Upgrade P.C for £400?

sonne

sonne

sonne

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I posted a thread the other day for my friend who had £600 but he only has £400, is it possible to upgrade his p.c..

Current P.C is an Advent Centurion CPQ9104

Specification:
* AMD Phenom X4 9650 Quad-Core processor
* (2.3GHz, 2MB Cache)
* Genuine Windows(R) 7 Home Premium
* 4GB DDR2 memory
* 640GB hard drive
* 512MB ATI Radeon HD4350 graphics
* DVD Rewriter
* Built-in wireless (802.11b/g

He has £400 and would like to play games highest setting as possible shall i just recommend him to wait for the PS4 lol.
 
I would recommend spending more, but this may do for now on the basis you keep your HDD, ODD, Case and PSU.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T/OC) £167.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
Total : £400.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



What PSU do you have? (Make & Model)
 
Given the limited budget I'd be tempted to just get a new GPU (and psu if necessary). Updating the guts of the machine will be costly given it is currently a DDR2 setup, leaving not much for the GPU which if he wants to play games on the highest settings will be important.
 
snips86x said:
I would recommend spending more, but this may do for now on the basis you keep your HDD, ODD, Case and PSU.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R7870-2GD5T/OC) £167.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
Total : £400.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



What PSU do you have? (Make & Model)
Click to expand...

I asked him that in his other thread( about the Psu), still has`nt answered. Also asked him to check the mobo size and to see if a full ATX board will fit. The Foxconn A7VMX-K board which comes with the system is mATX.
 
Sorry i don't know what his PSU is but it will most probably be a poor one so that will need upgrading. His case will support a Standard ATX motherboard.
So far i'v decided to get these parts for it:


Intel Core I5 3570K CPU
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Motherboard
Asus GeForce GTX 660 GPU

I can use the other parts he has in his current P.C. he does have an unused windows i can put on it.

All's i really need now is a good/cheap PSU and ramm??
 
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ok cool also is there much disadvantages buying an Leadtek GTX660 rather than the EVGA/Asus 660? As it's a lot cheaper.
 
I have never heard of them, but the important parts are made by NVIDIA. So as long as the cooler keeps it sufficiently cooled, it wont be an issue as far as I can see.
 
 
Theres a 7870 in b grade for £129 Idleman :)

And those brand new Gigabyte Z68 boards for £45 each at the moment too, but I dont know if they have ivy compatible BIOS'
 
sonne said:
Sorry i don't know what his PSU is but it will most probably be a poor one so that will need upgrading. His case will support a Standard ATX motherboard.
So far i'v decided to get these parts for it:


Intel Core I5 3570K CPU
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Motherboard
Asus GeForce GTX 660 GPU

I can use the other parts he has in his current P.C. he does have an unused windows i can put on it.

All's i really need now is a good/cheap PSU and ramm??
Click to expand...

Wouldn't recommend the 660 new, get the Ti model or the 7870.
 
I went with the EVGA 680 SC he would have liked the TI but it was just out his price bracket and i'll doubt he'll care much about the difference.
Also dicided to go with the Corsair XMS3 2 x 2GB 4gb DDR3 1600MHz and the CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' PSU as it seems maybe better reliabilty.

And that covers it pretty much, thanks for your help peeps, cheers.
 
680 SC? Don't you mean 660 SC?

RAM is fine, PSU isnt great, but it will do. I have one in my secondary PC, no troubles with it, but again, not great.
 
yes the 660 sc i ment. i would have prefered to get an corsair psu but on a limited budget its not possible.
 
Decided to go with the Corsair Vengeance 1600 2x4gb ramm instead as it's probably abit better for gaming but that's debatable w/e.
 
I ordered the GTX 660 sc but he told me he would have liked the TI is it worth sending it back for the TI will he notice any major difference at 1080p highest settings?
 
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hmm doesn't look like there's all that much in it my 10fps, he can always SLI the 660 down the road as he's on a limited budget do you think that maybe better?
 
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