Looking to upgradePost Date: 2017-05-13 |
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yatzee 
Newbie 
Joined: 05 Sep 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
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 Topic: Looking to upgradePosted: 13 May 2017 at 7:11pm |
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Budget:
Looking to spend up to $500 Expectations: Upgrade my aging DS PC Usage: Playing many games purchased through steam I am looking to update my DS rig. I haven't added anything to it since I bought it. What started out chewing through games is now showing it age. I was thinking I would look to update the graphics card and or SSD. I am open to any suggestions anyone might have. Here is the build I purchased: Digital Storm Desktop 231914 1 $1,983.00 Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller HAF 922 Exterior Finish: Standard Factory Finish Trim Accents: Standard Factory Finish Processor: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Quad Core) Motherboard: EVGA X58 SLI 3 Edition (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s) (Model: 131GTE767) System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 750W Digital Storm Certified (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Recommended) Expansion Bay: No Thanks Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (40GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25V Edition) (Extreme Performance) Set 1 Raid Options: No Thanks Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVDR/RW/CDR/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CDWriter 48x) Optical Drive 2: No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports HighSpeed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card(s): 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (Includes PhysX Technology) Addon Card: No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Noctua Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors) H20 Tube Color: Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or SubZero LCS Cooling System Selected Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red) Enhancements: No Thanks Chassis Mods: No Thanks Noise Reduction: No Thanks CPU Boost: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended) Graphics Boost: No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Memory Boost: No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory OS Boost: No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64Bit Edition) Recovery Tools: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based) Virus Protection: No Thanks Office: No Thanks Benchmarking: No Thanks PreInstall Game: FREE: Hotselling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card Display: No Thanks Surge Shield: No Thanks Speakers: No Thanks Keyboard: No Thanks Mouse: No Thanks External Storage: No Thanks Exclusive TShirt: FREE: Digital Storm TShirt Black (Large) Priority Build: No Thanks, Ship Within 515 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: FREE PROMO: Lifetime Expert Customer Care with 4 Year Limited Warranty |
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Snaike
Moderator Group 
Just a dude trying to keep the spam away 
Joined: 23 Jan 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 9459 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 1:55am |
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I doubled my performance by trading a GTX770 for a GTX1070. If you're gaming at 1080, this will make a world of difference.
Also, you might want to bump up your RAM. I see now that 8Gb is standard, but 16Gb couldn't hurt. (Although some very knowledgeable folks will tell you that games don't use more than 8Gb). 
These are the 2 mechanical changes I've made to my Vanquish 2 and, as I said above, I've doubled my performance. Other folks will chime in with more technical knowledge... you should listen to them before you take my advice. Good luck!! |
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bprat22
DS ELITE 
DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!)
Joined: 08 Jun 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20391 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 3:47am |
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Yep, like Snaike suggested, I would go with a new graphics card. The gtx 1070 is excellent but even a gtx 1060 will give you a Huge boost in frames.
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yatzee
Newbie
Joined: 05 Sep 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 7:12am |
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This might be a dumb question... is there any reason I can't just put one of the new graphics cards in this motherboard? Is it all still compatible?
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bprat22
DS ELITE
DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!)
Joined: 08 Jun 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20391 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 8:00am |
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Not a dumb question.... Your mobo is PCIe 2.0 and all the new cards are PCIe3.0, but, they are all backward compatible so no problem. So go for it.
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yatzee
Newbie
Joined: 05 Sep 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 8:13am |
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Cool. guessing that causes a little bit of performance loss? Which I know will be way better than my 480 lol.
Any brand you would recommend? Also, any RAM recommendations? I didn't even realize it only had 6gb. |
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bprat22
DS ELITE
DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!)
Joined: 08 Jun 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20391 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 8:22am |
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PCIe 2.0 still has plenty of bandwidth, especially with single card to be just fine. Nothing you'd notice. Your cpu might bottleneck a little with certain games long before the PCIe bandwidth causes any issue, if at all.
Kingston, Crucial, Corsair, any of the name brands are my pick. For the most part, ram is ram, and they're all good. It's when you get into pushing the overclock on them which I doubt you will, that the better , more expensive sticks are needed. I like MSI, EVGA and ASUS for cards. My last gtx 970 is a MSI and it's great. |
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yatzee
Newbie
Joined: 05 Sep 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 8:45am |
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Awesome! Thank you very much. I'm going to upgrade this and give it to my son. Pretty soon I'll be back for my new machine.
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bprat22
DS ELITE
DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!)
Joined: 08 Jun 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20391 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 9:28am |
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My pleasure.
Whenever you decide to get the new machine, post it here so we help out if you want. It's tough to make bad picks, all the parts DS offer are good fits for each other but sometimes we can suggest best bang for the buck selections. |
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yatzee
Newbie
Joined: 05 Sep 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 9:40am |
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As I start to think about my new computer, what's a good amount to spend where you get high end performance without the diminishing returns of the extreme high end.
I settled at 2k last time and it served me well. I could go higher or lower. Just want good value. |
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bprat22
DS ELITE
DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!)
Joined: 08 Jun 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 20391 |
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Posted: 14 May 2017 at 2:33pm |
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Under $2500 is all you need for a strong gaming rig, unless you wanted to go full water cooling. You can easily go to $3500 if you wanted larger SSDs, sli graphics card, etc.
Edited by bprat22 - 14 May 2017 at 2:36pm |
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