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Thread: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

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    Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    My specs at the moment are:

    Motherboard: MSI K9VGM-V/MS-7253

    Proccessor: 2ghz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core

    RAM: 1gb DDR2

    HDD: 80gb Hitachi HDS721680PLA380

    Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS 512mb


    I have recently upgraded my graphics card from a 256mb to a 512mb but wondering what to do next.

    Should I change the motherboard and get the cheapest quadcode proccessor I can find then get 4gb ddr3 ram And a SSD to replace the HDD? or any other ideas as I haven't much cash.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    What PSU do you have?? What OS are you running? What games do you want to run and at what resolurion? How big is your case?

    If you run CPU-Z it will indicate exactly what CPU you have:

    http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

    Ideally the whole PC will need to be upgraded IMHO and the graphics card will only really play old games. TBH,I would save up around £400 as you can build yourself a new base unit with an Athlon II X3 455,4GB of DDR3 RAM,a 500GB hard drive,an HD5770 1GB and Windows 7 64 bit. You can also get free postage from Scan after 20 posts:

    http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

    As a shorter term upgrade I would suggest getting a new PSU(if the old one is not a decent model),some extra RAM and a faster graphics card. A bigger hard drive might be needed as modern PC games can be large.

    I would consider the following PSU:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-...-sli-crossfire

    Either an HD5670 GDDR5 or HD5770 GDDR5 would be a better graphics card:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/512mb...-dl-dvi-i-hdmi

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-x...dp-single-slot

    However,I would suspect an HD5670 might be a better match for your CPU.

    I would get at least 2GB of RAM:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-%...d-cas-4-4-4-12

    You can move over the graphics card and PSU to a new build when you have the funds.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    Well I guess I am best building my own unit really, I would want to play the following at 1280x720 and max graphics settings and get over 30fps.

    Trackmania United
    Half-life 2
    Portal 2
    Crysis
    Trains 2012
    Bio Shock 2
    GTA IV
    DIRT 3

    Do you think that if I got the components you listed above I would be able to play all these games at 30fps 1280x720 max graphics settings?

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    What sort of budget are you looking at?? GTAIV is very CPU dependent and I suspect your CPU will not be fast enough. Your CPU might bottleneck Crysis though:

    http://www.guru3d.com/article/cpu-sc...e-processors/9

    It probably is playable though as it is a more GPU dependent game. DiRT3 also requires a decent card and CPU although it might be fine with your CPU at low resolution. The first two games will be fine IMHO and probably Bioshock 2.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    Well I have been looking for some cheap but decent components and it has only came to £266 but obviously there has to be more to it, I don't know what operating system, mother board, case, psu, DVD drive or processor cooler to get. I want to have decent priced but quality components as there is no point in me buying a system that wont do what i want. but here are the main components I've decided on:

    Graphics Card

    XFX*HD 6870*- £140


    CPU

    AMD Athlon II X3 450 3.2GHz - £56

    Or

    AMD Athlon II X4 645 3.1GHz - £76


    Memory

    Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz - £30


    HDD

    Seagate 1TB 3.5" Barracuda SATA-III - £40


    Your advice and help is greatly appreciated as I am new to gaming pc building.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    Do you have a copy of Windows too??

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    Yep I have bought a copy of windows 7 home. I just need to know what other components will compliment the main components I've chosen above, like have enough power for them and enough room to upgrade ram for future ect.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    What is your total budget??

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    I don't really want a budget, what I want is a machine that can play all the games listed above at an acceptable fps on full graphics settings at 1280x720. I say no budget as I don't want to sacrifice performance by saving afew pounds, so I don't want to spend loads, I want it as cheap as it can be and still do what I want it too if you get what I mean.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    You mainboard only support dual-core X2 CPUs as per vendor's specs:

    http://nl.msi.com/product/mb/K9VGM-V.html#?div=Detail

    My advise on the budget upgrade here:

    4GB of cheapest DDR2 800MHz memory and ATI HD5770 or NVidia 9800GTX/GTS250. This will set you around 100 quid and give good experience for 720P gaming.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    A 2GHz Athlon X2 bottlenecks a 3850 / 4670,so I wouldn't bother with a 5770. If you can overclock your CPU to around 2.4GHz then a HD5670 would be a worthwhile graphics, and would probably just about get you passable performance in the games mentioned above.

    But frankly, if you're building a new computer to game at 720p that seems a bit of a waste, as any graphics card over a 5670 is going to end up twiddling its thumbs and wondering what it's supposed to do half the time. It might be worth thinking about going for a complete new system including monitor if your monitor can only manage 720p: 1080p monitors are dirt cheap nowadays...!

