So I plan to upgrade my system on budget.

[littleman]

     Well, I have been running this system for going on 3 to 4 years now and I'm preparing myself for the inevitably increasing chance of parts breaking on my system.    So I have been shopping around for new parts and such.  Now, I would like to call myself tech savvy and that I understand technology very well, however, I would like some help on this cause I know some people here are far more informed at the details of components then I am. 

 

So here goes,  my system currently runs:

Processor: AMD Athlon II x2 260 processor 3.20 GHZ

RAM: 8 gigs DDR3
Hard drive: Sata 500 gigs
GFX: (Yes I know....) XFX RADEON HD 6670
Motherboard: ASUS M4A78LT-M LE; AM3 socket, AMD 760G(780L) SB710 chipset, max 8 gig DDR3 RAM
Powersupply: I believe i have a 450 or 500 watt (I'll need to figure it out before I make any REAL changes)

 

I would like to make my system better at gaming, although I do not need ultra perfect graphics I am not picky.  Now it is clear to me, that my motherboard needs to be upgraded before I do anything, but that's where I run into trouble.... what motherboard should I get (i am on a tight luxury budget).  Any help fro my fellow LB goers would be great.

[SquallPT]

You have a good system, very similar to mine. Not to spend much, upgrading the graphic card could be a good idea and it will give more 3 or 4 years to your computer.

[lordofthedread]

It would be easier to tell us what is your budget so we could really tell you what to get for the money you have.

 

First things first you have to decide if you want to stay with an AMD processor or an Intel one before changing anything, in any case a new motherboard will be needed.

 

I am personally not a big fan of ASUS motherboard and I am very pleased with Gygabite ones, ASROCK is making great notherboards and they are usually cheaper also.

 

Assuming you will go for intel for the extra performance for motherboard on a budget I would suggest this for gygabyte : http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4143#ov

And this for ASROCK : http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H77%20Pro4MVP/

 

They both support DDR3 1600 and XPMS modules up to 32gb, 2 USB 3.0 ports + 4 USB2.0 ports (that you can extend on your casing with the use of brackets), while these are not the best motherboards ever they do the job and are quite cheap.

 

For processor if you are on a tight budget I would suggest a Core i3 3220, it is quite cheap and efficient, of course if you can afford it an i5 will perform better like a 3470 to have 2 extra cores, I would not advise to get a K version unless you really want to overclock but then you will need a better motherboard.

 

For memory I personally use XPMS Corsair modules they are not too expensive, 8GB are enough, DDR3 1600 is what you should  look for depending on what kind of memory you already have on your rig thats something you can keep for later.

 

You can definitly keep your hard drive unless you plan to get an SSD (but then again you can keep your HD for storage)

 

The graphic card is where you will spend most of your money as it is quite useless to change for something that you will regret too soon but also because that is what will make the biggest difference in gaming, Radeon HD 7770 is the best value for money on a tiny budget to play in HD resolution (720p), if you can afford a 7870 Ghz edition it definitly worth the extra bucks, for about the same price you can also get a Nvidia GTX 660, same as the 7870 it does perform great and it is a very good balance between performance and price and they can swallow almost anything in 1080p.

 

So what I would do in your place if budget is a problem is : changing first MB+CPU and then as money is coming in I would go for other parts when I could afford them (you can also make the choice to keep your PC as is and change only the graphic card first), it is better to wait to get something you will be satisfied with than taking something cheaper that will get overwhelmed by your gaming needs sooner.

 

Hope that will help  

[littleman]

Thanks for the reply's.  I had been looking at several motherboards for sometime and was trying to make sure i kept the proper chip sets in order.  As for GFX, I am torn between staying with RADEON or moving over to Nvidia.  as for a cpu I had been looking at this one but was unsure if I should go for it  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

 

as for my budget Im working on a 350 dollar luxure budget atm I try to limit how much I will spend at any given time.

[lordofthedread]

If I were you I wold go directly for a graphic card either http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150606 for ATI or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130826 for Nvidia, of course it does not leave you much to buy something else but it will be a tremendous upgrade from what you have, and you can still keep it in a future PC.

 

The radeon is a little bit better and more expensive but the game bundle is also quite amazing, the Nvidia has better drivers and perform smoother in some recent games.

 

 

[Nonsense667]

I moved up from a Radeon HD 5450 that came with my comp, to an EVGA 550 ti, for very little, and damn, was I blown away. I have nothing but praise for how cheaply I made my computer so much better. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

 

Shame it's discontinued now, but yeah, since you are willing to spend a little more than I was at the time, I would certainly recommend one of the higher up models then. I have been nothing but impressed from moving over to Nvidia, but hah, I'll admit it's the only card I've ever bought and used, but the software on it has been way more friendly than what Radeon had, at least in my experience with the 5450. I went from having to go through all sorts of procedures and crap to install a driver, to just doing it in a few clicks, and not even having to restart. That alone was worth the 130$.

[anubis]

Motherboard, Memory, Hard drive should do enough.

