Advice on my OEM setup (upgrade or rebuild?)

[Thermal]

Hey guys so I'm definetly a newbie when it comes to p.c builds regarding gaming.
Recently I decided to make the switch from console gaming to PC and have loved it ever since...especially since I found steam.
My issue is I dont think I set myself up in a good starting position for gaming when I purchased my new PC about a year ago for roughly $800.
First mistake I did was go straight to futureshop and purchase a OEM build gateway not really doing my homework for gaming requirements other then thinking about a decent CPU and GPU.
The PC I purchased is a gateway DX4860-EF12P with the following setup
Processor Manufacturer
Intel
Processor Type
Core i7
Processor Model
i7-2600 (this is not a K model so OC is not a option)
Processor Core
Quad-core
Processor Speed
3.40 GHz
Cache
8 MB
64-bit Processing
Yes
Hyper-Threading
Yes
Chipset Manufacturer
Intel
Chipset Model
H67 Express
Memory
Standard Memory
8 GB
Maximum Memory (my spec says it can have a max of 16gig)
8 GB
Memory Technology
DDR3 SDRAM
Memory Standard
DDR3-1333/PC3-10600
Number of Total Memory Slots
4
GPU AMD Radeon 6670 2gig
Monitor Samsung SyncMaster 216BW
21.6 inch LCD 1680 x 1050 / 60 Hz

After purchase I went ahead and swapped out for a new PSU and GPU
currently running a Saphire 7850 OC edition 2gig GDDR5 with a new Corsair TX650 PSU

I'm not looking for the biggest baddest rig around to pump out super ultra graphics and performance but I do like to play AAA games and be able to have them run smooth and get the most out of the developers work when it comes to graphics and realism. I'd also like to have a setup I could upgrade a few times so it could last me a bunch of years playing the latest titles.

Im mostly wondering is this system worth holding onto? do I still have options to upgrade for better performace or is it not worth the cost and I should save for a new build and sell this one?
Considering the GPU and PSU I have now would it be worth taking them out and putting them towards a new build or purchased "gaming PC"? maybe running crossfire with another 7850 GPU?
If someone could also shed light on bottle necking issues with this set up that would be helpful as well, as I am still trying to learn more about gaming hardware and components and how it all relates.
Monitor upgrade? can I run a higher resolution monitor without performance loss?

Thanks for everyones help and opinions.

[Trevor]

You only have a 300watt power supply you proply have to upgrade to 700watt and swich out your board for a ASRock Z77 Extreme4 then can get petter ram 1600 MHZ CL9 or 1866 CL9 8GB

[_I_]

Imonfire původně napsal:

After purchase I went ahead and swapped out for a new PSU and GPU
currently running a Saphire 7850 OC edition 2gig GDDR5 with a new Corsair TX650 PSU

he has the tx650

a quality 700w would be way overkill for that system
tx650 can run that with 2x 7850s

[Thermal]

yeh the PSU i had to upgrade once I installed the 7850 to run it...I went with a Corsair TX650...would this psu be enough to power (2) 7850's in crossfire?
Im just wondering if I should sell this computer as it is now or re-install the 300watt psu and original radeon 6670 and sell it and carry forward the psu and radeon 7850?

I wish I could go back in time and just buy a gaming rig with room to upgrade, or just built a PC from the ground up with more thought into the rest of the components such as the mother board ect.

What do you guys think......start fresh with a new case and use my TX650 PSU and 7850 GPU and start a fresh build?
Or should I just wait a little while and save up some cash, sell the system as it is and get everything new?
I dont know a ton about GPU's but it seems like the 7850 OC edition is a good card with decent benchmarks....would keeping the card and buying another the exact same and running both future proof a system for a while? (knowing I would need to upgrade the MoBo and RAM?
Is it worth even keeping the intel i7-2600? would a i5 that is overclocked peform better?
sorry for the newb questions..

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Your build is really solid, your cpu is more than enough for a long time especially with how little cpu performance increases have been lately. Your gpu is also solid and I suppose you could add another one but I personally would try and stay away from crossfire and sli, games dont always scale with multiple graphics cards and microstutter becomes more of an issue if you even can see it, most cant it seems. Your psu is also fine if you want to go dual graphics as well, go to the anandtech benchs and look at total system power consumption when comparing cards and you'll see our systems burn alot less than we think.

The only thing I reccomend is a ssd as boot drive if you dont already have one or wait for the radeon hd 8000 series or if you can wait longer the geforce 800 series will be more of a jump because it a new architecture, I would skip the 700 series sice its basically an improved Kepler architecture, while the gains are pretty good it looks like it may be pricy and I would wait for more substantial gains.

[Thermal]

thanks fearfulspartan for the suggestions and info...
I've been looking into a ssd forsure as I know it would give me a solid boost in performance for loading times ect..
I figured with this setup I would be pretty much good to run games on high or even ultra settings but I've been surprised by some of the games such as BF3,skyrim or witcher 2 suggesting "medium" for a graphics setting overall.
I've tweaked setting for both past medium and it seemed to run fine but it did seem to lag down or get "twitchy" if I pushed it to ultra.
would this be my RAM bottle necking then? is it worth adding more RAM or changing the type of RAM?
Also ive been looking at upgrading my monitor to maybe a 27inch which supports full HD (currently mine is 1680/1050 60hz) and if the price is right I would like to jump to 120hz will this be a issue running at a higher resolution?

