Need help from the PC wizards!
Discussion
Looking at upgrading my PC:
HP Pavilion P6-2489ea
I5-3350P quad core 3.1GHZ
8GB ram
Geforce 630 GT.
I had a chat to a guy in the PC shop and I can directly fit a Geforce GTX 750Ti.
So far all i really play is Dayz but looking at maybe getting Arma 3 and some other new titles, would this be a worthwhile upgrade?
I was also looking at the GTX 660 but I'm not sure if it would fit because the card is quite a bit bigger and also I would need to change my power supply (Which I'm not sure you can do with this PC either).
Also thought about selling it completely and getting a custom made one, but looking at pre builds in the price I want to pay they aren't really that far off what I already have with the card I'm looking at getting. Although I am pretty much restricted to the 750Ti forever If i cant fit anything else in there!
HP Pavilion P6-2489ea
I5-3350P quad core 3.1GHZ
8GB ram
Geforce 630 GT.
I had a chat to a guy in the PC shop and I can directly fit a Geforce GTX 750Ti.
So far all i really play is Dayz but looking at maybe getting Arma 3 and some other new titles, would this be a worthwhile upgrade?
I was also looking at the GTX 660 but I'm not sure if it would fit because the card is quite a bit bigger and also I would need to change my power supply (Which I'm not sure you can do with this PC either).
Also thought about selling it completely and getting a custom made one, but looking at pre builds in the price I want to pay they aren't really that far off what I already have with the card I'm looking at getting. Although I am pretty much restricted to the 750Ti forever If i cant fit anything else in there!
You should be able to change the card to whatever you want if it's a decent motherboard. I'd say get the best bang for your buck, better the card the longer it will last. I'd also upgrade your power pack should be easy to change on any case you can find, you'd be surprised how much of a difference it can make to your pcs performance. If you decide to change it and need a walkthrough of how to change it let me know I'll help you out mate.
ben5732 said:
You should be able to change the card to whatever you want if it's a decent motherboard. I'd say get the best bang for your buck, better the card the longer it will last.
I think what the OP is saying is that he's concerned whether the better GPUs will physically fit in the case. Some of them are very long.ben5732 said:
I'd also upgrade your power pack should be easy to change on any case you can find, you'd be surprised how much of a difference it can make to your pcs performance.
PSU only affects your PC's performance insomuch as it either works reliably or doesn't. I agree it would be a good idea to put a decent quality 450w in, though.As said, what is your PC power unit putting out.
I would recommend a decent brand, such as Antc True Power etc, don't buy cheap, get a decent PSU, probably around 600-750Watt. Better more power than less and the thing burns out or doesn't work.
Graphics card wise, as long as the motherboard has a PCI Ex 2.0/3.0 16 slot, most new cards will fit.
regarding size of card, the standard for motherboards is ATX, mATX is micro size, i.e. smaller and often has lots of less features, such as if you want a sound card too, it wont fit on the board with a graphics card on it too, ideally you want a decent gap so sir flow isn't blocked.
Most standard PC cases will fit all graphics cards, but you can usually find out dimesnions and check on your case.
Scan.co.uk is where I get all my stuff and always top notch service, they offer a £20 insurance so that even if you drop the card in a bath during the build, you will get it replaced free of charge within 14 days of purchase, it gives good peace of mind and for £20 on a £450 card I don't mind.
As for CPU, you current one isn't bad, but if you change it, it may be a different socket. On the motherboards the CPU slots into the multi pin section called the socket, Intel are running the 1155 and 1150 at the moment (the number means the amount of pins on the back of the cpu.
I5 and i7 both use the same socket for some versions, some don't, but you can stipulate what socket you want, say you buy the i7 4770k CPU and its socket 1150, then you can search for motherboards with only socket 1150 etc.
Other than that you should be fine to use your old HDD, Ram etc, however check on the motherboard as most RAM is now on DDR3 version, older MOBO's use DDR2, and they may not be compatible, but RAM is so cheap nowadays its not a huge issue.
I would recommend a decent brand, such as Antc True Power etc, don't buy cheap, get a decent PSU, probably around 600-750Watt. Better more power than less and the thing burns out or doesn't work.
Graphics card wise, as long as the motherboard has a PCI Ex 2.0/3.0 16 slot, most new cards will fit.
regarding size of card, the standard for motherboards is ATX, mATX is micro size, i.e. smaller and often has lots of less features, such as if you want a sound card too, it wont fit on the board with a graphics card on it too, ideally you want a decent gap so sir flow isn't blocked.
Most standard PC cases will fit all graphics cards, but you can usually find out dimesnions and check on your case.
