My turn for an upgrade now. Advice needed

koolpc

koolpc

koolpc

Soldato
Joined
2 Dec 2004
Posts
14,609
Location
Under The Desk, Wales
After helping a couple of mates upgrade, through the great advice from here can you guys help me upgrade?

I currently have an Intel i3-2120 @ 3.30Ghz and 8 gig ram

Now, i have started to get back into PC gaming a bit and would love to upgrade my CPU and get a dedicated GPU as i currently use the one on the CPU.

Any suggestions as to what CPU to go for and what GPU i could buy that would allow me to play most games at medium to max settings.

Budget is not a lot, maybe £300.

Should i stick with Intel or slide over (or down) to AMD?

I use an M4 SSD and have a good PSU
 
Mobo is: Gig Z77M-D3H

Keep the CPU? So, that is fine? Would an Separate GPU cancel out the GPU from the CPU then once installed?

Quite fancy a AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4170 Black Edition 4.20Ghz. I knhow it would mean a new mobo too but would that be a big jump from my current CPU?
 
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If you take a look at a CPU comparison site like anandtech you'll see your i3 outperforms that bulldozer when gaming.

Your cpu is perfectly capable, I personally think you'd get hugely better performance spending your whole budget on a gpu rather than using what's left of it after upgrading to a 3570k/2500k.

What do others think? You're cpu is definitely not as inadequate for gaming as you'd think.
 
Ok, whats the cheapest GPU i could buy that would be a lot better than the CPU Graphics i am using with the i3? But would allow me to play most games at medium to high settings?
 
A 7850 2gb overclocked would allow you to play most things at max settings on 1080p. They were on special here custom cooled for £150. AMD are best bang for buck at the minute.
 
I've always preferred NVIDIA too but as others have said on here, it's not going to stop me buying amd if they offer me more for less!
 
You could do something like this, and sell your i3 to recoup some money. I presume you could also sell the 3 free games too that come with it.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £161.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
Total : £371.96 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
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