New monitor or a PC upgrade?

So, here is the situation: I am trying to decide whether I should focus on upgrading my PC or if I can just go ahead and grab a new monitor.

I am looking at getting something in the 27-inch range or maybe even larger, since my current 24-inch screen is starting to feel a little cramped, you know?

My current setup is as follows:

Thermaltake SMART 630W Power Supply Unit
ASRock P67 PRO3
i5 3350p 3.1 GHz (4CPU)
2x4 GB RAM 1600 MHz
NVIDIA GTX 7850 1GB 256bit
Kingston 60GB SSD
1 TB WD hard drive

What are your thoughts? Should I feel confident enough with my current PC to just pull the trigger on a new monitor?

I'm assuming this PC is mainly for gaming, right?

The processor, RAM, and motherboard are 👍

You might want to consider swapping out the graphics card for something beefier if you're looking to dive into next-gen titles—things like GTA V or Assassin's Creed Unity, for instance. That way, you can actually crank everything up to Amazon settings. You could probably sell your current card for about $100 and put that toward an R9 290 or a GTX 970.

What are your thoughts on me picking up another NVIDIA GTX 7850? I actually found one at a pretty great price... Or, do you think it would be wiser to just scrap my current setup and go for a complete overhaul instead?

Personally, I’d go ahead and sell them like I mentioned earlier—maybe grab around $110 for them? Running dual cards in CrossFire just isn't that reliable these days; honestly, it all depends on the specific game you're playing. Usually, one solid card performs better than two weaker ones anyway—plus, you have to deal with higher temperatures inside the case and more power draw. If you can swing it, I'd suggest aiming for an R9 290 or a GTX 970 instead. Your Power Supply Unit shouldn't be an issue, so you don't need to worry about that part.

Is the price a bit steep? 😲 My PC has been running for about two years now and it’s been serving me incredibly well, though I did run into one annoying issue: my C drive is only 60GB, so it feels like it's constantly hitting capacity. Looking back, I really should have opted for a larger SSD from the start. As for upgrading the graphics card, I think I might hold off on that for a moment and focus on getting a better monitor instead... I'm still weighing my options, honestly.

On another note, does anyone have an idea of what I could get for this setup if I decided to sell it? Would it make sense to add the cost of a new graphics card to the sale price and just trade it all in for something newer and more powerful as a complete bundle? Thanks!

So, what kind of budget are we looking at here? Maybe you could eventually grab an SSD and a monitor too. Honestly, prices are pretty steep right now—especially when you're hunting for a GTX 970.

Don't bother with CrossFire; in most cases, it just isn't worth the hassle. You're better off getting one powerful card instead of two weaker ones. It just generates massive amounts of heat and pulls way too much power. Honestly, I'm not even sure about the quality of your current Power Supply Unit, so I have no idea if it could even handle the load. Regardless, like you were already told, you'd be better off picking up something more modern. An NVIDIA GTX 7850 is basically on par with an R7 265—which is a decent card, but not really enough for next-gen CUDA tasks. And how is a 24" screen too small for you? I don't think you'll actually notice a huge difference switching from 24" to 27". There is a difference, sure, but in my opinion, it’s not worth the money. Just swap out the GPU and call it a day. If you did get a 27" monitor, you'd probably want a higher resolution, otherwise, you'd just end up with a 1080p screen that makes the 7850 struggle even more than it already does.

Larry Ortiz5 said:So, what kind of budget are we looking at here? Maybe you could eventually grab an SSD and a monitor too. Honestly, prices are pretty steep right now—especially when you're hunting for a GTX 970.

My budget is roughly $600 plus whatever I can scrape together from selling some old gear. As for the monitor, I’m really hoping to go big so I can truly immerse myself in a game—I’d love something 27 inches or even larger. Plus, I've been thinking about picking up one of those wall mounts so I can adjust the angle exactly how I want it. There's just something about gaming from a comfortable recliner, isn't there? 🙂

https://www.amazon.com/monitors/asus-vn289q
https://www.amazon.com/ssd-drives/120gb-ssd

copperwolf89 said:Is the price a bit steep? 😲 My PC has been running for about two years now and it’s been serving me incredibly well, though I did run into one annoying issue: my C drive is only 60GB, so it feels like it's constantly hitting capacity. Looking back, I really should have opted for a larger SSD from the start. As for upgrading the graphics card, I think I might hold off on that for a moment and focus on getting a better monitor instead... I'm still weighing my options, honestly.

