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

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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!