looking to upgrade

Z

ZeroH

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
442
Hey,

It's been a long time since I've upgraded my gaming PC and would like to do so for Battlefield 3 coming in the fall. I'm sure prices will come down later but was wondering what you guys would consider upgrading with the hardware I currently have with what's out there now. It'll give me a headstart on keeping an eye out on what to switch up later.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
*** Gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
*** around $700. Less is better.
3) Where do you live?
*** Maryland
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
*** Don't know exactly but here's by last build (about 6yrs old)
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
AMD FX60 (2.61GHz)
NVidia 8800GTX
4GB RAM
80GB HDD
200GB HDD
Seasonic 500W PSU
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
*** Hopefully some.
6) Will you be overclocking?
*** if it's worth it.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
***I have a 24" monitor that I'll be using
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
*** next 4-5 months.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
*** Not sure.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
*** Yes, Windows 7 64bit
 
ZeroH said:
I'm sure prices will come down later but was wondering what you guys would consider upgrading with the hardware I currently have with what's out there now. It'll give me a headstart on keeping an eye out on what to switch up later.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
*** next 4-5 months.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately you're planning this build too soon. The current PC market is so rapidly changing that a PC build we recommend one month will be completely different from a build we do the next month. So whatever specific hardware recommendations we give you today will not be the same ones 4-5 months from. And we can't exactly predict what parts will be available in 4-5 months and at what price. So wait till 2-3 weeks before your actual build/buy date and then ask for advice then. You'll get up-to-date advice that way.

With that said, you're looking at an entirely new build even now. Every single one of those parts should not and cannot be reused in a current generation PC meant to play BF3. You're probably looking at new case as well.
 
I know you're right about the rate of change in the hardware industry but replace everything? Really? Even the PSU or HDDs? I'm not looking for the fastest gaming PC... and I know that ATX are still supported so I'm pretty sure I can still use my case. Just wondering what makes you say that I'd need a whole new system.
 
ZeroH said:
I know you're right about the rate of change in the hardware industry but replace everything? Really? Even the PSU or HDDs? I'm not looking for the fastest gaming PC... and I know that ATX are still supported so I'm pretty sure I can still use my case. Just wondering what makes you say that I'd need a whole new system.
Click to expand...

Well the breakdown is:
- That PSU, while from a good PSU manufacturer, is six years old. It may not be able to provide its full 500W and there's a possibility that you will need a larger PSU anyway.

- The Hard drives are simply slow. They're so slow that if you reuse those drives in a new system, you're still gonna see the same level of responsiveness/performance as your old system due to those drives. In fact, they're so old and slow, modern 5400RPM drives will perform 3-4 times faster than either the 80GB or 200GB. So a modern 7200RPM drive is gonna be a huge step-up in performance.

- This is an assumption on my part but I'm betting it uses 80mm fans and is rather cramped? And probably doesn't even have basic cable management features. What case do you have anyway?

- That video card will not be enough for BF3 on a 24" monitor since it kind of struggles with BFBC2 at that resolution. Since BF3 uses an updated graphics engine of and more destruction than BFBC2, definite chance that GPU won't be enough for BF3.

- That CPU is already pretty slow for today's games. Considering that BFBC2 takes full advantage of and actually sort of requires a quad-core CPU and the aforementioned updated engine, definite chance that CPU will not be enough for BF3.

- That mobo is socket 939 and is a dead platform. There aren't any worthwhile upgrades to that platform.

- No modern system uses DDR1 RAM anymore. It's all DDR3 RAM nowadays.

Although are you talking about "replacing everything" in a PC build list we give you today 4-5 months from now? If so, yeah, there's no guarantee that the parts we recommend will be good choices 4-5 months from now. Some of the parts we've been recommending this past month weren't even available or not a good choice 4-5 months ago.
 
Thanks for the info. I'll keep it in mind.. for now though, I'm gonna stay with the PSU, HDD, and case (it's Lanboy with 120mm fans) and upgrade if it seems to be slowing things down after the upgrade of the other parts.

I knew the Mobo, CPU, RAM and GPU were going to need to be replaced going in.. just don't know what the hardware options are these days since I haven't been keeping up.

Thanks again.
 
ZeroH said:
Thanks for the info. I'll keep it in mind.. for now though, I'm gonna stay with the PSU, HDD, and case (it's Lanboy with 120mm fans) and upgrade if it seems to be slowing things down after the upgrade of the other parts.
Click to expand...

While I'll concede the case issue, I still recommend replacing the PSU and HDD. A new hard drive that can outperform those drives, even if those two drives were part of a RAID 0 array is not that much with your budget:
$65 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

PSU wise, same thing:
$64 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
 
Just wanted to add that you should really consider what Danny is saying regarding the HDD at least. A computer in many ways is as fast as its weakest link; yours will be the HDD, and it will have enormous implications on the general responsiveness of your computer in (level-loading) and out of games (boot up times, application launch times) no matter what you spend on the CPU/RAM/MOBO/GFX.

You should really devote a part of your budget to at least a 7200 RPM modern HDD, which are very cheap, and preferably an SSD of a size you can afford for OS/apps. It is a huge difference.
 
Yeah keeping that PSU you'll really have to do some math on what you'll need, it's gonna be borderline. Socket 939 has actually been dead for a while, there's just no upgrade path for any of it. If it was AM2 and DDR2 you'd have a few options but you really have none. I wouldn't recommend keeping either of the HDs but like you say you could if your budget won't allow. It won't be fun and a modern 7200 RPM 1TB will make a ton of difference, and one of these as opposed to 2 old drives will increase your odds of keeping your power supply. Your case should get the job done just fine. It's motherboard, RAM, CPU and GPU though to start. It's about what's around when you're ready to build, but I think you can do something decent in 800 range.

Dustin
 
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