Upgrading PC as a novice

Taiko

Hi guys,

Looking to upgrade my one year old desktop PC. Currently has as follows:

Intel i5 Quad 2320 @ 3 gHz
Intel HD Graphics 2500
8GB RAM
300W Power Supply.
Windows 7

The upgrade I want to do is partly for gaming, partly for work. Current games have run fine on this PC for now, but there's a new game coming out in a few months that I'd live to give a go, and I just don't think the PC will be up to it.

I've done a benchmark using the game's program, and it did come back that it'd run but on extremely low settings.

I know the graphics will need to be updated, but is there anything else I should be looking for? Also with the graphics, would anyone have any recommendations for a reasonable price card?

Ratboy

Maybe look at this http://www.amazon.com/Evga-GeForce-Express-Graphics-01G-P3-1430-LR/dp/B0046HAW7Y/ref=pd_sim_e_44

or similar spec/next model up, but your spec doesn't seem too bad.

As with any performance upgrade, depends on how much you want to spend. What game is it?

Taiko

I'm looking at Final Fantasy 14, but ideally looking to go above the minimum and try to futureproof things.

My range is a few hundred quid for everything, possibly spreading it over a month or so.

gonzo127

with a upgrade such as a graphics card you will need to look into your power supply make and model, this is because normal 'of the shelf' systems will only have a PSU which will just run the parts that are included and maybe a extra hard drive or ram which use very little power, however a graphics card can be a very power heavy upgrade, and so the included PSU is not good enough.

dependant on what PSU you have (and it might be a good one (80%+ effciency) so dont just go stright out and get a new one) for a good but 'cheap' PSU i would recommend the Be Quiet! Pure Power L8 530w http://www.scan.co.uk/products/530w-be-quiet!-pure-power-l8-bn181-modular-88-eff-80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx which is £63 and should have enough grunt to power pretty much any regular set up - yes you can get a PSU which is a lot cheaper, and even some that are cheaper and have bigger power ratings - these however are usually a false economy as they are usualy more noisy and less stable and use lower quality parts which can break, and having a PSU that go 'pop' can actually take other parts with it (power serge)

pair it up with http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-gtx-660-oc-28nm-pcie-30-(x16)-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-1006mhz-boost-1072mhz-cores-960-dport-dl-dvi (make sure you have space inside the case for this card as its a duel slot width card) and you will have a very powerful gaming system for just over £200 (plus metro last light game)

if you cant break £200 you could drop to this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-msi-radeon-hd-7850-oc-4800mhz-gddr5-gpu-900mhz-1024-cores-dvi-hdmi-2x-mini-dp-plus-10-cashback-p however it will be a significant performance drop from the GTX660 for 'only £20 savings (however you do get Bioshock infinate and Tomb raider with this) - although this card is still powerful enough to run 99% of current games at full 1080p resolution in high or above settings so is no slouch

if you dont upgrade the PSU your limit on a graphics card will be much lower and based around one that does not require extra power connectors such as the AMD 7750 however this could still cause stability issues as this card needs nearly 75 watts of power - and a 'bad' PSU will only have a effciency of around 50% so your 300w psu might only be able to be consistantly stable supplying 150w and using roughly 50% on one part does not give the rest of the system much,

dropping to something like the AMD 6670 will drop the power draw to around 50w and would be the lowest i would recommend dropping to as it should have enough power to run 99% of current games on medium or above settings at 1600 by 1200 resolutions (22 inch monitor), dropping even further something like the AMD 6450 can drop power draw to about 25w - this however is a really low powered card which will not give much more power over the intergrated power (it will be more but not to the point of thinking about high graphics settings)

EDITTED added some extra details on the expectations and limitations of the 7850 and the 6670

Taiko

Thank you very much, that's really helpful!

Going to just do a double check for the internal slots when I get home this evening, just to make sure I've still room as added a new network card a few months ago so that I could get the full 80mb download speed wirelessly with my BT Infinity.

Once that's done, time to shop! The £200 card is within my range, so looks like I'll go for that.

gonzo127

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2023/1/

for a little bit of light reading on the MSI GTX660

Taiko

Shall get myself reading later this afternoon. Thanks again!

closed

why not wait for the game to come out first and see, or buy a playstation

Nelly.t

Not knowing the size of your present case internals, it might be useful to get accurate sizes of the graphics card from the net prior to buying and make sure it fits in your case. They can be hefty bits of kit.

Retrogamer

Depending on the case and card as well, you might want to ensure it has good airflow feeding towards the card.

Taiko

That's the internals as they stand. I could shift the Wireless card down a slot.

Dimensions are 175 x 425 x 353 mm