Thinking about throwing an upgrade

[Adamzetti]

Hey guys I am thinking about upgrading my tower here. This is the first time I have ever done an upgrade to the PC and not just a whole new tower.

Any suggestions for better FPS/ Play during Star Citizen Arena Commander?



OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Storage:
931 GB Usable Hard Drive Capacity
522 GB Hard Drive Free Space

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.8GHz

Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 16344MB RAM


Display Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/24/12 09:41:43 Ver: 04.06.05

If I am missing anything feel free to let me know, and I am wanting to keep the total cost to be roughly $1,000. Cheers gents!

 

[CrashMan054]

The only thing that really needs upgrading is the GPU, although that will play SC at launch. The only reason to upgrade is if you want higher settings. What's your PSU?

 

[Adamzetti]

my PSU: IN WIN ATX 12v 2.31

 

[Annitias]

The pus would need to be swapped down the line as well. When was the last good In Win PSU? A while.

This is a prebuilt right? As in HP/Dell or more like Cyberpower?

 

[Adamzetti]

Ehh more like I asked the guy at the computer place to build me one for gaming. Keep in mind this is about 2 years old now.

 

[Shar Treuse]

That's not a bad build there, though you got ripped on the PSU. You should be getting at the very least 40fps and likely more out of that system. That video card is a small step up from the 670s I have been using for a while now, and I am getting 40-50fps with SLI turned off, though it's possible (doubtful, but possible) the i5 is slowing the GPU down slightly (http://forums.anandtech.com/archive/index.php/t-2096223.html).

You didn't say how many Watts your PSU provides, but as long as it was 600W or so new you should be alright for a little while longer, though RussianJ is right, In Win do not have the best reputation.

If you just want to get by for a little while, say until Star Citizen is much closer to release, you should be just fine for now. If you're not happy with your system's performance the least you can get away with for a significant upgrade would, as others have stated, be a GPU upgrade. While I often say I am biased towards nVidia (I am so very biased towards nVidia, it's not funny), in this case I can objectively say it will be much easier for you to go with nVidia simply because you already have nVidia...crossing the street is a real pain in the ass, though easier now than a few years ago. But still, go with what you are happy with.

But try a hard drive defrag first, before laying out money on parts.

 

[Erroll]

Nothing much to upgrade. You would need to spend a LOT of money on GPU to see any real difference.

The one thing you COULD do is get an SSD (I didn't see if you have one). Faster boot and load speeds. Put windows on the SSD and put a few of your most played games on it.

Otherwise, wait for the fall and the release of windows 10.

 

[Annitias]

A new psu would be on the top of my list. Since you have baller status I figure your want sli/crossfire in the future. I would say a 800-1k for you.

What motherboard, memory models do you have. Oh, and a SSD would make a world of difference