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Upgrading my gaming pc

devinski83
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Posted February 19, 2013 at 6:52PM

Hello,

I am a complete blank canvas when it comes to gaming pc's so please bear with me. I have recently inherited a mid range gaming PC off of a good friend. At present it runs Shogun 2 at a reasonable pace and also crisis 1 is playable. The thing is I want to play games on high settings at least 30 fps and I want to play crisis 3 in particular. So I am looking to upgrade certain components on my Pc but am stuck for which ones. So the question is what components should i upgrade? and what components would be worth keeping?

Any advice would be grateful

Case: InWin Griffin. Motherboard: GIGABYTE MA-M68MT-S2 CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 840: GPU: AMD 6670 1GB PSU: Coolermaster 500W RAM: 2x2gb of kingston ram 1600mhz HD:500gb Western Digital Disc drive DD:standard DVD writer/burner

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted February 20, 2013 at 8:26AM

Two important bits of info missing, your overall budget and your operating system.

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devinski83

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Posted February 20, 2013 at 10:09AM

operating system is Windows 8

Budget - £500 max

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted February 20, 2013 at 11:46AM

Thanks,will get back to you.

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted February 20, 2013 at 11:51AM

Is your Windows 8 version 32Bit or 64Bit?

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted February 20, 2013 at 12:18PM

If it's 64-bit replace the ram with 2x 4Gb sticks An SSD for the boot drive Spend the rest on a 660ti

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devinski83

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Posted February 20, 2013 at 12:35PM

Nice one cheers,

I do believe it is currently running 32bit. What kind of difference will a SSD do? Does it just make it quicker to access data?!? I will have a butchers at the 660ti. There is so much going on in the world of graphics cards that it is hard to make head or tail of what to go for. I go on the presumption that the more expensive it is the better (this obviously has its downfalls)

Thanks again

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted February 20, 2013 at 1:54PM

Another suggestion as the above was just a quick one. Dump the motherboard as it is a pretty cack one and get this. Gigabyte. For £52 You Can still use the CPU and RAM but I would look at getting some decent RAM if yours is just the kingston value rubbish. This still leaves around £350.

I like a SSD as my operating system and programs drive,everything else including my games are on separate 1 x 1TB drives. this makes for faster boot ups and access to programs.But it does mean a little work on your part to set things up by moving all the My folders to the bigger drives, that way when you add music or photos or films you are not filling up the smaller SSD.

So looking at graphic cards as mentioned a GTX660TI is decent or perhaps a AMD 7870. You really have a fair few options but it would be better if you started from a reasonable base and change the motherboard to begin with. That will mean reinstalling Windows though.

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devinski83

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Posted February 20, 2013 at 2:29PM

Legend,

This is just the kind of answer i was hoping to hear, clear, concise and to the point. RAM and mother board will be my first port of call and then i will look at getting the graphics card on next months budget. Hopefully will be able to salvage some of the cost through selling the old gear.

I am assuming that the processor is all fine and doesn't need updating. This is the area that i am least sure of. Is it (simply put) just a case of taking it out and plugging it in the new motherboard?!?

Transferring and reinstalling shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks again for your help :)

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted February 20, 2013 at 4:14PM

Another suggestion is, a 2500K, cheap Z68 mobo and a 7870/7950 which will handle any game you want. I think you might be struggling a little with that particular processor.

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