Budget gaming rig upgrades: which parts to go for?
hi. im interested in building a budget gaming rig, and i have bought a cooler master cm-690 case, a corsair 650w psu, and a 9600 gt video card so far, just to upgrade my old computer. I just need to buy the new parts and i will be set, but there are 2 builds ive had in mind, and since they cost exactly the same, im tied between them. one is amd, one is intel, take a look: AMD Build: -Phenom 2 x3 720 BE -asus m4a78t-e 790gx mobo -g.skill 1600 mhz 4gb (2x2gb) ddr3 kit -western digital caviar black 640gb hd -windows vista home premium 64-bit INTEL Build: -core 2 duo e8400 -Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R -4gb corsair ddr2 800mhz xms2 ram -wd caviar black 640gb hd -windows vista hp 64-bit im really just tied between them, i know the e8400 will be a touch faster in games, but the phenom 2 x3 720 will be more futureproofing with 3 cores and ddr3. answer with why i should take one over the other, and pros/cons to each build. thanks for your time.
Is it worthwhile upgrading an i7 6700k rig with 2080 Ti, or should I just save my 1080 Ti and use that money for a newer rig?
If the GPU is the bottleneck in your gaming, going to a 2080Ti instead of a 1080Ti will give you perhaps a 25% improvement in frame rate. (It varies from game to game.) That number will increase over time as more games that are optimized for the 2000 series appear. That upgrade would likely cost you $600–700 net; the 2080Ti is around $1200 and you should be able to get $500–600 for your used 1080Ti if you haven’t abused it.The cost of upgrading from a 6700K to a 9900K is a bit harder to evaluate because the market for used CPUs and motherboards is less clear. The new CPU and motherboard will cost you $800–900 ($550–580 for the CPU and the rest for a new Z390 motherboard), and you’ll get some of that back by selling the old CPU and motherboard. The net cost is likely about the same as the GPU upgrade. The 9900K upgrade will give you over double the CPU performance in applications that can use all the threads since you would go from 4 cores to 8, but only 20% in single thread performance (a bit from the architecture improvements in Kaby Lake, the rest from higher clock speeds). Some games will get a huge benefit from the extra speed and cores; others are GPU-limited and will gain nothing.If I had to choose between those two upgrades, I’d go with the new CPU and motherboard. I’d probably get about the same benefit overall for gaming and a huge jump for other applications like video editing. If I only used the system for gaming I think I’d hang onto my money for now, but I’d still go with the CPU if I wanted to make a change.
Should I upgrade My gaming rig?
Here's the thing about your rig: There is very little you genuinely need to change. Best investment: New GPU. I'm frequently recommending R7-370s or R9-380s for budget gamers who want to stay current (R9-380 if you can, really.) You might want a 500W PSU for that, it's pushing a 430W a bit, but you're on the edge of okay. Also Handy: 2 cheap upgrades would get you a lot of better general utility. First, a small SSD for a boot volume and everyday use software. 120GB drives are cheap and you already have a nice fast drive for mass storage. Also, games are starting to require more RAM, I'd consider another 8GB to get yourself to 16GB.There is nothing for you to gain from replacing the system board or CPU unless you want to upgrade the rest a lot further. Newer platforms give you more expensive features for high end builds like M.2 slots, DDR4 support and other things... but you won't be doing those things anyway in most builds. Technically, the Athlon X4 760K doesn't give you PCI-e 3.0 support (it's FM2 as opposed to FM2+ which you'd get with an 860K) but as much as I normally rag on this, I really rag on this for new builds. For upgrade purposes, you don't gain enough real world performance to make it worth addressing your CPU and the performance you get out of the 760K is fine. So... minor tweaks, starting with your GPU and then some extra RAM and an SSD if you can. You're not in bad enough shape to need to start over, the CPU is only 2 years old and still has a good 2+ years of life left in it before you need to change platforms.
I have a Gaming PC my cpu is i5-2310 should i upgrade my GPU OR CPU?
