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Germaximus

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Germaximus
My current pc might not be upgradeable enough for what i want. I was reading up on some stuff trying to look for a new video card and apparently people were saying that due to the power of the pc it couldnt only handle some specific limit a video card could pull.
Im not sure how to word it exactly but its basically saying "your pc cant handle a video card thats better than so and so."

So ill be shopping very casually for a new pc.

Heres one i found right away and i was wondering what your opinions were spec wise and price wise.

* CPU: AMD Athlon™II X2 255 Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
* HDD: 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Hard Drive)
* MEMORY: 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module (Corsair Dominator)
* MOTHERBOARD: Asus M4N68T-M V2 AM3 DDR3 NVIDIA Geforce 7025/nForce 630a Chipset mATX w/ Onboard Graphics and Core Unlocker, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB 2.0, SATA-II RAID, 1 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI
* SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
* VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB DDR2 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by ATI)

for $600.

My current PC specs are:
AMD Phenom 8400
4g DDR memory
320g HD space
Nvidie GeForce 8200


Also if i were to build a pc from scratch im looking for some real help here.
I have a friend in real life who can help me a bit but id like to have a plan you know?
Can anybody please explain to me exactly what i would need to buy to build a pc (friend would help build it) parts wise.
If at all possible help me figure out the right prices to look for each individual piece. I know video cards are usually the most expensive part of a computer but thats about all i know.

I know its asking you to do research that you dont have to, and research that i could be doing but even when i read the specs and i do look at reviews from customers i just dont have a damn clue about more than half the stuff theyre talking about.
I will really appreciate some help with this.
I can probably push 600 dollars excluding tax ya know, but less money would be much better of course.
Thank you!
 
Your machine is a little old but is still decent and would still have some life in it imo. It is a triple core 2.1GHz. 4GB DDR2 is fine.
My guess would be that the graphics is holding you back. I tried looking up Geforce 8200 and it looks like it refers to an integrated mainboard chipset with graphics on board. If this is true then it is almost certain you could upgrade your graphics easily enough.

Questions:
1. Do you have a removable graphics card in your machine?
2. If not then do you have a PCI express slot on the mainboard that you can plug a graphics card into?

If you answer yes to either of these then you can buy a new graphics card and install it. Your friend is correct that a new graphics card may require more power to run and I would certainly suggest you may want to upgrade your power supply. If your system stability is okay this may not be necessary.

I would strongly suggest you try doing this first because even if your performance doesn't improve much and you decide to upgrade the rest of the machine, you can still use your new graphics card and power supply.

Yep graphics cards can be the most expensive single component but you can buy a low or mid range card that would easily suit your purposes and be a huge improvement upon what you have.
nVidia GeForce GTS 450 A$130
Radeon HD 5770 about the same price.
 
I was gonna post then i had to reboot so i forget what i was saying.

I cant tell if my vid card is removeable, i have 2 spots in my pc that are both closed off by cases, one i can see a sticker on the side saying "data storage" and the other im not sure.

I was trying to get an old "pencam" i had but it doesnt want to work so i cant take a picture.
 
Vye said:
Your machine is a little old but is still decent and would still have some life in it imo. It is a triple core 2.1GHz. 4GB DDR2 is fine.
My guess would be that the graphics is holding you back. I tried looking up Geforce 8200 and it looks like it refers to an integrated mainboard chipset with graphics on board. If this is true then it is almost certain you could upgrade your graphics easily enough.

Questions:
1. Do you have a removable graphics card in your machine?
2. If not then do you have a PCI express slot on the mainboard that you can plug a graphics card into?

If you answer yes to either of these then you can buy a new graphics card and install it. Your friend is correct that a new graphics card may require more power to run and I would certainly suggest you may want to upgrade your power supply. If your system stability is okay this may not be necessary.

I would strongly suggest you try doing this first because even if your performance doesn't improve much and you decide to upgrade the rest of the machine, you can still use your new graphics card and power supply.

Yep graphics cards can be the most expensive single component but you can buy a low or mid range card that would easily suit your purposes and be a huge improvement upon what you have.
nVidia GeForce GTS 450 A$130
Radeon HD 5770 about the same price.
Click to expand...

