PC Upgrading...

[Taidi]

Hey Guys,

 

well a friend of mine has a very old pc, so i thought i can help him upgrading it a little bit, so he can play games like: NBA 2K15, FIFA 15, maybe GTA 5, Battlefield 3 and stuff like that.

 

His current specs are:

- Intel Core Quad Q6600

- 2x2GB DDR2 RAM

- Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4

- Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 (Passive cooled, duh!)

- be quiet! System Power 7 300W

- A Samsung HDD

- A Optical Drive

- A CoolerMaster Case

 

Well, his budget is very low!

So i thought of getting another dual channel 4GB set of DDR2 RAM.

Replace the GPU with a cheap used GTX 470 or 480.

And get a used PSU with 600W.

 

That was my idea, so what do you think?

[skullbringer]

Whats the budget?

Honestly 8GB of ram is probably alright. Just get a better gpu and also psu to power it.

[adamsjus1]

Well to play gta 5 you are going to need a lot of upgrades

[Kermit]

Your going to have to make some major upgrades to run BF3 and GTA 5... You would basically be buying a new PC, all new parts

 

That CPU is not nearly powerful enough

That RAM is DDR2, ehhhh

Motherboard is lga775, no support for better hardware

That 4850 is going to get killed

PSU will have to go

 

You could keep the case.... Maybe.

[Taidi]

Whats the budget?

Honestly 8GB of ram is probably alright. Just get a better gpu and also psu to power it.

Sorry i mean 2x2GB of DDR2 RAM

 

Well to play gta 5 you are going to need a lot of upgrades

He don't need to max it out. Its fine if he is able to play it at low settings.

[Taidi]

Your going to have to make some major upgrades to run BF3 and GTA 5... You would basically be buying a new PC, all new parts

 

That CPU is not nearly powerful enough

That RAM is DDR2, ehhhh

Motherboard is lga775, no support for better hardware

That 4850 is going to get killed

PSU will have to go

 

You could keep the case.... Maybe.

He don't need to play all those games at ULTRA, just keep the settings low.

Yeah a whole new pc, all new parts. A very good idea for a guy with low budget...

[skullbringer]

Sorry i mean 2x2GB of DDR2 RAM

 

He don't need to max it out. Its fine if he is able to play it at low settings.

 

ok, well then get a second pair of 2GB sticks to go to 8GB total.

Maybe something along those lines: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Mushkin Essentials 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2-667 Memory  ($40.98 @ Newegg)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($132.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($33.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $207.96

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-23 16:07 EDT-0400

[Taidi]

ok, well then get a second pair of 2GB sticks to go to 8GB total.

Maybe something along those lines: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Mushkin Essentials 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2-667 Memory  ($40.98 @ Newegg)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($132.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($33.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $207.96

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-23 16:07 EDT-0400

That's a good idea, but i thought on used stuff to keep the cost low...

 

His budget is around 80 Bucks or so

 

And an 480 is much cheaper as the 750 Ti (Even if you buy a used 750 Ti)

But the performance is very similar: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1135?vs=1130

So i thought it would be a good idea. Or not?

[Kermit]

That's a good idea, but i thought on used stuff to keep the cost low...

 

His budget is around 80 Bucks or so

 

And an 480 is much cheaper as the 750 Ti (Even if you buy a used 750 Ti)

But the performance is very similar: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1135?vs=1130

So i thought it would be a good idea. Or not?

 

the only bad thing people complained about was the insane temps on the 480

 

Reaches upwards of 95c and can lower performance. But if you truely are on a budget, then a GTX 480 will serve its purpose.

[Ertman]

Your going to have to make some major upgrades to run BF3 and GTA 5... You would basically be buying a new PC, all new parts

That CPU is not nearly powerful enough

That RAM is DDR2, ehhhh

Motherboard is lga775, no support for better hardware

That 4850 is going to get killed

PSU will have to go

You could keep the case.... Maybe.

To be fair small upgrades can allow It to run BF 3 like a champ.

[Kermit]

To be fair small upgrades can allow It to run BF 3 like a champ.

 

I guess my view is different due to the fact that I have a 280x and its bottlenecked by my pentium... So i don't really have any experience with a normal-performing 280x.

