PC upgrade?

sw33t_r3v3ng3

I want to upgrade my PC for gaming, how does this sound?
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XWwjCJ
and http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=391080330110&alt=web

Would I need a graphics card?
What kind of performance do you think I'd get?
It works out at €175

tuxy

What power supply will you be using?
Yes you will need a graphics card for a gaming build. Something like a 750ti would be a good budget option.
Don't order from outside the EU unless you know of some foolproof way to avoid import duty.

sw33t_r3v3ng3

tuxy wrote: »

What power supply will you be using?
Yes you will need a graphics card for a gaming build. Something like a 750ti would be a good budget option.
Don't order from outside the EU unless you know of some foolproof way to avoid import duty.

I have a 500w stock one lying around, should I upgrage that?
Would integrated graphics be any good?

tuxy

500 watt is fine once it's a good quality psu.
Unfortunately intel integrated graphics has very poor 3d performance.
If you want to use integrated graphics look into the amd a10 but it will still be much lower performance than a dedicated card.
Is there any games in particular you want the build for?

sw33t_r3v3ng3

tuxy wrote:

500 watt is fine once it's a good quality psu. Unfortunately intel integrated graphics has very poor 3d performance. If you want to use integrated graphics look into the amd a10 but it will still be much lower performance than a dedicated card. Is there any games in particular you want the build for?

Have no idea whether its good quality or not, it came out of a HP desktop. I'm looking to play games like far cry 3, call of duty etc. Would those specs work?

wotzgoingon

You would need a dedicated graphics card for those games.

tuxy

Yes unfortunately graphically demanding games like that will need a dedicated graphics card. Both those games will run fine on a pentium + dedicated graphics but I think some newer game such as far cry 4 do not support dual core CPU's so maybe AMD would be a better option on a budget.
I think an AMD FX6300(6 cores) + Nvidia gtx 750 ti would be a good.
Do you know what resolution your display is? If it's below 1080p you might be able to get away with a cheaper graphics card.

sw33t_r3v3ng3

tuxy wrote:

Yes unfortunately graphically demanding games like that will need a dedicated graphics card. Both those games will run fine on a pentium + dedicated graphics but I think some newer game such as far cry 4 do not support dual core CPU's so maybe AMD would be a better option on a budget. I think an AMD FX6300(6 cores) + Nvidia gtx 750 ti would be a good. Do you know what resolution your display is? If it's below 1080p you might be able to get away with a cheaper graphics card.

A friend of mine upgraded his PC to an AMD 5350 and claims to be able to play far cry with integrated graphics. Is that even possible?

Digital Solitude

Possibly, he's probably on Low-Med chugging out 30fps though

TerrorFirmer

No, he's exaggerating. You can play Far Cry 3 on that processor on a technical level but it will be a terrible gameplay experience, on low settings and experiencing frame drops regularly.

If that was his gaming 'upgrade' he must have been coming from a dinosaur of a machine previously.

An absolute minimum for playing those games at, say, 720p medium settings at a decent framerate - which would still be on-par or better than the 360 or PS4 - would be something like an R7 250x.

Buy second hand, something like a GTX650 or 7750 won't cost more than about 50 euro and will get through the game very respectfully.

G3258 is a great processor and you can easily get dual core fixes for those games that attempt to force quad cores unnecessarily upon the user.

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Is there any good cpu/GPU combos for about €100 give or take?

sw33t_r3v3ng3

I also checked the PSU I have and turns out its a 300w

TerrorFirmer

sw33t_r3v3ng3 wrote: »

Is there any good cpu/GPU combos for about €100 give or take?

Basic motherboard - 40 at least.

G3258 - about 65.

Second hand card like a 7750 - about 50.

So yes, doable enough, assuming that you already have DDR3 ram for the motherboard, and not an older type using DDR2.

300w PSU is fine for the type of card you would be looking at.

Digital Solitude

sw33t_r3v3ng3 wrote: »

Is there any good cpu/GPU combos for about €100 give or take?

