I built my PC about 4 years ago now and I think I've about time for an upgrade (about to buy my first house, so might be my last chance for a while ) Anyway, my current PC 's specs are below in my sig. I'm thinking of just upgrading the RAM to 8GB and GPU to a GTX970 (and Scan at the minute are offering these with Withcer 3 and Arkham Knight which is a nice incentive to do now). Think this is a reasonable budget upgrade to this rig? Also I take it this should be compatible, my mobo isn't that out of date is it? Must admit I can't remember what PSU I have, I'll have to crack it open and have a look tonight. What do you think I'll need as a minimum for this? Sorry for simplistic question, pretty out of date on this stuff. Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.
I agree - and the upgrade to a 970 too would definitely update the system nicely. I should have thought that a PSU capable of running a 570 would have no issues with a 970
Thanks guys. I do plan on installing an ssd as a boot drive, but I see it as a luxury I can do without for now, my boot time isn't bad as is and I was thinking of waiting for windows 10. Will definitely get the RAM then, was in 2 minds if I needed that or not. Yeah, thought the power requirement shouldn't have gone up that much, and seem to remember I deliberately overdid the psi when I built it. Thanks guys.
and SSD will change your perception of how fast your pc can boot - under 10 seconds from pressing the power button to surfing facebook
I've been using using SSD storage for the last 4 years and it definitely effects more than boot times. It improves the overall usage of a computer. Do you use your PC for anything else other than gaming?
I do, mostly web surfing, watching catchup TV/online streaming, writing (word processing)... Nothing too straining. Though have been tempted to dabble in music recording. My biggest concern is though, how to i move my OS onto the new drive and how to I make it so that I can install programs to my current 1TB drive if I just go for a smallish SSD? Also, how do I know which RAM I need? I had no idea there were so many different types.
If adding ram, try to get the same make/model as you already have if at all possible. Adding another 2GB would also be fine really if it's considerably cheaper, like getting it 2nd hand. If it's not possible to find that make/model of memory modules anymore then do your best to get something with the same speed, timings and most importantly voltage. Or just make it simple and buy a new 8GB 2x4GB kit and sell off the old one. That said, I would go for an SSD first really. Having more than 4GB of ram isn't that important unless many games you play are 64bit. If you're going for a gtx970, I would highly recommend the evga ssc acx2.0+. It's what I have and it's been very good all around, especially nice with it running passive most of the time.
You guys have about convinced me to get one, but my problem is the complexity of the swap over. I currently have a 1tb hdd with about 600gb of data on it, and I can't afford an ssd that big, so would only be looking to transfer my os (win 7) and somE of my most used programs and leave all the music, games, pictures, documents etc. on the current hdd, how would I do this?
I'd do a clean install on the new ssd. You can pull save files and the like from the HDD as needed before you delete content from the HDD that is no longer needed. Then just add the relevant HDD folder for music etc to the win7 libraries I'd you use those.
So I just do a fresh install to the SSD, but I'd want to keep my games installed on the existing 1TB HDD, how do I do this? And how do I make it so I can install normal programs on there that I don't use often or even keep the programs that are currently installed without re-installing them? I aren't that tech-savvy for the record.
Clean os, new install of programs. Shouldn't take you long but keeps everything tidy. During the installation you should have the option to choose to install to another location, just browse to the HDD and pick a location. Once all done wipe the original windows files and programs off the hdd.
Ok, so I'm thinking of going GPU (because of fun) and SSD for now and going for a RAM upgrade at a later date (my original budget was only £300). Just gonna go for this one. Am I likely to need a cage or something to install it physically into my case? Also I'm planning on going down the complete new instal route. I still have my original disc for Win 7 and MS Office 2007 and will want to install these (no new licences left on either). Will this be as simple as just putting the CD in and it reckognising it's the same PC or am I going to need new licenses? Oh yeah, my PSU is only a 520 which seems low, hope I don't need to replace it as I'm out of funds for now, guess I'll just have to stick it in and see what happens.
If your case doesn't have any 2.5" drive mounting options it would probably be easiest to get a simple 2.5 to 3.5 adapter like this 520w PSU is fine, plenty of power for nvidia 900 series cards as they actually use less power than your current 500 series. Might be a bit light if you wanted to keep the 570 in to use as a physx card. Would be fine for most AMD too if you wanted to go that way.
I was expecting a problem when I noticed my old card's box said it had a minimum requirement of 550w, but works fine. I need to check to see what I have in my case I guess, don't remember having to buy any cages or anything for my current drive.
Power supply wattages don't matter quite as much as the amperage. If you have a powerful 12V rail, it should run most things. I believe Shirty once said that he runs his system on a 520W passive power supply, when I run a weaker system on 700W - stupidly overkill. As long as the power supply's amperage is good enough, it should be fine. GPUs aren't really getting all that more powerful in the next generations, but they're getting very power efficient, meaning we don't need quite the beefy PSU to run them anymore.
