PC Reformat/Minor Upgrades questions

Hard to believe but in a couple months my gaming PC will be 5 years old. Instead of a full blown new PC was thinking of reformatting and maybe making a few minor upgrades to what I currently have. In 5 years I've never reformatted, she's been a solid PC for me, but I think wiping everything would speed it up a bit.

What's the best video card I can stuff in my PC on a Corsair 650w psu? Would it really be worth the upgrade? I was looking at a few of the newer cards and it seems they require more power than I have.

I've never overclocked my cpu, but was thinking about trying it to get some extra speed on my current cpu. I have always just used the stock intel cpu heatsink fan, what would be a good aftermarket fan to use for overclocking?

Think I'm going to stick with windows 7 if I reformat. I play a lot of older games and I don't want to mess them up. But just in case I do take the w10 plunge what is the best way to install? Do I install 10 right now via the free upgrade, then reformat with a fresh install of 10 again to clear everything and start with 10 brand new? I'm not sure I understand how it works. Thanks!

IMHO a GPU refresh and you are good to go.

Get the best single card you can afford and
enjoy. Again IMHO.

I wouldn't advise to upgrade to Win10 just yet. I would suggest a clean Win7 install though, but that's just me. I like having a "fresh" system.

I just "upgraded" my system from an old i5 750 and that's just because my son's PC went kaput so I took that opportunity to upgrade my hardware. Having said that, if my son's PC hadn't given up yet, I felt like I could've waited for another year or two. Point is, unless you see a dire need to upgrade your CPU, your 2500K should still be able to keep up with today's titles.

As for GPU, yeah, get the best GPU you can afford. Depending on what PSU you have, so long as it's a good brand and not some cheap Chinese knock-off, a 650W should be more than enough for a single-GPU setup.

I'm currently running a i5 6600K overclocked to 4.5GHz using a Noctua NH-D15 cooler which impressed me greatly. I used a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ Evo on my old i5 750 so the Noctua was a beast compared to the Hyper 212. Based on what I've read, the Noctua is the best air cooler you can get which trumps all single-radiator AIO watercoolers and even dual-radiators have to work hard to compete with the Noctua. I was so impressed with the product that I also ordered 4 Noctua fans for my CPU cases. I've not really been one for silent-PC builds but since my PSU and GPU fans turn off when the system is not under load, having a "quiet PC" while browsing or doing work is a very cool experience. Sure, the fans whine up once the system is under load but by that time, I'm too busy gaming to notice

One suggestion for hardware -- have you thought of getting an SSD for your OS? 250GB SSDs range around £40-55 and for what they bring to the system, they're definitely worth it!

Hope that helps!

Yeah I don't plan on doing the W10 upgrade until I have to.

I have a Corsair 650w psu, it's a tank. So it should be okay that's good to know thanks. I've always been at ATI video card guy, would love to get one with a lot of memory for DCS, IL2. But I know the NVIDIA cards have been pretty solid last few years it seems with most sims so maybe it's time to switch.

I don't have a SSD, but I really want to give one a go now that they are down in price. What are some good brands? Would be nice to throw my W7 install on there as well as all my flight sims. Is that what you guys do? Anything else I should know about SSDs? You don't defrag them right?

I did have a Corsair PSU but that was on my son's PC when his went kaput. I don't want to risk new items on a ??faulty?? PSU. However, even if that PSU was the culprit, it did serve a good 5 years so no complaints there!

My SSDs are a Crucial M4 and two Samsung 840s. There's good reviews on SanDisk but I couldn't get the model they reviewed so I've not tried it. I will leave it up to you to research how to get an SSD to work with your system, something about setting AHCI on your BIOS and other things.

As for allocation, I use one for OS and programs such as Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Photoshop/etc. and I use the others for games. Obviously, there isn't enough space on an SSD for **ALL** games so I am picky which ones I install on the SSD. Those that I play a lot or can be influenced by read/write (flight sims, Elite, etc.), I put on the SSD. Others such as turn-based games (Combat Mission series, Civilization series, FTL, etc.) I put on a normal HDD.

I use one SSD for Win10 and steam games and I have a regular disk SATA for all else, including my book, music, and video libraries.

I see no issues with Win10.

Issues are usually with older games, driver support, and multi-monitor display GPU drivers.

OK. I was too quick on pulling the trigger and I should have paid closer attention to what I read.

"Think I'm going to stick with windows 7 if I reformat. I play a lot of older games and I don't want to mess them up."