Another PC upgrade

.AC.

.AC.

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, like skull I'm wishing to upgrade my now ancient pc specs, especially since my work in after effects is feeling a little slow for my liking, and also since I'm coming up to the LAN this summer.. current specs:

CPU: Athlon X2 6400+ BE (3.2GHz as if that matters)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5
Ram: 6GB DDR2 (@800MHz 5-6-6-18)

Whilst I have a 4870 (which will suffice for now), it can barely play BF3, even on low.. the motherboard is clearly getting old, as it faults on every first boot in the day and often sets itself to default settings.

Now since I'm just about to enter a masters degree, I can only afford to spend about £170 on a mobo, cpu and ram :( so I was looking at the following:

CPU: Phenom II X4 965 (3.4GHz): £78
Mobo: Asus M5A78L (AM3+): £55.19
RAM: 8GB DDR3- 1333MHz: £35.82

Any warnings, suggestions or improvements? Bonus points for providing something better and cheaper ;)
 
Deep Blue

Deep Blue

The BOFH
Staff member
Do it! That's the same CPU as I have and it's good un :) I don't own BF3 but I get good performance out of BC2 with that PCU and a HD5850 :)
 
Will

Will

Active Member
I have that exact CPU and it worked an absolute treat in BF3 (what I played of the open beta, at least !)
 
.AC.

.AC.

Well-Known Member
So from what I gathered so far this is the best set up I can get with the amount of money I have, cheers guys. Not up to scratch on my motherboards, so if anyone can say whether the one I've added is any good or not, that would be a big help.

I've changed the memory to this, since its a couple quid more something faster. It will also look good in my windowless case :rolleyes:
 
coob

coob

*looks disapprovingly*
I have also got that CPU except ive got the BE (black edition) the price difference was minimal when i got this for 3.6ghz stock, just an idea :)
 
K

Knottyboy

Well-Known Member
I have the CPU and RAM you're suggesting, it copes with BF3 on high but thats with a gtx260. I'll let you know how it fairs when my 570 arrives on Monday.
 
.AC.

.AC.

Well-Known Member
As far as I know, the 260 provides similar performance to the 4870, give or take a few games where they leap frog each other (if not the 260 is just a tad faster), which is good news for my BF3 playing.
 
K

Knottyboy

Well-Known Member
Turns out i was actually playing BF3 on medium with my 260! Just been trying it out with the 570 and it runs alright on ultra, but theres quite bad framerate drops when shit kicks off or if you change lighting conditions (running from a dark room to outside or someone shining a torch in your face). Put everything down to high and its running a treat now! Still looks great on medium though :p
 
.AC.

.AC.

Well-Known Member
Parts came yesterday, already set up and running.. Runs superb, only problem was getting the heatsink on, what a bloody effort that was.

As CS:S is relies very little on the GPU and is more CPU orientated, i did the video test before and after.. Before: 120fps.. After: 330Fps.. whey!!! Also, i never knew minecraft ran so smooth :eek:

Cheers for the help guys
 
.AC.

.AC.

Well-Known Member
Deep Blue said:
Welcome to a whole new world! The OEM heatsink is a right fiddle to get isnt it?
Click to expand...

Isn't it! I actually thought i might have damaged the CPU on more than one occasion, when i realised i hadn't, it was time to try it again!

Also: BF3 actually works well on high.. GLORIOUS.. I look forward my time with origin and how many times i will quit the game just to join another server!
 
grogers126

grogers126

Sniper
let me know when your planning on playing bf3 i will join u for some killin action. thewre are a few of us who play
 
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