Upgrade suggestions

[guy120]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to these forums, so can you guys please help me on deciding what I should upgrade?

Specs:

CPU: Intel i5 2500 @3.30 Ghz
MOBO: Asus P8H61-MLX
Graphics: Gigabyte 6770
RAM: 4 GB's (2x2)
Hard Drive: 750 GB Seagate Barracuda (quite old)
Monitor: Asus VH something 23 inches

I'm thinking of getting a 128 GB SSD, but I'm not sure which one I should get, if i do.

 

[Puppies04]

Well you don't have SATA 6gbps ports on that mobo but as the price difference between 3gbps and 6gbps drives seems small maybe you should invest in the faster tech.

The samsung 830 is getting a lot of good write ups in the pc mags I subscribe to although the favourite around here seems to be the crucial M4. Both would be good upgrades as long as you don't mind reinstalling your OS and program files (and maybe a few games) to the new SSD.

If you decide to buy one of the "slower" rated drives to save money though don't be too worried, SSDs excel at IOPS (input/output operations per second) and even the slower rated ones can make a big difference when compared to a HDD if you have multiple programs trying to access data at the same time.

 

[Skiprudder]

Could you tell us what you're doing (or wanting to do) with the computer? Ie what programs, what games, etc. A rough budget would be helpful. The CPU is still great, but depending on what you are wanting to do the video card, ram, or ssd are all possibilities.

 

[guy120]

I'm planning on playing a few games like Skyrim, League of Legends, L4D2, Portal 2.

I think there's something wrong with my hard drive, because it makes this buzzing and clicking noise whenever I boot up.

I want to upgrade, because at my resolution, it's kind of hard to play skyrim at high, yet I want to play at ultra.

My budget would be about $100-200 CAD/USD.

 

[Skiprudder]

I'm guessing the drive didn't always do that? If not then yes, i would replace it. With your budget and capacity needs, you're probably better off with a fast regular hdd rather than an SSD. Something like this WD Black Edition:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284

That doesn't leave much left to work with unfortunately. Your ram should be ok for Skyrim, L4D2, and Portal. League is an MMO, so it's very ram hungry. 4 should get you by, but if this is the primary game you'll be playing, investing in more wouldn't hurt.

Sounds like the main thing holding you back is probably the video card. You have a decent mid-range video card, but what that means is that a meaningful upgrade over wha you currently have is going to run you at least $170 for a Radeon 6870 or an nVidia 560. You're probably better off saving a bit more (after you take care of that hard drive!) and wait and see what happens to prices on the 7000 series Radeons and the 600 series nVidia cards. A really good resource is Tom's Hardware's monthl best cards fro the buck roundup. Here is the current one:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html