Upgrade gaming advice

bakingsoda

bakingsoda

bakingsoda

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2 Dec 2012
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So christmas is coming up, figured i'd upgrade some areas of my PC as its 3/4 years old now and struggles with the graphics side of things.. I would like a good performance playing games like BF3 & Far Cry 3, so I'm looking for advice on what parts to get, budget is roughly £300 (give or take, depending). Please bare with me as my knowledge in this area isn't great..

Current spec: (If you need more info on the spec then let me know (& how I find it))

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q8200 Quad Core Processor(2.33GHz,4MB Cache,1333MHz),
Thermaltake Element 'T' Gaming Chassis + 700W PSU,
ASUS P5QL Mainboard - Intel Core™ 2 Duo/ Quad/ Extreme - ATX,
4GB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM - (2x 2GB),
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer,
1GB ATi HD4870 Graphics accelerator DVI, DirectX 10.1 PCI Express 2,
windows 7 64bit

Apologise for my lack of knowledge, any help is greatly appreciated!
 
Last edited:
bakingsoda said:
So christmas is coming up, figured i'd upgrade some areas of my PC as its 3/4 years old now and struggles with the graphics side of things.. I would like a good performance playing games like BF3 & Far Cry 3, so I'm looking for advice on what parts to get, budget is roughly £300 (give or take, depending). Please bare with me as my knowledge in this area isn't great..

Current spec: (If you need more info on the spec then let me know (& how I find it))
quad core cpu @2.34ghz
windows 7, 64
4gb RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series

Apologise for my lack of knowledge, any help is greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

Which CPU have you got? There could be OC potential there. A graphics upgrade to a 7850 or 660 will get you on ultra settings in BF3. The CPU will hold that back unless it is OC'ed or replaced.
 
If you can re-use stuff like the case psu etc then this would be quite good. But if you had an extra £50 or so you could get the 2 GB 7850 and more ram plus a z77 board for future upgrades
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ FARCRY3, Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £129.95
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte H77-D3H Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC2G9-2G) £19.99
Total : £332.32 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
delta0 said:
Which CPU have you got? There could be OC potential there. A graphics upgrade to a 7850 or 660 will get you on ultra settings in BF3. The CPU will hold that back unless it is OC'ed or replaced.
Click to expand...

The CPU says this: Q8200 @2.33GHZ 2.34GHZ. I have heard of OC-ing, but don't know how to do it?

ConnorJoshua said:
If you can re-use stuff like the case psu etc then this would be quite good. But if you had an extra £50 or so you could get the 2 GB 7850 and more ram plus a z77 board for future upgrades
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ FARCRY3, Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £129.95
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte H77-D3H Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC2G9-2G) £19.99
Total : £332.32 (includes shipping : £9.50).
Click to expand...

I am planning on keeping the case yes. Because of my lack of experience/knowledge with the ins and outs of computers, I was hoping it would be a case of replacing the gfx card & maybe adding/improving the RAM, rather than starting a build mostly from scratch

In terms of price, if it was worth it i'd add another 50 to the budget
 
Need to know the motherboard for overclocking potential and DDR2 / DDR3, PSU, and case.

You're kind of in a bind. Not sure how the Q8200 clocks, and you're probably on DDR2, so no point upgrading to 8GB.

Ideally, you'd want to hit over 3GHz to make the most of the quad core for CPU hungry games (BF3 / FarCry 3 / Crysis 3). Then it also depends on your PSU, if it's good enough and reliable enough to take a 2GB graphics card.

I don't think what you buy now will get you very far, and you will need to upgrade at least part of the rig later.

Not sure a GPU swap will not be bottlenecked by your CPU, but it looks like the best option if you want to upgrade that way (660 OC, CPU cooler, Thermalright True Spirit 120 which is socket 775 compatible and quite good, and a decent PSU if yours isn't good enough).

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £159.95
1 x Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
Total : £251.32 (includes shipping : £9.50).



YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £227.99
1 x Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
Total : £319.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Again, not sure your CPU can cope with BF3 / FarCry 3, if it will bottleneck your GPU, and how much overclock you can get out of your CPU / motherboard. And if you go 7950, if your case is big enough for the card.

So, hmm meh. Maybe someone has a better idea.
 
Unfortunately overclocking is not something to just jump into. I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz and a 7850 2GB also overclocked to 1200 core and 1450 memory. I run BF3 maxed out at 1680x1050. I upgraded to get a couple more years out of the system before a major upgrade. I think without the OC a new graphics card could be wasted. The route appears to be a new CPU, motherboard, RAM and graphics card.
 
delta0 said:
Unfortunately overclocking is not something to just jump into. I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz and a 7850 2GB also overclocked to 1200 core and 1450 memory. I run BF3 maxed out at 1680x1050. I upgraded to get a couple more years out of the system before a major upgrade. I think without the OC a new graphics card could be wasted. The route appears to be a new CPU, motherboard, RAM and graphics card.
Click to expand...

Hmm yeah was worried that'd be the case. Think its worth starting a new build? Theres obviously no point spending a few hundred on upgrading things like gfx aard and ram if they cant fulfil their potential. If i'm gonna spend the money I might as well make it worthwhile..
 
Case has no cable management, altohugh 1/2 decent, looks as old as Mathusalem.

What PSU exactly? Some thermaltake PSUs are ok.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page680.htm

If you want to go all in, you'd be looking at :

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £43.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £720.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).



This is a high-spec machine already. Best gaming CPU, and best bang-for-bucks GPU, with good case and PSU.

You may get away with your current case, PSU, HDD, and optical drive (provided it's SATA), saving around £150. But the case if really tatty, and the PSU may be a liability.

Selling your old system may give you some money back to repay for some of those components.
 
Last edited:
olivier renault said:
Case has no cable management, altohugh 1/2 decent, looks as old as Mathusalem.

What PSU exactly? Some thermaltake PSUs are ok.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page680.htm

If you want to go all in, you'd be looking at :

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £43.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £720.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

This is a high-spec machine already. Best gaming CPU, and best bang-for-bucks GPU, with good case and PSU.

You may get away with your current case, PSU, HDD, and optical drive (provided it's SATA), saving around £150. But the case if really tatty, and the PSU may be a liability.

Selling your old system may give you some money back to repay for some of those components.
Click to expand...

No idea what PSU to be honest, no help I know.

Hmm I guess I have to consider getting a new PC. No point spending hundreds on upgrades that are either minor or won't reach their potential.

The problem is I have no experience in building a PC from scratch, so if I were to go for a new one I'd probably have to go for a pre-built one. Is there something similar out there to what you have posted? Or if someone can suggest alternatives?

Also, apart from ebay is there anywhere specialist to look at selling my current PC?

Thanks again
 
bakingsoda said:
anyone else have anything to add? If not, I think I'll seriously consider a new rig and start a new thread looking specifically for advice on that
Click to expand...

OcUK offers pre-builds. You get a selection of upgrades (GPU, hard drive, SSD option, maybe case). In general, you would pay around 10-15% on top of a self-built. Don't go with Dells and HP's, go with specialist builders like OcUK.
 
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