My PC has lasted a very long time. I built it quite a long time ago and I built it to last. It plays TF2, L4D2, League of Legends and the likes just fine, but it struggles with COD:BO and BF3. I think (not sure) I will need to replace my Graphics cards (looking to move to a single card), but I don't know what 2x 4870s are equivalent to anymore. I want to be able to play BF4 at or near Ultra settings (if at all possible for my price range).
I was looking to go all out and build a new PC but my wife kindly reminded me that we are expecting our first child next year, so I can't throw a whole lot of money at it (looking to spend $300 ~ $400). What stays, what goes?
Since BF4 can use Mantle, I'd get an R9 280X (aka HD 7970, with minor changes/mantle support).
Try to get at least 8GB of RAM. If you get another 2GB stick that's identical to your current sticks, it should help. By the time 8GB of RAM becomes too little, I would think your CPU would become a bit dated also.
Maybe you guys don't remember but an x58 board only has 3 channel memory, so I'd go up to 12gb since 8gb isn't really feasible or possible. And yeah, upgrade those GPUs. Get either an R9-290 when they're released or get a good deal on the recently (and massively) price cut nVidia 770 or even a 780. You should be fine once you do all that.
Thank you so much for the suggestions. I suspected I needed a new GPU, but I simply couldn't find its current day equivalent. Wife says I need a super quiet case as not to disturb the baby but I'm capable of that Google search :) thanks again!
lol, I'll keep that in mind. The only other configuration change I'm thinking of making is putting WIN7 on an SSD, which would simply be a boot sequence change correct?