Advice on PC upgrades

A.Gorilla

Hey all.i am a PC gamer,but due to financial difficulties(kids haha) my pc is now about 4 years old and basically crap.. I have a decent case,fans,power but need to change the Motherboard,processor and GFx card...Basically i want to play Diablo 3 mainly so no need to go overboard on components.Am working on a budget here so about 350-400 max for the 3. Any suggestions would really help,thx!

iDementia

If you want to overclock.

Item | Price
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX | €83.63
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 | €189.79
Sapphire HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express | €115.81
Shipping | €18.99
Total | €408.22

If you don't want to overclock.

Item | Price
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX | €90.77
Intel Core i5-3450 Box, LGA1155 | €171.91
Sapphire HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express | €115.81
Shipping | €18.99
Total | €397.48

A.Gorilla

Thanks for the quick reply. I wasnt planning on overclocking at the moment so maybe the 2nd bundle will do the job. Thanks again!

smileyj1987

I would advise you to spend the extra few euro and go with the i5 2500k because with the overclocking abilities it should last a few years .

Tij da feen

iDementia wrote: »

If you want to overclock.

Item | Price
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX | €83.63
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 | €189.79
Sapphire HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express | €115.81
Shipping | €18.99
Total | €408.22
If you don't want to overclock.

Item | Price
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX | €90.77
Intel Core i5-3450 Box, LGA1155 | €171.91
Sapphire HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express | €115.81
Shipping | €18.99
Total | €397.48

Why are you recommending a Z77 chipset for a non-overclocking build?

Item|Price
Powercolor HD6850 1024MB Dual-DVI/HD1M2I5|€112.74
ASRock H61M-S (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX|€40.79
Intel Core i5-2400 Box, LGA1155|€168.18
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€340.70

Make sure that your RAM is DDR3 as well before purchasing. DDR2 won't fit in the slots on this motherboard. This will keep you going if you're only lightly gaming. You could even drop the processor down to an i3 and save yourself another 65 quid.

iDementia

Tij da feen wrote: »

Why are you recommending a Z77 chipset for a non-overclocking build?

PCIe 3.0

A.Gorilla

I was thinking of stretching the budget a tad to get a 6870 gfx card...would it be worth the extra few bob?

Tij da feen

iDementia wrote: »

PCIe 3.0

For a 6850..? The GTX 680 doesn't even saturate PCIe 2.1 speeds, there is no advantage for having PCIe 3 in that build.

Yes the 6870 would be worth the extra few quid. It's still a very good card and you may as well for the extra 20 quid that's involved.

Lu Tze

Tij da feen wrote: »

Item|Price
Powercolor HD6850 1024MB Dual-DVI/HD1M2I5|€112.74
ASRock H61M-S (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX|€40.79
Intel Core i5-2400 Box, LGA1155|€168.18
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€340.70

Just to point out that motherboard is micro atx, which is fine, but has no pci slots (if you want to carry over anything from your old build) and just has two pci expressx1 so is limited if you are putting in additional cards. All depends on use - if its just gaming (no tv cards, wireless etc. required then its fine)

I have the same board. Limited scope for upgrade (ram etc.) but fine for my needs

A.Gorilla

oh yeah about the board.it will have to have 4 ram slots,as i have 4x4gb ddr3 sticks of ram :-)

Monotype

Can post your current system to ensure that your PSU is up to it?
Also, maybe just a GPU upgrade would hold you off for a while. Apparently diablo 3 leans more heavily on the GPU than CPU.