Upgrade or New Build?

[MattyLFC]

I have been thinking of building a new rig for a while now mostly for use with gaming and school/college work.

However I have started to get second thoughts, a "decent" rig would set me back £800 (or close to that), [a rig with a mid/high range graphics card (GTX 760 springs to my mind) and also a snappy SSD etc].

The 'problem' (if you can call that) is that I do not know if I should upgrade my system to see benefits, or if I should build an entire new rig.

System specs at the moment:
CPU: Sandybridge Core i7 2600k @4.4GHZ - Corsair H100 w/ Noctua NF-F12 x2
Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V Pro
Graphics: EVGA GTX 560Ti 1GB
PSU: OCZ ZX series 1000W (I know overkill)
Memory: Kingston HyperX 16GB
Case: Corsair 600T White Edition


If I choose to upgrade I will most likely want to get a GTX 760> and also decent SSD. Maybe throw in a new case (must be 'silent' & sexy). On top of upgrading my keyboard to a mechanical one.

I am worried if I will lose out performance due to my motherboard & CPU not being PCI-E GEN3 compatible, or are most high end cards hitting the GEN3 bandwidth? This is my only worry at the moment, but should there be more worries when upgrading?

Thanks in advance,
MattyLFC

 

[NeverBackDown]

A GTX 760 is on par with a 7950. Depending on the game either card is faster than the other, get whichever is cheaper...

SSD go for the biggest size you can get. I prefer nothing less than 180gb(from personal expierence). For cases go for a Fractal Design R4 or Arc Midi R2 if you really want that silent and sexy feel.

No card can yet max out Gen 3(barely gen 2) so dont worry about it

 

[MattyLFC]

I think upgrading is the best option for me, It will save my bank.

I was looking at the GTX 770's online and the ASUS 770 CU II caught my eye, IMO the card looks damn right sexy with its back plate and bigass fan design. The red accents are not visible from my knowledge once you have installed the card inside your system. I would go for the higher performance card because of future release titles that I am looking forward to (BF4 possibly GTA V).

Losing the option to upgrade my SSD would not be a huge hit to me, I've already got a decent performing SSD, and I just upgraded to Windows 8 (yes you heard me:huh with windows 8.1 around the corner I guessed why shouldn't I? The OS performance is notable, with boot times halving.

Sticking to the green team is my only option as I also dual boot with hackintosh.

If I stick with my case I would get the bitfenix extension cables in white to liven everything up.
I am happy with my rig, so a bump in performance and its looks will be a positive in my eyes.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Then go for it