Should I upgrade or buy a new pc?

CornsnakeKeeper

Hello!
My current machine is approx 4yrs old and it's pretty slow and choppy when playing a movie for more than an hour.
The processor is some sort of old AMD Athlon x64 type thing, 2.1GHz, 2GB(recently upgraded) ram and it's an Acer Aspire T180 running Win7. That's all I know!

I want my PC for video capture/editing my 360 Gameplay using a PVR. I have the device sitting here as my current computer just can't hack it..

1. What is your budget? 500

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Video Editing for a hobby YT channel, movies, music, internet, Minecraft and some old GTA games.(for modding)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? I highly doubt it.

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? Full HDTV, wish to connect it to my pc via HDMI

6. Do you need any peripherals? I'll need a wirless Keyboard and mouse

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? yes, as long as it doesn't kill the life of my comp, does it? All I think I know is that I need a better PSU for overclocking.

8. How can you pay? Paypal, bank, whatever.

9. When are you purchasing? In the next 2 months

I put a build together on pcspecialist.co.uk and it comes to 387, it seems decent enough. It's an AMD build. If anyone wants a look I'll post the specs, for now I'll follow the rules with this layout.

smellsfunny

Item|Price
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€33.36
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL9|€43.98
WD AV-GP 1TB SATA 6Gb's|€70.75
Samsung SH-118AB schwarz|€14.65
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€44.15
ASRock 970 Pro3, AM3+, ATX|€58.79
AMD FX-8120 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€137.60
HIS HD 7770 GDDR5 1024MB DVI HDMI 2xMiniDP|€104.99
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€527.26

One of the new 8core processors, perfect for things like video editing and photo shop. That graphics card will play games very well on 1080P at max setting. You should get 30-40 FPS in all new games or more and can drop graphics slightly to get 40-50 FPS. could switch to a cheaper graphics card if your not into gaming.

smellsfunny

Could switch to a 6670 for gaming if your happy to play games at 720P

marco_polo

It may prove a little difficult to fit the FX into a B75 1155 socket board though?

I guessing you meant to pick this one

smellsfunny

marco_polo wrote: »

It may prove a little difficult to fit the FX into a B75 1155 socket board though?

I guessing you meant to pick this one

yea meant that one apologies, changed my builds around there a little bit as well to get best bang for buck.

CornsnakeKeeper

Hi there! Thank you for the reply! that's a serious looking build there and it doesn't go far outside my budget either, I'll be ordering this in 2 weeks, I really appreciate your time helping me out
Joseph.

CornsnakeKeeper

Alright so I went through that and all I changed was the GPU to the 6670, I definitely wouldn't need something that powerful!(yet...)
As for overclocking, is it safe/ok to do that?

smellsfunny

CornsnakeKeeper wrote: »

Alright so I went through that and all I changed was the GPU to the 6670, I definitely wouldn't need something that powerful!(yet...)
As for overclocking, is it safe/ok to do that?

On second taughts the 6670 isn't a great card for the price even at 720P, a 7750 would be okay to start out PC gaming and could upgrade it later and would play anything at 720P and also higer settings. 7770 is "grand" at 1080P but To get a proper card your looking at between 140 and 230.

Its fine to overclock the processor but if you don't know what your doing you could easily fry it! Plenty of tutorials on the net. Can easily overclock that processor to 4GHZ.

CornsnakeKeeper

Hmmm, that makes sense and I know I **should** get the best GPU I can at the start so down the line im saving money but meh if I did ever try to play something demanding it would be battlefield 3 and I dont mind playing on low settings at 720, as long as it's snappy and pleasant for video editing rather than god awfully slow to the point where i wanna cry then im happy lol

I'll be able to easily upgrade this down the line when I have better money to throw at it but til then what you've planned out for me has me pretty excited haha

If I do overclock the CPU, will I need a better PSU? Or will the 450 cover me?

marco_polo

Not a criticism of the original build which I think was a very good one but, just because Video editing is by far and away the top priority, I can't help wondering if you are not falling in between two stools here in trying to fit in a half decent GPU and a good but by quite top end CPU (Although bulldozer is definately quite strong at video editing).

