Upgrade Options

[jaysnet]

Hi all, four years ago I got this:

Case COOLERMASTER CM STORM ENFORCER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE
Processor Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7870 - DVI, HDMI, 2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
3rd Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
DVD Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
CPU Cooling Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Extra Case Fans 2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options 4 PORT USB 2.0 INTERNAL PCI CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS

The system is still great, but I'm now looking to upgrade.

Initially, I'm looking at RAM and another SSD, but would it be worth upgrading the Graphics Card? Or even adding another? I assume this would mean I would have to upgrade the PSU, whi I don't really want to do unless I need to.

The other option is to get a new system with room to fit my existing drives in.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Oussebon]

Another SSD should be fine. You motherboard has:

Intel® Z77 chipset :

2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), blue​

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P8Z77V_LX/specifications/

You'll want your SSDs plugged into the grey ports, and the HDDs / DVD drive plugged into the blue ones.


Adding more RAM should be fine. You can use CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html (free software with a very good reputation) to give you detailed info about your RAM, such as the model number, frequency, timings, etc.

but would it be worth upgrading the Graphics Card?

Do you play games and like to have the quality of the graphics turned up for the visual experience? If you do and are happy spending the money on it, a new GPU would be likely to give you a big boost in performance and visual fidelity.

GPUs have got more power efficient. There are plenty of very powerful GPUs that would be fine with your current PSU. You could look at the RX 480 4gb (~£160+) or the GTX 1060. Those kinds of GPUs are generally enough to run demanding modern titles somewhere at between high-ultra settings at 1080p.

You can use an online PSU calculator to check what kinds of upgrades your system is likely to be happy with, in terms of the PSU. I input your system very quickly into this: http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
which generated this: http://outervision.com/b/wJmRue suggesting your 450W PSU should be more than fine with an RX 480 (it gives the load wattage as 350W, with a recommended PSU wattage of 400W for some headroom).

 

[jaysnet]

Thanks for the reply Oussebon. Yes, I do play games at high settings, so a new Card may be included too. Thanks for the links and advice!