Post edited 19:07 – Oct 27th 2011 by Tai

There are so many good games coming out these days and i would love to play them all! Now, i know thats not going to happen so ill have to pick carefully when im in the shop. The witcher 2 came out earlier to brilliant reviews, Skyrim is soon out and today BF3 was released. CoD is around the corner and im dying to get stuck into The old Republic when that is released.

All these releases bodes well for me, only problem is that my PC. Its not state of the art even thou its coping ok for now. Since im no computer wiz by any margin i hoped that someone could advise me what i should upgrade so i can play all these fantastic games in decent graphics.

My PC stats are:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2,8 GHz

Mainboard: P45 Neo-f (MS-7519)

Ram: Corsair DDR2 400MHz – 4 GB

GFX card: Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 - 512 MB ram

OS: Windows XP (because im a cheap bastard!!)

Thats about it methinks. If anyone have suggestions to what i should replace that would be ace. I`de hate to just buy new hardware if i dont need it. Or buy the wrong type.

Thanks in advance

Tai

Hi Tai,

Caliburn M is right–you will need Windows 7 to run BF3.  (Don't bother getting Vista!)  Otherwise, your system does *just* meet the minimum specs for MW3, Skyrim and Witcher 2 (though I have heard it can be demanding).  I'm confident The Old Republic will run on your system too.

Having said that though, you will probably only be able to get these games to run at minimum settings, and as anyone who has tried to run a game using the minimum specs (including me!) knows, those minimum specs make the game barely playable–if at all.

If you really want to get any of these new games to run really well it might be worth investing in a complete new system–sorry!  The first rule of building a PC is 'A balanced system is a happy system', so buying one or two new parts might improve your current system a bit, but in the long run the older parts will still need to be replaced.  So it might be better to just start from scratch, then you can get every part working together properly, and still leave room for future upgrades.  You could buy from a local manufacturer who will put your choice of parts together for a fixed price, and make sure it works, or you could build your own rig.  These days the cost difference isn't as much as it used to be, but it's always nice to have complete control over your own PC, and also re-use parts like case or hard drive to save some money.

I assume you don't have all the money in the world, so here are some computer parts brands that offer good value for money, along with good performance.  They are not the cheapest–and nor are they the best for performance–but they do give a good ratio of cost:performance.  I have given approximate prices in pounds sterling.  Sorry–I don't know what this is in Norwegian Kroner!

Gigabyte makes good quality mainboards which run fast, have room for expansion, and won't break the bank.  (Asus motherboards are usually excellent, but cost more.)  About £100 and up for a high-end board.

AMD processors are the standard choice for someone who wants really good processor speed on several cores, but doesn't want to spend £750 on a high-end Intel processor!  I strongly recommend these.  Perhaps something from their Phenom range.  This won't cost much more than £150.  (Make sure the mainboard has the AM3 socket.)

Similarly, ATi graphics cards offer excellent performance for the money.  XFX and Sapphire make really good ATi cards.  You can get an outstanding card for less than £100, (XFX's HD5770 is great for the money, but might struggle with BF3), or pay up to about £300 for a high-end HD6970.

Your current DDR2 RAM seems a little slow for modern games; you probably want to start using DDR3 RAM about now.  4GB of 1333MHz will do almost everything you want in video games.  Kingston is a company with a good reputation.  Corsair makes very good RAM, including less expensive options.  If you want to play games it's probably best to use branded RAM, and not the cheapest generic stuff.  You should be able to get 4GB of good RAM for £40 and upwards.

Why not try getting a bundle deal?  Online sellers will often sell a motherboard, processor, RAM, and maybe even an operating system in one deal.  This will save you some money, and you will also be sure that the parts work together.  You can get gaming-grade deals for anything from £150 to £350, or more.  Shop around, but http://www.dabs.com is a good place to compare prices.  (It is based in the UK though.)

Samsung's Spinpoint brand of hard drives is excellent.  You can get a 1TB drive for about £40.  You could use your current hard drive with XP on it if you wanted to.

And don't forget a decent power supply!  This is very important, and I strongly recommend a branded manufacturer here.  Corsair makes excellent power supplies which are very reliable.  A cheap power supply will probably not supply power evenly to all your components, risking damage to them.  It really is worth buying the best power supply you can afford.  Always make sure it has the '80+' stability standard (a good indicator of quality).  A 650 Watt supply should meet your requirements (based on what I have written above), but consider a high-quality 750W supply if you can afford it.  This will cost £90-100.

There are many excellent cases on the market for as little as £30, but if your current case has enough room in it, and good airflow, you can probably just use that.

Other components like monitor, keyboard and mouse can probably be re-used from your current system.  There are many good models available which cater to gamers if you want to get new stuff.  But do make sure that you monitor fits your graphics card.