This ^

the HD 5450 is a dated card. While it may seem tempting right now, in the long run (or rather very short one), depending on the type of load you put it under, it may not cope.

The HD 5770 Vye suggested is pretty decent, far from the best, but if you're after performance over beauty, it should suffice.

However, the HD 5000 series are pretty much a "clear out stock" now, to make way for the newer 68xx/69xx series. If you're willing to fork out abit more money however, you could have alot more options with a decent cards such as:

- HD 5870 (Still a very great card high-end, and you could find some good deals at retailers who are marking them down to clean out inventory) the only problem here is, paying for an outdated card.
- HD 6870 is the new ATI mid-range card, and it should run most, if not all games (at a reasonably high setting) with out much problems.
- Of course if money isn't an issue, you could wait for the new ATI HD 6900 series.

But on to your question. In my opinion, and one I always give to friends looking to build a new computer, is that "You get what you pay for". DON'T go cheap on your CPU and Motherboard. Everything else down the road can be replaced/upgraded for alot less, then what it would cost to replace/upgrade a CPU and Motherboard.

If you're on a strict budget (which I'm assuming you are), spend most of it on a decent/great CPU and Motherboard, and settle for a cheaper low to mid-range GPU. Then when you have the budget, then upgrade to a High-End one.

Here's a great site (specially if you're from the US, which I think you mentioned once that you were), http://www.tomshardware.com/system-configuration-recommendation-51.html.

They update regularly, have alot of benchmark tests on.. pretty much every components, and very active forum community of people who regularly build custom computers.

The link I gave you, is the one that offers some custom setup, depending on your needs. If you're still unsure about your final build, you can post the spec on their forum and get some feedback.
 
Hawnted said:
I was gonna post then i had to reboot so i forget what i was saying.

I cant tell if my vid card is removeable, i have 2 spots in my pc that are both closed off by cases, one i can see a sticker on the side saying "data storage" and the other im not sure.

I was trying to get an old "pencam" i had but it doesnt want to work so i cant take a picture.
Click to expand...

Well, too answer both of Vye's question.

*MOTHERBOARD: Asus M4N68T-M V2 AM3 DDR3 NVIDIA Geforce 7025/nForce 630a Chipset mATX w/ Onboard Graphics and Core Unlocker, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB 2.0, SATA-II RAID, 1 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI
* VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB DDR2 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by ATI)
Click to expand...

I assume you have a removable GPU and by the detail in your first post of your motherboard, you have 2 PCI slots and 1 PCI-e slot.
 
The quote you just put for the specs bee was one i found to buy. Thats not my pc spec, mines under that.

If i can get away with just buying a vid card thatd be great and i could put a good amount of money into it if i dont have to buy a whole new pc.

Ive been to websites that are supposed to help but i dont know what the crap im looking at.
It mentions the parts and stuff but i dont know all the model this and that stuff so its very confusing to me.

What im hoping and looking for is just a boost so that i can actually play newer games at max graphics, thats mostly the vid card right?

I have to run Black Ops at 800x600 and its freakin horrible, games fun and stuff but i mean thats just bad. Bought a few new games in the past couple days off Steam cuz theyre having uber sales like Darksiders and Devil May Cry 4 and Overlord and i can play them all but i have to lower the graphics.


The reason i asked about building a PC is in case my current one is not upgradeable. That and if i can build an even better one for about the same price i spent on this one thatd be great.
However i have looked over some sales here and there and most of them are on PC's that actually have worse specs than mine so im happy about that. From what people have told me its mostly the vid card but if i go there i need to know whats compatible and blah blah and then probly have to buy a compatible power source and blah blah.

I hate computers!
 
Hawnted said:
...What im hoping and looking for is just a boost so that i can actually play newer games at max graphics, thats mostly the vid card right? ...
Click to expand...

Yes and No, it really depends on the game. For example WoW is more CPU demanding then it is GPU, but with that said, upgrading your GPU should allow you run games abit better, playing newer games at max settings.. however, could be a long shot with your current spec.

Btw, what's the your current Power Supply Unit? Most of the AMD HD 50xx series, will run fine on a 550W supply. Actually one of my real life friend is using a HD 5770 on a 500W PSU lol.
 
