What are my system specs?

sirmooman

sirmooman

sirmooman

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Hi all!

I'm looking to upgrade my system but haven't done any hardware tinkering for years! I used to build up my own computer 5 years or so ago so quite a lot has changed!

I want to spend about £400 on new bits but I really need to know what I've got to know where to go! So my question is simple.. How on earth do I find out what I've actually got? I'm sure it used to be simple but I can't seem to work it out :o

If anyone has a super good memory I brought my current computer form Overclockers last July-ish. It was the "Titan Krypt" AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.90GHz Quad Core DDR3 System with HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 iCooler IV 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card.

I want to be playing Battlefield 3 etc on high settings without much slowdown. It plays ok on medium but tends to still slow down at busy moments. I can play SC2 ok though ;-)

Thanks in advance for any help!

Alex
 
The question for BF3 is the PSU and GPU. If you can tell us what PSU you got, we'll be able to recommend something suitable, imo either a 560ti or a 6950 2GB.

CPU_02.png
 
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sirmooman said:
Hi all!

I'm looking to upgrade my system but haven't done any hardware tinkering for years! I used to build up my own computer 5 years or so ago so quite a lot has changed!

I want to spend about £400 on new bits but I really need to know what I've got to know where to go! So my question is simple.. How on earth do I find out what I've actually got? I'm sure it used to be simple but I can't seem to work it out :o

If anyone has a super good memory I brought my current computer form Overclockers last July-ish. It was the "Titan Krypt" AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.90GHz Quad Core DDR3 System with HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 iCooler IV 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card.

I want to be playing Battlefield 3 etc on high settings without much slowdown. It plays ok on medium but tends to still slow down at busy moments. I can play SC2 ok though ;-)

Thanks in advance for any help!

Alex
Click to expand...

Maybe i'm being thick here but i think you answered your own question :confused::confused::confused:
 
haha I see what you mean! I think i'm more after what I can change! I was hoping to find what mobo i had so I could see what kid of CPU/ graphics card I could swap them for. I don't really know how compatible processes are with mobos?!
 
sirmooman said:
haha I see what you mean! I think i'm more after what I can change! I was hoping to find what mobo i had so I could see what kid of CPU/ graphics card I could swap them for. I don't really know how compatible processes are with mobos?!
Click to expand...

I don't believe changing your processor will effect your Battlefield 3 framerates as much as a graphics card upgrade would. Take a look at the Nvidia GTX 560 TI or the ATI HD 6950 like oliver renault has suggested either of which can be had for around £180-220.

Would be handy to know what PSU you have though to be sure you have enough power. But the only way i know of checking that is to take the side of the case off.
 
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Thanks Bobby- I was thinking a PSU was my processor! Is upgrading my processor or ram worth it at all? Would a new graphics card and a soildstate hdd be the best bet? Just gonna take the case off!
 
As you can see in the chart I posted, BF3 works with any decent CPU. I wouldn't worry about the CPU, and consider a graphics card, with the caveat that your power supply is strong enough. You need something relatively decent, something with at least 32A on the 12V rail, or there about.
 
4GB of DDR3 is fine for gaming I doubt you will see any benefit from more.

As for processor if you look at olivier renaults table he posted what it's basically showing is in a system with identical graphics but with different CPUs there's very little difference in Battlefield 3 framerates between a very low end (Athlon II X2 255) processor and arguably the best CPU currently for gaming (i5 2500K). So I think your current processor is fine.

I wouldn't say a SSD is neccessary or recommended without knowing if your motherboard has SATA 6 support, a new SSD might not run at it's full speed if you only have SATA-II ports. If you're opening your case try and see if you can spot a model number on the motherboard.
 
Ok so my PSU is 600w It's the OCZ600 SXS2. Looking at the numbers on the side it doesn't look good enough?

This is what the stats say :
150 x 140 x 86mm (W x L x H)
ATX12V v2.2
Main connector: 20+ 4-pin ATX
Non-Modular
High efficiency: 83% @ 115V (Typical load) / 85% @ 230V (Typical load)
80+ Certified
Overvoltage/Overcurrent/Short-Circuit protection
Active PFC
MTBF:100,000 hours
OCZ PowerWhisper Technology
120mm ball-bearing fan
 
Thanks Olivier and Bobby again! I've had a look at the mobo and there's no model number or anything that I can spot. I do see that I have 5 SATA II ports (0-4) and can't see any and SATA 6 ports. I didn't know there was any difference in SATA connections? I remember when there was just a choice between SATA and IDE :s
 
SATA III is the latest and SSDs can actually use more bandwidth than SATA II now. Even on SATA II an SSD will be faster than an HDD if you want one - they do make the system feel snappier.
 
I think I'll opt for one of the recommended cards and may splash on a ssd! When I upgrade in future it will stick with me for a few years I'm sure!

Thanks for the help guys :-)
Very much appreciated!
 
It's safe to assume your motherboard cannot support SATA-6, there are SATA-II drives available but these are being phased out. You can run a SATA-6 SSD on a SATA-II interface but it will be limited to the maximum throughput of SATA-II.

Realistically a SSD won't affect much except boot up times and program/game load times. It won't affect your framerates at all. It's up to you if the price is worth the extra few seconds :)
 
No it wont affect framerates, but it does make windows run faster generally. my SSD broke (1st gen, quite old) and going back to HDD I miss it! But obviously depends on budget
 
you'll want to get a 3rd party cooler(if it doesn't come with one) and overclock the cpu(no idea how far it goes).

how much ram does it come with as you just say ddr3 system.
 
Presumably there's not much point in upgrading the mobo yet if the only thing holding me back at the moment is really the graphics card? Are games like Skyrim likely to be more RAM hungry or is it really all graphics card these days?

Thanks again :)
 
Hi Fowler002 I already have the system :-) And it has a fan over the cpu if that's what you meant? I'm just starting to research overclocker as I've never tried it before to see if that helps as well :-) It's 4gigs of ram as well.

Mickyfinn... I probably will ;-)
 
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