My kids PC needs upgrade. What to do?

SparkiUK

SparkiUK

SparkiUK

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Hope someone can help and advise. My sons PC, about 3 years old he says is too slow. By that he means ages to boot, and in games, he gets low frame rates. He doesn't play anything too strenuous mainly World of Warcraft, League of Legends etc so it may be a memory issue. I think more RAM combined with a wipe and re-install of his OS (windows 8) would make a big difference. It used to be quick. I enclose his spec below. He has a budget, at a maximum of 300€ (Euros) and ideally doesn't want to spend all that if possible, so looking for expert advice on what you would suggest he upgrades. Would just RAM be ok? Looked at a new Intel chip but he has an AMD motherboard so that's out, so maybe a new AMD processor, or new graphics card.

What would you suggest?

He has as it stands:
CD: Samsung 22X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (Black Color)
CPU: AMD PhenomTM II X4 925 Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
CAS: CoolerMaster Elite 310 Mid Tower Gaming Case with see-thru side panel
FAN: Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooling Fan ***Overclockable XXX***
HDD: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache HDD
MEMORY: 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 DDR3/1333mhz Dual Channel Memory
MOTHERBOARD: SUS M4N68T-M NF630A AM3 DDR3/1066 SATA PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/1000 NETWORK CARD
POWERSUPPLY: 700 Watts Power Supplies [+22] (SLI / CrossFire Ready Quad Rail Power Supply)
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 768MB 16X PCI Express
 
You'll notice big gains with the addition of an SSD. 120GB Evo will do nicely, can install the games to the SSD as well to give a nice loading boost, will be noticeable in WoW.

How much do you want to spend?
Upgrading the RAM won't make the game speedy to be honest. 4GB is enough for his usage, faster would be better (1600mhz).

A new 7850, and a slight overclock on the CPU maybe?
 
ThaReaperGuy said:
You'll notice big gains with the addition of an SSD. 120GB Evo will do nicely, can install the games to the SSD as well to give a nice loading boost, will be noticeable in WoW.

How much do you want to spend?
Upgrading the RAM won't make the game speedy to be honest. 4GB is enough for his usage, faster would be better (1600mhz).

A new 7850, and a slight overclock on the CPU maybe?
Click to expand...

^
Pretty much this.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with FREE GAMES £131.99
1 x Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/60G) £51.95
Total : £194.74 (includes shipping : £9.00).

 
Thanks guys. So an ssd, is that 60gb enough? I take it you mean in addition to existing HD? What would he install on that? His OS and his games? Not sure they'd fit.

Is that graphics card a big upgrade? Its a big chunk of his money. 300 euro budget. You don't seem to think more ram would benefit so that's a saving.
 
SparkiUK said:
Thanks guys. So an ssd, is that 60gb enough? I take it you mean in addition to existing HD? What would he install on that? His OS and his games? Not sure they'd fit.

Is that graphics card a big upgrade? Its a big chunk of his money. 300 euro budget. You don't seem to think more ram would benefit so that's a saving.
Click to expand...

SSD for his OS and a couple of games, everything else on the hdd. You could even transfer some of the program files to the hdd, would free up more space. Also, don`t forget to delete the Hibernation file, that will give a bit more space.
Here is a comparison of a 7850 and a 1GB 460.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/549?vs=542

If he sells his 460, he could then up grade the ram.
 
Do you know if your cpu is a Black Edition because if it is I would help to overclock it with the aid of an aftermarket cpu cooler. The reason that I ask this is because World of Warcraft is heavily reliant on the cpu as well as the graphics card. If you could overclock the cpu and where confident to do so it would help to performance and may be able to not upgrade the motherboard ram and cpu (for now anyway).

Other than that the ssd and the new gpu would be the way to go. I you do buy these components don't be afraid to come back on the forum and get some advice on installing them and maybe do a bit of overclocking.

Good Luck!
 
The 120gb vs 60gb, now you are correct that £20 more isn't much, but its a question of his needs. 60gb is plenty for the operating system, but it indeed will be too small for many games, especially considering world of Warcraft is like 25gb or so on some machines. I would say get the new graphics card as stated above, but also consider that world of Warcraft is not very demanding to run (unless raiding on very high detail).
 
OK, maybe them both then, graphics and SSD. Do I need anything else to fit the SSD. Normal HD just slots in and couple of screws, done. Is SSD same or will i need adapters and things?
 
The SSD will help massively with load times between areas. I have never played, but can imagine this will be quite handy. Ideally a SSD and GPU together will do the trick.
 
SparkiUK said:
OK, maybe them both then, graphics and SSD. Do I need anything else to fit the SSD. Normal HD just slots in and couple of screws, done. Is SSD same or will i need adapters and things?
Click to expand...

It will come with a bracket to mount the ssd, you don't actually need to mount it anywhere as nothing moved inside it. Does he have 2.5" mounting places in his current case?
 
Would you recommend going with the SSD and see how it performs, and then if not much better go with a new graphics card? Or the other way around? Not sure whether to buy both at the same time as perhaps wait to see which has the biggest impact.

Also, if anyone can advise, if he does get a new graphics card, the one recommended above, he can then sell the one he has, NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 768MB 16X PCI Express, any idea what it's worth?
 
Personally I'd get both now, the GPU will be a nice upgrade and the SSD is always a must have with a system, now that they have dropped to a more reasonable price!

Not sure if we can give a price check, (per forum rules) I know you can't specifically ask for prices on components outside the Members Market. Try the bay, should give you an indication.
 
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