Page 1 of 2
1
2
LastLast
  1. #1

    $800 to play with

    Hello,
    I always seem to have a hard time with computer related threads so was hoping for a little bit of help. While I know what I want to a point I never understand hardware compatibility so instead of making a mistake and buying something that will not work together I figured I would come to the experts.

    I am simply looking to spend $800 to upgrade my aging system. Looking for a new motherboard, CPU, and video card. My current rig is roughly 8 years old and is starting to give me some issues with performance. I am currently running an AMD processor (think phenom II/ dual core like 3.0 ghz) and a video card that I don't think even receives updates anymore, probably wrong but I can no longer find information that isn't 3 years old on it. I am currently at the office and as such don't have specifics but figured I would give it a shot.

    I would like to switch over to an INTEL processor, which I have been told is the reason I will need a new mother board as well due to chipset?

    Additional information that may help. I play WoW CS:GO and would really really like to be able to play SC:2 and Planetside 2 with no hiccups.

    Is $800 even a realistic budget for what I want? Open to any and all suggestions.

    Warm Regards,
    Titan

  2. #2
    Deleted
    Do you need an operating system as well?

  3. #3
    This should really be in the computer build/upgrade forum.
    What ram are you using?
    With $800 you can get some really nice upgrades.

    http://pcpartpicker.com/p/xyHq

    Figured that you would need to upgrade your ram as well since you said that your rig is 8 years old.

  4. #4
    I will not need an operating system. Free copy of Windows 7 from my UNI. I currently am running 4gb of RAM I believe ddr3. I added 2 gigs of ram about 3 years ago since i was being throttled hard.

  5. #5
    Dreadlord nimryas's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    823
    You can pretty much get an entire new PC, with possibly a new housing as well or you can keep your old one. I would advice an intel i5 3570k with at least 8gb or 16gb ram (ddr3 is so cheap nowadays) with an amd 7850 (really good price/performance ratio), its between mid-high end range. . Might as well get an SSD while you're at it! SSD will probably be the most noticable upgrade for you anyway, it significantly speeds up your entire system. You can easily buy a 128ssd with your budget. Crucial m4 or the new samsung 840 series.

    Nimryas - EU-Kazzak ~ My youtube channel

  6. #6
    Stood in the Fire mojo6912's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    433
    800 is more than enough. You will need new RAM too. And you might (probably will) want to get a power supply as well.

    I recommend asrock z77 extreme 4 motherboard, i5 3570K cpu, gskill or corsair RAM at 1600MHz and 1.5v, and a video card and power supply depending on how much money you want to spend. For the GPU I would say get AMD right now as the price/performance ratio seems to favor them at this moment. 7850/7870/7950/7970 are some cards I would look at. Get at least a 80 plus bronze certified power supply.

    Make sure your hard drive is still up to par too if it is 8 years old then it might be slow I'm not sure. And the operating system... Not sure if you can/want to reuse that. The CPU I recommended it top notch and can be downgraded to save some money if needed. Sorry I am too lazy to post links.

  7. #7
    Saw someone mention to make sure hard drive is up to par. How would I be able to check this? If it is too slow how would I migrate all the information from my old hard drive to my new one?

  8. #8
    Stood in the Fire mojo6912's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    433
    You can download a program to check the disks integrity and speed. Not sure what it is called. Dsk check or something?

  9. #9
    Deleted
    the best performance per price is avaible at cpubenchmark.net - the best proc atm for a real upgrade is AMD FX-8150 Eight-Core $159.99 buy this + best motherboard + real fast SSD and keep the ram(maybe add an extra 4 giga), gpu, etc,
    if you really wana go intel Intel Core i5-2380P @ 3.10GHz $170.00 BUT it's 25% slower than amd and 11$ more expensive...

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by RC-ST. View Post
    the best performance per price is avaible at cpubenchmark.net - the best proc atm for a real upgrade is AMD FX-8150 Eight-Core $159.99 buy this + best motherboard + real fast SSD and keep the ram(maybe add an extra 4 giga), gpu, etc,
    if you really wana go intel Intel Core i5-2380P @ 3.10GHz $170.00 BUT it's 25% slower than amd and 11$ more expensive...
    I really wouldn't recommend an Eight-Core for a gaming system, that's a whole lot of wasted power. It may benchmark higher in benchmarking software, but games are only gonna use 2 cores, so you want stronger individual cores, like an Intel Quad-Core, instead of twice as many weaker cores.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by mojo6912 View Post
    800 is more than enough. You will need new RAM too. And you might (probably will) want to get a power supply as well.

    I recommend asrock z77 extreme 4 motherboard, i5 3570K cpu, gskill or corsair RAM at 1600MHz and 1.5v, and a video card and power supply depending on how much money you want to spend. For the GPU I would say get AMD right now as the price/performance ratio seems to favor them at this moment. 7850/7870/7950/7970 are some cards I would look at. Get at least a 80 plus bronze certified power supply.

    Make sure your hard drive is still up to par too if it is 8 years old then it might be slow I'm not sure. And the operating system... Not sure if you can/want to reuse that. The CPU I recommended it top notch and can be downgraded to save some money if needed. Sorry I am too lazy to post links.
    Can you help me make sure that I am understanding this correctly. GPU AMD chipset will work with an intel processor? As you can see I am a total newb.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Titan2k10 View Post
    Can you help me make sure that I am understanding this correctly. GPU AMD chipset will work with an intel processor? As you can see I am a total newb.
    Yes.