Perhaps you might be as well off to get the best CPU you can right now, ie. an overclockable i5-3570k build, and living with the onboard graphics for now. Essentially you would have to as good as forget about any sort gaming on it for the time being (Although having said that Minecraft would be fine, and it should be ok in the GTA series up to 3, maybe even 4 by dropping down to 720p and lowering settings). Then you can save up for a really good 180-200 euro graphics card later if you decide to really give PC gaming a proper go, without having to think about a CPU upgrade for probably at least 4 years.

In that case I might consider something like this, I'd reccommend a decent 25-30 CPU euro cooler as well which will bump up the price a little over 500.

Item|Price
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€33.36
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€44.15
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€83.99
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€204.96
8GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800U CL9|€40.40
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€61.27
Samsung SH-118AB schwarz|€14.65
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€501.77

If gaming was the main priority I'd be going in the other direction for sure, beefing up the GPU substantially and putting in an i3 or AMD 965 for now.

Edit: To answer your other question 450W is plenty for a good GPU while leaving plenty of overclocking headroom.

CornsnakeKeeper

Interesting, you pose a good point!

I did happen to just be looking through all the GPU's and saw the gtx 660ti OC edition which I've been seeing so much of in all the reading I've done...204euro...if I went with your suggestion and spent a while saving up for that (if I thought I wanted to do more gaming on it) im so torn you see, I love the Xbox as my mates have it and bf3 looks sexy enough on Xbox not to mention im planning a channel with said mates but GTA v is out soon and that game will be miles and miles ahead on the pc...if I went with your idea and saved up til around march i could essentially get the best gpu money can buy closer the time and still have an epic machine that lets me do all the stuff i want to do with it right now...i doubt the 6670 on the AMD build would be up to the task of GTA V on its highest settings.(im just going by rumours now, i dunno if there's a spec requirement thingy put out by rockstar yet)
What do ye think?

beno619

I would definitely hold out for a better GPU but GTA on pc might take a while I don't think it's officialy been announced yet ? It'l be months after the console release anyway..

CornsnakeKeeper

beno619 wrote: »

I would definitely hold out for a better GPU but GTA on pc might take a while I don't think it's officialy been announced yet ? It'l be months after the console release anyway..

That's exactly what I mean, there's rumours of it. I doubt Rockstar's gonna abandon all their PC fans. I'm about to become one after all!

So, Intel build, save some money for a GPU down the line when I can properly make use of one. K so!
Thanks lads

CornsnakeKeeper

Also, this will be my first build, although I have pulled my older yoke to bits, cleaned it and placed it together again not to mention I've seen a ton of videos on it but there's a few things I'm not 100% clear on..

I was watching a series of pc builds. They all recommended or mentioned after-market fans for the cpu and thermal paste. with either of these builds are any of those things required? I do have an anti-static strap for when I was cleaning but I've cleaned it out before without it and it still goes fine (I always touch the case to be safe)

Cooling, will that build be prone to heating or is it just the more expensive ones with insane cards and cpu's that need extra cooling?

The os I want is win7, of course! Is it worth 60odd euro to get a little 64GB SSD and run the os/browser off that or should I just go with a normal Mechanical Drive?

One last newby question. My current PC is an absolute b1tch for noise. sounds like a lawnmower lol is that the HDD, CPU fan or something else? I hate loud noises!

CornsnakeKeeper

I spoke to some people I know who have there own builds/currently building there own pc and I'm not sure if it's surprising or not but they all recommended Intel, even the lad who has a very badass AMD build, so I guess I'll go the Intel way.

Just wondering if anyone else had any input on what marco_polo suggested?
I really don't want to go any higher with my budget as for the moment I really am stretching my bank quite a bit...but it seems very worth it.

What kind of GPU should I go with in a few months? (note I won't be buying anything til June)
I was thinking of a GTX 660ti, it's around 290 now on HWS, it looks very beastly and it seems to be able to handle anything...is it a good card? What are the chances of that price dropping in the next 4-5 months?