Non-tech savvy gamer looking for upgrade advice

racersedge

Hi all,

First time to use this forum so let me start by saying hello. Been keeping some tabs on this recently and hopefully I can get as much use out of it as other boards.ie members have been as late.

So, welcoming stuff over with, I'll get straight to the nitty gritty of things. I'm looking to upgrade my computer, used primarily for gaming and streaming media across the home network with the odd bit of rudimentary photo-shopping. It's been at it's current state for the better part of 18 months now and feeling like I want to take a step upwards, particularly as it strains to run the newer games at the higher end of the performance bracket.

Despite many, many years of PC gaming, I've rather embarrassingly never really been great with the technical side of things regarding computers, hence the reason of asking advice on where best to try to improve my current build. So any advice that could be given would be most appreciative.

deconduo wrote: »

If you want to ask about a new PC build, please make a new thread and include as much of the following information as possible:

1. What is your budget?
I'd be looking at probably a ceiling of around €400. That would be my upper limit unless there was something with a bit of a 'wow' factor to warrant going over it.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?
Primary use is gaming, in particular racing sims. While showing their age, the likes of rFactor at full tilt can be heavy on the machine. At it's current state, it ran the most recent Tomb Raider pretty good, limited slow-down unless I tried to use the TressFX. The likes of Bioshock Infinite and such for me are toned down on the settings to ensure they don't run at a snail's pace.

Along with gaming, the computer is primarily used as a media hub at this present time for other devices in the house. This though is likely to be secondary as I am hoping to sort out a dedicated server for media streaming in the non-to-distant future - hopefully.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?
No - Have Windows 7, 64-bit currently running and would be looking to use it as the base again.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?
For the internal pieces I guess this all depends on the actual quality of what I have right now. No point changing a part of it if is fine, right? Waste not, right?! :P Would a good dedicated sound card go astray though? Up to now, have generally tended to rely on the on-board one.

5. Do you need a monitor?
I have a monitor, a 20.5inch one ViewSonic VA2448

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?
Current resolution: 1920x1080

I wouldn't be against an upgrade for a worthwhile price, particularly if it meant going up to something in or around 24". Only caveat is that that it needs to be VESA compliant (probably a stupid question as I'm sure all are) and that the connections are vertical (I have a racing rig chair and the screen is attached to a stand. Horizontal connections are awkward on my current screen at the moment.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?
Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers I am all fine for. My current tower is serviceable, although I wouldn't mind one with a card reader in it, or preferably, has USB connections closer to the top of the tower than the bottom as they currently are.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?
Never tried it before, wouldn't be familiar how to do it. Probably willing to try it if I can avoid blowing something up!

8. How can you pay?
The likelihood of buying this stuff over the net, will be by card or paypal.

9. When are you purchasing?
Before the end of February. I am an online sim-racer and ideally would like the new stuff installed and all working smoothly prior to the start of the racing season.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based?
I should be okay. My dad is experienced at putting stuff in and should be okay. Would like to think I could come back here to you helpful fella's if I ran into trouble.

If you have a sample build yourself, use Fluffy's script to format it nicely.

To finish off, I will provide stats on my current computer build, just to give an idea of what I am running at the moment. This information was provided using a specs programme, so I could probably delve back in to try to find something should it be missing. (Note: Wanted to use the script as linked above, however when I looked up some of the stuff in my current build on the sites usually used in other threads, couldn't find the stuff!)

Current Specs wrote:

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 810
RAM: 4.00GB Dual-ChannellDDR3 @ 669MHz
There are four memory slots, two used so far.
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket M2)
Graphics: VA2448 SERIES (1920x1080@60Hz) (The Montior)
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
Storage:
1863GB Western Digital WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 ATA Device (SATA) (Current Media Storage Drive)
931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EADS-65L5B1 ATA Device (SATA) (Current Primary Drive with installed OS)
465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2 ATA Device (SATA) (Currently Un-used, only recently installed upon finding the hard drive)
Optical Drives: LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-832S ATA Device
Audio: ATI High Definition Audio Device

Bit of an essay that but like to be thorough on such things. Again, as I said at the top, be appreciative for any thoughts regarding this.

Many thanks,

racersedge

SterlingArcher

Power supply?

SterlingArcher

You could spend 400 Euro trying to enhance your system... But just delaying the inevitable. And any new component added held back

Or 530 with your old hdd's will get you a whole new system. That is without discount site used.
You could sell your old one to recoup costs.

racersedge

SterlingArcher wrote: »

Power supply?

Sorry about that.. knew there was something I was forgetting. Had a look inside at the power supply and the label says its:

Atrix ATX12V P4 & Active PFC
AC Input: 240VAC 10A 50 ~ 60 Hz
Model: 720T

Hope that helps, just stuck all the info down, figure one part will stick out as important. Thanks.

racersedge

SterlingArcher wrote: »

You could spend 400 Euro trying to enhance your system... But just delaying the inevitable. And any new component added held back

Or 530 with your old hdd's will get you a whole new system. That is without discount site used.
You could sell your old one to recoup costs.

Would something for that sort of money be able to put together a build that would be a significant upgrade on what I currently have? If it was, it would be the sort of thing I would be willing to stretch the budget for if need be - particularly if it did avoid a 'baby steps' upgrade for which, as you say, would just delay a complete overhaul down the line.

* Realise I'm double-posting, apologises about that. Just caught the second comment by you after I had responded to the first...

yawhat!

You have a link for that power supply. Can't seem to find it. Anyway here is a build with a powersupply just to show what you could get. I would try and sell your current rig. I would spend 600 and get the GTX 760 but 7870 is still a good card.

Its 160 over budget though. CPU cooler to overclock could be added at a later date.
Item|Price
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€98.63
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€74.67
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€33.02
ASUS M5A78L/USB3, Sockel AM3+, ATX|€66.21
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€51.31
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W - bulk -|€55.61
HIS 7870 IceQ X 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI/2xMini DP|€159.80
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€558.24

racersedge

yawhat! wrote: »

You have a link for that power supply. Can't seem to find it.

Haven't found one yet, at best I could get up a screenshot of the stats listed on the side of it is that any good?

Thanks for your suggested build, btw. Going to have a look over it and see what I can make work on it. Much appreciated!