Wondering if there are any obvious upgrades appropriate for my system, which hasn't changed in the 4 years since I built it. Cooling/system gets noisy playing some games (alien isolation on max settings for example) but not sure if that's gphx or cpu. Current system is; Asus P8P67 mobo i7 2600K running stock at 3.4Ghz - not overclocked 16GB mem W7 64 bit 256 SSD 1TB HDD (enough space left) MSI GTX570 1.2GB Any obvious changes/upgrades? Thinking about W10 too when the dust settles AFTER its initial release. Any thoughts welcome...! Thanks.
The noise could be caused by 4 years of dust clogging the GPU and/or CPU heatsink, or possibly a tired fan, which is easily sorted. Apart from the noise, does it perform well enough for you in the games you play? The only component that looks a bit dated by today's standards is the GPU, but if it plays everything you want it to then I don't see any need to upgrade for the same of it.
I would upgrade the GPU the rest is still a very capable system, It's likely the noise is the GPU fan.
I give the enclosure a dust-out once a year or so, so I know that dust-clogging isn't a prob in this instance (I have seen and heard the effects of dust with other systems I've had to fix/update etc so that made me realise it IS worth keeping them clean!). My sense is that it's the GPU fan that's noisy, but I don't understand that if I run something like Alien Isolation (that's when the it all starts to get a bit noisy) when I switch back to windows (and leave AI running in the background) the noise remains - which made me wonder if it was the CPU I could hear, and not the GPU - or does the GPU run hard in the background even if its physically not driving the screen? Which GPU's would be a good upgrade, given the mobo (PCI 2.0 16 x I recall), and that the rest is relatively high spec? Did wonder about a decent audio card, to play blu-rays with SURROUND-sound (have a blu-ray CD/DVD which seems pretty capable).
Right, it is probably the gpu being loud. If it has the reference type blower fan I remember them being fairly loud. Just because you can't see something on the screen, doesn't mean there isn't still load on it. It's also the only component that I would update as everything else is still very capable. I would get the evga gtx970 ssc acx2.0+ (it is what I got). A great card and dead silent running passive most of the time.
what CPU cooler do you have? A new GPU and CPU cooler (if you are running stock) should do the trick. The new GPU could reduce power draw and keep the PSU quieter as well.
Per my sig, H60 water block. Thinking about it, there is one thing I'd like to be able to do in the future, and that's run an Oculus Rift (or very similar) so I'd want to be sure that any upgrade to the gfx card isn't goint be unable to drive what MAY come out in the medium term in the VR headset space (and I fully understand that's a moving target). REALLY would prefer not to upgrade now, only to have to repeat it at some point sooner rather than later... so I'd rather wait a while or put in a gfx card that has plenty of capability, and would be good for another 3-4 years.
The upgrade target for VR sits round the GTX 970 mark at the moment. Such a card would stand you in very good stead and also not demolish the bank balance.
Make sure the P8P67 has the latest BIOS and try to overclock the CPU to around 4.5GHz. There's plenty of guides around including this one courtesy of Bit-Tech... http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/01/07/how-to-overclock-the-intel-core-i5-2500k/1 If you want to keep the GTX 570 then treat the fan to some fine machine oil that should eliminate any noises that came with the aging GPU blower fan... Above video contains a brief guide part way through about oiling an Nvidia blower fan. Does mean stripping the card though, just don't forget the TIM replacement! If you want to buy a new GPU then the GTX 970 is a good shout.
To see if it's the GPU fan, try downloading something like EVGA Precision X and manually crank up the fan speed - if that's the same noise you're hearing then you've identified the problem As for running a game in the background - it does normally carry on taxing the GPU even when minimised
