Need some advice on "older" system and today's standards

[Nickeleye]

I've got a few questions for the gurus out there. Forgive the noobness, but I haven't been playing around with my PC as much these days. I built a "new" gaming PC what I thought was maybe about a year ago or so, but as it turns out it was more like two years ago. Here's what I've got:

Mobo - Asus P7P55D Deluxe
CPU - Intel i5 750 2.67ghz (OC'd to 4.0ghz STABLE)
CPU HSF - Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plu
RAM - 4gb (2x2gb) Corsair XMS 3 (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
Video - Evga GTX 570 Superclocked (stock timings), just upgraded from Gigabyte GTX 460
HD - WD 300gb Velociraptor
PSU - Corsair VX550w
Case - Antec 300
Monitor - Asus VW246 1080p








So, as I eluded to above, I just upgraded my system from the GTX 460 to the GTX 570 today. I can definitely already see a difference. However, this is where my questions come in.

1. Based on the rest of my components, what should I expect out of this sytem?

2. Would my system benefit from increasing to to 8gb or 16gb of RAM? This machine is really only used for gaming in terms of large memory requirements. My fear of upgrading the RAM is that I'll have to go through the whole system overclocking process again and HOPE that I get the same overclock I've got now.

3. Same goes with the CPU. I realize the new SandyBridge processors are out right now, but would I really see that much of a difference? I previously went with the i5 because it was much cheaper than the i7 and at that time the i5's were well known for large overclocking gains under air cooling. I think my system shows this. I just don't know how much I'd really notice a difference with an upgraded CPU. I'd then have to go through the OC process all over again.

4. My windows score is still relatively low due to my hard drive I guess. A SSD would be nice (I have them in my Macs), but I realize this won't do anything but load things faster and will make zero difference in my gaming experience from a detail and framerate standpoint.



Bottom line - What does everybody think of my current system in terms of being able to handle the video card properly without being a bottleneck? I have a feeling if anything needs an upgrade it *might* be the RAM.

Thanks in advance!

[Meridian]

While Sandybridge is clock for clock better than Lynnfield, the difference won't be apparent in real life, so I wouldn't worry about it. The main advantage it has is that it can usually be overclocked further, which will make a difference. But not in gaming which is 90% GPU-limited.

1) Do you mean what would you see if you changed to Sandybridge? Because any GPU difference should be obvious?

2) For gaming, probably not. Most game limit the amount of RAM grabbed by the game at about 0.5GB, so unless you tweak the .ini (and most games hide it)then it will make little difference. You might notice 8GB (but I doubt it), but 16GB is overkill for everything except video encoding.

3) As at the top: no. You are still effectively GPU-limited. If you could get an SB to 5GHz you might just see an improvement.

4) I don't think there's a question there?


You rig is fine. I'm still using an i920 and waiting for Sandybridge-E to see if it's worth upgrading then. I don't feel deprived.


M

[python134r]

The only thing I might do given having the same rig is maybe an SSD, possibly go to 8gb memory although 4 gb should be enough. You have a pretty good setup, enjoy it.;

[Nickeleye]

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful. The PC really is essentially used for gaming and that's about it. To be honest, I haven't been using it often at all over the last couple of years, but I started feeling guilty letting it sit. I guess my prior job really sucked away a lot more free time than a "normal" employee would have to give up and as a result I felt like I couldn't sit down and play a few hours of games each week. I know when I built it that I took a lot of time trying to put together a solid system that wouldn't cause me to go broke. It's just that I've been out of the PC gaming/building realm for the most part over the last two years that I don't know where I stack up.

Your advice really helps. I'd love to put in an SSD, but that will probably have to wait as I just upgraded my Mac to an SSD and, in the case of my Win7 box, I'd want a drive 200+ gig to take advantage of the speed for all my games and those ain't cheep... not to mention I just bought that GTX 570 for the gaming rig

I know that RAM is pretty inexpensive overall right now so I figured if it'd give me a boost to help out my gaming performance more, maybe it'd be worth it. From your responses and a little more digging around, it sounds like it's probably not worth it right now. Not to mention I don't want to risk screwing up my current OC!

