Help me spend £200

Unicorn

Unicorn

Unicorn

Soldato
Joined
24 Dec 2011
Posts
4,735
Help me spend £400

Current Spec

AMD Phenom X3 8650 which is an AM2+ Processor (Old! and dying)
ASUS M3N78 Mobo
PALIT 9500GT 512MB Passive
4GB DDR2 6400 RAM
CM 690 II
CM Silent M 600
Arctic 7 Freezer Pro rev 2
BitFenix Spectre's and Gelid Silent 12's
BitFenix Recon fan controller
320GB DeskStar SATA HDD
Sandisk Ultra SSD

I need help spending 200 on upgrades and what would really be worthwhile..
As much as i can get really i don't just wana blow 200 on a new graphics card

I mainly want faster and more multi-tasking abilitys.. And to play newer games

EDIT: Changed budget to 400
 
Last edited:
should have mentioned i plan to SLI or Xfire in the future :) Is the i3 2100 worth the upgrade over my X3? I have never seen my x3 hit 100% load
 
Its your choice but you did say its old and dying :P
Plus the i3 wont bottleneck anywhere as easily as the X3 and it will be faster.
Im not very good with motherboard so I would get someone elses opinion on that. And could you stretch to £250?


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte P67X-UD3 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £84.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £23.99
Total : £210.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
Ill stretch as far as needed to get a futureproofed system if not for a year or two more. I don't care about overclocking as i like cool n quiet if i can have it.

Would a 6850 play games like Assassins creed, Battlefield 3, Skyrim etc on high or ultra?
If not what would..

At the moment i think the bottleneck is my RAM so 8GB Would be ideal.. or if the price is right.. 16 for future proofing


EDIT:

After seeing the 2 above lets double to 400, I might aswell do an upgrade properly..
 
Over but perfect for the money, especially if your not going to overclock.


YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 560Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3450 3.10GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £149.99
1 x ASRock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £97.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £38.99
Total : £448.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Are you sure you want to go for SLI / Crossfire?
 
New PSU 3 months old.

Ill spend 400 now what can you suggest..

i5 IvyB?
8GB or 16GB ram
6850 or above
X-fire capable or good mobo without it (if it allows me for a better single card)

Would any of this be possible?
 
GrimsbyLAD said:
Ill stretch as far as needed to get a futureproofed system if not for a year or two more. I don't care about overclocking as i like cool n quiet if i can have it.

Would a 6850 play games like Assassins creed, Battlefield 3, Skyrim etc on high or ultra?
If not what would..

At the moment i think the bottleneck is my RAM so 8GB Would be ideal.. or if the price is right.. 16 for future proofing


EDIT:

After seeing the 2 above lets double to 400, I might aswell do an upgrade properly..
Click to expand...


Will not confess to being an expert, but have spent some time researching (and still am!) a new build which principally will cope with BF3 on decent settings. (AT moment coping with HP Envy laptop! and low detail and 1400 resolution (still looks ok ish).

This site is good for benchmarks (mentioned by people who know their stuff earlier): http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/539

Guess you will get playable FPS with 6850 medium/high (mid 40's?) but will have to go up for Ultra. Not sure what resolution screen you are using mind.

Not sure if that helps - good luck.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £38.99
Total : £415.96 (includes shipping : FREE).



Will allow you to go X-fire later. The 6850 is a good card that will run BF3 on Med to high settings, depending on what resolution you play at.
 
I know that it is a Very big ask but if you are willing to spend an extra £100 you will get a a 7850 which will make a lovely job of BF3.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £38.99
Total : £493.96 (includes shipping : FREE).



You will lose the ability to go X-fire later and if you want to overclock beyond about 4GHz then you will need to get a better CPU cooler, but you can always pick that up later.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £169.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £38.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.28
Total : £408.24 (includes shipping : FREE).



I'd go with that bud (tad over i know).

I have the nvidia 460, the 6850 is roughly on par with it. The Z77 mobo has LucidMVP which will use the IGP to give the GPU a boost and of course you can overclock the 6850 too ;)

Ideally you want a GPU with 2GB of VRAM to be fair but that's more money. The 6950 is priced to close to the 7850 and that's getting on for £200. The 6850 isn't a bad card and it's cheaper than the 460 and will be a big improvement over what you have currently.

If you Xfire the 6850 it doesn't combine the VRAM so you still only have 1GB. As you up the graphic settings it starts to gobble up the VRAM, so you have to make a trade off. I can run BF3 on my 40inch 3DTV fine on custom high-ultra settings. I could add another 460 but the VRAM stops me upping the quality, I'd just get better FPS at the same quality, if that makes sense.

For £80 you cant really grumble at the 6850 it is far better than what any current console is capable of. Yes you might want to upgrade it in a year or so but I think you will be pleasantly surprised by it. I still prefer the 460 as it has HDAO lighting and CUDA support but im not sure that warrants another £40

6850 vs 460 (at stock speeds)

Hope this helps bud, any questions you might have feel free to ask

EDIT

Just seen firefly suggesting the 7850 lol If you are tempted get the MSI 7850 it's a couple of quid more (literally) but is clocked faster out of the box and has a 3 year warranty the sapphire only has 2 years ;)
 
Last edited:
I can get afew bits off the MM and i aint buying all at once so i can use TWO and DD's if thats any help to my specs.

a Z77 Board is what i wanted Idealy along with an i5 (sb or ib i don't care) and 8GB Ram and an okay card.. Seems these specs are along the lines of what i want. If i can pick up a good card off the MM like a 6950 or something and get a i5 3570k, Z77 Board and 8GB RAM, Along with a CM Hyper or A50

would that be a good spec?
 
Fire_fly said:
I know that it is a Very big ask but if you are willing to spend an extra £100 you will get a a 7850 which will make a lovely job of BF3.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £38.99
Total : £493.96 (includes shipping : FREE).



You will lose the ability to go X-fire later and if you want to overclock beyond about 4GHz then you will need to get a better CPU cooler, but you can always pick that up later.
Click to expand...

+1

great move, but I know budgets are normally there for a reason, you would get good hike in frames over 6850 (looking at 7850 myself - but inner demons trying to push GTX670).

See http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/539?vs=549

(7850) 1920 x 1200 ULTRA BF3 49fps (closer to 60FPS heaven), will be great for HIGH which to be fair looks great and offers good frames.
 
GrimsbyLAD said:
I can get afew bits off the MM and i aint buying all at once so i can use TWO and DD's if thats any help to my specs.

a Z77 Board is what i wanted Idealy along with an i5 (sb or ib i don't care) and 8GB Ram and an okay card.. Seems these specs are along the lines of what i want. If i can pick up a good card off the MM like a 6950 or something and get a i5 3570k, Z77 Board and 8GB RAM, Along with a CM Hyper or A50

would that be a good spec?
Click to expand...

Ivybridge would be better. It uses less power, has a better IGP (which lucidMVP exploits), does more clock for clock (just) and enables the PCI-E 3 slot.

I'd buy new. You don't know the history of the kit and some people do silly things to the stuff they own. It's great we have access to the MM but unless stuff goes cheap cheap (like the budgie) it rarely interests me,personally.....always an option though :)

600W would probably be just about enough to Xfire the 7850 but a 6950 uses more power so 650W was recommended alongside SB CPUs. I think you'd be better off concentrating on a single GPU and having headroom for overclocking which will draw more "juice".

I'd suggest you do the GPU last unless you see a baragain comeup on offer. The Nvidia 660 is on the horizon, waiting isn't really going to hurt your options.
 
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