£150 to spend, not upgraded since 2010. Best bang for buck?

Soldato
Joined
7 Nov 2009
Posts
19,798
Location
Glasgow
I'd like to spend £150, and hopefully make my computer a bit more game friendly for modern games. Is it possible, and where should I spend my money? I'm fine to go to the Members Market for stuff.

This is what I've currently got:
2 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Crossfired)
Patrtiot G Series Sector 5 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (actually got 6GB of RAM)
AMD Phenom II X4 925 2.8GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache Retail Box Processor
ASUS M4A77TD PRO 770 Socket AM3 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

There's a SSD in there as well.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
26 Aug 2013
Posts
8,393
I would spend the full sum on a second-hand GTX 970/980/1060 or R9 290/390 or RX 480/580 (some of the AMD cards will be nigh on impossible to find for that sum due to mining) and an extra 2GB DDR3 stick (try sourcing one with similar voltage/frequency/timings). Overclock the Phenom II X4 925 if possible. Then save up for a CPU/mobo/DDR4 upgrade, which if new and a decent upgrade (Ryzen 1600, B350 board and 8GB DDR4 minimum for example) could cost around £325-ish. There's just not enough to upgrade more things right now, and if you tried the £150 would be wasted on rubbish, imo.

Need to check that PSU can cope with a new GPU (so factor GPU power requirements into GPU choice - check how much is available on the +12v rail/s don't just go by the total wattage in the name). If you currently have 2 x 5770 in Crossfire then good chance it should cope with any of the above.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
7 Nov 2009
Posts
19,798
Location
Glasgow
just noticed OP mentions actually have 6gb ??

@Ahleckz , when you mention you have 6gb ? is this with a 3rd stick or you have a 32bit vesion of windows ?

I've got three 2gb sticks. Windows 7, 64bit.

I thought that a new graphics card would be the best bet, and it seems that this thread has confirmed that. Think I'll keep an eye out on the MM and see if anything pops up.

I have no idea what prices for hardware are like at the minute, been completely out the loop so wasn't sure if £150 could get anything worthwhile at all.
 
Associate
Joined
12 Sep 2016
Posts
15
Depending on how much you care about maxing games, could even settle with say a 750ti or 960, then double up your RAM to at least 8gb, pretty decent setup that can run most AAA titles on medium settings 1080p60fps (ok maybe pushing it, but 30fps minimum and you'll be ******** on console players)
 
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