Hardware & Technical PC on a budget advice thread

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    Votes: 4 66.7%

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    Votes: 2 33.3%

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  • Total voters
    6

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Sir.Tj
Liqua said:
You ask tough questions :)

Name - Points
-------------
GeForce GTX 285 - 1254
GeForce GT630 - 720 (so probably not)
GeForce GT640 - 1284 (probably but it's very close)

Liq.
Click to expand...

Lucky I've got you lot to point me in the right direction. :D

I'ts been a while since i did any upgrading so I'm well out of the loop so to speak.

Thanks for the stats, the search continues. :D


Sparticus said:
Do what I just did - give up something for the next 5 yrs that costs say in my case AUD 10 a week - and I was able to purchase a new rig, I receive it in a few days. :D - I had been budgeting for a new ride on lawnmower - as the old one died - but I moved the funds to a new PC.
Click to expand...

I know where you're coming from, but the kids do object when its beans on toast every night of the week. :S
 

Bingo Brewster

Bingo Brewster
T.j said:
Lucky I've got you lot to point me in the right direction. :D

I'ts been a while since i did any upgrading so I'm well out of the loop so to speak.

Thanks for the stats, the search continues. :D


I know where you're coming from, but the kids do object when its beans on toast every night of the week. :S
Click to expand...
If you look on Nvidia's website, all the gaming cards start with GTX with the current lowest being the 650. The radeon cards seem to be more bang for buck though. I just bought an R9 270x which seems to perform better than a GTX 660i but for less money
 

ianw

I
Sparticus said:
Do what I just did - give up something for the next 5 yrs that costs say in my case AUD 10 a week - and I was able to purchase a new rig, I receive it in a few days. :D - I had been budgeting for a new ride on lawnmower - as the old one died - but I moved the funds to a new PC.
Click to expand...

Good luck with that!

I said that about beer - lasted about a day...

:D
 

Cosmos

C
Darren Grey said:
Very nice of you! Someone else offered the same via PM, so I suppose I have my pick ;)

Anyone know about RAM installation and what sets you're meant to keep together? I remember hearing some things like you should only have a series of the same size sticks, and you should keep things in pairs. Is this true?

If so I already have 2x2GB so adding on 2x1GB may not be appropriate. Or may be perfect, I don't know :-/
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Its best to use same branded RAM, but if not make sure each pair is the same spec, i.e. 2gb 800mhz.

Assuming you have four slots you should match them as follows


A B A B
A B A B
A B A B
A B A B
A B A B
A B A B

So in your case A could be 2GB sticks and B 1GB total 6GB

What you shouldn't to is arrange them as follows:

A A B B
A A B B
A A B B
A A B B
A A B B
A A B B

The RAM arrangement should be in your motherboard book if you have one, its probably worthwhile checking. ;)

p.s. Bear in mind that if you have lower spec RAM in one slot i.e 667Mhz and 800Mhz in the other you'll not be able to get the max performance from the higher spec memory stick. :)
 
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Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Sir.Tj
This thread's becoming more and more useful. :cool: I've been adding rep like crazy. :D

Looks like I'll go for the Nvidia GTX650, now need to source a Quad core 775 socket processor and some 2 or 4gb DDR2 memory and I might be ready for ED. :D
 

Oss133

Oss133
I have found this useful in the past for trying out a potential build and sourcing components. It helps with compatibility issues.
 

Rog

Rog
T.j said:
Luxury

Thanks for the replies everyone, this is the kind of info that stopps me going Doh!!! :D
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Try this:

Tom's Hardware: Best Graphics Cards For The Money: October 2013

The article gives a few cards at each price point:
Entry Level (~£45-£70)
Mid-Range (~£95-£140)
Enthusiast (~£160-£205)
High-End (~£260-£315)
Extreme (~£ :eek: )
There's a current graphics card performance hierarchy chart too.

Just note that the new November 2013 edition of the article is imminent, and recommendations may change.
 

HaiderGill

H
T.j said:
Ok, I like many of us can't afford to throw money at a top end gaming rig.
(The joys of being a fulltime single dad. :rolleyes:)

I thought it might be useful as ED is nearing Alpha for those who need to upgrade componants to be helped out by the forum members.

Currently I've got the following:

Antec 300 Case
Dual Core 2.7ghz
5gb ddr2
Nvidia 9800gt
400w psu (I think)
1tb Hdd

To be fair it's done pretty well and it's still been just about able to run most things but it's getting a bit creaky now.