 

Are you talking about minimum settings at 720p and also "champ" is classified under what fps

[Ertman]

I guess my view is different due to the fact that I have a 280x and its bottlenecked by my pentium... So i don't really have any experience with a normal-performing 280x.

 

Are you talking about minimum settings at 720p and also "champ" is classified under what fps

Yes, sorry. I didn't necessarily mean run it on High or ultra level settings at 100fps, miscommunication, my bad. I don't disagree that a CPU+motherboard+ram+GPU upgrade is worthwhile given the the other even more modern games (GTA 5) they want to play.

 

Back to the point...

 

The reason why I said that it should run it like a champ, is that with just a video card upgrade he would have the recommended settings and "should" be able to run it on on lets say, at least medium settings at 1080p and achieve at the very least console level frame-rates if not vastly better. While DDR2 is poorer performing than DDR3, the difference is not as significant and pales to a CPU upgrade. Overclocking the Q6600 will also help with this.

 

Relevant Battlefield Requirements.

 

Minimum

PROCESSOR: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Athlon X2 2.7 GHz)

MEMORY (RAM): 2 GB

GRAPHICS CARD (AMD): DirectX 10.1 compatible with 512 MB RAM (ATI Radeon 3000, 4000, 5000 or 6000 series, with ATI Radeon 3870 or higher performance)

GRAPHICS CARD (NVIDIA): DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 or 500 series with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or higher performance)

 

Recommended

PROCESSOR: Quad-core CPU

MEMORY (RAM): 4 GB

GRAPHICS CARD: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 or ATI Radeon 6950)

[Taidi]

 

Yes, sorry. I didn't necessarily mean run it on High or ultra level settings at 100fps, miscommunication, my bad. I don't disagree that a CPU+motherboard+ram+GPU upgrade is worthwhile given the the other even more modern games (GTA 5) they want to play.

 

Back to the point...

 

The reason why I said that it should run it like a champ, is that with just a video card upgrade he would have the recommended settings and "should" be able to run it on on lets say, at least medium settings at 1080p and achieve at the very least console level frame-rates if not vastly better. While DDR2 is poorer performing than DDR3, the difference is not as significant and pales to a CPU upgrade. Overclocking the Q6600 will also help with this.

 

Relevant Battlefield Requirements.

 

Minimum

PROCESSOR: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Athlon X2 2.7 GHz)

MEMORY (RAM): 2 GB

GRAPHICS CARD (AMD): DirectX 10.1 compatible with 512 MB RAM (ATI Radeon 3000, 4000, 5000 or 6000 series, with ATI Radeon 3870 or higher performance)

GRAPHICS CARD (NVIDIA): DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 or 500 series with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or higher performance)

 

Recommended

PROCESSOR: Quad-core CPU

MEMORY (RAM): 4 GB

GRAPHICS CARD: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 or ATI Radeon 6950)

 

Thanks, helped me alot!

 

He has a decent tower cpu cooler, so oc would be no problem. I will replace the themalpaste, because the pc wasn't touched in 5 Years!!

And a friend of mine said that the GTX 285 is also a decent card for the budget. Is that true? Or is the generation just too old?

[Ertman]

Thanks, helped me alot!

 

He has a decent tower cpu cooler, so oc would be no problem. I will replace the themalpaste, because the pc wasn't touched in 5 Years!!

And a friend of mine said that the GTX 285 is also a decent card for the budget. Is that true? Or is the generation just too old?

Well, I am no expert, so there's that.

Good on the thermal paste bit. The 285 can be a decent card, but I think you should get some a little more modern. I guess it depends on what is available to you at your budget. The 285 is in a similar class as the 7770 or 465, apparently, and you may need to find a card that will be compatible with the directx version the games run (FIFA15 dx11). I would also recommend an upgrade from that 300w PSU, especially with an OC and possibly power hungry GPU (285).

Just trying manage expectations, but the q6600 is the "minimum" requirement for both FIFA 15 and GTA 5, so don't expect a lot in terms of frame rates, details, resolution or even playability. Older games like BF3 will have an easier time, but the CPU will be your bottleneck especially in multiplayer games, hence the need for OC. You should try and lookup the system requirements for whatever games you wish to play on the computer, try and stick with the official web pages, but you can also look at steam need be.

I like your used parts idea to keep costs down.

-OC CPU

-more ram

-better video card (directx compatible to whatever game you wish to play)

-higher wattage PSU