cpu processor help needed

shohaib

I wanted to play games with really good graphics as i just bought a nvdia 8400gs card http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/129204 this week and wanted to put it in current pc but realised i had no pci, im due for a upgrade anyway so i thought ill convert to intel. and buy a new motherboard, ram and cpu. im really struggling here as i dont know which one to go for out of the three that i have posted, i mainly want to play games with really good graphics and to have a fast machine. Also if you would recommend anything else beside these chips at the £50 mark.

Intel Pentium D 925 (3.0ghz) Socket 775 FSB800 2x2mb Retail Boxed Processor

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/114193

Intel Pentium 4 650 3.4Ghz Socket 775 800mhz 2mb Cache Retail Boxed

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/87129

Intel Coporation Celeron D 360 3.46GHz LGA775 FSB533 512KB Retail Boxed

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/121406

Zagu

If you can save up another £25 or so, the Core 2 would be the best option.

GoofyGAT

I hate to disappoint you, but the 8400GS is far from a 'gaming' card. The processors you mention aren't great either (drop anything with 'Celeron' in the name btw).

"i mainly want to play games with really good graphics and to have a fast machine."
For this you'll want an E4300/equivalent (+matching motherboard), a 7600GT/8600GT graphics card & 1Gb Ram at the very least - in today's terms this would constitute a budget gaming PC. Depending on what power supply (PSU) you have, this may have to be upgraded too. What games are you going to be playing? G

nullogik

GoofyGAT wrote: »

I hate to disappoint you, but the 8400GS is far from a 'gaming' card.

Totally agree with GoofyGat there. The 8400 is really going to struggle with modern games even at low graphic and detail settings.

R0CKY

If you are looking to play the "latest" games, I am afraid you will have to spend a lot more building your new PC.

If you are looking to play the likes of Half Life 2, Company of Heroes, Stalker, FEAR etc etc, your graphics card is going to cost around the £100 mark. However, to play the latest games, say, Colin McRae Rally DiRT, you'll need to 8800, which is really expensive.

Processor wise, the best bang for buck is definately the dual core E6600. To play any games released later this year you'll need that processor.

Sorry, gaming is expensive (

Blacksheep1979

as everyone has pointed out that card is far from able to play the latest games, infact its nearer the bottom of the pile. At a guess you've been conned by the lets look at the size of the memory on the gfx card brigade.

At that price for a chip you'd be far better off looking at AMD A64's, especially if you are not going to overclock it.

R0CKY wrote: »

Processor wise, the best bang for buck is definately the dual core E6600. To play any games released later this year you'll need that processor.

and I'd ignore suggestions like that, sorry no offence but you don't have a clue what you're on about. The gfx card is the main stalling point for any system playing games and unless you are playing a very select few of the more modern games cpu (within reason) will make all of about 1-5% difference.

shohaib

the thing is ive been playing games using my onboard card for 2/3 years which is on the motherboard. I usually play emulators and i like my metal gear solids and devil may crys. I got metal gear 1 working but metal gear solid 2 and devil may cry wouldnt work as i had no graphics to use at all. All i want is to play games on half decent graphics nothing too overboard. as im on a bit of a tight budget, sorry for saying "real good graphics" well they will be compared to what ive been using lol. Getting back to the processor, so even if i got a 3.4 pentium 4 or pentium d 3.0, 2gb ram, abit motherboard and put my 8400gs into that will i be able to play any game i want with good normal graphics ?

nickmack

shohaib wrote: »

so even if i got a 3.4 pentium 4 or pentium d 3.0, 2gb ram, abit motherboard and put my 8400gs into that will i be able to play any game i want with good normal graphics ?

No, as answered above, you will be able to play older games such as the ones you mentioned at reasonable-good settings. New games will struggle.

shohaib

can someone recommend me a decent gfx card for around £50 as i can give this one back, ive seen some 7300gt cards are them any good ? http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=417316

Zagu

The very newest games will struggle, but anything a couple of years old or more should run ok at one level or other. Chances are you'll need new memory and power supply too.

To see how good/bad gfx cards are, try here.

Toms Hardware.

BillScarab

Can you not return the PCI-E card to where you got it from explaining you bought it in error? Then put the cash from that towards an upgrade or new PC.

If you want to make your existing machine last a bit longer your best bet may be to buy a second hand AGP card from ebay (assuming your machine has an AGP slot) then save for a new PC.

If you're thinking of replacing the motherboard, CPU, RAM and Gfx card it will probably be easier to just get a new machine, you can always put your old HD in the new one to copy any data over.