hey team. my current box mainly used for cs go and the odd game from 2004 etc is looking a bit old. was trying to get into planetside2 as i was a big fan of ps1.

its currently "old" -xp, +5600 amd and 8g ddr with a nv 8600gt.

budget is atm pretty low due to inability to save seriously despite good income. lol isnt that called life?

anyway would i be better off buying a mid ranged box from scorptech/pccasegear at oh $1300 or less... or can i buy a i7 3770 a mobo a card /memory and work from there with my current case/psu etc.. for less?

not even sure these days what amd chips are like but ive heard the i7 isnt too bad. im not looking for a beast, but id like to be able to run a tank through the crown at more than 1 frame per lifetime. =D

peace guys, and thanks for any advice and/or giggleposts.

1300 will get u a good pc as long as its just the box

from what ive read this gen of amd cpu's are slow at single threaded applications, cause of how the're designed. they work well if the application is multi threaded (eg 4 or more threads), but that rarely happens, so they are mostly slow with games. they're alot cheaper, however.

Socket 1155:

Intel Core i3-2120 1155pin:
$119.00.

Gigabyte Z77 Ud5h:



$165.00

Kingston ram:


$50/4 sticks.

Msata:

$165.

These are in store prices,i have left out the power supply case dvd players hard drive etc because most of that stuff can be canabalised from your old set up.

Although if your budget allows i would include a SSD if you are going to do a clean install.

Samsung 840 pro:


$155.oo.

Total $500.
With the SSD =$655.

appreciation and accolades guys! thanks for the advice and the trouble you went to. looks like i have a choice of building or lazily buying a pre built box.. pleased to know the store bought systems arent complete rubbish at those ^ $1000 prices. zaraq clued in to what im thinking of however, cudos bro.

a ssd looks nice. i could still mount the sata for storage. i might stretch out to a i5 or i7 though, just to delay the next upgrade =P its a painful time.

The price of ssd is falling i remember back to the ME days when a 80 gig hd was @2 a gig.

The high price is what put me off a ssd but the price that i put up is for a 250 gig ssd and that is just about the right size for putting all your games on.

I would have suggested an i7 but since your such a tight **** i had to make do with the bare bones.

Why the MSATA Zaraq? Also you didn't include a GPU. Really, to get a proper upgrade you are going to want to spend at least $200 on an graphics card. I would go:

GPU-AMD Radeon 7870 GPU- $239 or Nvidia Geforce 660- $239
CPU-Intel i5 3570k - 229.
MOBO-ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Motherboard- $135
Memory- 8g DDR3 RAM ~$49
HDD- Seagate 1TB- $75, you can spend more here if you want more storage, up to you, or you can keap your old one.
SSD- Samsung 840 Series 120GB SSD Retail Box $105. Install your OS here and your most used apps. You probably wont be able to fit your whole steam library, but you could put on Planet Side 2. Just don't use the steam version.

Total -$832. If you want to spend more, go for a higher end Graphics card such as the Geforce 670 ($400-$500) or the Radeon 7970(Same prices). Prices sourced from http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php which is in Melbourne, other good stores would be Umart and MSY. Depending on where you live. Umart has a lot of stores in QLD, I think MSY is mostly Victoria.

You should be able to re use your Optical Drive presuming it uses SATA and not IDE. You can also reuse the case or pick up a new one, my advice there is just look for one that you like the look of.
I am presuming that your Power supply should be able to keep up with the new CPU and GPU as efficiency has gone up dramatically and your old gear probably draws almost as much power anyway.

I could have included every thing but the kitchen sink tower gpu etc it seemed superfluous since Andrei said he was on a budget recycling seemed to be the order of the day.

As for the Msata the mother board supports it and it also has thunderbolt (don't ask, it's an apple thing i think)and usb 3 for what its worth.

Intel Core i5 3570K CPU - 3.4Ghz
Z77 Motherboard
8G DDR3-1600MHz RAM
1TB SATA3 7200RPM Hard Disk
22x DVD Burner
ATI HD7950 3GB Graphics Card
Antec Three Hundred With 600W PSU

$1080

--------

AMD FX-8350 CPU - 4GHz
990FX Motherboard
16G DDR3-1600MHz RAM
2TB SATA3 7200RPM Hard Disk
22x DVD Burner
ATI HD7970 3G Graphics Card
Antec Three Hundred with 600W PSU

$1240


Up to you if you want to add an SSD. You don't need one for gaming. You need a powerful CPU, Videocard, and decent RAM + mobo for gaming. I use an SSD, but I certainly don't need one, once the game loads it's fast as **** no matter what drive you use.

more awesome replies =)

being xmas i havent actually gone shopping for this system upgrade yet so this new information is valuable to me, thank you !

yes being tightwad barebone is all i needed. but im no stranger to rebuilding a desktop so i was curious to the cost benefit outweighing the pre-built systems available these days. even if its just $200 cheaper to go diy, thats a days work i can spend on a few shandies or one less meal of bean on toast. =P

SSD intrigues me, only recently have i heard of them. sound appropriately fast and less likely to get corrupt sectors yes? 250 gb drive would be ample for OS and a few core programs so i think why not if mobo is capable.

gpu i was thinking to buy a $200 nvidia gtx650. this ATI HD7970 has a lot more future proofing as well as cost. but do latest games really use more gpu or cpu? for its price i could make zaraq,s i3 upgrade and still have money for the caulfield races.

i mostly intend to play planetside, CSgo, and looking fwd to the next "payday:heist" game (recc specs unknown). my steam folder is mostly games i already run well, and most new or upcoming games like farcry3 dont excite me as much as finding my car radio set to abc after loan to father for a trip to the tip.

Why upgrade then? Get a new computer when your computer stops running games well.

If you want a new system get something like this:

Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H MB, Socket 1155, Intel B75 Chipset, 4x DDR3, $68.00
Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Series - SATA III 6Gbs $94.00
Antec Sonata Proto AP Mid Tower Case $69.00
Intel Core i5 3470 LGA1155 CPU 3.2Ghz 6Mb Cache Ivy Bridge $193.00
Kingston 8GB KVR16N11/8 2Rx8 1G x 64-Bit PC3-12800 CL11 $43.00
eVGA PCIe GTX660Ti 2GB $335.00
Corsair VS550 550W ATX Power Supply $69.50
Total $871.50

Priced from Umart
If you end up going with a GTX 650 Ti you can go with one of the cheaper case+PSU.
If you don't use a DVD drive except to install Windows don't buy one, just install through USB.

u dont buy a store pre-built system. As in the ones they have made up in store with parts they have chosen

U select the parts and either take them home or get the store to put it together for $50

Why not?


?????

well unless the store just happens to have chosen the exact parts and brands u wanted for your rig why would u buy the rig the store put together?

$50 is usually what the store charges to build the rig / install OS etc for you once you tell them all the parts u want and the brands u want.

Or u could self build it if u have the time and inclination which i dont

True, a lot of the bigger online sites tend to get the setups pretty balanced. Just need to choose how much speed you want.

Certainly not like the computers you'd find in places like **** Smith or Harvey Norman, with these massive CPU's and tons of RAM mixed with onboard video.

It is real money people spend.

Neither, slapping a few components together does nothing for me. It's about as rewarding as installing a cold air intake in an excel. Tho I'm sure building a big custom loop would be a bit more rewarding.

Go to the beach.

You are probably badly lacking in Vitamin D. In fact i suspect your level of vitamin D is shockingly low.

A bit of sunlight will do you more good than a new computer.

god your stupid. vampires don't go to the beach for vitamin D retard.