euskalzabe
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- May 9, 2009
- Messages
- 1,478
I'm trying to refresh my PC this 2nd half of 2016 but I'm not exactly sure how to not overspend on parts that my PC won't be able to benefit from (as in, parts that offer extra performance that will be bogged down by the rest of the system). I can't believe I'm asking this as 3 years ago I would've immediately known what to get, but it seems that after finishing my doctorate and starting my current job at a university, I've been busy enough to lose some touch with current competitive players.
My current config for the past couple years has been this:
AMD FX 6300
ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS motherboard
Nvidia GTX 770
8GB G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1333
Crucial MX100 128GB - main SSD
Samsung Spinpoint F3 - HDD for games & general storage
Corsair Carbide SPEC-01 case
Dell ST2220T 1080p60 IPS monitor
I'm quite satisfied with my system, but it's getting a bit too old for new games - playing ROTR, ACU or ME:SOM at 900p, for example (I think my Kepler's 2GB VRAM is to blame...). I will consider replacing CPU/mobo/RAM once AMD's Zen comes out, so no rush on those for now. I've been asking around [H] to figure out parts, but realized I need to be holistic with any parts I buy: they need to fit the overall system and how far it can be pushed.
So, this is what I'm thinking, with a budget of ~$500:
Replace GTX 770 with either RX 480/NV 1060. Since I only game at 1080p60, 1070/Vega seem to offer too much for what I want. The price hike tells me those parts have moved up-market, so the mainstream x80 (AMD or x60 (Nvidia) may be enough for my 1080p ~40-60fps intentions. I don't need rock solid 60fps although it's welcome.
Replace HDD with OCZ Trion 150. It's a budget TLC SSD but from what I find online, it's faster than my Crucial MX100 and I'm satisfied with the latter's speed, so I figured the jump from HDD would be perfectly fine for my needs/expectations. All I want is for games to load faster, office files won't really be noticeable anyway.
I'm planning to get a new monitor too, but the Dell keeps working like a charm and since I don't care for 4K nor will I sacrifice IPS to go 144hz (nor could the GPUs I'm willing to spend money on drive that in anything other than older games), I'm comfortably waiting for HDR monitors to be released hopefully in 2017.
Any advice about my plans? Any better options? I think it's well balanced for now, but I'm not sure anymore as I'm too busy to keep up with all the new advances. I know I'm being frugal and not getting the best, but being content with 1080p60 gaming, I don't need or want to spend $3000 on a fully new PC (though I easily could) as it doesn't make sense to me nor do I have so much time to game as I used in the past anyway.
Any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated.
My current config for the past couple years has been this:
AMD FX 6300
ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS motherboard
Nvidia GTX 770
8GB G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1333
Crucial MX100 128GB - main SSD
Samsung Spinpoint F3 - HDD for games & general storage
Corsair Carbide SPEC-01 case
Dell ST2220T 1080p60 IPS monitor
I'm quite satisfied with my system, but it's getting a bit too old for new games - playing ROTR, ACU or ME:SOM at 900p, for example (I think my Kepler's 2GB VRAM is to blame...). I will consider replacing CPU/mobo/RAM once AMD's Zen comes out, so no rush on those for now. I've been asking around [H] to figure out parts, but realized I need to be holistic with any parts I buy: they need to fit the overall system and how far it can be pushed.
So, this is what I'm thinking, with a budget of ~$500:
Replace GTX 770 with either RX 480/NV 1060. Since I only game at 1080p60, 1070/Vega seem to offer too much for what I want. The price hike tells me those parts have moved up-market, so the mainstream x80 (AMD or x60 (Nvidia) may be enough for my 1080p ~40-60fps intentions. I don't need rock solid 60fps although it's welcome.
Replace HDD with OCZ Trion 150. It's a budget TLC SSD but from what I find online, it's faster than my Crucial MX100 and I'm satisfied with the latter's speed, so I figured the jump from HDD would be perfectly fine for my needs/expectations. All I want is for games to load faster, office files won't really be noticeable anyway.
I'm planning to get a new monitor too, but the Dell keeps working like a charm and since I don't care for 4K nor will I sacrifice IPS to go 144hz (nor could the GPUs I'm willing to spend money on drive that in anything other than older games), I'm comfortably waiting for HDR monitors to be released hopefully in 2017.
Any advice about my plans? Any better options? I think it's well balanced for now, but I'm not sure anymore as I'm too busy to keep up with all the new advances. I know I'm being frugal and not getting the best, but being content with 1080p60 gaming, I don't need or want to spend $3000 on a fully new PC (though I easily could) as it doesn't make sense to me nor do I have so much time to game as I used in the past anyway.
Any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated.
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