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    I assume you are also going to get a new monitor?? An HD6870 1GB will probably run almost any game ATM at 1440X900 or 1680X1050 using decent settings AFAIK.

    Edit!!

    I have come up with the following components list which also uses the free Scan postage.



    The motherboards is a bit basic for an 870 motherboard as it is not the best for overclocking and has relatively few audio outputs. However, it does support AMD Bulldozer,has all solid capacitors and has USB3.0 and SATA3.0 ports.

    The HD5770 1GB will be fine with many games at 1440X900 and 1680X1050. More demanding games may need some of the settings turned down a bit at this resolution. At 1280X720 an HD5770 1GB will probably be able to run most games at maximum settings. Maybe,one of the few games it can't max out would be Metro 2033 but OTH even £200 graphics cards can be challengedby this game!!

    The next card above it would be a GTX460 1GB and then the faster HD6870:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...ores-dvi-mhdmi

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...x-dvi-hdmi-mdp
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 13-07-2011 at 06:16 PM.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by AndiWhitts View Post
    I don't really want a budget, what I want is a machine that can play all the games listed above at an acceptable fps on full graphics settings at 1280x720. I say no budget as I don't want to sacrifice performance by saving afew pounds, so I don't want to spend loads, I want it as cheap as it can be and still do what I want it too if you get what I mean.
    Well figuring out your budget is one of the best ways to price a pc.
    Figure out the total you have to spend then get the best kit you can within that amount.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    I assume you are also going to get a new monitor?? An HD6870 1GB will probably run almost any game ATM at 1440X900 or 1680X1050 using decent settings AFAIK.

    Edit!!

    I have come up with the following components list which also uses the free Scan postage.



    The motherboards is a bit basic for an 870 motherboard as it is not the best for overclocking and has relatively few audio outputs. However, it does support AMD Bulldozer,has all solid capacitors and has USB3.0 and SATA3.0 ports.

    The HD5770 1GB will be fine with many games at 1440X900 and 1680X1050. More demanding games may need some of the settings turned down a bit at this resolution. At 1280X720 an HD5770 1GB will probably be able to run most games at maximum settings. Maybe,one of the few games it can't max out would be Metro 2033 but OTH even £200 graphics cards can be challengedby this game!!

    The next card above it would be a GTX460 1GB and then the faster HD6870:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...ores-dvi-mhdmi

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...x-dvi-hdmi-mdp
    Thanks for the example set up, i have just upgraded a few things on there to get the specs up where i would like them to be. because i have looked at benchmarks of certain games i am interested in playing and i believe this set up will be exactly what i am after. i would be grateful of your opinion.



    i kept some of the origianal things that you put so do you think these components will be okay together because im not sure if they are still compatible? or do you think i should add anything else? like a cooling system or anything or should it be okay the way it is?

    also, i already own a new copy of windows 7 home for this computer so that purchase isnt necessary.

    Thanks

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by AndiWhitts View Post
    Thanks for the example set up, i have just upgraded a few things on there to get the specs up where i would like them to be. because i have looked at benchmarks of certain games i am interested in playing and i believe this set up will be exactly what i am after. i would be grateful of your opinion.



    i kept some of the origianal things that you put so do you think these components will be okay together because im not sure if they are still compatible? or do you think i should add anything else? like a cooling system or anything or should it be okay the way it is?

    also, i already own a new copy of windows 7 home for this computer so that purchase isnt necessary.

    Thanks
    I would get the following processor:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-p...hz-125w-retail

    Just change the multiplier in the BIOS and it will easily run a 3.4GHZ!!

    The motherboard is not the best for overclocking but should be fine for upping the multiplier slightly.

    Get this HD6870 as it is better:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...x-dvi-hdmi-mdp

    It might be worth going with this PSU too:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-...l-power-supply

    Edit!!

    It might be worth getting this RAM:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-%...9-9-24-xmp-15v

    The Phenom II works fine with the RAM you listed but I am uncertain whether Bulldozer will need 1.5V or not.

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    Re: Want to upgrade PC to a budget gaming PC, any advice?

    Many of the parts are on Special Offer today:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/inde..._icmp=AkaIX3H4

    http://www.scan.co.uk/shops/homepage..._icmp=7Uz238zS

    I would still go with the MSI HD6870 and it is on offer too.

    If you had 20 posts already you could have used your free Scan postage:

    http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

    This might be worth adding if you have never built a PC before:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/scansure/

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