Weekend Open Forum: Your next PC upgrade

Matthew DeCarlo

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104
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With the Radeon HD 7000 series trickling out, Ivy Bridge and Kepler bound for mid-2012 and hard drive prices gradually recovering, it seems a great time to begin plotting your next system upgrade. What parts do you plan to buy in the near future? Need more horsepower, storage or RAM? Finally going to splurge on a flash drive or secondary display? Perhaps it's time for a completely fresh build?

Components for Shawn's new X79 test rig
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I'm tempted to perform an overhaul this summer, but I think I'll skip this generation and see what 2013 brings. The i5-750 and GTX 460 should hold strong until then. Coincidentally, you are reading this via TechSpot's newly upgraded server, which now has dual quad-core Xeon E5620s, 12GB of RAM and two SSDs in RAID (from dual quad-core Xeon E5335s, 8GB of RAM and 10k RPM SAS drives).

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https://www.techspot.com/news/47563-weekend-open-forum-your-next-pc-upgrade.html

 
Makes absolutely no sense to me, I actually downgraded my PC lately....

Actual specs: i5-750, 4gb ram, 560ti, 64GB SSD.

I can seriously see no gain for me in Ivy Bridge, HD7000, etc.
 
Currently planning on 3 things for the next half a year or so:
A 120GB SSD as my system/programs etc drive.
A new card to replace my HD5770, probably gonna see what nVidia has to offer before getting anything.
And a new sound card to replace my on-board audio, probably the ASUS Essence STX, slowly becoming an audiophile :)
 
I'm quite content with my current system (Phenom 2 X6 OCd @ 3.8GHz, 8GB RAM, Radeon 6970, 60GB SSD).

My current wishlist consists of a bigger monitor either a 27" or 30" (from my current 23"), some new headphones and a mechanical keyboard.

Apart from that thinking further into the future I think I want to go Micro ATX or M-ITX for my next build, as small and quiet as (reasonably) possible. Probably no HDDs, only SSD(s) I'd move all my current storage into a RAID array in a sever in a closet or something for redundancy, network access and no noisy drives in my main rig.
 
I upgraded to 16GB of 1600 ram a couple months ago.
My next upgrade will probably be a graphics card. I don't have loyalties for Nvidia or ATI, so I'll probably go with whoever has the best card for around 350-400 when I get the money.
 
A 7 series Ati card to replace my jet engine 6850 and probably an Ivy later in the year.
 
Shawns test rig needs more then a measly 560Ti !!
Fine if your only playing at 1920 X 1080 I guess. :p
 
im just waiting on my asus hd7970 dcii, but recently bought the cm storm trooper (with xornet deal) as well. will be upgrading cpu to piledriver and new mobo when they come out. sdd in future as well and possible custom loop

OS: Win 7 64-Bit Ultimate | PSU: COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RS800-
80GAD3-US | MOBO: ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3 890fx CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T O/C 4.0 | CPU Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro H70 w/ AS 5 | MEM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 8GB DDR3 @ 8-8-8-24 | GPU: EVGA GTX 460 SE | HDD-1:WD 1TB 7200RPM Black Caviar WD1002FAEX | Display: ASUS VH236H Black 23"x2
 
I'll hopefully be sporting one of the newest Nvidia 600 Series graphics cards that are supposed to be coming out soon. Hopefully the top model, I've got 3 superclocked Geforce 470's now, but even a single 590 could compete with that. I hope the 690 (if thats the model) will be even better. :)
 
Oh a very relevant topic for me. i am about to upgrade in march and right now i am just shortlisting parts

core 2 duo ---> i5 2500k
ddr2 ----> ddr3 1333
8800gt --> asus direct cu2 560Ti
coolermaster 350w --> 500W (probably silverstone)

the only thing i havent shortlisted is the motherboard. i need 2 PCIe slots but at a reasonable price range.dont want to go for expensive ones. i only require value for money parts.

also i am not going to wait for ivy bridge.it might be having huge performance in gaming but at high price point and anyway i am going to use 560Ti to does not matter to me.

any suggestions please.
 
2012:
I need a new high end video card to replace my unlocked HD 6950 2GB.
I need a new 240GB SSD to replace my 64GB SSD.
I need a new DVD burner. The tray doesn't always eject without hitting it.
I need a 2TB HDD. My 1TB is almost full.
============>
I want a bigger monitor to replace my 24". Most likely a 27".
I want a new headset.
============>
2013:
I may make the jump from air to water cooling (CPU and GPU) eventually, but only if I find a kickass single GPU card with amazing overclock capability and performance.
 