On another note, does anyone have an idea of what I could get for this setup if I decided to sell it? Would it make sense to add the cost of a new graphics card to the sale price and just trade it all in for something newer and more powerful as a complete bundle? Thanks!

Look, yeah, the price tag isn't exactly small, but you're basically set for a long time once you pull the trigger. Honestly, when you look at how they actually perform, it’s actually a pretty decent deal.
And hey, if dropping three grand all at once feels like too much of a hit to your wallet, you can always just swing the cost over a few months with some financing. No biggie.

copperwolf89 said:Is the price a bit steep? 😲 My PC has been running for about two years now and it’s been serving me incredibly well, though I did run into one annoying issue: my C drive is only 60GB, so it feels like it's constantly hitting capacity. Looking back, I really should have opted for a larger SSD from the start. As for upgrading the graphics card, I think I might hold off on that for a moment and focus on getting a better monitor instead... I'm still weighing my options, honestly.

On another note, does anyone have an idea of what I could get for this setup if I decided to sell it? Would it make sense to add the cost of a new graphics card to the sale price and just trade it all in for something newer and more powerful as a complete bundle? Thanks!

What’s even filling it up? If you set everything up right—like moving all your personal folders to an HDD and only installing the essentials like browsers on the SSD—there shouldn't be anything taking up space. I guess.

Drew Sanchez82, I can't say I agree that the price for a 970 is reasonable. Over here, it’s $1000 sitting at about $500, while in the States you can grab one for anywhere from $300 to $350 depending on the brand—so roughly $1800-$700. That's a massive chunk of change. With what we pay for a 970 here, you could easily walk into a store in the US, pick up a 980, and still have cash left over.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Drew Sanchez82, I can't say I agree that the price for a 970 is reasonable. Over here, it’s $1000 sitting at about $500, while in the States you can grab one for anywhere from $300 to $350 depending on the brand—so roughly $1800-$700. That's a massive chunk of change. With what we pay for a 970 here, you could easily walk into a store in the US, pick up a 980, and still have cash left over.

Exactly. Retailers claim their margins are "slim," but honestly, the biggest gap is just our sales tax compared to how things work over there...
Still, if you don't mind traveling, you can find a GTX 970 in Germany for around $360... so it really comes back to local retailers padding their pockets, mostly because we're such a small market that they can't get bulk discounts like the big players do...

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Drew Sanchez82, I can't say I agree that the price for a 970 is reasonable. Over here, it’s $1000 sitting at about $500, while in the States you can grab one for anywhere from $300 to $350 depending on the brand—so roughly $1800-$700. That's a massive chunk of change. With what we pay for a 970 here, you could easily walk into a store in the US, pick up a 980, and still have cash left over.

It's pretty much common knowledge that prices in our neck of the woods are totally inflated compared to, say, America, but people are still buying this card like crazy.
For a card that's strictly high-end gaming, that number seems fine to me, especially since if you aren't planning an upgrade anytime soon, you're set for a long time.
I remember back in the day when cards with only 3-4GB of VRAM were priced $100-$200 higher than this.

The 970 even has some $917 praise in Media outlets.

But looking at his budget of $600, honestly, it might be better to just sell the current NVIDIA GTX 7850 and go for an R9 290 instead.

+1, I’m right there with you on the graphics card—and honestly, I can't justify dropping the cash for a new monitor either. Buying something just three inches larger than what I’ve got right now feels like total overkill.

If you're still stuck using a TN panel, I guess upgrading to a 27" IPS monitor would actually be worth the money

That’s definitely true—but if he’s already running an IPS panel, then I’d say it’s 😲

Is it even worth it?

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/pictures...711_large7.JPG

I told him, if 24 inches feels too small, he should just go for a dual monitor setup instead—that’s where you actually see a real difference. A seven-centimeter jump in diagonal size isn't exactly going to be a "wow" factor.

You could always go with the Dell UltraSharp 2760