Should I upgrade my desktop pc? And how much it would be.

So yeah, im thinking to upgrade desktop so I could play mw3, skyrim, assasins creed:brotherhood, bf3,bfbc2 and similar games, I dont need 2much upgrade, just for these is more than enough. Any suggestions appriciated, and I would need to know how much I would spend on upgrading. My current specs:

 

Estimated around $530 bucks, this'll probably be your best bet, it'll give you high graphics at a pretty decent frame rate, and medium graphics should be a breeze.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diy-gaming-pc,2970.html

Good luck!

 

Moved to H&R.

 

If you want to play those kinds of games, I'd probably build a whole new PC. I can tell your PC is pretty old, that processor is rather outdated and 1GB DDR2 is certainly not suffice.

Spend about £500/$700 and get yourself a beast.

Side note: a budget would help

 

Budget is ~500$.

 

Are you confident that you could build the PC from scratch yourself?

 

Save up more money and build a whole new computer.
No point wasting money on upgrading that it's a piece of shit.

 

As everyone said, don't upgrade. You could possibly throw a gtx 580 in there provided it will fit in your case and be compatible with your current OS, but the performance boost won't be anything spectacular with the RAM and CPU you have currently.

But in order to upgrade the proc and/or RAM to something that won't be a complete waste of money, you'd need to upgrade the mobo as well. It will end up with you pretty much buying all the parts needed to build a new, better machine.

 

I 100% guarantee you that putting a 580 in there, everything would bottleneck the shit out of you.


Save your money, get maybe $1k, get a gtx570/radeon 6950, 2500k, p67 board, 8gig ddr3 1600 8-8-8-24 RAM, HAF 912/922 Case, 1tb hdd, windows 7 home prem 64bit, and then you'll need a new monitor if youre using a 17". get a 23/24" 1080p screen, . With the W7, and screen you'll need to spend more then $1k tho. I'm not sure where youre from, prices will differ. Don't bother with the GTX 580(i'd only get one if i had enough money, i'd rather put the extra $100 towards and SSD tbh), or 2600k for gaming tbh, $100 less and the 570 is maybe 5-10frames less, and the 2600k is useless over the 2500k for gaming.

 

Yes, but with the hardware he has, the best thing he could do would be to install a kick ass graphics card. Yeah it may bottleneck you, but everything is a bottleneck on that pc unless you spend the money to upgrade the RAM, CPU, and MOBO at the same time. The graphics card would be the only thing that can be upgraded enough to show a noticeable difference on that computer without replacing what I mentioned above.

But seriously, don't invest anything in it. Don't get a new proc or a gtx 580 or anything. I was speaking hypothetically. It's just not worth it for that old of a pc.

 

This.

Basically what you want is.
P67 mobo
i5 2500k.
4/8gig 1333/1600MHz RAM
750W corsair, seasonic, silverstone, antec PSU.
Haf 912, 922, antec 300, CM 690II case
Radeon 6950 1gig(if you wanna save a bit of cash) or GTX 570.
1TB HDD
W7 64bit(important)
24" 1080P monitor.
SATA DVD drive.
Should run most games on high. The BF3 trailer was run on a GTX580, and the 570 isnt far behind,.

 

And almost $100 cheaper.

 

Think you guys are going a bit high budget.

You're looking at paying ~$800 for a 6950 and an i5..

 

Not saying you're wrong or anything but why go for the 1st gen i5 when it's inferior in every way to the 2500k and the exact same price? :/

For $500 you can't really build a PC capable of running the games you listed and reasonable quality with good fps. If you want to really get enough performance to make it worth your while you're going to want to look at spending at least $800. Also, build your own PC, manufacturer's are major ripoffs and you won't really find any manufacturer that sells a PC that's really geared at gaming. Those configure your own PC resellers are close, but still major ripoff artists. Nothing in your current PC is salvageable. That would've been an OKAY PC in like 2004, not even a "great" one.

Also just a suggestion but I recently got a GTX480 and it was only $300 as opposed to $330-$370 for a GTX570 and it beats it in almost every benchmark. The only downside is it gets way hotter than a 570, but as long as you have good airflow it's manageable.

 

For $500, you can come close if you skimp on some parts. ($50 mobo, 2-3gb of ram for about 50-100, gfx card for about 100, and proc for the majority) You might be missing a case or optical drives, but you can find those in any dumpster.

And, what are you using to benchmark? The 480 and 570 are similar, but the 570 should outperform the 480 if they are ran on the same machines. They're both high end cards that can pretty much run anything so if price is an issue, get the 480. I got a gtx 580 for about $350 from CompUSA so I don't know why not-as-good cards would be more expensive.

 

I'm following online benchmarks. The 480 usually outcompetes the 570, but just marginally. The 570 might have more OC headroom though. Also, you got an EXTREMELY good deal on that 580, lucky ass. I haven't seen one below $500 except during special deals and even then it's like $20 off lol.

Oh and $100 for a GPU is kinda low. He could probably run med settings maybe, depending on whether or not he games at 1080p (who doesn't nowadays?) I was coming from a $120 GTS 450 and I kinda struggled to play newer games at 1650x1080 or w/e. I lagged on Fallout NV @ med settings lol.

 

I think that Rawrasauras' upgrade is good, to be honest. Especially for a lower price than all these 800$ upgrades - I mean. Be realistic, guys. Most people don't have the money to dish out that much just on the spur of the moment

 

Ah, I forgot about the 2500k. I was basing it off my PC's specs (I built it in August 2010, 2500k came out 2011 I believe). Definitely go for the 2500k if you are going to use some of my recommendations @OP.

 

He has Windows XP, so he needs 64bit 7, and a new monitor cos his is 17"
that adds another $250.

Just switch the pics build to a p67 mobo, and 2500k, or if you arent OCing, a h67 mobo and 2500. & a samsung spinpoint f3, better then the cav blue and should be the same price.

 

Why the p67 mobo? It's more expensive and the p7h55-m does the job. And I'm sure OP can find a way of 'slashing' some of the cost of the OS.