Upgrade or new build time

DEL 707 · 9 Dec 2012 at 12:49

Unlike my other post, this isn't about my machine, this is about my cousins.

Family have come to me asking for my opinion on an upgrade.
I upgraded it last year, on the cheap side of things, but my cousin wants to run better games now that he's been introduced to the world of PC gaming.

Here are the current specs of the machine.

OcUK Value GTS 250 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3)
Gigabyte GA-MA74GMT-S2 740G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W ATX Power Supply
OCZ Gold 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz

He wants to run games like Skyrim and newer games, even on modest settings. I havn't really got a budget out of them, but for an upgrade, I think they're at the most, wanting to spend £200.

I want to know, whether this machine is worthwhile upgrading on that budget, or whether I should prepare this for a new PC.

1 thing to note is, that since I'm upgrading my own machine. I was planning on giving him my old graphics card, which is a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5.

Bacon? · 9 Dec 2012 at 12:53

For £200 I take it thats just the mobo, CPU and RAM:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £23.99
Total : £205.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

DEL 707 · 10 Dec 2012 at 20:43

Thanks for the reply.

Will something like this build be able to play new games?
Is it worth me trying to get them to push for an i5 processor?

Quixote · 10 Dec 2012 at 21:11

I know you said you wanted to give him your 460 but I think he'd get much better performance for that kind of money from:

Phenom X4 965m for £80

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-253-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967&subcat=1943

ATI 7850 for £155 :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-289-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

and he gets some good games into the bargain.

ConnorJoshua · 10 Dec 2012 at 21:50

As quixote specced, use a AMD 965, give him your old gtx460 and upgrade him to 8GB of TeamGroup Elite. Or if your budget allows get him a 1100T

DEL 707 · 11 Dec 2012 at 00:07

I take it that the AMD chip will work fine on the original motherboard?

DEL 707 · 11 Dec 2012 at 20:02

Also is it going to be powerful enough to run Skyrim decently?

Quixote · 11 Dec 2012 at 20:26

As you can see from the support list here :

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3492

that board supports all the way up to the X6 1100T.

A 965 (or 955) will be fast enough for skyrim & most other games.

I didn't notice that he only had 2gb of ram, so seeing as it's so cheap right now how about this : 8 GB of DDR3 for £24 :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-020-TG

Those 2 would only take you to £100-ish.
Combined with the gtx 460 would be a quick system.

DEL 707 · 13 Dec 2012 at 20:32

Thanks for all the replies, had a chat and finally got it all ordered for them.
Also got them to upgrade to Windows 7, which has been a long time coming