Advice please.

[I_AM_BOWSER]

Good morning,

This is my first post so I'll try to keep it as short as possible...
I bought this computer off a guy at a car-boot for £50 just as a cheap alternative until I have learnt enough to build my own computer. I noticed that it had some okay gear Installed as you can see in the pictures below. I want to build a pc that will allow me to play recent games (skyrim, elder scrolls online, gta 5 and some FPS') at a high graphics level. I am also a poker player and while the graphic content of 12 tables on pokerstars isn't a lot I will have various other programs running in the background. Such as HEM2 (database logger), table ninja 2 (poker client assist tool) and spotify, so I need to make sure this will cope with that. I have a basic understanding of how the inside of a computer goes together so please bear with me! I have a few questions if you wouldn't mind answering them or pointing me in the right direction.

• I have a pretty plop graphics card, what cards would you recommend in the £150-£250 price range to run the games mentioned above?
• Based upon the current specification of my PC in what order should I be upgrading my components? (Disregarding the graphics card).
• Are SSD's worth the money and what are they best used for?
• Do any of my current components have known compatibility issues with current technology?
• Does anyone have any articles that will really help me move on with my knowledge of computers so I can stop asking such basic questions?
Any responses will be greatly appreciated and I hope I can return the favour one day.

PSU 500w

Thanks

BOWSER

 

[cmndr_andi]

Looks like you made a good deal there, the i7 2600 is a nice quad core CPU which regularly sells for over £100. Also, 16GB of DDR3 RAM is plenty for most peoples uses and worth about £100 as well. As to your questions:

1) Well the motherboard and CPU will be fine with this. However, I would strongly recommend you check exactly what PSU you are using (will need you to turn off the PC and take off the side of the case to look what the sticker on the PSU says). If it is a good quality 500W PSU then pretty much any single-GPU graphics card will work. For your budget I would suggest this card which is on daily deal. Its a really quick card and is a fantastic price.

2) PSU? > Graphics card > SSD > Sound card > Peripherals

You may want to consider upgrading the CPU to something which can overclock at a later stage (with a K series CPU) however at stock 3.4GHz the i7 2600 is still a very quick CPU.

3) They are absolutely worth the money and then some - they really do completely change the way your PC responds and make everything feel quicker. They are best used as the primary boot drive with Windows and your main applications and games installed on the SSD. This means that all loading isn't being bottlenecked by a mechanical HDD. I would suggest something like the Samsung 840 Evo 250GB. However if you don't want to spend so much money then this Toshiba 128GB is very fast and good value.

4)The technology in that PC is Sandy Bridge (2nd Generation core i7) so 2 generations old - but still very current. You shouldn't have any compatibility issues with current stuff. The only thing that may give you issues is the PSU (if it isn't a good quality unit).

5) That's a really tough one, I would suggest having a browse through Anandtech as it is great for showing the relative performance of current and old components and the reviews usually put the components in a historical context. Apart from that, wikipedia for the different CPUs and chipsets shows the generational progression and the new features added.

 

[dacads]

Wow I've think you have picked up a bargain mate, won't be needing to upgrade anything anytime soon! Except the PSU..which brand is it?

GPU wise I would pick up a 280X at this price while stock lasts

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
Total : £209.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[Idleman]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

This Gpu is a bargain atm.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
Total : £209.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



An ssd will make software loading times times a lot quicker than a mechanical hdd, also faster boot times.
Can you open up the case and tell us the make and model of your Psu?
The rest of your system seems pretty decent and a steal for £50.

 

[GiraffePencils]

2) PSU? > Graphics card > SSD > Sound card > Peripherals

I disagree with the sound card, I would almost never recommend one.
good speakers/headset >>> soundcard.
most people will never know the diff from on board sound and sound card for 90% of applications if you have a good speaker

 

[cmndr_andi]

Its a personal preference and good speakers or headphones will always be more important than a sound card.

However, in my personal experience I have found that a cheap sound card like a Xonar DG (which has a headphone amp) really does make listening with headphones better compared to onboard sound. Which for a bit over £20 isn't a bad deal IMHO.

 

[GiraffePencils]

I suppose, if you weigh up what it costs you and can only afford the sound card.
but a good sound card can't make bad speakers sound great, but a good speaker can make on board sound sound good.
so from the point of view of "Sound card > Peripherals" I don't agree.
but from having the peripheral, then either getting the next 'band' of peripheral or a cheap sound card, then the cheap card is better.
but IMO skipping the card and saving for the better headset etc would be prefered.

 

[cmndr_andi]

Fair play, I concede that good speakers/headset should come before sound card.

 

[I_AM_BOWSER]

Wow, guys; seriously the best forum I have been on for speed of response and forth coming with knowledge after a first post.

The power supply isn't great its an ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX Power Supply...I take it this is no good? Might have to miss the deal on the graphics card and wait until the next payday if I have to uprgrade the PSU too...

@cmndr_andi Thank you for your detailed responses to my questions. I have a decent set of headphones already so I'll follow your advice of the process of upgrades.

Good advice about the SSD, would this be the same theory with games stored on it, i.e the fluidity of decision is better thus running more smoothly?

(Sorry about the giant images, not sure how to re size them on the board)

Motherboard

I take it the graphics card would be inserted in the bottom slot?

PSU

Thanks again guys, much appreciated.

 

[GiraffePencils]

You want your gpu in the top slot, the x16
the bottom one is x8, not the best if you have only one GPU.

A new heatsink wouldn't go amiss either.

 

[Idleman]

That`s an Apevia Psu made by the Deer company, not got a very good reputation by all accounts. Not sure I would want to try running a 280X with it.

 

[cmndr_andi]

The power supply isn't great its an ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX Power Supply...I take it this is no good? Might have to miss the deal on the graphics card and wait until the next payday if I have to uprgrade the PSU too...