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Imonfire původně napsal:

thanks fearfulspartan for the suggestions and info...
I've been looking into a ssd forsure as I know it would give me a solid boost in performance for loading times ect..
I figured with this setup I would be pretty much good to run games on high or even ultra settings but I've been surprised by some of the games such as BF3,skyrim or witcher 2 suggesting "medium" for a graphics setting overall.
I've tweaked setting for both past medium and it seemed to run fine but it did seem to lag down or get "twitchy" if I pushed it to ultra.
would this be my RAM bottle necking then? is it worth adding more RAM or changing the type of RAM?
Also ive been looking at upgrading my monitor to maybe a 27inch which supports full HD (currently mine is 1680/1050 60hz) and if the price is right I would like to jump to 120hz will this be a issue running at a higher resolution?

Your ram should be fine, im not sure how fast its running but 1600mhz is the sweet spot overall, anything beyond that and you really wont notice at all except bench marking software, it doesnt matter anyway because the 2nd gen core i series processors only support up to 1333mhz which is just fine. 8gb is plenty for now and probably awhile you really would only need more if you run alot of video editing software. Most games are only written 32bit which limits them to 4gb of ram anyway.

I have an xfx radeon hd 7850 and I can run tomb raider and bioshock infinite on ultra but it really depends on what is playable to you. For instance coming from console im plenty happy with 30 fps as long as its running in a higher resolution and looks better than console while some pc gamers say 60fps is there bare minimum for them. The games iv played run way higher than 30 anyway while on high or even ultra so im just fine. I havnt played bf3 on pc but I do want to so im going to wait for bf4 before jumping into it, but that game is more cpu intensive which your good with an i7. Also im gaming at 1080p so the card can handle just fine but I cant say on the difference between 60hz and 120, iv heard people say its hard to go back to 60 after see games in 120 but I dont know. Theres no performance hit that I know of on the graphics card since its just the monitor thats just refreshing faster.

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Also most games I play are preset to medium so im not sure if its what the games set automatically or if its what they recommend for your card but either way in most games you should be able to crank it to high or ultra. Also the twitchyness could be because they may have vsynce automatically enabled in the settings which synce the fps to the refresh of your monitor. When I have it disabled it can go over 60 and it seems smoother when it drops below however when vsyncs enabled it seems twitchy like you say in intense areas when I know its going under 60.

[Trevor]

With board that I sead you can keep all your compants. I sead a 700w to be safe then sorry. I woud first get the board and ram and the power supply that I sead in my first post and see how your pc run's. You can always get a CPU later.

[Thermal]

thanks for all the info fearful. Like you said its what you consider playable when it comes to graphics. I also came from console recently so I still have the wow moments everyonce and a while playing BF3 or FarCry when I realize how much better games look on pc compared to consoles.
I think with everything said I might just hold out with my pc and go for a monitor upgrade instead as thats one thing I know I could use and also watch for a SSD drive to add in. I've also heard the same about 120hz not being able to go back to 60 afterwards.
I'll check my game settings for vsyncs options as I've played around with that before and wasnt sure to leave it on or off.
Thanks for the tips and info!!!

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Imonfire původně napsal:

thanks for all the info fearful. Like you said its what you consider playable when it comes to graphics. I also came from console recently so I still have the wow moments everyonce and a while playing BF3 or FarCry when I realize how much better games look on pc compared to consoles.
I think with everything said I might just hold out with my pc and go for a monitor upgrade instead as thats one thing I know I could use and also watch for a SSD drive to add in. I've also heard the same about 120hz not being able to go back to 60 afterwards.
I'll check my game settings for vsyncs options as I've played around with that before and wasnt sure to leave it on or off.
Thanks for the tips and info!!!

Your welcome, and ssd prices have been coming down each year so you can probably find a good deal when they go on sale periodically especially at the end of the year. I also would like to point out that since you have an oem copy of windows from a manufacturer you can swap out pretty much every part except the motherboard and cpu. That windows copy is coded specifically for that chipset and if you replace the board or cpu with something else windows wont start, you have to buy a retail copy of windows then. I know it sucks but I wanted to let you know in case you wanted to upgrade at some point in the future.

[Thermal]

Yeh glad you told me I had no idea about that.
As for the SSD drive is it best to use for just the O.S and game install files? and have another regular hard drive dedicated to all other programs and stored media?

[FearfulSPARTAN]

Imonfire původně napsal:

Yeh glad you told me I had no idea about that.
As for the SSD drive is it best to use for just the O.S and game install files? and have another regular hard drive dedicated to all other programs and stored media?

At the moment that may be best, thats what alot of people apear to do since ssd prices are still high for high capacity drives. Its really common to see a 120/128gb ssd or a 250/256gb ssd paired with a 1tb hard drive, thats what I have. You wont see a huge loading difference in alot of games so alot of gamers tend to use a hard drive as game storage/bulk storage drive, but open world games like skyrim benifit from ssd load times. You will however see a huge difference in load times for windows and programs on a ssd.