Hawn theres a post in mmo-champion about pc specs if ever you want to upgrade.

Case: NZXT GAMMA Classic - $39
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W - $55
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 AM3 - $99
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $26
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-770T-USB3 AM3 - $94
Memory: 4GB PNY Optima DDR3 10600 - $52
Graphics Card: XFX 5770 - $145
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB - $46
DVD: Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $26
Total $582

source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content...nice-not-naughty!-Giveaway-Setup-of-the-Month
 
Ok this is what i dont get. All those stats are great, but i dont know why i should get those instead of something else.
Why would i pick that list you just posted instead of another one? I wouldnt know how to spot a better deal. Why is that list of specs something i should look for?
Thats why i get so confused, none of those specs mean anything to me. All it is is someone trying to offer a cheaper pc, doesnt mean its a good one.
 
thats where the benchmarks come in, if u are confused of what is better of the... say same priced video cards, do a "6870 vs 470" google search and read feedbacks and benchmarks and such. www.tomshardware.com and www.bit-tech.net is a great site for articles about pc shiz.

basically you gotta set a budget, if u want 200$ bucks for a cpu, check all cpus with the same price range, then start researching about the benchmarks for theses kinds of cpu.

check here for gpu
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-recommendation-upgrade,2803.html

here for cpu
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-athlon-ii-x4,2791.html

in choosing a motherboard, basically you just want the cpu you choose to "fit" in the motherboard because cpus have different sockets :p

if you find something of interest you can search for a review there in tomshardware or bit-tech.

oh and another thing, don't buy a GPU thats wayyy out of the league of your CPU, it will bottleneck the card, like whats happening to mine :p
 
Thanks for all the help guys, ill let you know what i come up with if i build one.


Off topic question:
If i were to play a game on the lowest possible screen resolution would it enable me to play on higher graphics options? or does one really not effect the other.
I havent tried it yet and im headin to work soon but the thought popped up in my head.
 
yes but it would look sucky because the reso is low trololol
 
If you want real performance get a solid state drive for your os + wow then use a regular drive for documents ect, that'll give a bigger boost than any other upgrade
 
lol If i understand you right have WoW on its own drive or somethin?
Thats fine and all but WoW isnt the issue :p and i now have way too many games to be able to use 1 drive and i actually kinda should get more hd space. haha :p
Steam holiday sale has been pretty awesome. :)

Thanks for the confirmation soulrave, if i have to run at the lowest resolution at least id like to get the best i can out of it. :p
 
It's kinda like a small capacity drive, (Maybe 200GB), that runs really really fast, so having stuff that you commonly need to read from on that would boost performance greatly. It s also pretty expensive.
 
Draeleon said:
It's kinda like a small capacity drive, (Maybe 200GB), that runs really really fast, so having stuff that you commonly need to read from on that would boost performance greatly. It s also pretty expensive.
Click to expand...

SSD are great! but yeh, very expensive as well. atleast here in Australia, a 120GB SSD will set you back around $200 (even more from known brands), but if you want speed for frequently used applications, SSD is the way to go!
 
Yeah the expense might keep me from getting one for now, think id rather start with a vid card ya know.
 
SSD is completely inappropriate for Hawn because he is on a budget. While it may improve game startup times, it will do very little to improve game performance except maybe reduce loading times. It will do nothing for your frame rates.

I still think you should keep it simple and buy yourself a mid range graphics card like I suggested above and nothing else and go from there (you still haven't said whether machine can take a card or posted a pic).
 
Yeah vye cuz i still dont know. I wanted to take a picture and post it but my camera doesnt work and i dont have any other cameras. :p
If you look up acer aspire x3200 can the specs online tell you what you need to know?

I definitely have the intentions of getting a new video card for sure if i can upgrade it ya know. Ive known the rest of my pc specs are pretty decent, i just know i need to upgrade. :p

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101022061926AAXFmoG

This is one of the things ive found, everybody has told me its upgradeable its just inside a case so im assuming i have to open it all up. :p
Thats where my friend comes in, he'll help me with putting the right pieces in the right places and stuff.
 
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