First Time Upgrading my First Gaming PC

clartymarty

clartymarty

clartymarty

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Hartlepool (North East)
I originally bought a bundle to start me off with gaming on a PC Desktop, this was about 2/2.5 years ago from overclockers, I am sure it was an Antec build???? I am currently looking at upgrading my spec but not sure where to start or what really needs updating. At the moment funds are tight but if I can set myself a goal to work towards or slowly build my computer up with the new bits and bobs.

Off the top of my head while I am at work I have the following spec, I am currently playing games such as Wildstar and Smite but I am looking at branching out to better games but I know that I will start o struggle a little depending on how intense the game is.

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Windows Vista
NVidia GeForce GTX 550ti
4GB Ram – (so much to choose from!)
Intel i3

Not sure on the motherboard or power supply but will update when I get home.
 
At the moment I dont have one, I would like to say cheaper the better but I also want to notice that I have upgraded my PC and I would like it to last longer than my current spec. ATM I am new to all of this although my knowledge it better than it used to be!

I dont really need a new case or Operating System if that helps a little
 
All of that could use an upgrade, your gfx card will probably make the biggest difference, go to a gtx nvidia gtx 770 or a radeon 280x not sure if anything lower will be worth it. certain games will benefit from more cpu power so get a quad core i5 or i7 if you have the money, which ones that are compatilbe with your motherboard can be found out by what i3 model you have. Also double up to 8gb ram. a newer windows version can wait until you have an ssd.

so my recomedaton is this order
new gfx card gtx 770 or 280x or better - will likely benefit the most games, console ports, shooters etc
more ram to 8gb - most games are using a little more than 4gb inc background tasks
new cpu to i5 or preferably i7 - will benefit strategy and mmo games and others moving into nextgen
windows 7 or 8 just faster, more efficient than vista and supports ssds properly bt wont make much differene to game speed on its own.
ssd - solid state drive vastly improves game load times but need win 7 or 8
 
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With the RAM do I need to be looking at specifics such as motherboard or just double up what I already have in my system? I am sure I only have 2 ports for this though
 
I would recommend picking up an i5/i7 chip off the members market, you can get some decent deals there. Then just get another stick of 4gb rams and a 270x. Should be £300 or less in total.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £143.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Single-Channel Module (CMX4GX3M1A1333C9) £35.99
Total : £189.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).




To get you started, ram might need changing try find out what speeds your current stick is, or if you have 2 sticks of ram (2x2GB).
 
You said you only have 2 ports for DIMM's? You'll probably have to grab yourself another whole new set of RAM if that's the case.
 
clartymarty said:
I know I have 2 sticks of 2GB but not sure on the speed though! I will update my post with my motherboard spec aswell
Click to expand...

Awesome, use something like cpu-z and just drop some screenshots of your CPU, motherboard, GPU. And try find out the model of your PSU.

If you could include a budget that would help too but a 270x, 4/8gb ram and a decent CPU from the members market will last you a few more years.
 
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £143.99

How is this that was mentioned earlier? Sorry I dont know much about Radeon cards :(
 
clartymarty said:
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £143.99

How is this that was mentioned earlier? Sorry I dont know much about Radeon cards :(
Click to expand...

Its a pretty solid card for the price, you sould get high on most games without too much of an issue.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1043?vs=1133

Just a comparison :p.

You still need to figure out what motherbaord and PSU your working with, maybe you can find an invoice or something similar.
 
Vista is bad, bad bad bad bad, don't game on vista :p

i'd whack a 270x in there personally, and get extra ram up to 8gb, and if you can afford it an i5 instead of an i3 (is your i3 one of the old 530's or something which could be overclocked?)
 
I`m going to assume you have a H61 mobo.
In that case I would look at getting a 2500k from the MM, a long with 2x4gb of ram. You can always upgrade the mobo when funds permit.
Again looking in the MM, I would suggest a GTX670, which I believe is better than the 270x.
I have this card and it plays everything on high/ultra.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18581070

OS, I would just get Windows 8.1 Evaluation, which is valid for 90 days, so should give you plenty of time to decide if you like it or not and save the money to purchase.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx

Hopefully, your Psu is up to the task.
 
Found my build, I got this about 3years ago? so what needs changing. I will be getting some RAM on Friday and would prefer new

- Case: Antec 300 Gaming Case w/ Green LED Fans
- Power Supply: OCZ ZS 650W Power Supply
- CPU: Intel Core i3 2100 3.10GHz Clarkdale
- Motherboard: Intel H61(Socket 1155) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
- Cooler: Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
- RAM: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Hard Drive: 500GB HDD
- Graphics Card: Nvidia 550 TI DX11 Compatible Graphics Card
- Sound: Onboard 7.1 Audio
- Optical Drive: LG DVD+/-RW SATA Drive
 
I'd personally go with an R9 270x first of all, and then aim to get an 1155-socket i5 later. Another 4GB RAM would come either before or after the CPU.
 
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