Best gaming upgrade with £250?

GizmoTheMogwai · 15 Sep 2011 at 21:45

My current setup;

MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1

Intel Pentium E5200 @ 3.50GHz

Wolfdale 45nm Technology

4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 800MHz (5-5-5-18)

Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. EP43-DS3 (Socket 775)

ATI Radeon HD 5750 Series

I am looking at upgrading next week or so with the aforementioned budget (£250). The games i'd like to run at high settings are Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and Guild Wars 2.

I was thinking ;

What is the best gaming upgrade I can get with this money. Help is much appreciated

Dan.

stulid · 15 Sep 2011 at 21:48

You really do want a P67 or Z68 motherboard so you can overclock the i5 2500K chip.

Ak!ta · 15 Sep 2011 at 22:06

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £85.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £25.99
Total : £297.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Cpu is now £173.99 ?
Also you need to get a good after market cooler is you want to overclock the cpu ?
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler @£25.99 is excellent !!!

fowler002 · 15 Sep 2011 at 22:14

good luck running those game on high with a 5750

ak!ta as you're already almost £50 over budget why not just up the mb to the z68xp-ud3 for £14 more

GizmoTheMogwai · 15 Sep 2011 at 22:15

fowler002 said:
good luck running those game on high with a 5750

ak!ta as you're already almost £50 over budget why not just up the mb to the z68xp-d3 for £14 more

I thought BF3 and Guild Wars 2 were CPU dependant?

stulid · 15 Sep 2011 at 22:17

GizmoTheMogwai said:
I thought BF3 and Guild Wars 2 were CPU dependant?

One important question is what resolution you use?

Ak!ta · 15 Sep 2011 at 22:19

fowler002 said:
good luck running those game on high with a 5750

ak!ta as you're already almost £50 over budget why not just up the mb to the z68xp-d3 for £14 more

Because op wants an i5 "K" cpu, and chose an H61 mobo. He was told that the i5 "K" is pointless on that series board and he would need to get a P67 or Z68 board... and that's one of the cheapest Z68 ?

GizmoTheMogwai · 15 Sep 2011 at 22:20

stulid said:
One important question is what resolution you use?

1368 X 768, but perhaps higher in the near future.

stulid · 15 Sep 2011 at 22:21

GizmoTheMogwai said:
1368 X 768, but perhaps higher in the near future.

Well thats low, so a 5750 shouldn't struggle when boosted by a beast like a i5 2500K behind it.

SheepBeast · 16 Sep 2011 at 03:03

why not shop around for a second hand Q6600, get a good aftermarket cooler and overclock the hell out of it. spend the rest of the money on a better graphics card like a 6870 or 560Ti. surely that would be the best way to improve performance? (much easier upgrade too)

unless i am mistaken and the Q6600 would not work in his current mobo?

GizmoTheMogwai · 16 Sep 2011 at 11:18

SheepBeast said:
why not shop around for a second hand Q6600, get a good aftermarket cooler and overclock the hell out of it. spend the rest of the money on a better graphics card like a 6870 or 560Ti. surely that would be the best way to improve performance? (much easier upgrade too)

unless i am mistaken and the Q6600 would not work in his current mobo?

Not really interested in a stop-gap upgrade, the Q6600 is pretty old by now...

It looks like i'll be getting the Z68 and i5 2500K now and then upgrading my GPU sometime next year when I have the money. Here's hoping that can get me through the holiday game releases this year... :cool:

Little_Crow · 16 Sep 2011 at 11:30

SheepBeast said:
why not shop around for a second hand Q6600, get a good aftermarket cooler and overclock the hell out of it. spend the rest of the money on a better graphics card like a 6870 or 560Ti. surely that would be the best way to improve performance? (much easier upgrade too)

I agree with this, I'm running a Q6600 with a GTX570 and it runs everything fine for me at 1920x1200.

If you upgrade your CPU I think your GPU will hinder it massively in the games listed.
If you upgrade just the GPU your CPU may not be able to push data to it fast enough.

SheepBeasts suggestion gives a bit of both and strikes me as giving the most benefit within the budget you have

Scania · 16 Sep 2011 at 11:56

Quad Core CPU from the MM or like.

Better Graphics card (new or second hand depending on funds)

SSD for the OS & the game you play the most.

Pretty much how I upgraded my aged Sct 775 system, I play @ fairly lowish res (1680x1050) and can run BFBC2 for example maxxed out fine not to mention I get into servers quickly due to the SSD's fast loading times.

GizmoTheMogwai · 16 Sep 2011 at 12:17

Wouldn't it be better to get the CPU/Mobo/ram now and get a 7XXX card next year? Those components would last me at least 2/3 years...
Q6600 is obviously a good chip, but it won't last me more then a year or so.

I want to run games with 4xAA at a fairly low res (1360x768) and get 60FPS, no more.

HummuH1 · 16 Sep 2011 at 12:30

GizmoTheMogwai said:
Wouldn't it be better to get the CPU/Mobo/ram now and get a 7XXX card next year? Those components would last me at least 2/3 years...
Q6600 is obviously a good chip, but it won't last me more then a year or so.

I want to run games with 4xAA at a fairly low res (1360x768) and get 60FPS, no more.

It's a hard call. If you upgrade MB/CPU you GPU will bottleneck. If you upgrade GPU your CPU will bottleneck.

I game at 1366x768 with a Q6600 at 3.4 and an OC'd GTX275. At that resolution it copes fine with everything I throw at it.

Also bear in mind that with a new GPU you might have to upgrade your PSU too.

For about £150 you could get a 2nd hand Q6600 and a new GTX460. That will keep you going for some time at 1366 x 768 IMO. Tough call though.

GizmoTheMogwai · 16 Sep 2011 at 12:56

Q6600 with a GPU upgrade would certainly cover my ass for about a year I think, but it's about what is more expensive in the long run...

I have a feeling that compromising with the Q6600 wouldn't be such a good idea, but i'm not sure...

logi-cat · 16 Sep 2011 at 14:28

If you do the motherboard, ram and cpu upgrade as suggested. Once you sell you old components you'll have money to buy yourself a decent graphics card cos the 5750 won't be able to run anything decent. Perhaps a 1gb gtx 460.

fowler002 · 16 Sep 2011 at 14:28

Ak!ta said:
Because op wants an i5 "K" cpu, and chose an H61 mobo. He was told that the i5 "K" is pointless on that series board and he would need to get a P67 or Z68 board... and that's one of the cheapest Z68 ?

yes but for only £14 more(already well over budget so what's anothe £14), you get a better motherboard(not looked into the differences, maybe stulid will enlighten us).

gizmo forgot to ask what te current psu is, if it's some no name/chep one then you'll need to upgrade it.

GizmoTheMogwai · 16 Sep 2011 at 14:34

fowler002 said:
yes but for only £14 more(already well over budget so what's anothe £14), you get a better motherboard(not looked into the differences, maybe stulid will enlighten us).

gizmo forgot to ask what te current psu is, if it's some no name/chep one then you'll need to upgrade it.

600w, I got it with a pre-built OCUK system 2 years ago.

fowler002 · 16 Sep 2011 at 14:35

brand/model?