I got pretty lucky recently, friend of mine gave me a mobo with an i7 960 and P6X. I bought 12gb of ram, a 120 SSD and I'm trying to decide, go SLI with my 460GTX or do a 560 or so... Cheapest yet best upgrade I've ever done (considering the mobo/cpu was around 800 brand new when he bought).
 
Normally I'd be chomping at the bit to do a new build from scratch about now. I like to do a complete rebuild once every other CPU and GPU generation which seems to occur about once every 3-4 years. But right now, there's nothing out there even coming close to taxing my current machine. The games coming out now are all built for the console first, PC second and we're talking 7 year old console technology. With what I have now, I play every game at max settings without so much as a burp. So probably looking at 2013 or even 2014 before I do a new rebuild. Here's what I have now: Intel i7-960 CPU, ASUS Sabertooth X58 MOBO, 12GB GSkill Ripjaw DDR 3 1866 (PC3 1490), ABS Silver Certified 1050W power supply, two MSI N460GTX video cards in SLI, ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card, OCZ 128GB SSD for the OS and commonly used software, 1TB Black Caviar data drive, 750GB Black Caviar data drive, HAF X case, ASUS VW226 26" 1900x1200 display.

Tossing around the idea of upgrading the monitor to a Dell 30" UltraSharp U3011 2560x1600 monitor, but that's $1,300 - the price of a completely new build. We'll see.... ;)
 
Ordering this weekend from NCIX my new build to replace my "gaming" laptop:
Intel i7 2600K
Asus P8Z68-V Pro
GSkill Ripjaws 8GB
Asus Radeon 7970 3GB
OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD
Corsair AX850 PSU
Corsair Carbide 400R

Looking at about $1500 for everything. I haven't built a system in a while, I'm pretty excited.
 
My next upgrade will be a pair of GTX 680s if they are at least as fast as the 7970 and sell for $500-550 each. I've got the money burning a hole in my pocket now - I started saving for it and hit the magic number just recently. Then I can give both my wife and my older daughter my left over 5970s and that'll be a decent upgrade for them. My younger daughter will inherit my older daughter's video solution so she'll get an upgrade too!
 
I'll be getting a laptop this summer, which I guess will be my next upgrade. A SSD, quad core CPU, and discrete video card are all musts, but I haven't started researching any specifics yet.
 
first i need a better video card, then more ram to free the hdd, then a faster hdd for general speed.
but this probably when i will win at bets(so why not a new pc:) ).
 
hahahanoobs said:
TechSpot, how did the server upgrade go? I can post, so you obviously didn't break anything.
Click to expand...

It went well :). We prepared well in advance, and you know how these things go, last minute hiccups always arise and they did. But Per did an awesome job, the move was quick and efficient (at least so far), downtime was minimal and DNS is propagating at a good pace. We keep troubleshooting with the devs right now but so far so good... fingers crossed.
 
I want to replace my air system with a water one, I've spent about 70$ replacing broken fans since 2009 and adding a few fans to my case. I will never go air again. I might go crossfire with my nvidia 275. I could also use a tb of hd space. Then again I might spend nothing on my pc and try out a next generation console.
 
Not sure really. I think I'm going to hold onto my current system (i5 2500k @4Ghz, 6870X2, 240GB SSD, 8GB 1866mhz RAM) for at least 12 months. Then I'll most likely grab a 3770k and a new GPU (whatever is at least a 50% upgrade from my current one) and maybe look at grabbing some 2133mhz RAM with low timings. Got to be honest there is so much great tech out there but so much of it is overkill thanks to the consoles holding back the developers.
 
I am thinking of building 2 rigs.

first build:
based on intel core i3-2120 or its ivy bridge equivalent
this will be used for daily internet use and office productivity.

second build:
based on intel core i5-2500 or its ivy bridge equivalent.
this will be my first real gaming rig intended for the coming diablo 3 release and the "complete" starcraft 2.

i already have the following items:
thermaltake v9 blacx case with sata hdd dock
2 x 2gb ddr3-1600 gskill memory kit
4 x 4gb ddr3-1600 gskill memory kit

what i need:
2 power supply units, at least 600w each
2 intel-based motherboards based on my final processor choices
1 decent and affordable video card, probably amd hd6950 or nvidia 560
at least two 2tb hard disk drives
(i'm not buying any ssd)

i will be re-using my two monitors (lg w2043t lcd, acer 201hl led) and my old reliable speakers.
i will not be building these 2 rigs until hdd prices come down to pre-thai floods. :)
(probably in november 2012, first quarter 2013; unless the mayans are wrong :) )
 
Waiting to get a 3 monitor set up and maybe crossfire 7870s or 7850s depending on price and performance scaling
 
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