Future Computer upgrade.

Tomaszync

New Member
What is the cheapest way to upgrade this system and improve its gaming performance? Note that I will not upgrade this for a while yet so the question is more about what the weakest part that needs upgrading is.

None of these components are overclocked.

CM Storm Scout Midi Tower
Chieftec Smart Series 550W PSU
AMD Phenom II X4 945
MSI 770-C45, Socket-AM3, DDR3
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz 4GB CL9
Western Digital Caviar® GreenPower™ 1TB
XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 875mhz
BenQ 24" LCD G2420HD 1900-1080
Windows Home Premium 7 64bit
 
I'd say the gpu. Getting something that supports directx 11 and is more powerful for graphics is what you'd need first, I think. That should work excellently for a good while though.
 
Okey. By the way Radeon 5770 does support directx 11.

I think that I quite cheaply can get another 4GB RAM. A plus would be that I don't need to throw away any parts I already have. Would this be worth it?
 
Seems quite a nice system already,id probably upgrade the cpu to a Phenon 2 965 Black edition and buy an aftermarket cpu cooler and overclock.

Sell your 945 on ebay.
I wouldnt bother with the extra ram,4gb is plenty these days to most....if anything id change the ram to something faster...

5770 is good to go so no problems there :)
 
Seems quite a nice system already,id probably upgrade the cpu to a Phenon 2 965 Black edition and buy an aftermarket cpu cooler and overclock.

Sell your 945 on ebay.
I wouldnt bother with the extra ram,4gb is plenty these days to most....if anything id change the ram to something faster...

5770 is good to go so no problems there :)

+1
Consider selling the RAM and get a pair of good overclocking one

Grab a 5870 if you got that much of money.
 
Let us say that I buy another 4 GB 1600mhz Ram. Can I still keep and use the the 4 GB 1333mhz at the same time without any problems?
 
It will downclock the 1600 to 1333, but other than that you'll be fine.

edit: Wait...do you already have this system?
 
No I have a Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz 4GB (actually 2x2GB).

Edit: Or do you mean the entire thing? Well yes I have and it's fine for now. The question was what I should change when the time comes that it isen't fine. Or if there is any 100$ or less tweaks I can do.
 
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No I have a Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz 4GB (actually 2x2GB).

Edit: Or do you mean the entire thing? Well yes I have and it's fine for now. The question was what I should change when the time comes that it isen't fine. Or if there is any 100$ or less tweaks I can do.
Yeah sorry, I misunderstood you.

I'd grab a better PSU. That one has the wattage, but not the build quality. This would be fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

600W+ would be good if you plan to upgrade the video card ever.
 
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Yeah sorry, I misunderstood you.

I'd grab a better PSU. That one has the wattage, but not the build quality. This would be fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

600W+ would be good if you plan to upgrade the video card ever.

Agreed. Definitely upgrade the PSU before you upgrade anything else. Would you really put your whole system(and a good on too :D) on the line just because you bought a cheap PSU?
 
Lower end PSU's typically can't put out the power that they say they can, and will often fail long before one from a good brand would. A lot of it is because good PSU brands will quote their sustainable power output, while crappy ones will quote only the peak output. Peak can only be sustained in short bursts.

This pretty much sums it up:
http://www.corsair.com/cinema/movie.aspx?id=622747

So yes, it might suddenly combust.
 
Well holy crap. So the next thing I'll do is get a better and more stable PSU and also make it stronger in order to open up room for later hardware updates. Also getting a better cooling system I think.
 
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