Gf's Birthday is around the corner, need help finding gaming upgrades for $200 budget!

[Mentaltoast]

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening everyone.

 

My girlfriend's birthday is just around the corner and for the past year or so she's been always having to deal with dropping settings down on games to medium or most of the time low just to be able to play them in 30ish fps. 

 

 

So for her birthday this year, she finally decided she wanted to ask for something that was going to have a bit more power so she could play games at a more enjoyable framerate.

 

While she's not the most hardcore of gamers, she does play a wide variety of genres. Easily the game she plays most is WoW ( Which I know doesn't have the highest of requirments, but even WoW on her rig can only chug out 30-45fps on medium settings and in high particle effect battles, she gets a wonderful slideshow.) She also plays other new release games like Sims 4, most likely Borderlands the Pre-Sequel, and possibly far cry 4 in terms of what upcoming games she's aiming to hopefully play.

 

While I know that for our measily budget she probably won't be able to play Far cry 4 on high or ultra, Being able to play at a mix of Medium-High and get a nice 60fps would be absolutely wonderful. And if she's able to get a silky smoothe 60+fps in the new WoW expansion, she'd be over the moon.

 

 

Her current Specs.

 

Cpu: Amd Phenom II x4 965 @ 3.4ghz

 

Ram : 8Gb ddr3 @ 666mhz (unsure the brand)

 

Motherboard: Asus M4A79XTD EVO (am3)

 

Video Card: Amd Radeon 5700 series (1gb vram)

 

Storage: 500gb WD 7200rpm hard drive

 

Power Supply: RX-530SS ATX power supply 430w

 

Her case i believe is one of the cheaper Fractal models I see often on new egg for around 30 dollars. The case isn't bad, but does need to be replaced since A larger card wouldn't fit in there due to a very small cable for the case's power button and reset switch ( they barely fit with her card in now and a larger card would make the connector unable to reach)

 

The Budget: Around $200

What I'm looking for: Whatever will give her better gaming performance in some of the games listed above (WoW mostly, other upcoming games such as Borderlands Pre-Sequel and Far Cry 4). My Guess is video card would make the biggest impact. Also a case that will hopefully store all of her components comfortably if the video card is of larger size than her current.

 

For the budget, if you could also find a case+video card that will house all these components in it comfortably. You would be a lifesaver. I know that this budget is really small and restrictive for what I'm looking for and if theres simply no options; i understand.

 

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask , I'll be checking the thread regularly.

 

 

 

[givingtnt]

i ill try to look. but for the case. can you get the name ?

[SuperPug]

The most sensible thing to upgrade (and probably the only thing for 200$) would be to get a new GPU something like a R9 270X... You dont really need more ram and if you wanna upgrade the cpu it's gonna cost you A LOT more (Mobo, CPU, DDR3 Ram).

 

Edit: as for the bigger case - you wont need one. Most of the mid range GPU's  are pretty short anyway

[themaniac]

get am3+ mobo and a 8320 if you can get one and later get a better gpu like a r9 270 with all of that it would be around 300 - 400 usd but without the gpu it should fit the budget 

[xox]

If you can get something like a GTX 760 within budget, that will be good.

 

Then further down the line, she can go with a platform upgrade or something.

 

As for the cables, I would do a mod. Either that or get that super short GTX 760 from MSI.

[Guest]

The most sensible thing to upgrade (and probably the only thing for 200$) would be to get a new GPU something like a R9 270X... You dont really need more ram and if you wanna upgrade the cpu it's gonna cost you A LOT more (Mobo, CPU, DDR3 Ram).

I would say R9 270 (non-x) because with that small budget OCing yourself would probably be worth it

[Tagiau]

r9 270 or 750 ti. Case: I highly suggest a bitfenix Shadow, seeing as it is a cheaper case, yet still look amazing. And I am unsure if you meant 1666 ram, seeing as there isn't any 666mhz ram modules, unless I have no clue of what I am saying(high chance of this happening).

[Faaa97]

What is the exact name of the gpu? You can upgrade gpu to a 660 Ti or a r9 270 but I don't know if cpu will botleneck it.

[A.D.A.M]

something like a r9 270 or r7 265

[LancerBG]

I dont know man, of all the things you could get a woman on a birthday... I really think you should give it some more thought. If that works out for you great but im just saying...

[givingtnt]

here is a very nice grapchics card from sapphire:

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100364vxl

 

if you want to go nvidia :
it would be https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-gtx760dc2oc2gd5

[GarnetDevil]

I dont know man, of all the things you could get a woman on a birthday... I really think you should give it some more thought. If that works out for you great but im just saying...

+1 billion, you can get a lot of precious things for women at 200$. But if she prefer more than 30fps in WoW to, say a stylish over-ear headphone (NO BEATS) or a fine piece of jewelery, then the most sensible thing to upgrade is the GPU, I'd go with R9 270X

[Mentaltoast]

+1 billion, you can get a lot of precious things for women at 200$. But if she prefer more than 30fps in WoW to, say a stylish over-ear headphone (NO BEATS) or a fine piece of jewelery, then the most sensible thing to upgrade is the GPU, I'd go with R9 270X

 

I dont know man, of all the things you could get a woman on a birthday... I really think you should give it some more thought. If that works out for you great but im just saying...

 

I appreciate the concern, however she specifically came to me and asked that what she wanted for her birthday was her computer to play games better. Her other present already was a new mouse and a new headset ( which she had also specifically asked for)

While she likes jewelry , she seems to have her mind set on upgrading her gaming experience since it's been bottlenecked for a while now.

[SuperPug]

r9 270 or 750 ti. Case: I highly suggest a bitfenix Shadow, seeing as it is a cheaper case, yet still look amazing. And I am unsure if you meant 1666 ram, seeing as there isn't any 666mhz ram modules, unless I have no clue of what I am saying(high chance of this happening).

 

Its DDR2 ram... he probably meant 667Mhz. They go from 400 - 1066Mhz.

[Mentaltoast]

If you can get something like a GTX 760 within budget, that will be good.

 

Then further down the line, she can go with a platform upgrade or something.

 

As for the cables, I would do a mod. Either that or get that super short GTX 760 from MSI.

 

I was looking at them and a 760 MAY fit, but i'm not sure ; will the 430w power supply be able to support it with the other components?

[HashtagMilk]

Graphics card: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r9270gaming2g

If you can spend the extra 20$: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r9270xgaming2g

Case: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-s210001

If you don't need another case, then go with this graphics card: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r9270xgaming2g

[xox]

I was looking at them and a 760 MAY fit, but i'm not sure ; will the 430w power supply be able to support it with the other components?

Yeah, it will be fine; best of luck