I'll need to upgrade the Motherboard/CPU/Memory and Graphics Card.

I think the case and psu will be alright for now.

So any suggestions on what would be good componants to use to upgrade? And of course any bargins out there?


Feel free to add your systems etc.. :D
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Kids don't you just love'em that and I don't believe in spending alot on computers because there's always a new model coming out Ebay is your friend: -
£85 Intel Core i5-760@360
£55 Asus P7H55/USB3 motherboard
I bought a new Enermax ETS-t40-tb heatsink and fan for £28

That's quad core running at 3.6GHz (Intel Speed Step) all day long in gaming it never goes above 55C. I can do about 3.8GHz - stress tested but beyond that the £28 HSF can't handle the temps. I have managed to hit 4GHz but need a better heatsink and fan. Now go and have a look at a new Intel chip without motherboard you won't be able to get anything as fast.

Things to avoid is overclockable ram. I bought new Crucial Ballistix Elite ram and overclocked it. This doesn't really increase the frame-rate in games. I just think it would have been better to buy some standard Crucial ram and spend the cash elsewhere or not.

Power supplies I have an Enermax NAXN 650W. You could get away with 550W PSU but I just got a larger one with one on the future. I don't want to have to replace it for when the next build happens and the fact that it will easily give me overclocking room too. When you overclocks the components use more power hence your PSU has to supply it. For reference I'm also running a Radeon HD 7950@1050MHz (Sapphire Vapor-X) versus the stock speed being 800MHz. When I bought my card they had just hit the shelves so it's new but I have seen you can now get a used 7970 Vapor-X for the same price as new 7950. A good name on the power supply is just as important Enermax, Corsair etc...
 

popuptoaster

P
Just put this lot together for a friend who's lad wanted to play games on a budget but needed a whole new system so his old one could be passed down to a younger brother.


https://secure.scan.co.uk/aspnet/Shop/SavedBasket/Show.aspx?id=b257991a90ea4c39a7239d9fdf1dc285

I put that video card in my old rig,

intel core 2 Q6600 2.4g
4gig DDR2
9800GT

just to see what it would do and it made a huge difference for gaming, like more than triple the FPS mostly, so much so in fact that i'm ordering another GTX660 (and a bit more RAM) for myself when it comes round to payday, there's still plenty of life left in this old rig yet.

Not going to throw money at a new set up when this thing will cope with just a better GPU.
 

Evilroco

Evilroco
Like a Lot of you guys my machine is feeling its age, but at the moment I have almost no budget to upgrade.

Current spec Q8400 cpu
4gb Ram (will be replacing with faster 8gb)
Ati 5670 hd 1gb

Now as you can see my Graphics card is like most going to be a problem but my case is a SFF desktop (optiplex) so I have major size and power limits.

I have been looking at the GTX650 2gb ddr5 which looks to fit is almost exactly the same tdp and wondered if anyone has one or seen one in action or maybe recommend another (max budget about £120) that will fit my case (cannot be much longer than slot) and uses less than 80watts.

any advice would be very appreciated :)
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
I added a 2GB Radeon 7790 to my Q6600 and 4GB of RAM - works a charm! Have to reduce the settings a bit on the last alpha mission, but I think that's CPU issues. At £90 it was a really great value for money upgrade for me. It's supposed to be low on power use too, and even performs very well when underclocked for lower power consumption.
 

Cody

Cody
Evilroco said:
I have been looking at the GTX650 2gb ddr5 which looks to fit is almost exactly the same tdp and wondered if anyone has one or seen one in action...
Click to expand...
I have a pal who has the GTX 650 Ti - he likes it a lot (it easily beats my old GTX 550 Ti). It also looks/seems very compact, and Amazon have it for ~£125 - worth a little investigation, I'd think.
 

Evilroco

Evilroco
Thnx will have a look ,was trying to steer away from the gtx650 ti as power req seemed to high for my poor system . :)
 

YelnifCh

YelnifCh
Will my system run ED well?

Hi, I'm a little new here and I was planning to pre-order the game for when it is finally released.
I was wondering if my system specs would be able to play the game at decent FPS and graphics settings?:

AMD Athlon II Quad 3.2 Ghz
Radeon HD 7770 1GB
8GB RAM

Thanks.
 
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