Ah, that's a shame - not a great PSU and not one I would want to run a decent graphics card with.

For a replacement PSU, this one would be my pick. Its good value, well made and has enough capacity to run any single-GPU graphics card.

@cmndr_andi Thank you for your detailed responses to my questions. I have a decent set of headphones already so I'll follow your advice of the process of upgrades.

My pleasure

IF you do want to go for a sound card, I would suggest the Xonar DGX and install it in the bottom-most blue PCIE slot.

Good advice about the SSD, would this be the same theory with games stored on it, i.e the fluidity of decision is better thus running more smoothly?

It is, particularly when starting up the game or loading in levels. Also, if it is a game which streams in a lot of assets during the game from the storage drive then these games will also feel smoother and not experience as much pop-in compared to a HDD.

That said, usually when playing the majority of games (which don't need much streaming of assets) the SSD will not give you a performance benefit.

I take it the graphics card would be inserted in the bottom slot?

It is the top blue slot which is the fastest (x16 PCIE) so that is the one the graphics card should go in. Though it should work fine in the second slot (x8 speed). The bottom slot only runs at x4 speed so probably best to only use that for things like sounds cards.

 

[I_AM_BOWSER]

Thanks again for the advice guys. I have ordered the graphics card and the upgraded PSU! Looking forward to getting my hands on it now!

I'll probably have some issues installing it, hopefully I'll find the answers here if I do!

 

[Marine-RX179]

Was gonna see if there's anything I could add, but cmndr_andi has pretty much covered all bases.

Anyway, just want to say congratz again Bowser for landing £200+ worth of gears with just £50! Hope you would enjoy your "new" PC after you done upgrading it.

P.S. So what graphic card and PSU you went for in the end? Just a heads up for the graphic card driver, DON'T use the one comes with the CD, instead, go on the website and download the latest WHQL driver for that card for your OS.

 

[I_AM_BOWSER]

Was gonna see if there's anything I could add, but cmndr_andi has pretty much covered all bases.

Anyway, just want to say congratz again Bowser for landing £200+ worth of gears with just £50! Hope you would enjoy your "new" PC after you done upgrading it.

P.S. So what graphic card and PSU you went for in the end? Just a heads up for the graphic card driver, DON'T use the one comes with the CD, instead, go on the website and download the latest WHQL driver for that card for your OS.

Hi Marine,

Thanks, I guess it was a bargain in the end, fair play to the guy he said I could go home and make sure it worked if I gave him £25 and paid him the rest upon my return, very trusting considering I could have been some yobo.

Anyway, I went with andi's suggestions in the end, very helpful.

SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply

MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

It'll keep me going for the time being. Can't wait for the DPD van to get here tomorrow!

Thanks

BOWSER

 

[Marine-RX179]

Hi Marine,

Thanks, I guess it was a bargain in the end, fair play to the guy he said I could go home and make sure it worked if I gave him £25 and paid him the rest upon my return, very trusting considering I could have been some yobo.

Anyway, I went with andi's suggestions in the end, very helpful.

SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply

MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

It'll keep me going for the time being. Can't wait for the DPD van to get here tomorrow!

Thanks

BOWSER

When you got spare cash, upgrade the soundcard and to SSD as well as cmndr_andi suggested Even the £25 DGX would make a big difference over the onboard audio, and SSD once you used it, you wouldn't want to go back to HDD as primary drive anymore (most people tend to use SSD for OS, softwares, games, but still have a reasonable size HDD as storage).

 

[I_AM_BOWSER]

Ah, that's a shame - not a great PSU and not one I would want to run a decent graphics card with.

For a replacement PSU, this one would be my pick. Its good value, well made and has enough capacity to run any single-GPU graphics card.



My pleasure

IF you do want to go for a sound card, I would suggest the Xonar DGX and install it in the bottom-most blue PCIE slot.



It is, particularly when starting up the game or loading in levels. Also, if it is a game which streams in a lot of assets during the game from the storage drive then these games will also feel smoother and not experience as much pop-in compared to a HDD.

That said, usually when playing the majority of games (which don't need much streaming of assets) the SSD will not give you a performance benefit.



It is the top blue slot which is the fastest (x16 PCIE) so that is the one the graphics card should go in. Though it should work fine in the second slot (x8 speed). The bottom slot only runs at x4 speed so probably best to only use that for things like sounds cards.

Hi Andi,

My Graphics card and PSU have arrived today, you spec'd the above PSU for me at 450w but I am reading on the net that I should be looking at at least a 550w PSU, are these people over compensating or is it likely their other stock parts are drawing more power than mine?

I'm not having a dig at your knowledge or anything as you have helped my understanding in just a few post; I am just making sure everything will be tickety-boo before I install my new bits.

Thanks.

 

[cmndr_andi]

Aye, it says 550W but that is to allow for people with low quality PSUs that can't really delivery their rated power. The superflower 450W is a good quality unit which comes with two PCIE power connections (one 6pin, one 6+2 pin) , so will work perfectly well with your 280X.

 

[I_AM_BOWSER]

Andi,

I installed everything last night, after a load of updating and downloading I managed to play a few hours of skyrim on ultra high settings. What a beautiful game! Everything seems to be sound at the moment. Thanks again for the help. Next month SSD!

 

[Marine-RX179]

Andi,

I installed everything last night, after a load of updating and downloading I managed to play a few hours of skyrim on ultra high settings. What a beautiful game! Everything seems to be sound at the moment. Thanks again for the help. Next month SSD!

You might want to look into overclocking your 280x as well.

The stock clock for MSI 280x Gaming is 1050MHz/6000MHz...a moderate overclock such as 1100MHz/6400MHz should be easily doable.