Yet Another PC Upgrade Thread

[VonKlaw]

So about a year ago, my PC died, and a friend sold me his old one for stupidly cheap. It currently has a HD 6450 graphics card, which I know is garbage, and I'm now in a position that I can afford to upgrade to a newer card. I'm looking at something like this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-sapphire-radeon-hd-7970-vapor-x-ghz-edition-6000mhz-gddr5-28nm-1000mhz-2048-coresdp-dvi-i-hdmi-p

I'm also know the PSU will need upgrading, and am looking at something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Builder-Series-Modular-Certified/dp/B00ALK3QRS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385296548&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair+750w

But here is where I get stuck. The PC currently has a GIGABYTE 78LMT-USB3 motherboard. Now I know very little about motherboards, and am wondering:

a) How badly will this bottleneck the graphics card and will I need to upgrade it? If so - what should I look to upgrade it to?
b) Will I need to rebuy Windows 7 if I upgrade the motherboard?
c) If these are both needed, am I better off just starting from scratch?

My budget is fairly good, though I would also like to buy a monitor upgrade (playing modern games on my old 17" screen seems stupid).

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

 

[AWAR]

snip

You don't need to upgrade the motherboard for a graphics card update. The main thing to worry about is if your CPU bottlenecks this graphics card, which is quite powerful by the way. What's your CPU?
Also yeah, I'm afraid that this upgrade will go to waste if you're planning on playing at 17". Get a 24" IPS panel.
The PSU is overkill, 600watt will do.

This particular 7970 is quite expensive. It isn't worth the extra money if you ask me, you'll get maybe 5 fps more than the standard version at most, which is 100 pounds cheaper. For that kind of money you can get a 290.

 

[VonKlaw]

snip

You don't need to upgrade the motherboard for a graphics card update. The main thing to worry about is if your CPU bottlenecks this graphics card, which is quite powerful by the way. What's your CPU?
Also yeah, I'm afraid that this upgrade will go to waste if you're planning on playing at 17". Get a 24" IPS panel.
The PSU is overkill, 600watt will do.

The CPU is an AMD 4100.

Knowing I won't need to upgrade the motherboard is great news (Windows OS is tied to that rather than the CPU?), and I already have an IPS monitor lined up.

I suppose garbage was the wrong term for my current graphics card, but I would quite like to play modern games at high/ultra settings (1080p) with a good FPS rate, which it just doesn't seem to be able to do.

 

[AWAR]

-snip

No, forget about it. A 4100 is just too weak for such a high end video card. A 7850 is enough for 1080p gaming at high settings.

Also yeah, the windows installation is tied to the motherboard.

 

[SnowyGamester]

Also yeah, the windows installation is tied to the motherboard.

That may be true but it shouldn't stop you from reusing the key. Worst case scenario you have to call Microsoft for a manual activation.

 

[AWAR]

Also yeah, the windows installation is tied to the motherboard.

That may be true but it shouldn't stop you from reusing the key. Worst case scenario you have to call Microsoft for a manual activation.

Yes, but only if it isn't an OEM version.

 

[SnowyGamester]

Yes, but only if it isn't an OEM version.

Truth be told I've used OEM keys on non-original systems without trouble...I suspect not all of them are locked, though it's hard to say how it all works.

 

[AWAR]

snip

Really? That's interesting..

 

[SnowyGamester]

Really? That's interesting..

It is as looking into it they aren't supposed to work...perhaps they'd never been used prior and so weren't locked to anything, or maybe it's ignored with Windows XP now since it's been discontinued, or maybe I'm simply mistaken, though I'm fairly sure...I've got a few old stickers and I'm almost certain I've used some in the past.