Is this better?

[mattdanielc]

Hi guys,

My current PC is 3 years old now - and she really struggles when I play more modern games, and takes forever to load some things like Sims 3 for the Mrs etc. She also makes a racket when playing more demanding games - I'm guessing it's the GPU or one of the fans of course.

I'm on a tight budget sadly - no more than £600 ideally. With Rome Total War 2 coming out soon I really wanted to be able to get a top system to be able to play it on 'high' but that's all I have spare now. So my question is... firstly is the spec below 'better' and will it be able to play / cope with more modern games better? (is the graphic card better?)

My old PC:

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A78LT-M: mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler

My proposed new PC:

Processor (CPU)
AMD A10-6700 Quad Core APU (4.3GHz) & Radeon™ HD 8670D Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® F2A55-M LK2: FM2 A-SERIES, SATA 3.0GB/s, Windows 8 Ready
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 650 - DVI, mHDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe AMD CPU Cooler (£19)

This comes out at £587. I intend to add my 'old' hard drive to the PC once I have it - so the small SSD is for the OS and any games I want to run faster etc, so I can get away with it being so small. I could also add the old RAM as well?

Thanks for any advice

 

[keynes]

The GTX 460 should perform better than the GTX 650, considering your budget and assuming is mainly for gaming I'd suggest dropping the SSD and getting a better cpu/gpu.

 

[mattdanielc]

the problem is my 460 sounds like an aircraft is taking off each time it is stretched now - so definitely can't keep it - can I ask which card you'd recommend is better than the 460 then? (also how come it's better when it's 3 years old - and also the 650 has 2 GB instead of the 1Gb on the 460?)

Thanks

 

[keynes]

the problem is my 460 sounds like an aircraft is taking off each time it is stretched now - so definitely can't keep it - can I ask which card you'd recommend is better than the 460 then? (also how come it's better when it's 3 years old - and also the 650 has 2 GB instead of the 1Gb on the 460?)

Thanks

You can check benchmarks online to compare the performance of your gpu vs others, more Vram doesn't mean better performance. Is your budget including the OS? I'd suggest the HD 7850.
Case
InWIN MANA-136 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD FX-6300 Six Core CPU (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3 (M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 3Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7850 - DVI,HDMI,DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £595.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/amd-bulldozer-top-spec-pc/_pxWZGyuCu/

 

[mattdanielc]

Thank you keynes.

Looking at your spec, I'm really keen on an SSD, so swapping to a 120Gb SSD, takes it over budget, but if I lower the CPU from your six core to a quad core (AMD 4130 3.80ghz) then it's only £8 over budget. Would that spec still work do you think?

Thanks!

 

[keynes]

Thank you keynes.

Looking at your spec, I'm really keen on an SSD, so swapping to a 120Gb SSD, takes it over budget, but if I lower the CPU from your six core to a quad core (AMD 4130 3.80ghz) then it's only £8 over budget. Would that spec still work do you think?

Thanks!

If its up to me I'd go with the FX-6350 instead of adding an SSD, imo it will be more balanced and you can always add an SSD later on. Total War games are very processor bound so I wouldn't compromise on the CPU for an SSD which is not essential.

 

[Yamikotai]

If its up to me I'd go with the FX-6350 instead of adding an SSD, imo it will be more balanced and you can always add an SSD later on. Total War games are very processor bound so I wouldn't compromise on the CPU for an SSD which is not essential.

Trust me Total War games are one of the few that really benefit from having fast storage xD Still, I agree, with the high recommendation that an SSD is purchased when possible.

 

[mattdanielc]

Thanks for all of the advice guys.

Slight update....even that budget is too much now. (my mrs keeps taking it away )

So I thought I'd upgrade the PC instead - and try and keep it going a bit longer. The components I'd buy through PCS:

8GB RAM DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1600Mhz (£63)
2GB GTX 660 (£149.78)
120GB SSD (£75)

Questions for those in the know:

1) Will the 1600mhz RAM work in my PC? (specs in OP) Or should I just buy 4GB 1333mhz RAM from amazon and add that to my current 4GB
2) The Nvidia GTX 660 costs about the same as the AMD radeon 7850 - I'm going for nvidia just because I currently have an nvidia in my PC. Is the 660 definitely better than the 460?
3) I want the SSD to make my PC load quicker. I want to pop the OS on the SSD. I found this link but it looks too complicated for me. Is there an easier way - as it mentions some software than can transfer the OS over? Is it safe?
4) Finally I'm useless at upgrading PC's - will it be easy to take out the old components and pop in the new ones - will they definitely work in my PC?

Thanks for all your help - appreciate it.

 

[Karnor00]

I'd agree you are probably better off upgrading your existing PC than buying a whole new one. The FX-6300 isn't much faster than the processor you already have.

To answer your questions:

1) According to the specs for your motherboard, it should be good up to 1800MHz RAM.

2) It should be a pretty significant upgrade over the 460. Aproximately 75 -100% faster in games which actually push the GPU.

3) Not sure how easy it is to transfer the OS over - the simplest approach is to reinstall the OS on the new SSD. Plus a clean install of the OS is often a good idea once you've had a computer for a while anyway as it will get rid of all the unwanted rubbish which has accumulated.

4) They should all work in your new PC and should be fairly easy to install. However you won't get full performance out of your SSD as your motherboard only supports 3.0GB/s SATA. It will still be a lot faster than an HDD, but not as quick as it could be.

 

[mattdanielc]

Thanks for all of the advice guys.

Slight update....even that budget is too much now. (my mrs keeps taking it away )

So I thought I'd upgrade the PC instead - and try and keep it going a bit longer. The components I'd buy through PCS:

8GB RAM DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1600Mhz (£63)
2GB GTX 660 (£149.78)
120GB SSD (£75)

Questions for those in the know:

1) Will the 1600mhz RAM work in my PC? (specs in OP) Or should I just buy 4GB 1333mhz RAM from amazon and add that to my current 4GB
2) The Nvidia GTX 660 costs about the same as the AMD radeon 7850 - I'm going for nvidia just because I currently have an nvidia in my PC. Is the 660 definitely better than the 460?
3) I want the SSD to make my PC load quicker. I want to pop the OS on the SSD. I found this link but it looks too complicated for me. Is there an easier way - as it mentions some software than can transfer the OS over? Is it safe?
4) Finally I'm useless at upgrading PC's - will it be easy to take out the old components and pop in the new ones - will they definitely work in my PC?

Thanks for all your help - appreciate it.

Forgive me for resurrecting this thread - but I'm now ready to buy some RAM for my PC. As described in the post above - I could get 8GB dual ram via PCS for £60 but that seems silly when I already have 4 GB in my PC - so I just want 4GB more (and then it should be cheaper too). Only problem is I'm finding it hard to find a dual DDR3 1333 RAM (2x2GB) on amazon / ebay and on the upgrade page of PCS there is no option for this either. Anyone know any good sites that could help?

Thanks

 

[Karnor00]

The RAM speed simply specificies the maximum speed that the RAM can run at. So if you cant find 1333MHz RAM then you could just get 1600MHz RAM. The prices of each speed are pretty much identical, and as you say, 1333MHz RAM is getting hard to find these days.

The 1600MHz should work fine with your existing RAM, but will be restricted to running at the lower 1333MHz speed.