 

For CPU and GPU, you should upgrade it. Phenom II X4 is great choice, no matter 955 or 965, its powerful enough for games. For GPU i agreed with lordofthedread HD7770 is the great option best bang for buck i might say, a friend of mine using it with X4 620 and 8 gig memory run smooth enough with Metro Last Light.

 

3-4 year system, you need to change your PSU if you really go with phenom and higher GPU card, 500-550 W pure with power efficieny of (80+) is capable enough to handle them.

[Rayblue]

nVidia now has another happy customer.

[littleman]

Thanks again for all your replies, I think I have my new system planned out for now.  if I go for the GFX, Ill chew up most of my budget so i can do that and  a powersupply and i guess thats what ill go with for now, Once I replenish my luxury budget ill make a go for other parts.  Thanks again very much.

[ritualclarity]

I moved up from a Radeon HD 5450 that came with my comp, to an EVGA 550 ti, for very little, and damn, was I blown away. I have nothing but praise for how cheaply I made my computer so much better. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

 

Shame it's discontinued now, but yeah, since you are willing to spend a little more than I was at the time, I would certainly recommend one of the higher up models then. I have been nothing but impressed from moving over to Nvidia, but hah, I'll admit it's the only card I've ever bought and used, but the software on it has been way more friendly than what Radeon had, at least in my experience with the 5450. I went from having to go through all sorts of procedures and crap to install a driver, to just doing it in a few clicks, and not even having to restart. That alone was worth the 130$.

 

At micro center. You can try other places. Will soon be completely unavailable.

 

http://www.microcenter.com/product/363754/01G-P3-1557-KR_NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX_550_Ti_Superclocked_1024MB_GDDR5_PCIe_20_x16_Video_Card

 

[CrimsonBlood2012]

I'm either going to upgrade my rig at the moment

 

or just buy a new one (the specs are below)

 

Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Full Tower Aluminium Case Ultra Performance with USB 3.0

1200W High Efficiency Modular Power Supply

MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD FX ATX Motherboard - CrossFireX™/SLI™ Ready

AMD PILEDRIVER FX 8350 Black Edition, 8 Core, 4.0GHz/4.2GHz, 16MB Cache

Corsair H100 Extreme Performance CPU Liquid Cooler

32GB DDR3 1866Mhz Memory (4x8GB ) Kit

Twin Optical Drives (Blu-Ray Writer + DVD Writer Drives)

480GB SSD - Solid State Drive

6TB (2x 3TB) SATA III - 6Gb/s 7200rpm Hard Drives

Creative Sound Blaster ZxR PCIe Sound Card Flagship High Performance

Logitech Z506 - 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers, 3D Stereo, 75W RMS

6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX Titan - 2688 Cores,2 DVI,HDMI,DP - 3D Vision Ready

27" Acer 3D-Ready 120Hz Full HD LED Monitor(HN274H) - Speakers + 3D Glasses

Microsoft Wireless Bluetrack Desktop 3000 Keyboard and Mouse

Wireless PCI-E 802.11n Up to 300Mbps (Supports 802.11n/g/b) (Edimax EW-7612PIn)

Lycom PE-107 PCI-E 2 Port FireWire 800 (1394b) and 1 Port Firewire 400 (1394a) Card

Microsoft Windows® 8 Pro - 32bit inc. DVD & Licence

[lordofthedread]

 

I'm either going to upgrade my rig at the moment

 

or just buy a new one (the specs are below)

 

Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Full Tower Aluminium Case Ultra Performance with USB 3.0

1200W High Efficiency Modular Power Supply

MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD FX ATX Motherboard - CrossFireX™/SLI™ Ready

AMD PILEDRIVER FX 8350 Black Edition, 8 Core, 4.0GHz/4.2GHz, 16MB Cache

Corsair H100 Extreme Performance CPU Liquid Cooler

32GB DDR3 1866Mhz Memory (4x8GB ) Kit

Twin Optical Drives (Blu-Ray Writer + DVD Writer Drives)

480GB SSD - Solid State Drive

6TB (2x 3TB) SATA III - 6Gb/s 7200rpm Hard Drives

Creative Sound Blaster ZxR PCIe Sound Card Flagship High Performance

Logitech Z506 - 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers, 3D Stereo, 75W RMS

6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX Titan - 2688 Cores,2 DVI,HDMI,DP - 3D Vision Ready

27" Acer 3D-Ready 120Hz Full HD LED Monitor(HN274H) - Speakers + 3D Glasses

Microsoft Wireless Bluetrack Desktop 3000 Keyboard and Mouse

Wireless PCI-E 802.11n Up to 300Mbps (Supports 802.11n/g/b) (Edimax EW-7612PIn)

Lycom PE-107 PCI-E 2 Port FireWire 800 (1394b) and 1 Port Firewire 400 (1394a) Card

Microsoft Windows® 8 Pro - 32bit inc. DVD & Licence

 

 

Damn you sure have quite a budget...

 

Thus said I think the Titan is not the best choice for this price, yes this is a beast but you might consider a GTX 690 for the same price with better perfs.

