Upgrading PC, opinions appreciated

TommyTrouble

TommyTrouble

TommyTrouble

Associate
Joined
26 Jan 2009
Posts
59
Hi all

My PC is dying a slow death and it's time to upgrade! I'm looking for something that'll be used as the house PC, I'd like the option to use for gaming, though it'll be a rare treat given I have a toddler and a baby in the house now. I already have a decent case and a corsair modular PSU (I think it's 750w). I also have a Synology NAS so I don't really need any mega storage. My main restraint is money, children are bloody expensive!

So the following list looks kinda basic but clearly is going to be an upgrade from my current 8 year old rig. My question is, do you see any glaring issues with this list, is there anything I'm missing, or is there an item I need to avoid? With todays gaming standards as they are, am I going to struggle if I try to play anything modern?

Thanks in advance

Tom


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £322.40
(includes shipping: £10.50)
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On a budget is always diificult. I'm not an Amd expert so I won't comment on that choice. However any sort of gaming will benefit from 4GB video card. Another £15 will get you an R7 with 4GB.
Andi.
 
This one you mean?

Radeon R7 240 Boost 4096MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Card £65.99

It's always the way with builds, a little more here and an extra £20 there and before you know it.... lol

Not much extra tho is it, will keep that in mind
 
I know you are on a budget but the 240 is a terrible choice for a gaming pc. I just checked a couple of reviews and it struggles at 1920x1080 even at the lowest settings. I think that you would be better off saving a bit more money and then getting something that actually worth getting.
 
Thanks Pasty, what would you recommend? My last rig was intel/Nvidia based.

We may be able to stretch a little but not by a whole amount, saving is difficult with children:(
 
I understand the budget reasons completely. Done that many years ago. I wouldn't want you to be dissapointed after spending all that money though. Here's a quick build I just knocked up:-

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £306.45
(includes shipping: £10.50)
​


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Yes I know windows is missing but you can pick up a cheap windows 7 key, install windows, activate and then do the inplace upgrade to windows 10. I would also recommend a 120/240gb ssd for windows and other frequently used programs but you could always add that at a later date if you did a clean install of windows 10.
 
Is Amd really lagging behind Intel these days? I suppose another option might be to reuse one of my hdds and use the gfx card I have, ok its a bit dated but it'll get me by untill I actually need the extra power....
 
Unfortunately Intel is ahead in performance and they know it which is why the prices are so ridiculous. Using a existing hdd is a option which you could always upgrade at a later stage.

What is your current cpu/mobo/ram/gpu? Maybe we can do something with them.
 
pastymuncher said:
What is your current cpu/mobo/ram/gpu? Maybe we can do something with them.
Click to expand...

this is exactly what I did.

I was the same I was on a budget. I had the 7950, 16gb ddr3 corsair vengeance and a 120 samsung ssd that I reused when I first built my current system.

I had the FX8350 that died on me then was using a 1090t as a stand in on my old 990fx sabertooth board. I bought an i5 bundle at the time a 4690k and a gigabyte Z97X board. best move I made. I gained about 10 to 15 fps in some games over the FX8350 and it was far smoother In games.

Once I got myself the gtx970 further down the line it really is like night and day. Ive since upgraded my ssd to a 240gb 850 evo my next upgrade will be some faster ram but Im happy and the system runs sweet.

I got the FX8350 replaced under warranty and built it back up into the sabertooth board but even at that I wouldnt go back to it after using the 4690k
 
Problem is something is failing and often the machine won't load proper but its totally random, wiggling hardware seems to help, the CPU/mobo is 8 years old and the ram is ddr2, the gfx card is probs 4yrs and still performs as well as I need it too for now, makes sense to keep I guess....
So if I have £230 for ram CPU and mobo, what would you recommend?
 
The I-3 is a great performer and With your budget i would get an ssd as well, it will make load times and start up so much faster.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £240.42
(includes shipping: £10.50)​
 
You are not going to get much better than that for the money. I still find £100 for a dual core, even if it does have hyperthreading, obscene. Unfortunately that's the way it is these days.
 
SSD drives are basically flash drives no moving parts and have read and write speeds up to 500mb/s on sata 3 ports. Once you have one its hard to believe how fast they are, into to windows within 10 to 20 seconds from start up games load faster ,etc.
 
The cost of a motherboard with 2 ore ram slots would be an extra £35 so you could do that or get 16gb of ram which is another £24 .

The motherboard does have 2 more ram slots and 2 sata ports with an m2 slot as well.

Here are the options below.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
 
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