Part Upgrade

[The Marsh]

Hey guys long time lurker here, looking for some suggestions on how to upgrade my rig. Lately I've found new games (especially diablo) giving me a bit of FPS lag so I figured it's about to to update.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming. Recording music.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$500, but willing to go up until $1000 if the extra is worth it.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Australia. So don't worry about parts deals.
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.
I expect I would be needing a new motherboard, processor and ram.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
My current set up is as follows:
Case: Antec P182 (Reuse)
PSU: Corsair HX620W (Reuse)
RAM: 2x2GB DDR2 Kingston
Processor: Intel Quadcore Q6600
GFX: ATI HD4870X2 (Reuse?)
Mobo: Asus P5Q-Pro
HD: Samsung 640GB (unimportant) (Reuse)

6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24", 1920x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP, preferably within 2 weeks
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I don't specifically need any of these things
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Vista, 64 bit.

I look forward to hearing your suggestions

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Where will you be buying/ordering your parts from? With a $500 budget, if that was in the United States then I'd set you up with a P8Z77 ASUS motherboard in the ~$140 range, then i5 3550 CPU $210 and 8GB of DDR3 RAM @ 1600 with 1.5V ~$50 and if you feel the need to want/need more than 8GB of RAM then I'd tell you to buy two 8GB kits for another $50 which should be around $450 total. Can you meet that price with your vendor?

 

[Dangman]

What other games are you playing besides Diablo 3? I ask because the issue with Diablo 3 and low performance is more than likely poor 4870X2 drivers. AMD's support for Diablo 3 and Blizzard's work with AMD hasn't been all that great.

 

[The Marsh]

Where will you be buying/ordering your parts from? With a $500 budget, if that was in the United States then I'd set you up with a P8Z77 ASUS motherboard in the ~$140 range, then i5 3550 CPU $210 and 8GB of DDR3 RAM @ 1600 with 1.5V ~$50 and if you feel the need to want/need more than 8GB of RAM then I'd tell you to buy two 8GB kits for another $50 which should be around $450 total. Can you meet that price with your vendor?

Most likely these two sites:
http://www.netplus.com.au/
http://www.ple.com.au/

I'm not sure which particular P8277 model you're referring too as there seem to be a few at different prices, but the i5 is $220 and the RAM is around $60. Is 16GB necessary? What sort of things require so much RAM? Also what is the most preferable brand?

What other games are you playing besides Diablo 3? I ask because the issue with Diablo 3 and low performance is more than likely poor 4870X2 drivers. AMD's support for Diablo 3 and Blizzard's work with AMD hasn't been all that great.

I play pretty much every good game that is released on PC. It is possible that it is simply a drivers issue as Diablo 3 fps lag is worse than all my other games, but I do miss having all my settings on high when I play games. Now I usually have to resort to medium so it would be nice to get some eye opening graphics again.

 

[Dangman]

the i5 is $220 and the RAM is around $60

Just to be clear: Which i5 are you talking about? Which RAM?

Is 16GB necessary? What sort of things require so much RAM?

For just gaming, 16GB of RAM is not necessary. However if you do a ton of audio, 3D, or video editing/rendering or lots of virtualization work, thats when you really should get 16GB of RAM.

Also what is the most preferable brand?

I generally recommend G.Skill, Corsair, Patriot, Kingston, or Mushkin. Make absolutely sure that the RAM is rated at 1.5V. Any higher than that and you risk damage to the CPU.

I play pretty much every good game that is released on PC. It is possible that it is simply a drivers issue as Diablo 3 fps lag is worse than all my other games, but I do miss having all my settings on high when I play games. Now I usually have to resort to medium so it would be nice to get some eye opening graphics again.

All righty then. Skillz has put you on the right track so far.

 

[The Marsh]

Just to be clear: Which i5 are you talking about? Which RAM?

As per Skillz recommendation I'm looking at:
Intel Core i5 3550 LGA1155 CPU 3.3Ghz 6Mb Cache Ivy Bridge 4C/4T 3rd Generation IB3550
= $219

ASUS P8Z77-V LX DESKTOP MOTHERBOARD
=$137

8Gb DDR3 G.Skill Ares Low Profile F3-1600C9D-8GAO 2X4Gb Kit
=$59

For just gaming, 16GB of RAM is not necessary. However if you do a ton of audio, 3D, or video editing/rendering or lots of virtualization work, thats when you really should get 16GB of RAM.

I'm not doing any hardcore modelling or editing, so 8GB should suffice.

Any changes? Skillz didn't give me a specific model number for the mobo so I chose the one closest to his price estimate, was this the right model?

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Yes that's the motherboard I was referring to. Everything looks good.

 

[The Marsh]

Hey guys, I finally got around to ordering the parts and I installed them a few days ago. However I have found that my computer graphics randomly seem to stop working. It's odd because it's not as if it's a blue screen - if I'm watching a movie or listening to music the sound keeps playing. The screen just switches itself onto standby.

This has happened while playing games, watching movies, listening to music, browsing the internet...basically everything. I've been monitoring core temps and they idle around 25-30 deg celsius. Any suggestions on what the problem might be? Or is there an error log that I could check/diagnostic I could run?

Also note when I installed the new parts, I did a complete reformat.

 

[AP514]

Driver update ?...buddy i did build for a few weeks back had shuttering looking at Utube stuff...turned out to be an update he missed (flashplayer).Point is make sure all your V-card Drivers are updated.
Next would be to check your settings for powers savings...might be kicking off your card into sleep mode

 

[The Marsh]

I have the latest edition of ATI Catalyst installed and it says everything is up to date. Chrome installed the latest flash player for me. As for power settings, do you mean in the bios or in control panel? Because I don't really know what I'm looking for.