Also shop around and make sure to read lots of reviews of products (on your favourite website, or ask your friends, for example) before you make any decisions.  These components cost a lot of money, so you want to make sure you're making the right decision.

Sorry Tai–I'm not trying to sell you anything!  The decision to run the games on your current system (they will just run after all) is entirely yours.  But for good performance, I think you might be better off upgrading.  Based on your system, it might be better to invest in a whole new rig rather than just one or two new parts (mostly because you have the older DDR2 RAM, which means an older mainboard).  I hope this information helps a bit.  I've built a couple of my own rigs in the past, and upgraded them, so I've tried lots of different brands and made every mistake in the book!  Feel free to ask for advice or opinions if you want to.  I'm sure there are lots of other people on this forum who would be willing to offer their own advice too!

Take care,

PilarGore

Win7 home Premium (OEM) shouldn't cost over £75

Your RAM is fine for now.

A C2Q is still plenty for most games, get a mild overclock on there (3.2Ghz should be easy – maybe buy a new HSF if you're still on the stock one) and treat yourself to a new graphics card. £150-£200 will get you a pretty decent card, hell even something like the 5850 I run with shouldn't cost over £100 if you go 2nd hand. Nicely under your max budget.

Check out CAT-THE_FIFTH's thread here http://forums.hexus.net/pc-har…..011-a.html and (if I'm ok to day this) HEXUS is a cracking place to get help with a build/upgrade.

Hands in the air–my bad!

Sorry Tai: Antman and Rob_B are both absolutely right: if you can only upgrade one thing on your PC do the graphics card; if you can do two, then increase the quantity of RAM you have.  I think a brand new 5850 costs about £230 for a good one, so £130 second hand sounds OK if it's in good condition–and it's a very nice card!

Post edited 11:07 – Oct 30th 2011 by Rob_B

32bit, only addresses about 3.25 GB (or thereabouts from memory) 4GB is still plenty for the majority of games, cheap enough to pop another 2/4GB in though if you get Win7 64bit.

Your upgrade path should be

GPU > 64bit OS  > Everything else (ie CPU/RAM/Motherboard upgrade at the same time)

Post edited 11:16 – Oct 30th 2011 by Rob_B

Never assume that, there a lots of cases where the 'newer' cards are worse or level with the 'older' (in some cases they even just changed the number & left the technology basically the same)

Have a look here for GPU comparisons http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/188

As for the 5850 vs 6950…http://www.anandtech.com/bench…..295?vs=293

The 6950 is a nice bit above the 5850, it kinda goes 5850<5870<6950 so choose whatever the best price you can for each & compare.

Also have a look how much the Nvidia 560Ti (Important, MUST be the Ti) is where you live, it is a funny one though as it beats the 6950 in some games, gets beaten by it in others.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench…..330?vs=293

http://www.guru3d.com/article/…..ti-review/

Post edited 19:19 – Oct 31st 2011 by Rob_B

Errrmm, "it depends"

What are the prices for the

6850

5850

6870

5870

6950 / 560Ti

6970

where you are? (Listed in order of power, 560Ti/6950  are kinda equal)

Personally i'd go with a 6950 or 560ti  for that sort of price. check benchmarks for the games you play to see which is best, 560ti consumes a little less power at load i believe. 

2gb over 1gb isnt so much of a gain at the moment, games will soon come out that it will make a difference on but will you have a new gpu by then anyway? …

Post edited 23:15 – Oct 31st 2011 by Rob_B

Similar but different clocks (I've not looked in detail as there are funny letters all over that website )

If I were you I'd google the cheaper ones and see if there are any comparisons, check the warranty details of each as well (ie 1 yr or more perhaps?) and if there is no difference, well, its up to you!

MSI – http://www.madshrimps.be/artic…..z1UX5gRIau

Twin Frozr is a better cooler than stock, you'll need something to control the fan speed though (MSI Afterburner)

As for the Gainward, reviews seem to be the GS version which is just clocked a little bit (900/1050/1800 VS 822/1000/1645 – I think)

With Afterburner you can OC anyway so whether the higher 'stock' clocks are important to you is just personal preference.

nah its just an app, install, set an overclock (if you want to) and set a fan speed (fixed or increasing with temp) and thats pretty much it.

Thats more than enough.

Glad its working well for you

As for OCing the card, for now as you say I'd probably leave it, use it to extend the life of the card further down the line when it starts to struggle with some games. DO get MSI Afterburner though, use the fan profile to quieten it down.

CPU, get that thing clocked up asap There are plenty of guides on the net, eg http://www.scan.co.uk/images/s….._guide.pdf (ignore the hardware specific info and use as a general guide)