Updates

So, I have a system a few years old - runs fairly well, no real complaints (except ATI oddness.)

Once I finish a move (goodBYE, Florida!) and the money from a house sale clears, I'm planning a few updates. I was just going to build a new system - but this one's not exactly a sluggard, so I don't really see the need for *massive* updates. (Or the room for yet another system - considering building a new work system, or just buying a notebook for it, and retiring the Athlon II x2 that's using.)

This *will* end up running twin 23" monitors - haven't decided which yet. Have to dig through the reviews again.

Aside from COH, this is also going to be used on flight sims (Rise of Flight, DCS,) driving sims - yes, I'm blowing money on controllers - and a few other things that arent' quite so graphically intensive (still play C&C 3 to death.) Also gets used for graphics, video, running multiple VMs (part of the reason to go to twin monitors since I'll have the room) - all 'round use.

Currently:
Intel Core i7 860, 2.8ghz Lynnfield CPU
Stock cooler - this needs upgrading, considering an H80, though I have to remove the mainboard - no cutout behind it to get to stuff. Alternately, a better air cooler.
8 Gb RAM - possibly updating to 16, not critical ATM
ASUS P7P55 LX
Radeon HD 5700 1 Gb driving an Acer X223w (1680x1050)
320 Gb Seagate ST3320620AS
Two 1 Tb WD drives
Onboard audio
Win7 x64 Home Premium
Corsair TX750 power supply


This does do farly well at running most everything I throw at it. However, there are some things that could use refreshing. The updates I'm looking at:

Stock cooler to possibly an H80. Currently idling in the mid-40s Celcius. Though I am, as mentioned, in FL... which doesn't help.

Asus GTX 670 2Gb replacing the HD 5770 - more shinies to turn on. >.> Plus the 5770 does odd things on COH.

Samsung 830 series 128 Gb SSD - Right now I'm using maybe 80 Gb of that hard drive, and it's actually a holdover from another, older system. In fact, there's a crack on the SATA connector... so it'll get refurbed, but while I'm doing that, well, been drooling over SSDs, having built up a different system (not mine) with one. Just for *boot* time it'll be nice. (Yes, I move documents and such off to another, larger drive by default. And will be reverting the boot sector and getting rid of Win8 release preview ahead of time.)

Any other recommended updates? No, I can't update the CPU without doing a mainboard swap, and I don't feel like doing that at the moment. No real reason to, anyway. About the only other thing I'd do is an in place update to Win7 Pro, but the main reason for doing that would be more memory, really - and the board tops out at 16 Gb officially - which is W7HPx64's limit.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Yea, the 860 is fine, only 10% or so slower in games than the i5-3570K. The GTX 670 will make the most difference with the SSD making loading like butter.

Sadly, or correct from an engineering aspect, all the really good coolers on the market require a back plate due to size/weight/center of gravity issues. It's something you really don't want to shake loose or torque off.

More memory the better but if you aren't ever getting close to using the amount of memory you currently have, you aren't going to see any noticeable difference.