Upgrade an basic machine

shayser

I'm looking to upgrade a basic HP Desktop. There's not much money about so it has to be done on a budget.

This is the computer.

Intel Core i3-2120, 3.30GHz, 3 MB cache, 2nd Generation
500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 3.0 Gb/s
1 full-height PCIe x16, 3 full-height PCIe x1, 1 mini PCI
Windows 7 Professional

I was thinking of this memory, but don't know about graphics cards. On budget only I was looking at this card and this card.

What do you think?

Eboggles

shayser wrote: »

I'm looking to upgrade a basic HP Desktop. There's not much money about so it has to be done on a budget.

This is the computer.

Intel Core i3-2120, 3.30GHz, 3 MB cache, 2nd Generation
500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 3.0 Gb/s
1 full-height PCIe x16, 3 full-height PCIe x1, 1 mini PCI
Windows 7 Professional

I was thinking of this memory, but don't know about graphics cards. On budget only I was looking at this card and this card.

What do you think?

What's your budget? What games do you want to play? What's your monitor's resolution?

shayser

This is the monitor:

http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/pc-peripherals/monitor/archive/LS22CBUABV/XY-spec

It's for my son who said he wants to play Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3. I asked would those cards do and he said they probably would if he turned everything down.

Eboggles

shayser wrote: »

This is the monitor:

http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/pc-peripherals/monitor/archive/LS22CBUABV/XY-spec

It's for my son who said he wants to play Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3. I asked would those cards do and he said they probably would if he turned everything down.

They actually wouldn't, it'd be like a slide-show even with the settings turned down a lot.

The cheapest you could get away with is a HD7750, as you have to factor in the weak PSU (300 watts). That should give acceptable frame rates on Skyrim at 1080p, and should be perfect for MW3 as it's not a very graphically intensive game.

I doubt you really need more RAM, unless you have under 4GB.

Serephucus

Taking the more expensive of the two graphics cards with the memory, it comes out as €107 delivered from Amazon. For that, you could get something like this:

Item|Price
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz DIMM 240-pin CL9 1.65V|€34.50
Asus ATI Radeon 6670 HD 800MHz 1GB PCI-Express HDMI|€68.17
Shipping|€7.66
Total|€110.33

Though if you could stretch it, this would serve him much better:

Item|Price
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz DIMM 240-pin CL9 1.65V|€34.50
Best Value VTX3D ATI Radeon 7750 HD 1GHz 1GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI|€98.90
Shipping|€14.60
Total|€148.00

RoverZT

Pixmania have that 7750 for 72 euro.

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/11744277/art/vtx3d/radeon-hd-7750-1-gb-gddr5.html

4 x 2gb ddr3 1600 32 euro

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/11947430/art/geil/black-dragon-pc-memory-2.html

shayser

Thanks for the suggestions. Saved me some headaches.

Just wondering, are Pixmania still slow on delivery?

Serephucus

Haven't used them in a while, but I'd imagine they're like Amazon in that it depends what seller you order from. I think Pix themselves are reasonably quick - the usual 2-3 day type thing - but I remember ordering a hard drive from a seller (an old 74GB WD Raptor, if you could belive it. :P) - that took over two weeks to arrive!

shayser

So, I got this card:

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/11744277/art/vtx3d/radeon-hd-7750-1-gb-gddr5.html

The box says the power supply should be 400W. It is only 300W. Could this be a problem?