Advice on how to upgrade my PC

[ReconEssence]

Alright thanks, I will upgrade my RAM and my video card for now then and I dont plan on touching the ugrids.

[Rennn]

Whatever video card you get, make sure it's at least 2GB.

A 2GB video card is great for any other modern game (Metro, Crysis 3), but if you stack every HD overhaul you can find on Skyrim, then you might even benefit from a 3GB video card.

[ReconEssence]

I decided to go with a 770 4GB so that should do it, only thing I'm still mulling over is weather or not i should get a better CPU, is it going to make any worthwhile difference for modern gaming in the near future at all?

[Thor.]

oops wrong post lol

 

anyways whatever you decide make sure you have a decent psu to go along with it.

Edited September 3, 2013 by Thor.

[PieEyedPiper]

This is all backwards.

Granted opinions are opinions and mine is just that; However, I'm an experienced system builder and professional technician.

 

Point blank: Your motherboard + memory is your main limiting factor.

 

C2Q's are very resilient. e.g. My Xeon X3360 (aka Q9550, stock 2.93GHz) runs at 3.7ghz @ ~500FSB w/4GB DDR2 at 1100MHz. This is enough to go blow for blow with the latest Core i5 in games.

The problem is, and I'm making an assumption here, is that you do not have an "overclocking enthusiast motherboard, nor enthusiast memory dimms", else you'd have done like me and you'd have had no need to make a thread.

 

The 550ti is somewhat of a weakling, but it's certainly not a total looser. So long as it has 2GB VRAM+ it shouldn't really mind modded skyrim at all, not counting ENB's of course.

 

My recommendation to you is to spend your only half your $1000 budget on a solid motherboard + memory combo and drop in the newest i5 you can afford.

An example could be something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116942

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131989

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231587

 

Right there you have a very modern, latest-gen setup that is not only easily classified as "enthusiast" but it will overclock well into the future and cost LESS THAN $500.00

 

You could enjoy life for a bit like this so long as your PSU is a quality unit, then upgrade your videocard and psu at your leisure.

 

My whole angle on this is that if you can dump your 2007 hardware for 2013 cutting edge stuff, and do it for under $500, then you should do it. You'll get a system wide boost in performance, rather than the same stuttery mess you always have. A new videocard would leave your aging system very unbalanced and you would quickly find yourself stuttering about in new upcoming game titles, limping around with that Q9400.

 

~~~

 

Now, if you're really serious about your statements regarding ENB's, and playing maxed out Crysis 3, etc. you'll need to just keep spending. Essentially, you need a new computer for that.

Add a solid PSU, something like an oc'ed HD7950 or a GTX 770 to the above list and you could do pretty much anything you'd have ever wanted. Might even be possible for that $1000 budget, too.

 

Let us know what you do.

[Werne]

C2Q's are very resilient. e.g. My Xeon X3360 (aka Q9550, stock 2.93GHz) runs at 3.7ghz @ ~500FSB w/4GB DDR2 at 1100MHz. This is enough to go blow for blow with the latest Core i5 in games.

The problem is, and I'm making an assumption here, is that you do not have an "overclocking enthusiast motherboard, nor enthusiast memory dimms", else you'd have done like me and you'd have had no need to make a thread.

Some people are uncomfortable with overclocking. Core 2 Quad Q9400 is a bloody good overclocker (like any Core 2 CPU) but you have to take into consideration that some people don't want to overclock because an old, outdated PC is better than one with a blown-up CPU. Some people don't buy their PCs just so they can overclock.

 

And "blow-for-blow with the latest i5"? No, maybe a Westmere/Nehalem i5, but a stock Ivy Bridge i5 3570K is ~70% faster than a stock Xeon X3360 in synthetic benchmarks, an overclocked X3360 might be close to a stock 3570K (doubt it) but is no match to an i5 on Turbo, much less when an i5 overclocked further. Core 2 is an old architecture, it's still pretty good when compared to AMD's quad-cores (like the A10 6800K or FX 4350) but it's nowhere near the Ivy Bridge or Haswell.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Werne