Quick fix gaming PC upgrade advice

[DVad3r]

Hey guys,

I want to upgrade my PC, mainly for Starcraft 2 and for when Diablo 3 hits. Currently I'm just playing SC 2, but if I do an upgrade I plan on playing some of the latest and greatest shooters that I missed, like Crysis, Fallout 3, etc.

My current PC is an:

AMD X3 8450 2.1 ghz
3 gigs ram
ATI HD 4870 512 meg (first generation card)

I plan on building a media pc from my current parts, and upgrading to the following:

CPU/Motherboard:

1 x Intel Core i3 530 Dual Core Processor Clarkdale LGA1156 2.93GHZ Hyperthreading 4MB Cache Retail Box
1 x Gigabyte H55M-S2 mATX LGA1156 H55 DDR3 1PCI-E16 2PCI 6SATA Sound Video GBLAN Motherboard

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...5&promoid=1053

Video Card:

MSI GeForce GTX 460 Fermi Cyclone OC 725MHZ 1024MB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini-HDMI DX11 PCI-E Video Card

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...4&promoid=1053

Ram:

G.SKILL F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL Ripjaws 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1333 CL9-9-9-24 240PIN DIMM Memory


http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=44264

Total cost will be $ 607 shipped. I am also in Canada so everything is more expensive here...

What do you guys think? Good upgrade? Or should I wait longer for something better and even more budget? I will be using my current Enermax 625 watt PSU along with my hard drives.

 

[darkewaffle]

You don't need 8GB of RAM, just get yourself a solid 4GB Kit (GSkill ECO or Mushkin Blackline come to mind). I would put the money toward an i5-750 instead, which will cost you a bit more but will give you much more longevity with a quadcore, in addition to being a faster chip clock for clock.

What resolution do you play at? And what is your power supply? Important to make sure you can handle an upgrade.

 

[DVad3r]

8 gigs of ram is overkill? How come? What about for future games etc...

I play at 1680x1050 and currently I'm playing at the lowest settings in Starcraft 2. It runs nice single player etc, but in multiplayer it bogs down, especially 3v3's.

My powersupply is a Enermax Modu 82+ 625 watt. That should be sufficient no?

 

[DVad3r]

Btw it's not showing on the link but the bundle price for the CPU and Motherboard is 169.99. Regular is 211

 

[darkewaffle]

Yea, with an Enermax you'll be in good shape.

And 8GB is overkill because too many games simply don't utilize it. For reasons of cost and distribution I think it's going to be quite some time before we see anything more than 4GB, hell most games are fine on 2GB even, for a game; as soon as a producer says "4GB ram minimum" they're really cutting into their potential consumer base because so many mainstream players are using prebuilts.

Not to mention, by that time, I think it's entirely possible we'd have moved on to DDR4 anyway.

 

[Davidh373]

Trade 4GB of that 8GB for the i5 760 .

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-190-_-Product

Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-067-_-Product

The RAM subtracts $80 and the Processor adds $96, BUT you could also not get the OCed 460 which isn't really worth it anyways to get a regular one on sale around $220-$230.

 

[DVad3r]

^ But that stuff is in the US man. This is the site I will be buying from, all in Canadian funds:

www.ncix.com

Anyone have a better build for $ 600-700 Canadian? The build should include mobo/cpu/vid card/ram

thx

 

[mfenn]

Do what Darke says and drop the RAM down to 4GB and get this bundle. It should come out to right at $700 AR.

If, during the life of this machine, you want to go to 8GB, you can simply drop 4 more gigs in without losing anything. If you want to upgrade to a quad later on (and you will), then you will have to "toss" the i3.

 

[MisterDonut]

955BE $162 - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...k=955%20BE

ASUS EVO AM3 790X $113- http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-402-_-Product

G.Skill ECO $100 - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-319-_-Product

And that GTX460 you picked or whatever you find on the egg (Gigabyte, ASUS, w/e)
$~250

This puts you around $625. Could go for a i5-750 if it'll fit...