Gaming PC Upgrade + Windows 8

[times_champion]

Hi guys. Forgive me because i'm a bit clueless when it comes to uprading PC's - my friend built mine for me a couple of years ago and now i'm looking to spend about £450 - £500 or so (including re-selling the old parts) in upgrading so my PC plays games at 1920x1080 at close to high settings for the next 18 months or so.

I currently have:
M3N78 Pro mobo
Athlon 64X2 6000+
Radeon 4850
3GB DDR PC2-6400 RAM

Any suggestions welcomed, but I'm currently looking at a Phenom II quad core 965 and maybe an HD7850 graphics card. Would those components increase my performance significantly if I upgraded to 4gm or 8gb of RAM as well?

Also i'm currently running Vitas 64 so will probably need to upgrade that. How does the windows 8 beta work? Is it free and I just pay to upgrade next year or whenever it becomes available to purchase?

Thanks for all your help in advance!

 

[times_champion]

Just another thought - would these new AMD 'bulldozer' processors work with my motherboard, for example the 4100? If so would that be better that the Phenom II?

 

[jamesfreddie]

Just another thought - would these new AMD 'bulldozer' processors work with my motherboard, for example the 4100? If so would that be better that the Phenom II?

NO a Faildozer will not work in the board.

But you could get a PII in that board.

 

[times_champion]

OK - would a Phenom II 965 offer up a decent improvement over what I have right now? And will it run games at a decent level in the upcoming year or so?

 

[jamesfreddie]

It would give you a ggod gain.

However i wouldn't throw any more money at that platform.

I would get a i3.

 

[times_champion]

How much would that cost me? Close to budget options - I'm not building a super computer, just something to play games like Far Cry 3 and Bioshock Infinite at decent graphics levels at 1080p.

 

[jamesfreddie]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £43.99
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £35.99
Total : £191.33 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 

[times_champion]

Sounds great - so with that mobo, processor and memory and adding in an HD7850 would the system do what I want it for?

And does anyone have any info on how the windows 8 trial works?

 

[times_champion]

Oh and no need for shipping - I live 10 miles away!

 

[jamesfreddie]

You could go to a 7850 and it would be fine.

However if you could i would spend another £30 - 50 on a better Z77 motherboard.

Are you talking about the Win 8 Consumer Preview. What do you want to know?

 

[times_champion]

I just want to know how it works - do you just doenload it for free and pay to upgrade when its released officially? Is that a better bet than paying for Windows 7 now? I really need to upgrade from Vista 64...

 

[jamesfreddie]

OK, You download install it. It lasts x ammount of days then it becomes invalid and no more updates are avaliable.

You then can buy it after the trial period. However you will have to do a full reinstall. IIRC.

I think that was the way it worked with Win 7.

 

[times_champion]

OK cool, thanks. So does it last like 7 days or something, or months? I guess the full details are available on their website

 

[times_champion]

One more question sorry - will be my existing 500w PSU be enough to run the setup that you detailed above with the HD7850? Cheers!

 

[jamesfreddie]

One more question sorry - will be my existing 500w PSU be enough to run the setup that you detailed above with the HD7850? Cheers!

What brand is it?

 

[R088ieS86]

The Win8 consumer preview will expire on 15/01/2013. Pretty sure thats everyones. But you may stop getting updates after its offical release in October '12.