Some help/advice on upgrading my PC!

MilligramSmile

MilligramSmile

MilligramSmile

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7 May 2012
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So my PC is getting to around 5 - 6 years old now, and Im getting frustrated as I cant run Diablo 3 or Battlefield 3 smoothly (30 fps) even on the lowest settings!

My current spec is -

- AMD Radeon HD 6850 Series 1GB
- AMD Phenom(tm) 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
- 2 x 2GB DDR2 RAM
- 600W PSU
- ASRock N68C-S UCC motherboard


Now, I dont know why but I cant rum D3 or BF3 very well, even League of Legends has some frame issues when team fights happen. I personally think its my CPU being pretty old!

So I was going to upgrade my system by replacing the motherboard, CPU (to an i7) and my RAM to 8/16 GB DDR3

What do you guys think? Any insight or input into the components I should purchase would be great! I want to upgrade my GPU later, but I think my 6850 should be ok to run these games atleast of high setting at a good FPS! I just want to run my games at a nice solid FPS and enjoy them xD

Thanks in advance!

x
 
Firstly, what's your budget? Do you want the option of going Sli on the 6850's?

Here's a quick look:
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 GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1333C9DC) £37.99
Total : £342.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).



The only advantage of the i7 is hyperthreading really, so unless you do a lot of photoshop/video editing/rendering then go for an i5. Also 16gb of RAM is only really needed again if you do intensive rendering/editing.

This option gives you a good mid-range motherboard of the latest type, an i5 and some pretty good RAM. Ofc, it all depends on budget.
 
Hey! Thanks a lot :D

That's all in my budget! Wanted to stick around £300/£350 to start with the initial upgrade, then was going to upgrade my GPU to a Nvid GTX560 ti at a later date, or maybe even a higher end gpu

Will these first upgrades though (the mobo, CPU and RAM) greatly improve my gaming performance?
 
The CPU is definitely better, I would say your current rig is being bottlenecked by your CPU, so the i5 is definitely an improvement, which would probably leave your GPU being the limiting factor, but that's fine for the moment. The mobo supports Sli if you ever just want to add another 6850 or something else instead of getting rid of it, and should cover you into the future, as well as having UK based RMA.

Obviously 8gb of RAM is just more useful all round, and will prevent you from lack of memory.

I would take the plunge and say that it will improve your performance, although be wary because a lot of the latest games are more GPU dependant than CPU dependant and the i5 will be able to cope easily, so a GPU upgrade would definitely do you some good. BUt yes, it's definitely a step up.
 
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