Helping a coworker do a budget upgrade

Hardware Build a PC
1

I was talking with a coworker and he said he is wanting to upgrade some of his pc cause he would like to be able to play Day Z,and mabye far cry 3 when it comes out and his current video card of a 9600gt 512mb is getting a little old.

His system is an HP with i think a AMD athlon II X2 240 2.8ghz(but i may be wrong)and either 4 or 5gb of ddr3 ram

What he wants to do is just upgrade his case,PSU,and GPU(he may upgrade more later),and his budget is $300 shipped.

I talked with him and he really likes the Fractal Design Arc Midi,and it is $89.99,and i was thinking of him spending around $50 on a psu,and around $150 on a gpu.

I was looking at some options for the PSU's and GPU's,here are some i am looking at and give me any suggestions you guys have.

PSU'S:

RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply, New Version with Build-in LED Fan On/Off Switch

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152035

RAIDMAX RX-500AF Continuous 500 watts ATX 12V v2.3/EPS 12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified   Power Supply           

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152040

CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3   80 PLUS Certified  Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

GPU'S:

XFX Double D Black Edition FX-777A-ZDB4 Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card   

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150599

EVGA 02G-P3-1559-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130652

EVGA SuperClocked 02G-P4-2653-KR GeForce GTX 650 2GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card           

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130831

XFX HD-685A-ZCFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150618

2

what is his upgrade budget?  I got a job interview tomorrow so I'll check up afterwards

3

well  it is $300,but he only wants to upgrade hs case,PSU and GPU,i tried to talk him into spend a little more and doing a full upgrade but he can't afford it.

4

Ok i have been doing some looking and i decided on getting this video card.

MSI R7770-2PMD1GD5/OC Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card           

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127664

so i could spend a little extra on a PSU,and i have found a few between $50-$60,and i would like to know which is best.

Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030

Thermaltake TR2 W0388RU 600W ATX 12V v2.2 Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153114

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-550-PCAR-E3 550W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready   Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171038

CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified  Active PFC Power Supply           

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

5

GPU

Case/PSU

his mobo probably doesn't support CPUs above 95w so your best bet is to upgrade to sandy/ivy dual cores

his CPU will most deffinetly bottleneck his GPU but it will still play better than what he was

6

I was just wondering, wouldnt it be better to get a 660 non ti?

 

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=660

7

yeah I thanks, got to keep on my toes