Here what I would change on your list for the same budget :

- GeForce GTX 690 or a SLI of 770

-16GB 2333 memory instead of 32 (useless to have that much)

- A good 800W 85+ gold power supply (1200w is useless, you can calculate your PSU here http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine)

- A Logitech G510s keyboard and a G700s Wireless mouse http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g510s-lcd-gaming-keyboard and http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g700s-rechargable-wireless-gaming-mouse

 

I would also consider an Intel processor but that is a matter of taste here and I would also avoid Windows 8.....

[ritualclarity]

 

I'm either going to upgrade my rig at the moment

 

or just buy a new one (the specs are below)

 

Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Full Tower Aluminium Case Ultra Performance with USB 3.0

1200W High Efficiency Modular Power Supply

MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD FX ATX Motherboard - CrossFireX™/SLI™ Ready

AMD PILEDRIVER FX 8350 Black Edition, 8 Core, 4.0GHz/4.2GHz, 16MB Cache

Corsair H100 Extreme Performance CPU Liquid Cooler

32GB DDR3 1866Mhz Memory (4x8GB ) Kit

Twin Optical Drives (Blu-Ray Writer + DVD Writer Drives)

480GB SSD - Solid State Drive

6TB (2x 3TB) SATA III - 6Gb/s 7200rpm Hard Drives

Creative Sound Blaster ZxR PCIe Sound Card Flagship High Performance

Logitech Z506 - 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers, 3D Stereo, 75W RMS

6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX Titan - 2688 Cores,2 DVI,HDMI,DP - 3D Vision Ready

27" Acer 3D-Ready 120Hz Full HD LED Monitor(HN274H) - Speakers + 3D Glasses

Microsoft Wireless Bluetrack Desktop 3000 Keyboard and Mouse

Wireless PCI-E 802.11n Up to 300Mbps (Supports 802.11n/g/b) (Edimax EW-7612PIn)

Lycom PE-107 PCI-E 2 Port FireWire 800 (1394b) and 1 Port Firewire 400 (1394a) Card

Microsoft Windows® 8 Pro - 32bit inc. DVD & Licence

 

I would still stick with 16 gigs unless you are going to run VM machines or Ram drives. Perhaps up the Mhz and lower the latency if possible.

Nice choice of SSD however perhaps 2 250's as Raid 0 for faster response time the processor and Mobo can handle it.

The titan is a bit overkill except for bragging rights, Try the 780 instead. Just about as good as a Titan in gaming. Unless you plan on rendering or other more intensive work etc.

The rest of the list is nice, mostly preference etc but nice non the less. I agree with other post for gaming still stick with Win 7. it is tried and true. If you feel a need to have 8 (although I don't see anything that is required for the upgrade) use a duel boot or even better VM (good reason for more ram)

 

I am running a similar setup but of older models, gtx670's AMD 8150, 990FX and Samsung 250gb SSD. I can tell you it runs. FAAAASSSST. I can almost do everything I want when I want and find myself trying to find things to do with my computer time... Reason for so many post here.... My computer works so well I get board...

 

My suggestions are just that, the build you have planed is a great one. You might be able to save some money on the Titan and put that to faster SSD config (raid 0 or if desired duel boot with both 7 and 8 on different drives... )

[ritualclarity]

     Well, I have been running this system for going on 3 to 4 years now and I'm preparing myself for the inevitably increasing chance of parts breaking on my system.    So I have been shopping around for new parts and such.  Now, I would like to call myself tech savvy and that I understand technology very well, however, I would like some help on this cause I know some people here are far more informed at the details of components then I am. 

 

So here goes,  my system currently runs:

Processor: AMD Athlon II x2 260 processor 3.20 GHZ

RAM: 8 gigs DDR3

Hard drive: Sata 500 gigs

GFX: (Yes I know....) XFX RADEON HD 6670

Motherboard: ASUS M4A78LT-M LE; AM3 socket, AMD 760G(780L) SB710 chipset, max 8 gig DDR3 RAM

Powersupply: I believe i have a 450 or 500 watt (I'll need to figure it out before I make any REAL changes)

 

I would like to make my system better at gaming, although I do not need ultra perfect graphics I am not picky.  Now it is clear to me, that my motherboard needs to be upgraded before I do anything, but that's where I run into trouble.... what motherboard should I get (i am on a tight luxury budget).  Any help fro my fellow LB goers would be great.

 

I really wouldn't change a thing based on your desires. You aren't picky on the graphics but you machine should be giving you quite good gaming experience. I would create a small savings account and put 25 or 50 dollars etc (whatever you can afford) into a "new computer fund" and continue to use the old machine. I believe if properly maintained it can last longer than you need to save for a new one. Keep a running config and research like most of us gamers do and when you do have failure take the savings and get your plan in place. As time goes by the equipment will only get better and better and cheaper and cheaper.

 

[mystery]

My advice is to consult computer magazines where they benchmark  hardware. This way you can find which components have the best quality/price relation.

Especially with computers and graphic cards this problem arises. Why do you want to pay 500 $ extra for 10% (5-10 FPS only sometimes) you won't ever notice anyway ?

 

And think about how much power you want and how much money you wanna spend.