Refresh gaming system on a shoe-string?

spiki

spiki

spiki

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Joined
18 Oct 2005
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917
Hello everyone

I'm thinking of doing a modest upgrade to my current gaming machine. It plays BF4 pretty good on high settings, which is currently the one game I have installed on it. Nevertheless, I do notice it running sluggish at times when working with multiple windows open. I would also hope to be able to play the next BF when it arrives.

The specs are in my sig. I'm hoping to keep the case, gfx card (for now), psu and drives. But have been out of the loop for a few years and have no idea what to go for.

My budget is probably around £300. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Thanks.
 
I'd do the opposite - change the GPU and keep the rest for now. Your motherboard may need a BIOS update, but it has a PCI 2.0 slot. Any new GPU will fit and you'll likely not notice too much performance loss with running a PCI 3.0 card in a 2.0 socket. Your PSU can handle it and you already have 8gb of RAM. And those Q9550 chips are still ok today, especially when overclocked. You won't get top performance obviously, but it'll be good enough for now.

If you're going to do an incremental upgrade for gaming then the biggest increase you'll see is with a new GPU. Changing the mobo/cpu and memory won't give you much when paired with a 560ti.

Get a GTX970/R9 390/GTX960/R9 380 and marvel at the improvement :)
 
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Still been looking at the upgrade options.

WOuld there be any potential conflicts between one of the newer gpu's such as a 1060 or 970 with my MB?

I know there have been no BIOS updates from Asus since 2009, so will I be able to just drop this in and play?

I know too that the card won't be running at optimum with my cpu but hope to change that along with mobo etc in time. Is it worth considering i3 in a budget build with main games probably BF1 and BF4?
 
Realistically, you need to save more than £300.

This will be a big improvement and shouldn't break the bank

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £398.92
(includes shipping: £0.00)
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I would say the next CPU upgrade would be better off saving for an i5. An i3 is aslo a good option, but more of a side step and half the cost of an i5.

At that sort of spec it's usually worth considering upgrades around the main system then looking at a motherboard/cpu/ram bundle, personally I would not use anything above an AMD 390/480 or Nvidia 970/1060 spec with the Q9550, I think my sweet spot was with the 7950 GPU and anything better was a waste. I gamed on a couple of LGA775 systems right up until Z87. Then passed the LGA775 gaming system to my kids minus the 7950.

Usually I would upgrade items like case/psu/gpu/ssd/hdd/cooler then a motherboard bundle, though we are unclear if newer GPU's will work with your motherboard? An SSD and new GPU will give you the best bang for buck for £300. It won't completely get rid of the slight sluggish feel, but the SSD OS drive makes a vast improvement! If you could get one cheap, so would an ssd storage drive! SSD's are about the biggest upgrade you can make, especially if your using those old Samsung F1 HDD's!

In your case I think you could upgrade the CPU/motherboard/memory first and see an improvement but ONLY if you have an SSD and you would have to save a lot more, you could then sell off your unused hardware and save for a GPU, You say you manage with the GPU you have, well how long can that do you for?

What are your current hard drives?
What monitor resolution do you play at?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £491.97
(includes shipping: £0.00)
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6600k and 16gb of memory are easy to decide upon, but motherboard cost is dependant on your wanting to SLI or not etc. Your looking at around £400 - £500 as a ballpark figure I guess, is that really that far off what a Q9550, P45 motherboard and 8gb of DDR2 cost back in the day?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £528.43
(includes shipping: £10.50)
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My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £385.47
(includes shipping: £10.50)
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Some great advice here and thanks for taking the time to respond. I'm going to have a look again at the figures.
 
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