The G3258 is €65 new, and a second hand GPU that terror mentioned for about 50~60

sw33t_r3v3ng3

How do these parts sound?

http://eud.dx.com/product/nvidia-geforce-7600gt-g73gt-128mb-128-bit-ddr2-pci-express-x16-graphic-card-844153476#.VRf_qPnF_fI

http://eud.dx.com/product/intel-core-i3-370m-lga1155-2-4ghz-3mb-l3-cache-socket-35w-dual-core-processor-cpu-second-hand-844308158#.VRgAgfnF_fI

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-h61mp31w8

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f31600c9d8gab

works out at €173

Lu Tze

You should also get googling to check that hp case/psu will take a standard m-atx board, some manufacturers used to use proprietary cases and power supplies

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Lu Tze wrote: »

You should also get googling to check that hp case/psu will take a standard m-atx board, some manufacturers used to use proprietary cases and power supplies

The case will take a micro atx motherboard and the psu is this one: http://www.pc-specs.com/psu/Liteon/Liteon_PS-5301-08HF/1187

tuxy

sw33t_r3v3ng3 wrote: »

How do these parts sound?

http://eud.dx.com/product/nvidia-geforce-7600gt-g73gt-128mb-128-bit-ddr2-pci-express-x16-graphic-card-844153476#.VRf_qPnF_fI

http://eud.dx.com/product/intel-core-i3-370m-lga1155-2-4ghz-3mb-l3-cache-socket-35w-dual-core-processor-cpu-second-hand-844308158#.VRgAgfnF_fI

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-h61mp31w8

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f31600c9d8gab

works out at €173

That hardware will struggle bad with those games.

How about this, 4gb of Ram should be enough

http://www.hardwareversand.de/Sockel+1150/173606/Intel+Pentium+G3258+Anniversary+Edition+Box%2C+1150.article

http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/102104/MSI+H81M-P33%2C+mATX%2C+Sockel+1150.article

http://www.hardwareversand.de/1600+Low+Voltage/109474/4+GB+Kingston+1600MHz+DDR3+Non-ECC+CL11+DIMM+SR+x8+STD+Height+30mm.article

Then you would have to find something like a gtx 650 or 7750 second hand for about €50

It should work out at a little over €200
You will end up with a system that can play those game and will be easy to upgrade in the future.

I can't see a way of getting an adequate system for cheaper than this.

TerrorFirmer

All of those parts from Dealextreme are 1) incompatible with one another and 2) even if they weren't, they wouldn't play those games, way too old.

As stated there is no viable alternative other than spending the cash on decent parts. Also, don't buy from abroad, as you will be hit for customs.

You could shave a bit more off the 200 figure by getting a worse CPU, worse graphics card, etc - but for the sake of a few quid and the difference between playing at nice, comfortable settings vs low, 200 would really be the minimum for a processor, motherboard, ram and video card.

sw33t_r3v3ng3

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

All of those parts from Dealextreme are 1) incompatible with one another and 2) even if they weren't, they wouldn't play those games, way too old.

As stated there is no viable alternative other than spending the cash on decent parts. Also, don't buy from abroad, as you will be hit for customs.

You could shave a bit more off the 200 figure by getting a worse CPU, worse graphics card, etc - but for the sake of a few quid and the difference between playing at nice, comfortable settings vs low, 200 would really be the minimum for a processor, motherboard, ram and video card.

I could probably stretch to €250, would 4gb of ram be enough?

tuxy

Out of interest does anyone know the best place to pickup a second hand cheap gpu?

TerrorFirmer

Adverts is where I buy cards. Ebay is ridiculous, cards go for 95% of their brand new value most of the time, a few times I've actually seen bids rise beyond the new price, baffles me.

CEX also have some good prices on latest gen cards if you sift through all the overpriced older gen cards, for example they sell the GTX970 for 325, and they offer a 12 month warranty - and you can trade your old stuff in against it, too.

Generally though adverts is a good marketplace for PC hardware.

tuxy

I can't find any good budget cards on adverts. There was a gtx 650 but it's gone. There's loads of higher end stuff but nothing in the €50 price range.

TerrorFirmer

7750 65 euro with 12 month warranty.

GT640 40 euro

tuxy

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

7750 65 euro with 12 month warranty.

GT640 40 euro

Would you recommend the gt640? I think it's about half the performance of a 7750.

TerrorFirmer

For the sake of the few euro the 7750 is a way better card. There are actually two versions of the GT640, the original and the GK208 revision - no idea why Nvidia didn't just rename the card, but the revision is a decent bit faster.

I have a GT640 here and I was able to play Battlefield Hardline on it fine at 720p. It's a good buy for 40 euro, the 7750 works out 60% more expensive so you have to look at it that way. If you're going to be playing proper modern titles on it, the 7750 is what I'd go for though.

tuxy

How about this if going for a new part
http://www.hardwareversand.de/en/1024+MB/109598/MSI+R7+250+1GD5+OC%2C+AMD+Radeon+R7+250%2C+1GB+DDR5.article

It should be much the same as a 7750 performance wise if you add that to the cpu,motherboard and ram I listed it should come to about €250 delivered.