Upgrade my current system or build a new one ???

SpannerMonkey

Hi guys im looking for some advice , my pc is a dell xps-420 i bought it in late 2007 and have since upgraded the graphics card to an ATI 6870, ram to 4gb and to windows 7 , i want to know is it feasable to upgrade it or would i be better off starting fresh , i want it mainly for Gaming mostly shooters like Battlefield 3 or RTS like command and conquer . spec is below
Thanks

daz801

What sort of budget do you have? A fresh start would probably be best

SpannerMonkey

if its a case of a fresh start id prob wait till later in the year budget at the moment would be 500 or so not going to get anything new for that amount

daz801

Well for 500 you could get something quite nice. Just keep your current hard drives and graphics card and then upgrade them when you have the money. With these upgrades you should see a big performance boost.

Item|Price
8GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800U CL9|€37.82
BitFenix Merc Beta|€31.61
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€52.08
ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP, Sockel 1155, ATX|€76.69
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€189.79
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€74.75
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€481.73

Then when you have the money add these
Item|Price
MSI R7850 TwinFrozr 2GD5/OC, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€232.34
Scythe Mugen 3, für alle Sockel geeignet|€33.36
WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 6Gb/s|€65.86
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€350.55

The 7850 can overclock to be nearly as powerful as a 7950 and if you add a second one you get something more powerfull than a gtx680 for the same cost.

ShadowHearth

lol are you my twin?

i had xps 420 with 8800GT

then i upgraded to 6870

4-5 months in i made a full 2500k +gtx 570 build

4-5 month pass its 680 instead of 570


No point putting any money in to that anymore m8. Only gpu was worth changing in xps 420, after that its a concrete wall.



depending on your budget i would just build a new pc and never look in to dell website.
you could buy core system like CPU+RAM+MOBO+case+PSU+SSD, then add Dells HDDs and your 6870 for now.

p.s. edit: pretty much what daz801 linket, but might aswell go for this case, which is only 20eu extra:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=48895&agid=631

SpannerMonkey

Cheers Lads

haha yup your MY evil twin had an 8800gt aswell

thats surpriseing actually what you can get for that money
how much would i be looking at for a very decent system i wouldnt have to change for years ???? €1500 + ??????

ShadowHearth

Well if you want to build from scratch and don't take apart dell ( that's what I did, using it in bedroom. Misses watching Netflix, 4od amd movies on it ). Then 1k ish eu can build you a very decent pc. For 1080p it will good for years, plus of you will want to upgrade, you won't need a new system like now. A simple gpu swap will do the work.

SpannerMonkey

could you spec up something you would recommend for around that price the money is there , i guess the alloy wheel refurb will have to wait
main priority is it being upgradeable and not crazy loud
budget say around 1200

thanks

ShadowHearth

Will you need windows? Screen? Anything else?

daz801

Something like this should do very nicely
Item|Price
8GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800U CL9|€37.82
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€52.08
ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP, Sockel 1155, ATX|€76.69
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€189.79
2 x MSI R7850 TwinFrozr 2GD5/OC, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€464.68
Scythe Mugen 3, für alle Sockel geeignet|€33.36
WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 6Gb/s|€65.86
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€132.29
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Titanium Grey|€93.95
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1165.51

Skylinehead

Oooh, two 7850s. My build would be a similar budget, was going to go 7870 but this complicates matters :pac:

ShadowHearth

this is my take on it. it would be pretty much same build as i got now, only it has 7970 instead of gtx 680, and i got only 64gb ssd and you get 128gb. i did not added any CPU cooler. its up to yourself. you can still overclock with stock one, but you wont need to overclock now, but if you do want it just to have for the sake of it then get something like this:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=49256&agid=669

Item|Price
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€52.08
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€189.79
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€34.67
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€84.45
Corsair Carbide Series 500R White, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€95.64
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€123.92
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 WindForce 3X, 3GB GDDR5, PCI-Express|€446.89
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€132.29
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1178.72

i added a bit better mobo then usual for sli/Cf in the future. being a gamer it is always good to have that option.

SpannerMonkey

cheers for the input lads , couple of questions for ye

is 550w enough for a PSU ???
woud i be better off with an i7 processor or I5 ?

daz801

Yeah 550w is enough for most stuff nowadays. Really no point going for an i7 over the 2500k for gaming.