Thinking about Upgrades, Should i?

[Exodiea]

Hello everyone

As the titles says i am thinking about upgrading my rig but i am abit confused as to what will give me the most noticeable preformance increase for the best prices specs are below, I'm open to almost anything even a mobo / cpu change if needed but just looking for help atm

CURRENT SPECS

Running Windows 7 64bit

CPU - 3.21 ghz AMD Phenom II X2 555 6mb cache Black Edition (with H50 watercooling block)
RAM - 8GB Kingston Hyper X ddr3 1600
GFX Card- ATI 5850HD PowerColor
HDD - Hitachi 400gb Sata I(I) not sure which version
Mobo - Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 880G Socket AM3 (Bought the small version by mistake so no Crossfire :<)
PSU - Cool master Real power m700

What i am looking to beable to do is game in the near future at 1920 x 1080 near enough full gfx without much of a hitch on games like MW3 / Skyrim / Diablo 3 ect

Any help is welcome thanks in advance

Exo

[Deleted]

I wouldn't go down the AMD road at this moment, and certainly not the 555BE, I've owned the same dual core, and I can tell you, duals don't cut it anymore in games like black ops (but that was unoptimized as fuck anyway). AMD is outpaced by Intel badly, and I'm not a fanboy (I own 2 AMD systems)

I ask my fellow MMO-ers to help this guy get any intel build possible for this budget (I'm thinking i3 2100?).

[DeltrusDisc]

Let's hear a budget OP! For a 1920x1080 and close to max graphics, you will need to sink some dough into your system, and like Prixie, while I do own an Intel system, I am no fanboy, but it is very difficult right now to justify an AMD-based computer right now, and for gaming, especially for what you're asking.... AMD is simply not something I can suggest, at all.

[Exodiea]

Sorry i forgot a budget well i have about £300 spare this month but can sell a few bits to bump the price up to maybe £400 / £450 perhaps? if that helps.

[Fitzbert]

Can you run Modern Warefare 1 & 2? If the answer is yes (which I'd think it would be with that system), you will be able to run Modern Warfare 3 without much problem as it's using the same engine, which is itself a modified Quake III engine. So I'd worry about a game like Skyrim, really.

Out of what you have, I think the biggest improvement you could make would be a new processor (and thus new motherboard). Sandybridge Intel chipsets give great performance for quite a low price. Your GFX card can probably stand the heat for a bit more, but just upgrade to a newer ATI HD model if you feel the need.

[DeltrusDisc]

Honestly OP, with your budget, I would save up and wait.

[Exodiea]

Well even if i am to wait what would you recommend as i am sure i can upgrade some parts with my current budget no?

[Deleted]

Recommended Specs for Skyrim

Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
4GB System RAM
6GB free HDD space
DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher (i.e GTX550Ti); ATI Radeon 4890 or higher).
DirectX compatible sound card
Internet access for Steam activation

With £300 budget your biggest upgrade would most likely be a better cpu.

[OhpUldum]

There is two options for you. We have a short upgrade path for AMD which is option one. Then we have option two which is moving you to a Sandybridge chipset which opens up the upgrade path substantially.

Option One:
Upgrade CPU to AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition 3.7Ghz £124.99

Option Two:
Upgrade CPU to Intel i5 2500K £161.60
Swap motherboard to AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 £111.56

This would net you the highest gain for a performance upgrade. It also swaps the motherboard in favor of one with Crossfire support, UEFI, and USB3.

Compare the 555 vs 2500K. Just silly the performance difference, almost 200% better with the I5 2500K in some areas.

Then when you have a bit more cash you pick up a second HD5850 for CrossfireX. Your system would be crazy then.

[Deleted]

Moved to "Computer Build Help".

[Exodiea]

@ Culadin Thanks alot for the info, i think after looking at the comparison's that not moving on to a i5 2500k would be a stupid decision for me to make.

Question about the mobo are AsRock a Decent brand to go with nowadays i thought i heard a while ago they were a little subpar ? maybe i was misinformed.

also i was thinking of picking up a second HD5850 if i upgraded will just have to scrap the cash together for another as they are more expensive / same price now as when i bought mine back in march 2010. >.<

@ Marest Sorry i was in the wrong forum. :<

@ Dewote Thanks for the specs of Skyrim i should have taken the time to pull them up myself tbh.

Also would i be worth looking into a new HDD and possibly a SSD? i mean i have had the HDD for a fair few builds now and it will have gone through countless reinstalls ect

Thanks again to everyone help is greatly appreciated!

[OhpUldum]

AsRock did take a bit of a turn for the worse but has made leaps and bounds in motherboard design and customer service to bring them back up to par with other manufacturer's. They've really taken off with the Sandybridge chipset and their Sandybridge extreme boards are looking very good also.

As for the new HDD I would advise against it for the time being as hard drive prices have gone through the roof due to manufacturing being halted in Thailand. Supply is low and demand is high. However SSD's prices are consistently coming down over the last few years and their manufacturing hasn't been affected by the flooding in Thailand as they aren't being manufactured there. SSD's won't affect the FPS of the games but they will affect loading times. Most people these days seem to be picking up 128GB SSD's, but I would suggest picking up the CPU/Mobo first then if the money remains pick up a SSD.

[Exodiea]

Thanks again Culadin, i was originally going to get sandy bridge last january but at the time they had just pulled everything back due to the problems it had at launch so couldn't buy it when i needed it, i will take your word for the AsRock situation as i have never used them it also seems like a pretty nice board tbh and i presumed asmuch on the HDD situation after i read about it in another post straight after.

Was toying with the idea of an SSD and just using my current as a slave for games / music ect i believe browsing around best to go for a Intel or Corsair? and like i said my budget was only estimated i have some things i need to sell so could be more than what i stated but thanks again you're all being a big help!

[OhpUldum]

Intel's SSD's have been solid since their inception. Corsair had a firmware hiccup a while back but their Force3 series is very popular and priced very well.

[Exodiea]

Option Two:
Upgrade CPU to Intel i5 2500K £161.60
Swap motherboard to AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 £111.56

This would net you the highest gain for a performance upgrade. It also swaps the motherboard in favor of one with Crossfire support, UEFI, and USB3.

Compare the 555 vs 2500K. Just silly the performance difference, almost 200% better with the I5 2500K in some areas.

Then when you have a bit more cash you pick up a second HD5850 for CrossfireX. Your system would be crazy then.

Just ordered the Above thanks for the help came to £298 with next day delivery (tues) so thanks alot for your help will be sticking around here from now on