Some upgrade advice

[DazzeL]

Guys,

Sorry for people who find these threads really boring - there's several about I know - I do apologise. Please move on and ignore me!

For anyone willing to help, I'm posting this here because I know there are knowledgable folks around who can help.

Right, I'm looking at doing a cheap as possible upgrade to my ageing PC. I will be using it for gaming but I'm no graphics or resolution snob - only play at 1600x900 although high settings in most games would be nice.

Current set up -
AMD Athlon 7750 Black Edition @ 2.8ghz
GeForce 8800 GT 1GB @ stock
4 GB of ****** DDR2 RAM
The cheapest AMD mobo I could find at the time!

Proposed upgrade - (cost of £310ish)
i3 2120
ATI HD7770 1GB
Z77 Chipset mobo, probably Gigabyte D3H
8GB 1600mhz DDR3, probably Crucial ballistic

A couple of questions...
Will i notice a significant difference with this? Would it be worth just upgrading graphics card?

For the actual upgrades themselves, this would be my first intel CPU but is it the best choice for gaming at this price point? Also, with the 7770 is this the best choice, would the 6870 be worth the extra £25 they cost?

Thanks to anyone that helps.

 

[Gav_881]

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gainward GeForce GTX 560Ti "Phantom" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-YOUR BASKET
1 x [url="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-069-GW"]**B Grade** Gainward GeForce GTX 560Ti "Phantom" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-145-GW) £139.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £38.99
1 x **B Grade** MSI H61M-P23 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £23.00
Total : £309.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).



If your going for a sandy I3 then Z77 is a waste as you cannot OC or use most of the Z77 fancy features.

With that budget i would hit clearance and get this lot. you may be short a couple of cables from the mobo but you no doubt have some connected to your current rig.

As for performance you should see a decent boost.

 

[Lemin]

Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99

MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99

Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98

Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £41.99

Sub Total : £248.29
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £51.56
Total : £309.35

 

[CinderzFTW]

Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99

MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99

Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98

Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £41.99

Sub Total : £248.29
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £51.56
Total : £309.35

+1

The Z77 board is their for future upgrades to a better SB or IB where he can overclock the nuts off the i5/i7 chips. The H61 board ain't great for overclocking or gaming.

The 560ti is a good card, but for bang for buck and if your on a tight budget, the 6850 is a great card. it will give you 30FPS at 1920*1080 on high settings pretty easily, plus it only needs one 6pin, not 2 like the 560ti needs to run, so it will not tax your psu so much, great if you have a cheaper psu.