    Explanation on things:
    AMD Processors only work with AMD Motherboards
    Intel Processors only work with Intel Motherboards
    -> These are marked as "Sockets" such as AM1, AM2, AM3 etc. Or 1136, 1155, 2011 for Intel.

    AMD GPUs work on any Motherboard
    Nvidia GPUs work on any Motherboard
    -> There are some slots on your Motherboard that are called "PCI-E", these have classes, 1, 2 and 3 being the latest, you don't see PCI-E 1 anymore really. PCI-E 2.0 and PCI-E 3.0 are used a lot these days. Also these PCI-E slots have speeds, 16x, 8x, which determines their speed basically. You want to place your Graphics card usually on the highest speed available, so PCI-E 3.0 16x would be the fastest, however PCI-E 2.0 16x will only be 1-2% slower if your GPU is very high end. You can use the x8(or lower if your Motherboard has them) for other PCI-E cards that include Sound Cards, Network cards or even SSDs.

    So when you are looking at Motherboards for your PC, the most important things are:
    1. Socket -> So your CPU fits in
    2. RAM Support -> Your RAM will work on it
    3. PCI-E slots -> The most modern Motherboards usually use PCI-E 3.0, but PCI-E 2.0 will work fine unless going for a really high end build(involving 2-4 Graphics cards that are already top-end)
    Last edited by Tehterokkar; 2013-01-14 at 05:27 PM.

  13. #13
    Too much hand waving in this thread.

    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

    CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
    CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
    Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($124.99 @ Newegg)
    Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
    Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg)
    Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($67.41 @ Mac Connection)
    Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
    Total: $757.34
    (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
    (Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-14 12:32 EST-0500)

  14. #14
    Stood in the Fire mojo6912's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    433
    HandWaving: A term often overused by people who have no imagination, talent or intuition. They believe in only those of the past that wrote books about, and published papers about, but not realizing that which they dearly believe in, had itself come from someone who was once accused of HandWaving concerning that very thing. A term soon learned to be hated by many, and over-used by those who are in fear of losing a discussion, because the discussion has entered into things beyond their ability to digest and understand. So... they themselves scream and shout while jumping up-and-down and waving their hands violently in the air while pointing their finger, closing their eyes and ears, with episodes of obsessive chanting "HandWaving!, HandWaving!, HandWaving!, HandWaving!, HandWaving!... You see, it simply is not in the books, so how could it possibly be?...

    Yeah that is a good build. But like I said with $230 you can get a more powerful GPU than a 660.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by mojo6912 View Post
    HandWaving: A term often overused by people who have no imagination, talent or intuition. They believe in only those of the past that wrote books about, and published papers about, but not realizing that which they dearly believe in, had itself come from someone who was once accused of HandWaving concerning that very thing.
    I am using the following definition of hand waving:

    Handwaving is a pejorative label applied to the action of displaying the appearance of doing something, when actually doing little, or nothing.

    It is also used in working situations where productive work is expected, but no work is actually accomplished.


    Quote Originally Posted by mojo6912 View Post
    Yeah that is a good build. But like I said with $230 you can get a more powerful GPU than a 660.
    The 7870 isn't all that much better (< 5%) and the cheapest 'premium tier' 7870 I can find is Gigabyte 7870 $240 which would bump the price over $800.

  16. #16
    Epic! Idrinkwhiterussians's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    In a bar. Somewhere that carries Khalua, cream and Vodka
    Posts
    1,690
    http://pcpartpicker.com/p/xBGN

    This would be my take on the build, with a bit better PSU and AMD GPU instead of Nvidia.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cyanotical View Post
    anyone want doughnuts? i hear there is a great shop in Vancouver

  17. #17
    I would be fine in making the assumption that most of these upgrades/builds would be able to run WoW/Planetside 2 no problem right?

  18. #18
    Don't buy AMD Gpu:s. They have serious microstuttering problems. Otherwise they're good. If AMD is able to solve this issue, then they are worth to buy.

  19. #19
    Stood in the Fire Tovarish24's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    South Carolina
    Posts
    402
    These guys can help you with specifics, but I wanted to chime in and say that I built my new rig 4 months ago for $796, 800 was my budget too, and I had to buy ALL the parts, and this thing runs any game at at least 60 fps, and at least 40 fps when recording and streaming, so if you only need a few parts, I'd say you're well within you range to get some sweet ass gear.
    WoW : Burning Blade (H)
    90 Warlock, 90 Shaman, 96+ Mage, 90 Death Knight, 86 Warrior, 90 Hunter, 85 Rogue, 80 Paladin, 76 Priest, 70 Druid, 26 Monk

  20. #20
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Manakuski View Post
    Don't buy AMD Gpu:s. They have serious microstuttering problems. Otherwise they're good. If AMD is able to solve this issue, then they are worth to buy.
    I think you have no clue what you are talking about. Yes in crossfire microstutter might appear more on AMD cards, but we are talking about a 800 budget build. There wont be dual cards in there.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •