Suggestions on how I could upgrade my PC.

evianwater

I haven't done any upgrading for quite a while and I feel like the stream has passed me by as far as knowledge goes. So I thought I'd ask here for some suggestions for what I should look at for upgrades.

 

Here's a basic rundown of my setup -

Processor Intel Core i7 3.20 GHz

12g RAM

Windows 7 64

NVIDIA GeForce GT 430

 

 

I don't currently remember the Power Supply wattage but I know I went higher than necessary with it on this computer just because I had a problem last time.

 

Also..if anyone has a tip on a wireless modem, the one I'm using is well over five years old and the signal struggles. (I also have a terrible ISP however..)

Tsuru

based on your list, the video card is gonna be your best bet on what to upgrade, but as you said, you need to find out what your power supply wattage is, cause that will determine how good of a card you can get.

Quizzical

If gaming is your intended purpose, then it probably makes sense to replace the video card while leaving most other components alone.  But I'd like to see your full build to make sure first.  Presumably you have a power supply, case, hard drive, and so forth.  Also, there are a lot of different processors that have gone by the name "Core i7", so I'd like to know which one you have.

Cleffy

Its going to be one of the older i7 on the upper end of the spectrum considering he has 12 GB of ram. Either that or the Ram Distribution was bad. Regardless, any i7 should be quite sufficient for current workloads.

Most PSU have their information written on their side if you open you case.

On Wireless modems and ISPs it really depends on your ISP. Who is your ISP. There is a good chance the issue is not with the ISP but with the lines in your home. Also it would help understand what would be the best Wireless Modem for you.

drbaltazar

Put a GPU 256 bit in that a bit higher then ps4 and don't touch anything else ,if you need speed?disable paging file and desablepagingexecutive (the later to prevent issue)if you know regedithttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff544246(v=vs.85).aspx verify to make sure everything with a 1 in MSI as also a defined max amount otherwise you get only one.ms suggest one per physical core.thing should be smoother.there are lot of other worthy tweak but I ain't sure your system support it.

Ridelynn

Going to go on a limb and guess Core i7 960, which is still a good CPU. In fact, I can't think of anything labeled Core i7 that would be necessarily outdated yet, the i7 moniker hasn't been around that long.

The nVidia 430 is pretty bad. And if you had power supply issues before with that video card; the 430 draws next to no power as far as GPUs go (just under 50W if my numbers are right).... so you probably could use a quality power supply, especially if you are stepping up to a real gaming-class card that pulls 150-250W on it's own.

But yeah, SSD if you don't have one, and upgrade that video card to whatever you can afford, probably a new power supply for good measure, and your pretty much on par with any medium-high end gaming machine that you could build today with current parts.

Ridelynn

As far as wireless goes - I'm assuming you mean WiFi, and not something else like Satellite, Cellular, or Radio wireless?

There are "faster" WiFi adapters out there, but realistically, to get any of the advantage of them, you need to upgrade both your adapter and the router.

Your better off with wired ethernet by far, and possibly powerline ethernet.

Aside from that, get a WiFi Bridge (costs a bit more - about $30-50), but it can work with multiple devices at the same time and doesn't require any drivers on your computer.

Gaia_Hunter

As it was said before, if you are gaming, the really crappy component is the graphics card.

So the questions you need to answer are:

- What power supply do you have?

- What resolution do you play?

- What is your upgrade budget?

 

Other than that an SSD could also be something worth considering if you don't have one.

 

How far is the PC from the router?

syntax42

I want to endorse powerline ethernet adapters.  They have worked for me in the past, and are FAR better than wireless networking.

Also, solid-state drives are the way to go for any gaming system.  Your OS and games should be on the SSD while movies, pictures, and music should be kept on the mechanical disk.  The performance increase is amazing.  Everything feels more responsive and everything loads fast.

drbaltazar

Get steam os