Like you said, enjoy it. Now that I know my system stacks up well, I'll do just that. If anything I might try to eek out a little more OC performance out of the GTX 570, but that's not even a major priority for me at the moment.

[sttubs]

Buy the 2x4gb if you do decide to move to 8gb of ram & you should be able to achieve the same overclock you have now. If you run 4x2gb you will lose some of your overclocking ability. TBH your current setup should serve you nicely for a while yet.

[alex666]

Great thread. I've been itching for an upgrade for a while, and my work is sort of backing off a bit, so I have some time, but my i7 system still has plenty of punch. I'm probably hold off for Ivy Bridge or Haswell. Hmm, probably Ivy Bridge. Not sure I want to wait until 2013. But even though it's only been not quite two years since I built a new system, I feel like out of the loop.

[Nickeleye]

Time to do some grave digging.

Although still primarily a Mac user (I know... boo, hiss, etc), I still do use the PC for gaming and the occasional video encoding. The new Ivy Bridge chips came out today, but from what I've read initially, it seems plenty of people would be just as happy going with Sandy Bridge chips after the announcement. That being said, it would still seem that my OC'd Lynnfield 2.67 @ 4.0ghz still seems to stack up pretty nicely. Am I missing anything here? Granted, I haven't done a whole lot of research yet. Again, roughly 8 months since my original post, I'm curious if there are any reasons at all to do any sort of upgrades?

[alex666]

Time to do some grave digging.

Although still primarily a Mac user (I know... boo, hiss, etc), I still do use the PC for gaming and the occasional video encoding. The new Ivy Bridge chips came out today, but from what I've read initially, it seems plenty of people would be just as happy going with Sandy Bridge chips after the announcement. That being said, it would still seem that my OC'd Lynnfield 2.67 @ 4.0ghz still seems to stack up pretty nicely. Am I missing anything here? Granted, I haven't done a whole lot of research yet. Again, roughly 8 months since my original post, I'm curious if there are any reasons at all to do any sort of upgrades?

Nice OC on the Lynfield. I've got mine up to 3.6GHz.

I just put together an i5 2500K system OCed to 4.5GHz. I replaced the old but still pretty good DS3 I built in 2007, my first Intel system. Anyway, the i5 is awesome (see sig for parts). I really like the ASRock mobo. Re. your question, I'm not sure I'd replace your system as, like mine, it still has lots of punch. The difference is the technology vs. speed per se. By that, I mean that that z68 chipset has some nice features, e.g., Intel Sata3, the new rapid storage technology that lets my use a smaller SSD drive as a cache to a 1TB Black Caviar in a RAID configuration that runs like a single SSD. Amazing stuff. I'm still exploring the Virtu technology, not quite sure about it (I'll let the reader look that up). The i5 is one very fast chip, which along with the z68 chipset, and now the z77, makes for some interesting advances. BTW, SB and I assume IB overclock very differently. It's all multiplier now, and only with unlocked chips as best as I can tell. The FSB/BLCK adjustments have been marginalized. My i5 2500k OCs like most, and it really is very fast.

I'm quite pleased with my new system. But I'm not sure I would have built it to replace my Lunfield system. That said, it was an awful lot of fun building a new system. I learned a lot. That was fun in and of itself.

My two cents. Hope that maybe helps. BTW, I realized I had not updated my sign. Now it's fixed.

marty

[Nickeleye]

See, that's the rub. I'd have to build a whole new rig to run either Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge. It's really starting to sound like it's not even worth the time, trouble, or money. New mobo, new CPU, new RAM (I think), etc. Am I wrong?

[Doon1]

No, you're not wrong. Upgrading your system would be pretty pointless. If there's nothing you NEED (I NEED a new roof) then sure get yourself a new toy. You can always re-coup some of your cost via Ebay. I bought a 1090t for $150 and sold my 965 for $109.88. I got to tweak and play with a new toy for a week for $40. Not bad in my book.
John
P.S. I would spend some time overclocking that video card if I were you...