That time of year- PC Upgrades

TheDoc

Hey all,

So last time out we got me a 1070. Getting to that time of year where I upgrade the PC, and that means coming out from lurking and posting

My PC is actually in a great place at the moment. Bursting all the games I play with ease. I'm also streaming a lot more, and it's also managing that great too.

Only low hanging fruit I see if going from 8GB to 16GB.
On the RAM front, welcoming recommendations on brand and speeds.

I've a 128GB SSD that I wouldn't mind bumping up to double it's size as a minimum.
I've a 60GB SSD that is in there pure for messing, its an OCZ and not overly reliable.
My C drive is a 256GB SSD, but I guess unless I can easily migrate I won't touch that, since I dont want a reformat of this.

Specs are below



Wonder am I hitting the point where my machine does need much else.

Joshua J

Do you have xmp turned on in bios?. Your motherboard supports 1600 DDR3 ram. I'd have thought 8GB would be too little for gaming and streaming.

TerrorFirmer

Didn't you mention you have a 144hz monitor? If so, the 4690S is a bottleneck - an upgrade to an i7-4770 or 4790 would be a good move. Also, as above, if the ram's 1333mhz, an 'upgrade' to 1600mhz wouldn't go amiss. Try and get a 16GB set 2nd hand maybe, new prices are crazy.

mad turnip

My C drive is a 256GB SSD, but I guess unless I can easily migrate I won't touch that, since I dont want a reformat of this.

Look up harddisk imaging software. It creates an exact copy of your current harddisk (C:) and will copy it to a newly formatted disk. The system will work exactly the same with a higher capacity drive.
500 GB SSD's are hovering around the 100-150e mark which is a bargain IMO, picked one up myself recently.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Samsung drive come with the excellent samsung drive copy software. Its the easiest software I ever used.

K.O.Kiki

mad turnip wrote: »

Look up harddisk imaging software. It creates an exact copy of your current harddisk (C:) and will copy it to a newly formatted disk. The system will work exactly the same with a higher capacity drive.
500 GB SSD's are hovering around the 100-150e mark which is a bargain IMO, picked one up myself recently.

Charles Lazy Omelette wrote: »

Samsung drive come with the excellent samsung drive copy software. Its the easiest software I ever used.

Crucial drives come with Acronis True Image -- and it is dreadful

Had better results with Macrium Reflect Free.

TheDoc

Joshua J wrote: »

Do you have xmp turned on in bios?. Your motherboard supports 1600 DDR3 ram. I'd have thought 8GB would be too little for gaming and streaming.

I don't know what XMP is if I'm honest.

8GB has been perfectly fine. I'm only considering moving to 16GB cause its historically a cheap and cheerful upgrade. Although RAM prices got stupid when I last looked last year.

The insistence on 16GB I've always found misleading. Plenty of evidence out there 8GB is still plenty for top end titles and games, nevermind the fact I stream also, but then I run my stream of GPU encoding as opposed CPU.

TheDoc

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Didn't you mention you have a 144hz monitor? If so, the 4690S is a bottleneck - an upgrade to an i7-4770 or 4790 would be a good move. Also, as above, if the ram's 1333mhz, an 'upgrade' to 1600mhz wouldn't go amiss. Try and get a 16GB set 2nd hand maybe, new prices are crazy.

Yes have a 144hz monitor. I'm not moving past 1080p resolution gaming.

Have looked at the CPU, I actually bought current one from someone here and its done pretty well I think. Will check pricing on those suggestions thanks. They can go into my current motherboard?

RAM prices do indeed look a touch mental. 16GB at 1600mhz sounds like a good shout thanks.

Any brands I should avoid. Been some time since I bought RAM. Some brands I'll know to avoid myself, be good to know if there is any others I should stay clear from.

TheDoc

Thanks for the shouts on the SSD's. 512GB for 100-150 does indeed sound like very good pricing.

My C Drive is actually ok I think in terms of space, but I have a 128GB drive that I'd house primary games on, that basically gets insta full with Battlfield and WoW. Bumping that to 512GB would be good alright.

TheDoc

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Didn't you mention you have a 144hz monitor? If so, the 4690S is a bottleneck - an upgrade to an i7-4770 or 4790 would be a good move. Also, as above, if the ram's 1333mhz, an 'upgrade' to 1600mhz wouldn't go amiss. Try and get a 16GB set 2nd hand maybe, new prices are crazy.

I’ve had a CEX voucher burning a hole in my pocket since summer. Never anything to buy

Walking by the shop in Omni and in the window see an i7 4770 for 170 quid. Threw my phone out to this thread cause it rang a bell

Happy days. Only cost me 20. Voucher was for 150.

Cheers !

ghogie91

I would go:

1. Ram (to 16gb if prices come down at all) I have 16gb Corsair Vengence LPX 2400mhz in my own and its great.

2. MB (Something that will support newer generation with some NVMe real estate since you seem to like your storage, also there are some good deals on SSDs at the minute on Amazon)

3. CPU (The new 8th gen processors would be a massive upgrade from yours)

But then again, if your happy out after the 1070 upgrade I cant see much money needed to be spent. I would just crack on with what I have and bank the money for a new build. Who doesn't like a fresh build, especially with Ryzen 2 and 8th Gen Intel, exciting times.