Thinking of Upgrading Gaming PC - Would Like Some Advice

[drharvey12]

Hi Guys,

I'm currently gaming on the system below which I got pre-built from Scan:

Intel 980X @ 4.2ghz (Water)
2 x GTX 480's SLI (Water)
6 GB RAM - Corsair Dominator GT - 2000mhz
120 GB OCZ Vertex - System Drive
1 TB WD Caviar Black
Sound - Through GTX 480's - Nvidia HD drivers
Corsair HX1000 - PSU
Corsair 800D Case

I'm very happy with it but it's 2 years old now which is about the time I normally look to upgrade and as it's still in warranty I can hopefully get the watercooling loop flushed at the same time

1. CPU / Mobo

For the first time in a while I'm not too sure whether to change the mobo & CPU. The 980X still runs well and Ivy Bridge hasn't really blown it away. On the other hand the 980X is very hot and power hungry and the X58 is a much older platform so maybe changing to a Z77 and selling my current mobo/ RAM/ CPU would be a good idea.

I could go for either of these two bundles (or something else???):

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1285

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1375

The alternative would be to keep the 980X and invest in a 512GB (or possibly 3x256GB) SSD's to improve and speed up loading in games such as a heavily modded Skyrim.


2. Graphics cards

I have pretty much made up my mind to replace (& sell) my GTX 480's with GTX 680's - probably these ones:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-e...es-1536-2x-dl-

The water loop is set up for two cards so I imagine it will be a straight swap.


3. Soundcard...or not?

I also think that I will buy a better set of speakers as the ones I have at the moment are notably "noisy" and ill defined at times when gaming.

I'll be getting the Z906's as guys on here have given good feedback on them:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/logit...akers-500w-rms

I am trying to decide though whether I should use either onboard sound (currently a Realtek ALC889 - I think) or something similar if I go for an Ivy bridge setup or whether a discrete soundcard would be worth the extra £75 to £100.

The only issue is whether putting a soundcard into one of the PCI-E slots on the mobo would knock the 2 graphics cards from 16x/16x/1x/1x to 8x/8x/8x/8x. Ideally I would prefer to have both gfx cards at 16x/16x and forgo a soundcard if necessary. However I'm assuming that the soundcard going in a 1x slot should be sufficient??? (Hope this makes sense to you - I only vaguely understand about how the bandwidth on these slots is apportioned out)! From what I've read GTX 680's are bandwidth limited at 8x/8x on PCI 2.0 so if the soundcard would interfere with them running at 16x/16x I probably wouldn't bother. Be really good to get some clarification on this so I can tie down my upgrade build.

If I was going for a soundcard I would probably choose something like this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...pci-sound-card

or

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/creat...onal-soundcard

Having had major issues with soundcards in the past and SLI setups I was also hoping that somebody would be able to confirm that the issues with a lot of hissing / crackling and popping have now been cleared up. I think it was due to lack of bandwidth again on the PCI lanes with 2 gfx cards causing brief losses of data to the soundcard and causing this feedback.


Sorry about the length of the post. I hope you have been able to bear with me as I would definitely appreciate some advice on what people would choose to keep / upgrade in my position. I am happy to consider anything as a replacement within the budget of £2,000.00 to £2,200 ish.

Cheers guys

[drharvey12]

Spoke to Jason and Sanjay at Scan. Both very knowledgeable and helped me out a great deal.

Especially would say thanks to Jason who spent an hour or so on the phone to me in order to make sure the system was just right.

It's this kind of service that will keep me coming back to SCAN and recommending them to my friends.