which graphics, processor to buy: advice needed

sonne · 10 Sep 2011 at 19:30

My friend has a Advent Centurion PC he bought form ** Please do not post competitor names ** but because it's not very good he wants to get an Alienware aurora, i told him to save his money and buy a good graphics card and processor for the advent he already has.

Now i'm not an expert at computer hardware but i was thinking because he has a amg phenom x2 processor i was thinking he should update that to the best amd processor and maybe get either an nvidia 580 or a good radeon for about £350 plus a good fan and power supply, he basically has a thousand to spend and wants to play crysis 2 maxed out and all other games. Any advice would be great. Thanks.

** Dispite all the reminders and other members spelling it out I still had to edit your post - Huddy **

Greedydog · 10 Sep 2011 at 20:56

Is that the one with the Foxconn motherboard etc? I don't know much about the Centurion but if it's anything like any of these mass produced affairs it's probably full of cheap as chips components so you'll need a new mother board, new PSU (especially for a 580), probably new memory etc etc.

I'd be tempted to sell it for what he can and put all the cash toward a new self build, there's plenty of posts on here for machines for £1k or so..

RJC · 10 Sep 2011 at 20:57

He could go with the AMD 955 CPU and the ATI GPU linked below:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-036-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

PSU:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-118-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1088

But I assume the case and pc are not using any unique parts and the motherboard can take the above CPU.

Reaper 392 · 10 Sep 2011 at 21:58

RJC said:
But I assume the case and pc are not using any unique parts and the motherboard can take the above CPU.

it really wouldnt surprise me if the motherboard didnt support the Phenom II X4 955BE. however, if it can i would go for it, the 580 and a new PSU if its needed.
if you tell me the make and model of the PSU (not just the wattage) then i'll be able to tell you if its up to powering a GTX 580

Ak!ta · 11 Sep 2011 at 09:00

Sonne... you should remove the competitor before a mod comes along ?

sonne · 12 Sep 2011 at 01:08

ok because i'm abit noob at building/upgrading p.cs i'v told him to get either the Ultima Mosasaur with 16gb of ram or the Alienware Aurora rs i'm pretty sure the Ultima is going to be better for gaming then the Aurora but i'm not sure i don't think the gfx 480 is that good for maxing games anyone know?

sonne · 12 Sep 2011 at 01:09

Ak!ta said:
Sonne... you should remove the competitor before a mod comes along ?

oh ok i didn't think about that...

Subliminal Aura · 12 Sep 2011 at 01:13

sonne said:
remove the what?

replace

sonne said:
My friend has a Advent Centurion PC he bought form ** *****

with

sonne said:
My friend has a Advent Centurion PC he bought form the purple shop

etc

fowler002 · 12 Sep 2011 at 01:22

sonne said:
oh ok i didn't think about that...

name of the place you got the pc from, they're a compatitor and ocuk don't like you mentioning compatior names/linking to websites etc.

Hyburnate · 12 Sep 2011 at 01:27

Just sell the old computer, if he bought it from the purple shop he got ripped off. Buy a new SB Mobo and CPU (i5) grab an 580, 8GB RAM etc etc

Orcvader · 12 Sep 2011 at 01:45

If you don't want to build it then get this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-176-OE&groupid=43&catid=2040&subcat=1444

Add the HIS Radeon 6950 and Win 7 Home Premium and he'll have a powerful gaming rig that will last him for years.

But building it from stratch, you can get the 580, 8gb RAM, and overclock the 2500K to near 5ghz.

No point going for the 2600K over the 2500K as games don't use hyperthreading. 4gb is also more than enough for gaming, but since RAM is so cheap these days getting 8gb will be more future proof. Anything over 8gb for gaming is absolutely pointless.