Best pc upgrade options for $600US...?

[Boomer 1,619]

Overclocked as my CPU is, is it worthwhile to upgrade to the IB or Haswell?
 
Mainly use my rig for flight simming (FSX and DCSW) and gaming like Skyrim.
 
Moving to a new CPU means a new MOBO, which means moving from triple channel RAM to dual channel RAM and a newer SSD as my OS drive (v2 sandforce doesnt work on z87 and maybe a77 either).
 
So, quite a costly upgrade for me and my budget is tight.
 
Would I be better off upgrading just the GPU and increasing RAM?  If so, could I expect any FPS improvements with FSX?
 
Cheers.

[z06z33 763]

Id get a new video card and processor a 660ti should do. A 660ti will leave you enough to buy a decent mobo and a 4770k. I wouldn't waste my money on more ram as 8gb is more than enough since fsx can only use 4gb as it is a 32bit program

[Boomer 1,619]

Id get a new video card and processor a 660ti should do. A 660ti will leave you enough to buy a decent mobo and a 4770k

 

No, see the problem is a new CPU/MOBO also means I need new dual channel RAM and a newer SSD drive.

[z06z33 763]

Just use an hdd for your OS. Or You could invest in a new cpu cooler and push your overclock higher and get a new video card

[Boomer 1,619]

Heh...well Im not willing to give up an SSD for the OS, it's so snappy and responsive, going back to a hdd would be painful.

 

Cheers.

[Boomer 1,619]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

[Boomer 1,619]

So what I am doing is this.

 

Aimed at improving FSX performance, I am upgrading this weekend to a Haswell 4670k which I will overclock on a Gigabute UD3H z87 MOBO with 8 GB dula chnl RAM.

 

A new GPU will not do anything for FSX, my currrent GTX470 never crosses 60% usage with FSX as it is.  But CPU usage currently hits 100% often with my many many payware add-ons.

 

Will report back.

[Boomer 1,619]

In place upgrade done, OS not reinstalled, flushed drivers for chipset etc etc.

 

Burning in now, will advise how FSX running later this week.

[Boomer 1,619]

Well I havent overclocked yet as I need a new aftermarket cooler, so that waits until January.

 

But so far, with no settingschanges to my FSX install, FPS are not better. This surprises me.

 

i920 oc to 3.6 versus a stock 4670K running @3.6 but new archetexture.

 

We will see after oc.

 

...is anybody out there...?

[Boomer 1,619]

Okay so some chipset driver issues.  Sorted.

 

Net FPS increase substantial and much smoother, even at the high settings  I used before.

 

Where FSX is concerned, definitely a good upgrade.

[odourboy 1,288]

Do you ever get the feeling that you're talking to yourself? :rolleyes:

 

Well I read your thread. I went through a similar way through the summer. Moved from an i5 and chipset that could not be overclocked to one that could. Moving from 3.3GHz to 4.3GHz was a nice step for me and because of the Haswell introduction, a used i5-3570K & Gigabyte Z77 mobo was dirt cheap.

 

Cheers!