looking for upgrade possibilities

[Furious]

Hey all,

I bought my alienware x51 R1 nearly 2 years ago and have not changed a single thing to it since then.

Recently, i have experienced random shut downs, issues with the graphics card, screen going black and saying NO HDMI SIGNAL, disk always at 100%

I ran some fixes for all of the problem, but overall, the set-up isn't as fast anymore as i was used to.

My speccs are:

x51 R1
i7 3770 @ 3.40 GHZ
8GB RAM
GeForce GTX 660
windows 8.1
1 TB storage

would it be good to upgrade the graphics card? or the SSD?

i was thinking about this card: GeForce GTX 970 (the stock version since i've read that the OC version wouldn't do any good)


additional info;

----- EDIT---------

I would like to move everything to a new case..

I need to know if there is anything i need to keep in mind when buying a new one.. i currently have my eyes on a micro ATX
There are tons of them, all with other sizes and options.. what do i need to keep in mind?

What will I need to buy exactly knowing i will upgrade to GTX 970 and i would like to install SSD?

- Micro ATX casing
- Micro ATX motherboard
- better power box
- extra fans?

what else?

I have never done this before.. so i need as much info as I can get

Thanks!

 

[pengful]

Hey all,

I bought my alienware x51 R1 nearly 2 years ago and have not changed a single thing to it since then.

Recently, i have experienced random shut downs, issues with the graphics card, screen going black and saying NO HDMI SIGNAL, disk always at 100%

I ran some fixes for all of the problem, but overall, the set-up isn't as fast anymore as i was used to.

My speccs are:

x51 R1
i7 3770 @ 3.40 GHZ
8GB RAM
GeForce GTX 660
windows 8.1
1 TB storage

would it be good to upgrade the graphics card? or the SSD?

i was thinking about this card: GeForce GTX 970 (the stock version since i've read that the OC version wouldn't do any good)

Are there any other components I could replace?

Is it worth to invest?

Thanks in advance!

additional info;

I have also been thinking about moving the interior into another case to allow more modding...which would allow the OC version of the gtx 970?

- Update bios to A14
- Update all drivers
- Add another 8 Gb ram
- Add an SSD
- Change GTX 660 to GTX 970 blower type
- Change R1 power board to R2 power board

Plenty of resource to read here. Cheers.

 

[Furious]

- Update bios to A14
- Update all drivers
- Add another 8 Gb ram
- Add an SSD
- Change GTX 660 to GTX 970 blower type
- Change R1 power board to R2 power board

Plenty of resource to read here. Cheers.

Hey pengful,

Thanks for your reply.

I have already upgraded to bios 14 and that did help a lot.

I have been reading a lot and watched a lot of videos and moving to another.. Somewhat bigger case would be the best option.

I would need some extra details on what to look for exactly.. what's important.. etc

It's the first time I would do something like this so every advice is more than welcome