This is a really great community, and you guys were the ones who finally pushed me from console gaming into the awesome world of PC gaming. However, when i finally did build my PC, instead of being rational and coming here to ask my questions about my first build, i went to my friends. I was wondering if you guys could look at my first build and tell me what i would need to get it running, say BF3 at 30-40 fps medium settings. It currently isnt doing so well, running older games at 15- 25 fps. I have no idea what could improve it, so any comments or insight would be awesome. I know that there are a lot of these, but thank you for reading this.
Processor - Anthlon II X3 450 3.2G AM3 RT
Motherboard - Biostar A780L3B 760G AM3 R
OS - Windows 7
SSD - Vertex 2 SATA 2.5" Solid State Drive
HD - Western Digital Caviar Green 2T Hard Drive
RAM - Kingston XMP 8Gb
Graphics - Geforce GT610 GC 2GB DDR3
Disk Drive - ASUS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
Case - APEX TX-381-C Black Steel Micro ATX Tower Computer Case
Power Supply - 850 Watt Intel AMD PC ATX Power Supply
Graphics card could do with bumping up to at least a 650 or a 640 if you don't mind sacrificing some FPS. (I'm assuming you want to stick with Nvidia). Also upgrade your processor to a more modern AM3(+) and you'll be good to go.
Yeah, get maybe a Phenom II x4 or an FX (not sure if AM3 supports them..?), and a new graphics card. Not too sure about that power supply though, sounds a bit dodgy to me. If it doesn't have a reliable brand, or any brand in your case, and has a massive rating (like yours) it's usually bad news.
THe processor isn't great. It's somewhat ancient actually. Maybe find a good price on a phenom ii x6? But the REAL issue is the video card. The Geforce gt610 is not meant for gaming. It is a HTPC (home theater pc) video card, meant for movies and popcap games (even then...). What is your price range to fix it? Are you eligible to return/refund either the processor or video card?
If you are I would recommend looking at a Phenom II x4 645 or a Phenom II x6 1045, both can still be found at around the 70 dollar mark, and will serve well for gaming and will also work with that motherboard. Graphics wise, it depends on how much you want to spend. You can find a GTX 460 1gb online for around $80-90 bucks, which will outperform pretty much anything in the price range. If you want something newer the Radeon 7770 is about the same performance wise as the GTX 460 (but also about 25 dollars more expensive), but much more widely available. Shop around abit, check out newegg's black november sale. But in the end GET A NEW VIDEO CARD!
Lol I laughed when I saw your title. I love these "............. they said, it'll be easy they said" jokes.
On with the build. How old are your friends? This build could have come from the stone age. That's how bad it is.
if it we're me, I'd try returning every single part except the ram, dvd drive and Windows 7 copy. How much did you spend on all this? If it's more than $400, you're friends are messed up. An A8 is better than both the CPU and GPU. You bought an old SSD, a Western Digital Green HDD( always a bad idea), crappy and stuffed case, a no-name PSU, flimsy motherboard, and a low-end GFX card( I bet your friends told you that it's a good one cause it has 2GBs of ram, huh?).
No, get a Phenom X4 965 BE and a 560 Ti. The 965 is actually faster in games than the 1045 as games don't know how to utilize more than 4 cores yet. Then get the 560 Ti instead. The 400 series if NVidia are power hungry little devils while still being slow. The 560 Ti is the best card for below $200 and will play games maxed out at 1080p, though at games like Metro 2033 or Crysis, you may want to turn down some settings.
For future upgrades, leave the storage devices and upgrade everything else. Especially the case. It will hold you back on future upgrades.
I'd upgrade the mobo first, then the PSU. No-name brands aren't necessarily bad( heck, I used to use one and it never failed on me for years), it's just that you can't be sure about them, and you won't have a warranty or something like that. The mobo you'd want to upgrade if you want to have the option of upgrading other components, especially the CPU and GFX card. Preferably, get a 970 chipset AM3+ mobo, so you can upgrade to future AMD CPUs with little hassle and still be cheap.
Honestly, I'd just let this build tide me over for a little longer and save up more money.
So this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604
And this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727
How much should i be looking to spend on each?
Thank you very much, i dont really know how much i spent on all of this, probably around $600. First time building and i guess i still have a lot to learn.
Yes yes, those two. Maybe you could find a better deal at PCPARTPICKER. It may be a little overbudget. but well worth it.
My god man! You spent $600 on this build!? You better give your friends a good scolding( where are they, we will help you) for this. They suggested an Athlon, a 610 and an SSD for a budget gaming rig? Seriously.
You are looking at around $250 to $300 depending on where you look
And no problem. Realistically, you probably spent around $450-$550, depending on how much your friends tricked you.
need more up to date cpu, get a desktop gpu for crying out loud and please for good airflow... get a bigger case, doesnt have to be mammoth, just bigger and make sure you have plenty of good fans for airflow and exhaust as well... hopefully you can return these parts if you have already purchased them. good luck, and your friends... well we all have friends who think they have it all figured out. so i feel your pain sir.
I'd still get a new PSU myself. Sorry to keep banging on about it but it's very important. It's very bad for your components if you have a low quality one.
People keep saying this, but over the last 5 years I have bought probably 2 dozen psu's for various systems, roughly equal amount of generic and brand name ones, 1 has failed and it was a brand name one, so for low end/wattage systems I don't see anything wrong with generic psu's.
get an hd 7770, or an HD 6850 preferably if you can find one, upgrading other components wont see a significant updrade in performance for the smae price, the 610 is pure crap. an HD 6850 will be well balanced with that proccesor, the athlon is only missing L3 cache and an extra core over the Phenom II's, I would'nt worry about upgrading to a Phenom II.
Practically non-existent transient filtering stage, which means that your components are pretty much getting bare AC current, which damages them, usually massively overrated (a 500W generic PSU will probably br able to supply about 200W, if that), usually very low quality heatsinks which means they run far hotter, the list goes on my friend.