Upgrade of my pc....

  • Thread starter Thread starter Raikan007
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 25
  • Views Views 2K
R

Raikan007

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2009
Messages
20,592
Reaction score
7
Points
38
good day to you all :) I recently bought The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (the recommended requirements were all met except my procecessor and RAM, asked for Quad and 3gb RAM, I have Duo and 2gb RAM)

I said to myself that if I cannot play it on high spec I am going to upgrade my pc... it looks ok and runs ok all on Low spec at HD screen ratio (1680x1050)

my system specs at the moment:

AMD 64 Duo Core 4.8ghz (I have to Toledo chip, the top one)
2 gb Corsair Transcend RAM (think its DDR2 800mhz) no hyperthreading
Nvidia Galaxy Geforce GT430 (1gb DDR3 RAM)
Gigabyte Pro-SLI Motherboard GA-K8N
Seagate Barracuda 320gb 7200rpm
Samsung 500gb SATA
Samsung GW2280 HD 22" LCD
Microsoft Habu mouse
Senheiser HD 420 headphone

What I want to know is do you think I should just try and pump my current PC with another 2gb RAM (think the max RAM is 4gb, but it has 4 slots, so could maybe get up to 8gb, not sure)
as well as investing in a much better card (this card is like 3 months old, I was told it was a fantastic card for gaming, but not the new games, its a best for WoW etc, I must say I have pretty much nearly everything running on full in Bad Company II except anti-aliasing x1)

I have not upgraded my pc in 4 years (save for the new graphics card as my Gigabyte GTX 8800 Ultra blew using Win 7)

I have a Ps3 and said to myself I am not going to spend money on my pc again as its perfect for Fm's and the rest of the games I will play on Ps3, but some games you just cannot play on Ps3... :)

prices in my country (SA) are so over priced its scary... I am thinking of buying in the States or the UK and having it shipped here! some of the online shops I have found what I am looking for do not ship to SA, but I can call my Courier company I use for work to see how much they will charge)

if anyone knows of a great website for these items and can help me I would appreciate it :)

[FONT=&quot]ASUS ENGTX550 TI DC/DI/1G GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), HDMI, DVI, VGA, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot, SLI Ready, Overclocked[/FONT]​
[FONT=&quot]$129.99[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot][/FONT] EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Mini-HDMI, Dual DVI, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot, SLI Ready. Includes Digital Creativity Suite Bundle w/Registration ​
​
[FONT=&quot]$129.99[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]​
​
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition AM3 CPU HDZ955FBGMBOX - 3.20GHz, Socket AM3, 6MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s) FSB, Retail, Processor with Fan

[FONT=&quot]$119.99[/FONT]​

not sure on the RAM or Motherboard yet... suggestions would also be welcome!

Neil
 
So are you going to be buying the components for a complete new system? What is your budget? But going of your selections, I would suggest:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2GHz
Mobo: Asus M4A87TD EVO
RAM: Corsair 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 1GB
HD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Optical Asus DRW-24B1ST
Case Antec One Hundred
PSU Antec EarthWatts Green 380W

That all comes to $US610 from newegg.com (extremely popular American website that has very competitive prices) - and it has quite a lot of bang for your buck. ;)
FYI, I chose the 6850 as it is only $50 ($US175 @ newegg) more than the 550 Ti you where looking at, so IMO it is worth spending a little more on the much more powerful Radeon. ATM, it is basically the best budget to mid-range card on the market.
 
Patriot PSD34G13332H Signature PC10600 4GB DDR3 Memory Upgrade - 1333MHz, Non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL9, 1x4096MB


Biostar A880GU3 AMD Motherboard - Micro ATX, AMD 880G Chipset, 1600MHz DDR3 (O.C.), SATA 3.0 Gb/s, RAID, ATI Radeon HD 4250, 6-Channel Audio, Gigabit LAN, USB 3.0, HDMI

---------- Post added at 01:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:12 PM ----------

I have a 650 Gigabyte Power supply, have a Gigabyte chassis and HD...

the only things I am looking for are the CPU, RAM, GPU and Motherboard, cheers though mate! I was looking newegg.com also on tigerdirect.com, doing a squizz through Tomshardware.com as well :)

I dont really have a budget yet...

also dont like ATI Radeons, always been a Nvidia man :)

did a review on the Mobo, not great reviews for it... how much is it in dollars?

---------- Post added at 02:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:19 PM ----------

take back the EVGA card, reviews say its not much better than my current card!
 
