How can I upgrade this (£200)

Zephyz · 24 Dec 2011 at 18:02

I have £200 and I want to upgrade my computer and someone said I should get Hyper 212, another thing is my motherboard doesn't support CPU.

Should I? Buy a new motherboard, 4/8GB DDR3 RAM, new CPU and a very good GPU and hyper 212? Can I afford that on £200?

or should I get the best dual core CPU, I can get. 4GB DDR2 RAM, a very good GPU and hyper 212? Can I afford that on £200?

I want to be able to play all the top games.

honosuseri · 24 Dec 2011 at 18:10

Dude you need a decent graphics card for a start. That's £100 for a decent budget one right off the bat.

£200 will cover an i3 2100/2120, H series mobo and 4GB of RAM. It will have onboard graphics but for gaming you will need to add a dedicated GPU at some point.

What is the PSU you have? I'd swap out the mobo etc, sell your old kit to help fund a GPU. The nvidia 460 SOC is a good card for around £110, the 6850 is £100ish but lower performance.

drakioned · 24 Dec 2011 at 18:13

Well, what is your current computer, you haven't stated what you'd be wanting to be upgrading from.

At a glance, I would say, no.

Many "top" games usually require a high end system to run well, unless you have a reasonably good system already, 200 wouldn't do the trick.

Zephyz · 24 Dec 2011 at 18:13

Aw, god. The PSU - I think it's a budget one, it's not 80+. I'll have to end up buying a new computer.

Gregfoster17 · 24 Dec 2011 at 18:14

£200 isn't going to cut the mustard with the latest games, if your having to upgrade more than one thing.

Also if you wanted to upgrade to 4Gb or more of RAM then it would make sense to upgrade to the 64 bit version of windows, as this will allow you to address more than 2Gb of RAM.

If you do upgarde windows the 64 bit version you'll probably want to upgrade the CPU as well, but I don't think that'll be strictly necessary.

If you were to go for a nice GPU (GTX 560Ti?) then you would probably only have the CPU causing the most noticeable bottle neck (aside from HDD speeds, etc), but the amount of bottle neck would depend on the type of game you were going to be playing.

Zephyz · 24 Dec 2011 at 18:14

drakioned said:
Well, what is your current computer, you haven't stated what you'd be wanting to be upgrading from.

My computer is in the image.

shadow_boxer · 24 Dec 2011 at 18:19

As above really, your whole system needs an overhaul to be honest and you need a bit more than £200.

I would get this lot first;

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
(£79.99) £95.99
(£79.99)
MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £46.99
(£39.16) £46.99
(£39.16)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98
(£30.82) £36.98
(£30.82)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
Sub Total : £166.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £35.33
Total : £211.96

Use the integrated graphics for the time being and in the meantime try to sell off what you can and put the funds towards a new graphics card. If you can get together about £80 then you could get something like a second hand 1GB GTX460 or a Radeon HD5850. Also what PSU do you have at the moment? Open the case and check the make and model of it. If it's a poor one you'll need to upgrade that too, (the Corsair CX430 is a decent one on a budget).

Zephyz · 24 Dec 2011 at 18:22

shadow_boxer said:
As above really, your whole system needs an overhaul to be honest and you need a bit more than £200.

I would get this lot first;

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
(£79.99) £95.99
(£79.99)
MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £46.99
(£39.16) £46.99
(£39.16)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98
(£30.82) £36.98
(£30.82)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
Sub Total : £166.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £35.33
Total : £211.96

Use the integrated graphics for the time being and in the meantime try to sell off what you can and put the funds towards a new graphics card. If you can get together about £80 then you could get something like a second hand 1GB GTX460 or a Radeon HD5850. Also what PSU do you have at the moment? Open the case and check the make and model of it. If it's a poor one you'll need to upgrade that too, (the Corsair CX430 is a decent one on a budget).

Ah, thanks. I brought this PSU very cheap as a temporary to my old PSU that broke due to a power cut earlier this week. It's non-branded.

drakioned · 24 Dec 2011 at 18:23

Ah.. looks like my adplusblock ate the image.

Well, now that I can see it, I think either:

a) upgrade the whole lot and pay more
or
b) upgrade the graphics card and it'll tide you over until you can overhaul the system, look for a second hand 560Ti or something and spend as little as you can

kingbender · 24 Dec 2011 at 21:18

e8400 £79 hd 4850 £30 2x2gb ddr2 £40 all second hand from that well known auction site. you'd probably spend £150 including postage without any warranty. if you followed shadow_boxer's build and ordered it before the end of boxing day, you could save 5% and save again on the postage with the current offer that's on [http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18355463]. don't forget that you could recoup a few quid reselling your old stuff and put this towards a graphics card.i hope your windows 7 is a retail copy rather than an oem because you would be changing the motherboard and this could cause problems with microsoft.

olivier renault · 25 Dec 2011 at 16:49

shadow_boxer said:
As above really, your whole system needs an overhaul to be honest and you need a bit more than £200.

I would get this lot first;

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
(£79.99) £95.99
(£79.99)
MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £46.99
(£39.16) £46.99
(£39.16)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98
(£30.82) £36.98
(£30.82)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
Sub Total : £166.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £35.33
Total : £211.96

Use the integrated graphics for the time being and in the meantime try to sell off what you can and put the funds towards a new graphics card. If you can get together about £80 then you could get something like a second hand 1GB GTX460 or a Radeon HD5850. Also what PSU do you have at the moment? Open the case and check the make and model of it. If it's a poor one you'll need to upgrade that too, (the Corsair CX430 is a decent one on a budget).

I wouldn't go beyond a 6850 on that PSU. It has about 336W on 12V (for PSU and CPU), and been benched around 250-275W consumption. 460, 5850, take more juice. 6850 requires only one PCIE connector, and it's a pretty powerful card (roughly a little lower than a GTX 460 / HD5850).

Or get a stronger PSU, like a XFX Core 550W.