Unsure on what to upgrade.

Leezor · 29 May 2011 at 18:34

Looking at my system (sig) im not sure what to upgrade for BF3, my budget is about £275 (£300 max). Im thinking of getting the i5-2500k / GD53
but with my 2 cores / 4 threads im wondering will my CPU be ok and instead get a £200 graphics card. It plays BC2 at high fine at the moment so no rush, maybe wait and see what hardware gets released before BF3?

jamesfreddie · 29 May 2011 at 18:37

Is you MB Crossfire compatible?

shadow_boxer · 29 May 2011 at 18:37

Yeah, personally wait until BFBC3 release then see what the funds are saying! BFBC2 is pretty CPU intensive so you could perhaps look at getting a second hand i5 750 and upgrading the GPU with what is left over.

Leezor · 29 May 2011 at 18:53

jamesfreddie said:
Is you MB Crossfire compatible?

It is but i've never really cared for crossfire, also i need to move my hard drive if i crossfire because it blocks the second PCI slot, i can access the two screws but cant get to the other's, how do i get to them, any idea's?

jamesfreddie · 29 May 2011 at 18:55

Leezor said:
It is but i've never really cared for crossfire, also i need to move my hard drive if i crossfire because it blocks the second PCI slot, i can access the two screws but cant get to the other's, how do i get to them, any idea's?

Access the two screws on what?

Also what is your PSU?

Leezor · 29 May 2011 at 19:17

jamesfreddie said:
Access the two screws on what?

Also what is your PSU?

The other two screws holding the hard drive, PSU in my sig aswell.

jamesfreddie · 30 May 2011 at 09:37

The other two screws on your hdd are around the otherside.

I wasthinking if you bought

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £99.98
Total : £274.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).

panyan · 30 May 2011 at 10:08

jamesfreddie said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £99.98
Total : £274.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).

good choice

logi-cat · 30 May 2011 at 10:14

Go for a quad core processor like jamesfreddie said, make a big difference

Leezor · 30 May 2011 at 17:18

jamesfreddie said:
The other two screws on your hdd are around the otherside.

I wasthinking if you bought

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5830 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £99.98
Total : £274.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).

Aye but they are very awkward to access in my Antec 300 i find anyway, also you mean crossfire with another 5830? if possible i was looking to avoid crossfire, i game at 1680x1050 btw.

jamesfreddie · 30 May 2011 at 17:48

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 560 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
Total : £325.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Then sell your 5830 mabe get £80 so it would cost you £245 or if you wanted to stay ATI/AMD.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6870 OC HAWK 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Lara Croft Game £154.99
Total : £330.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).

That would cost about £250 after selling your 5830

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
Total : £355.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Last option sell your 5830 and this would cost about £275

jamesfreddie · 30 May 2011 at 17:50

But for best performance you should probley go with crossfire.

You only have to set it up once so for a little hassle mabe it is worth going crossfire.

jamesfreddie · 30 May 2011 at 17:54

Just thinking if you where lucky and got £60 for your i3 and £80 for your 5830 = £140 you might be able to afford this at a strech.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £274.99
1 x Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
Total : £450.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).

£450 minus £140 = £310 which is only £10 out of budget

Leezor · 30 May 2011 at 19:01

Thanks for the help so far. Is the i5-760/H55M-UD2 (My current mobo) as future proof as 2500k/P67-G45,
as i've heard how good the 2500k is, its very tempting to get it and just keep my 5830 as i play at 1680x1050 it might be fine for BF3.

jamesfreddie · 30 May 2011 at 19:34

There is no such thing as "furture proof" as we do not know much about later games that are coming out. But a 2500k would last longer than a 760 probley.

But it seems a waste to get rid of a 1156 motherboard now. You could upgrade your 1156 system for now and then later on you could upgrade to 2011 or AMD Bulldozer.

If you went 1155 you could have.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £167.99
1 x MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £89.98
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/939/AM2/AM2+) £22.99
Total : £292.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).

It would come to £292.36 If you sold your i3 and Motherboad say for £100 that would take it down to £192.36 then later on you may be able to upgrade your graphics card.

Leezor · 30 May 2011 at 20:59

Cheers, i've got a cooler and i can get 2500k/P67-C45 for £255 and just see how my card plays BF3 at 1680x1050 maybe.

jamesfreddie · 31 May 2011 at 08:54

Let us know how you get on?

Leezor · 31 May 2011 at 14:53

jamesfreddie said:
Let us know how you get on?

Oki will do. Are my two cores bottlenecking my GPU in games like BC2? im wondering.

jamesfreddie · 1 Jun 2011 at 09:02

If you are running BBC2 That would like to use 2 cores and then windows using 1 core.