Upgrading old PC + Building new one

[anicolorful]

Hey guys,

 

My brother and I are looking to upgrade the family PC and build a new one. Me being in college and a him being in high school we're looking for best bang for the buck satisfactory performance rather than beast machines. We're not that tech savvy and this is our first time attempting something like this so we'd love help and opinions. I will try to provide as much information as possible.

 

Current machine:

XFX 550w PSU

Intel E5400 Processor

ASUS P5QL-VM EPU Motherboard

XFX 6770

6GB RAM

 

Runs at 1440x900

 

We want to upgrade the processor to something the motherboard will support (LGA775 Intel Core 2) and will give a noticeable fps increase for the money (currently getting 25-30 fps in Skyrim).

 

Stuff we have for new one (uncle will give us):

Cooler Master Case

XFX 650w PSU

XFX 6870

 

Will run at 1920x1080

 

We noticed that AMD motherboards/CPUs are way cheaper than Intel but how do they compare performance wise? So far everything we've read suggests the Intel i5 2500K but it's pretty expensive and all we need is something that won't bottleneck the 6870 (or not by TOO much). Other than that what do we need exactly? This is where we're lost. Our plan is to get everything and then bribe a cousin of ours to put it together.

 

It'd be great if we could get a couple different builds. If it's a trivial amount of performance we'd really rather get the cheaper alternatives.

 

Thanks ahead of time.

[Paxan_1]

Hi,

 

well, i think you have two options.

 

1st: upgrade your E5400 with a C2Quad. Im not sure if you can buy one new. A good Core 2 Quad would be a Q9550. Your best place to find one is ebay i think. Sometime you can buy a used one for a bargain (~200$ i think). The rest would be fine with it.

 

2nd: Buy a new motherboard, a new CPU and new Ram. If go with this you have to decide between Intel and AMD, of course AMD is cheaper, but Intel has some more powerful CPUs. A good AMD would be a X6 (six core processor), with a mainboard and ram i think you have to spend around 400$ (havent checked it, its only a guess).

 

Sarah

[FMod]

A good Core 2 Quad would be a Q9550. Your best place to find one is ebay i think. Sometime you can buy a used one for a bargain (~200$ i think).

That's hardly a bargain, considering that it only has half the performance of i5-2500K (much less the upcoming i5-3xxx), for the same price. But yes, that's what they sell for.

Worst thing is, it won't even help Skyrim much anyway, because it can only properly use 2 cores.

 

We want to upgrade the processor to something the motherboard will support (LGA775 Intel Core 2) and will give a noticeable fps increase for the money (currently getting 25-30 fps in Skyrim).

25-30 fps is OK for Skyrim, though you should try and get 30-40. Make sure to reduce the view distance and turn shadows down, just disable them really.

1920x1080 is a tough resolution, so you won't be cranking it all the way up anyway.

 

We noticed that AMD motherboards/CPUs are way cheaper than Intel but how do they compare performance wise?

In their price range, pretty well. But only select models like FM1 Athlon X4. Overall, not so much. Also, each core of your current CPU is not much slower than Athlon's cores, although it only has two.

 

How much are you willing to spend?

You don't have to go all the way to 2500K; a cheaper SB CPU like i5-2320 is still very good, with easy overclock you'll get 3.8 GHz like top of the line models (stock). In 2-3 months, next-gen Ivy Bridge will be out, and it will provide slightly better bang for the buck.

 

Or do you just care about Skyrim? Then you can get a cheaper SB like i3-2120. It's $128, and anything cheaper just isn't worth the upgrade. But it's still a dual-core, so there's that. Not well futureproofed.

For anything less, forget Skyrim and take FM1 Athlon X4 631. Won't help Skyrim much, but four cores.

[Fonger]

We want to upgrade the processor to something the motherboard will support (LGA775 Intel Core 2) and will give a noticeable fps increase for the money (currently getting 25-30 fps in Skyrim).

hint

 

most of your FPS

 

comes from your video card

[hoofhearted4]

We want to upgrade the processor to something the motherboard will support (LGA775 Intel Core 2) and will give a noticeable fps increase for the money (currently getting 25-30 fps in Skyrim).

hint

 

most of your FPS

 

comes from your video card

 

for Skyrim its like 50/50. its not very graphics intensive. hes got a decent GPU in the 6870, so he needs to find something not to bottle neck it (or not too much) as he said. so hes spot on looking for a good CPU, and even more so for Skyrim since it does use the CPU more then some other games.

[SluggoV2]

I just upgraded from an AMD 955be to an Intel SB 2500K and I saw some decent FPS performance increase in Skyrim. I would recomend if you are going to upgrade, go with a SB2500K or similar (<$210), a decent MB (AsRock Extreme3 Gen 3 $120) and get 8G of RAM (the GSkill can be had for about $60). This should keep you golden for a while, maybe then Uncle Rico will hook you up with some more nice stuff. ;)

[hoofhearted4]

8G of RAM (the GSkill can be had for about $60).

 

if you paid this, you were ripped off lol. its only $40. unless your getting the 1866 stuff...which you shouldnt be, as its a waste of money for no performance increase what so ever, and you could just OC your 1333 if you felt like you needed to get the higher clocks.

Edited February 22, 2012 by hoofhearted4

[anicolorful]

Sorry for the late reply I've been out of state. What do you think about this?

 

Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W - $190

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074

 

ASRock H61M/U3S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - $70

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157236

 

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 - $42

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

 

Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - $85

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148767

 

LG 22X Super-Multi DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM $18

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136240

[hoofhearted4]

*snip*

 

yea it will run fine. i mean your WAY WAY over paying. 2700k is just a glorified 2600k no difference except price. which is still over the top, you only need a 2500k. a 7970 is also more then you need for just Skyrim. Skyrim isnt heavy on the graphics at all. you could run a 6850 and be just fine.

 

so other then the fact your over paying by like $500-600+ dollars, ya, your computer is fine

[SluggoV2]

nevermind... Edited February 26, 2012 by SluggoV2