Raikan007 said:
Patriot PSD34G13332H Signature PC10600 4GB DDR3 Memory Upgrade - 1333MHz, Non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL9, 1x4096MB


Biostar A880GU3 AMD Motherboard - Micro ATX, AMD 880G Chipset, 1600MHz DDR3 (O.C.), SATA 3.0 Gb/s, RAID, ATI Radeon HD 4250, 6-Channel Audio, Gigabit LAN, USB 3.0, HDMI

---------- Post added at 01:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:12 PM ----------

I have a 650 Gigabyte Power supply, have a Gigabyte chassis and HD...

the only things I am looking for are the CPU, RAM, GPU and Motherboard, cheers though mate! I was looking newegg.com also on tigerdirect.com, doing a squizz through Tomshardware.com as well :)

I dont really have a budget yet...

also dont like ATI Radeons, always been a Nvidia man :)

did a review on the Mobo, not great reviews for it... how much is it in dollars?
Click to expand...

IMO stay away from Biostar... I'd be wary of smaller firms for reliability reasons. The one I chose is $US104 from newegg. It is an inexpensive AM3 board with lots of features for the money - USB3.0, 6Gbps SATA, Firewire, Gigabit ethernet and eSata. It would be hard to find a board with more features for the money, even for something quite a bit more expensive.

IMO you should not care about the brand of the graphics card. You should only care about what will give you the most for your money, and frankly, Radeons are better in basically every price point at the moment. Fanboism should not make your choice :P My last card was an nVidia, and my current one is a Radeon.

If you are prepared to spend a bit more, I'd bite the bullet and get a Sandy Bridge machine:
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz - $US224.99
Mobo: Asus P8P67 LE - $US144.99
RAM: Corsair XMS 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 - $US49.99
GPU: Asus Radeon HD 6870 1GB - $US219.99
 
going to try those tomorrow, was more just checking on the models/products etc today... going to contact my connections here in SA with them and see what they can do for me here... :)

thanks for the help bud, chat in the morning :)
 
One thing to consider about buying a Radeon from Uk, you won't get warranty on it. My friend was going to buy a new card but saw if you buy from Uk you will not get warranty with it. Personally I have never had a card break on me (touch wood) but it's up to you to take the risk. Radeons are better money for performance values.
 
thanks Jak, good to know that! definately wont be looking there... :)
 
How much extra is it for you Raikan to get an i7? Just wondering if the price increase is viable for the performance increase. GPU looks good as we've already discussed, RAM looks good - good brand.
 
I have spoken to many people regarding the i5-i7 (even the sales rep at the pc shop said)

my email:
Hi Andy,

I was browsing through the Intel processors and was wondering is there a huge difference between the Sandy Bridge i5 you suggested and this one? Is it worth spending the extra R800?

Intel Socket 1155 Sandy Bridge i7-2600K Quad Core 3.4GHz Box CPU | Landmark PC | Online Computer Sales South Africa

thank you
Click to expand...

his reply:
Hi Neil

If you're going to game then the i5 is perfect.
You will not see any performance difference between the i7 2600 or i5 2500 when gaming.

If however you plan to use the system for photo editing or movie editing the i7 would be a lot faster.

Regards,
Andy
Click to expand...
 
fair enough then go for the i5 :) He knows more than me :D
 
haha, exactly what I thought :) that is why I asked him!

also, going to get another set of the RAM at a later stage to boost performance again :)

that RAM is actually specifically made for that Processor...
 
Raikan007 said:
haha, exactly what I thought :) that is why I asked him!

also, going to get another set of the RAM at a later stage to boost performance again :)

that RAM is actually specifically made for that Processor...
Click to expand...

what operating system you got? Windows 7 64bit? 4GB is a good amount and I doubt you will need more for a while at least. 6GB is the next step tbh, 8Gb is way overkill
 
lol, I have Win 7 Ultimate, but I reverted back to my Windows Xp :) Win 7 blew my old Gigabyte 8800GTX Ultra... was so bleeeeeeek!

might decide format my HD's and reinstall Win 7 and all my applications/games when I get it.. still deciding.. keen for Dx11 though, still not used properly however (even though my current card supports it) so in no real rush...
 
well I presume you have xp 32bit which means that you can't use your 4GB of RAM. If you're GPU is 512mb then you can use 3.5GB of RAM and if its 1GB then you can only use 3GB of RAM. So I could not recommend more you upgrade back to windows 7 before you buy all these components otherwise you won't be able to use them to their full potential
 
it was 64x the last time I had it installed, but thanks Jak I will do that :) much appreciated
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top