidia releasing their new mid range cards, is this likely to drop the price of the GTX 570 (the card i am looking to buy)?

Sorry for hijcacking your thread Halfabrain

 

[mantadog]

Erm.... the 570 has dropped a fair bit already, so while it might drop it a little more i would think that any further price drops would be fairly minimal although i would expect it to come down a little more. The 570 has fell in price because of the new releases from AMD and the GTX 680, still i would expect a slight drop when Nvidia launches the rest of it's lineup.

Right now i think the GTX 570 is about £200 which is alot cheaper than it was a couple months back, yet i suspect when Nvidia launch the 660 the price will drop a little more because it will probably outperform it, or come close to for about the same money as the 570 is selling for at the moment. I wouldn't worry too much about it suddenly halfing in price as it is already very cheap when you look at what it used to cost. Thats what happens if you buy older generation stuff though, the price falls like a stone but the card is still solid, i wouldn't worry about it too much.