That depends on your issue. If your game takes excessive time to load, and has trouble keeping up with in game activity then upgrade your CPU (Note: Upgrading a CPU can be complicated, and I wouldn't attempt it unless you know what you're doing, or some who's helping you knows what they're doing. There are several very common mistakes while replacing a cpu that can completely fry your new cpu, corrupt your CMOS/BIOS, and all out fry your motherboard.) If you are having frame rate issues, or want to play a game on higher visual settings then upgrade the graphics card. (Note, you referred to it as a GPU. This is not correct terminology. A GPU stand for Graphics Processing Unit. A graphics card contains a GPU, as well as dedicated GDDR 5 R.A.M. and onboard rendering controlled by drivers.) Hope that helped.
What do I need to upgrade my PC?
For the sheer joy of PC building!Nah, if that were the case you wouldn't have asked this question. So I gather that it is more of a ‘need-based’ thing for you. Okay.See, you never actually ‘need’ to upgrade your PC unless you start encountering softwares with higher system requirements than your rig. Or say, you have a crappy old system (like mine presently) which breaks down every time you expect something from it. Or another case may be, that you buy some high end component while the other parts become a bottleneck.The best way to go is - upgrade whenever you see a potential problem which may hinder your work (gaming :p). Frequent upgrades will make your rig run like a charm. One thing - I'm not asking you to shell out loads of cash on expensive hardware every now and then! What I mean by ‘frequent upgrades’ is -You see you've got an 8 gig ram stick. But you've recently gotten into content creation and ‘need’ another ram stick. Go get one with the same frequency and you're done! That's just 40 USD for an 8 gig DDR4 stick.You have a beefy graphics card which gives you humongous frame rates (well above 100) on your current setup. Why not use that potential? Start saving and get a 144hz monitor. There you go!A friend told you about overclocking and you're very excited. You boost up some clocks and boom! It crashes! Do yourself a favor and get a new PSU.So you see.. You can always carry on with your rig just by brushing and polishing the bits gathering rust (of course not literally!)Hope this helps. Happy building!Edit: Sorry, I misread your question. It was a ‘what’ I read as ‘why’ in a hurry. Anyways, this may be helpful too.
Should I upgrade my GPU/CPU?
Your configuration will work without performance issues in the games you've played so far. It is, however, woefully inadequate for pretty much any current generation 3D games, and your upgrade options are pretty limited with the motherboard you have. You could get a much better performing system for about $450 - with rebates, as low as $350 - such as this example part list on PC Part Picker: Intel Core i3-4160, MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti, Thermaltake Versa H21 .
Can I upgrade my Dell Dimension E521 to be a gaming rig?
Sure, gut it and use just case, replace ALL the internals.
I'm looking to upgrade my gaming rig, which I retired a few years ago. Suggestions?
2nd gen i5 is still great although in two to three years it may be very difficult to replace the board if you need to.Video card is definitely what will help you improve fps and overall quality of gaming. Although 560 ti is still very good imo.Depending on your budget from lowest to highest nvidia gtx 960 < 970 < 980 or ati 280 <285 < 290pc games are also always cheaper specially if you wait for the the steam sale.you can also use an xbox 360 controller if you need a good one.
Building a PC vs upgrading a prebuilt?
I would like to get a gaming PC, but one thing that is bugging me: should i build from scratch or upgrade a prebuilt? If I build from scratch, it is cheaper and ensures my parts are top quality, but it can be risky, troublesome, and I won't have much support if things go wrong. One other idea was to get a prebuilt with a good CPU and just add a PSU, graphics card, etc. Also if anything goes wrong or is bad i can return easily (since I'm planning on buying from costco most likely). But they the parts in a prebuilt could be cheap and it will end up being about $100-200 more. For more detail, I'm specifically looking at ZT system desktops from costco. They have i7s, large hard drives, and some even have SSDs! Their prices are great but I can't tell if their internal parts are good quality because not many people have bought them and their prices are very low for their specs. If I did buy one I would add a 600w PSU and a GTX 660ti which are about $350 from amazon. I compiled a tentative list on amazon/newegg which adds up to about $950. But that's without an SSD, more RAM, or larger hard drive a ZT desktop might come with but it still is considerably cheaper than the ~$1150 i would have to spend for buying and upgrading vs building. So, what do you think is a better way to go? I've never built a PC before, but then again I would like to try and at the same time I don't want to screw up a new PC. PS. I'm going for a relatively cheaper motherboard (but a Z77 MSI) for $110 and a a cheaper case (coolermaster) at $54. Some say it's okay to spend a bit less on these components but do you suggest I spend a little more or is that fine? Both have good reviews and are good brands.