Hey Everyone,

I've been kicking around this idea for awhile now. I built my current rig back in the beginning of May, 2013 with the guidance of a friend. I asked him to help pick out the parts to a PC that could run StarCraft 2 on the highest settings.

Now, coming up on almost 3 years later, I'm wondering if it's time to think about sticking some newer parts into the device. I'm not having many issues with the games I've been playing, but I haven't really played very many new games, lately. The most recent games I bought were Fallout 4 and Arkham Knight, and both of those games don't help determine whether or not my PC is getting "outdated." I have been thinking about playing Metal Gear Solid 5 on the PC instead of the Xbox One, but according to System Requirement Lab, I can't quite run the game. So I decided it would be best to ask the gaming experts of these forum for some advice. Again, I'm still in the beginning phase of tossing the idea around for doing some upgrading, so I can't throw out any dollar values.

Here's a link to my PC build on PC Part Picker: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CYjwVn

What can you afford?

Really the only problem is the GPU. GPU's are the craziest thing so you really need to specify dollar amount as well as how long you want it to be viable. People will disagree, but I'd say stick with Nvidia because it's less of a hassle. Their game support is just great.

i5 is fine for what you want to do and 8GB RAM is all you really need for now.

Also I'm running Windows 10 with no major issues if you wanna upgrade that.

Might want an SSD for like 75 dollars. Samsung Evo is pretty good. Either 840 or 850 series, 120 or 250GB versions. Probably 250. People will recommend all different brands for storage, but they will all die at some point. I've had good luck with those.

Last thing is if you overclock you'll want an aftermarket CPU cooler. I use the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo. It's not top of the line, but I don't overclock that much so it's fine.

@doenut: Yeah I forgot to mention that I did a fresh install of Windows 10 this summer. It's great!

For GPU, let's say I want to shoot for a 980. Am I also looking at upgrading the power supply as well to handle the new card?

A 980 requires two 6-pin PCIE power connectors. Not only is the CX 430 under the recommended PSU spec for a 980, but it only has one PCIE connector. You'll need a PSU upgrade.

I'll back up what @mike says but you wouldn't have issues running MGSV on what you have now. That game scales ridiculously well to the point where I was messing around with it on the integrated graphics on my i7 4770k at 720p low settings with 25-30 fps

I wouldn't say that the Can You Run It site is the greatest indicator of whether you can play a game or not compared to looking for 'X game running on Y CPU and Z GPU' on YouTube, granted that those benchmark videos include an FPS counter from either Fraps or MSI Afterburner.

As for your GPU, I'd say that it's fine for now. I'm playing modern games like MGS5 and Fallout 4 in 1080p with my 750 Ti (along with a i5 4690k and 8GBs of RAM) and getting between the high 40's and high 50's with MGS with pretty high settings, and somewhere in the mid 40's on average with Fallout 4 on high settings, so you'd be getting a few more frames than me given that the 660 is a stronger card and still pretty capable along with your Ivy Bridge CPU for now. So if anything, I'd wait for Pascal since the first run of those GPUs are due out later this year with some sites saying April. And also, like Mike said, you should look for a PSU with enough PCIE power connectors that can support higher end GPUs, something in the neighborhood of an EVGA 120-G1-0650-XR looks okay to me, but I'm sure that someone will have a better suggestion.

Honestly, if your main impetus for upgrading right now is playing MGSV, it might just be worth getting the game first and seeing how it runs, because it's incredibly well optimised.

Like the post above me says, if you're not in dire need of an upgrade, it's probably worth waiting to see what the next generation of cards is like. They'll be the first in a while to switch to a smaller fabrication process, could be a pretty decent leap forward.