Scan.co.uk is where I get all my stuff and always top notch service, they offer a £20 insurance so that even if you drop the card in a bath during the build, you will get it replaced free of charge within 14 days of purchase, it gives good peace of mind and for £20 on a £450 card I don't mind.
As for CPU, you current one isn't bad, but if you change it, it may be a different socket. On the motherboards the CPU slots into the multi pin section called the socket, Intel are running the 1155 and 1150 at the moment (the number means the amount of pins on the back of the cpu.
I5 and i7 both use the same socket for some versions, some don't, but you can stipulate what socket you want, say you buy the i7 4770k CPU and its socket 1150, then you can search for motherboards with only socket 1150 etc.
Other than that you should be fine to use your old HDD, Ram etc, however check on the motherboard as most RAM is now on DDR3 version, older MOBO's use DDR2, and they may not be compatible, but RAM is so cheap nowadays its not a huge issue.
Rick_1138 said:
As said, what is your PC power unit putting out.
I would recommend a decent brand, such as Antc True Power etc, don't buy cheap, get a decent PSU, probably around 600-750Watt. Better more power than less and the thing burns out or doesn't work.
Graphics card wise, as long as the motherboard has a PCI Ex 2.0/3.0 16 slot, most new cards will fit.
regarding size of card, the standard for motherboards is ATX, mATX is micro size, i.e. smaller and often has lots of less features, such as if you want a sound card too, it wont fit on the board with a graphics card on it too, ideally you want a decent gap so sir flow isn't blocked.
Most standard PC cases will fit all graphics cards, but you can usually find out dimesnions and check on your case.
Scan.co.uk is where I get all my stuff and always top notch service, they offer a £20 insurance so that even if you drop the card in a bath during the build, you will get it replaced free of charge within 14 days of purchase, it gives good peace of mind and for £20 on a £450 card I don't mind.
As for CPU, you current one isn't bad, but if you change it, it may be a different socket. On the motherboards the CPU slots into the multi pin section called the socket, Intel are running the 1155 and 1150 at the moment (the number means the amount of pins on the back of the cpu.
I5 and i7 both use the same socket for some versions, some don't, but you can stipulate what socket you want, say you buy the i7 4770k CPU and its socket 1150, then you can search for motherboards with only socket 1150 etc.
Other than that you should be fine to use your old HDD, Ram etc, however check on the motherboard as most RAM is now on DDR3 version, older MOBO's use DDR2, and they may not be compatible, but RAM is so cheap nowadays its not a huge issue.
Yea its Scan I went to, I live pretty close to it.I would recommend a decent brand, such as Antc True Power etc, don't buy cheap, get a decent PSU, probably around 600-750Watt. Better more power than less and the thing burns out or doesn't work.
Graphics card wise, as long as the motherboard has a PCI Ex 2.0/3.0 16 slot, most new cards will fit.
regarding size of card, the standard for motherboards is ATX, mATX is micro size, i.e. smaller and often has lots of less features, such as if you want a sound card too, it wont fit on the board with a graphics card on it too, ideally you want a decent gap so sir flow isn't blocked.
Most standard PC cases will fit all graphics cards, but you can usually find out dimesnions and check on your case.
Scan.co.uk is where I get all my stuff and always top notch service, they offer a £20 insurance so that even if you drop the card in a bath during the build, you will get it replaced free of charge within 14 days of purchase, it gives good peace of mind and for £20 on a £450 card I don't mind.
As for CPU, you current one isn't bad, but if you change it, it may be a different socket. On the motherboards the CPU slots into the multi pin section called the socket, Intel are running the 1155 and 1150 at the moment (the number means the amount of pins on the back of the cpu.
I5 and i7 both use the same socket for some versions, some don't, but you can stipulate what socket you want, say you buy the i7 4770k CPU and its socket 1150, then you can search for motherboards with only socket 1150 etc.
Other than that you should be fine to use your old HDD, Ram etc, however check on the motherboard as most RAM is now on DDR3 version, older MOBO's use DDR2, and they may not be compatible, but RAM is so cheap nowadays its not a huge issue.
The power in the PC is 300W.
The thing is with upgrading I don't have a clue how it will turn out, the only thing I can compare it to is my Xbox One really.
Any idea what kind of performance I'll see with the current CPU and Ram and updating to the 750Ti?
I'm going to take the side off and look to see how much space there is for a graphics card later.
I'm not really looking to update the CPU, I would probably be willing to swap out the power if i can get a better graphics card.
Otherwise I would probably be better off selling it and starting from scratch even though I'v only had this 9 months, maybe even sell the Xbox if I make the PC good enough!
I would put an AMD R9 270 in it, they are only about £25 more than a 750Ti and quite a bit more powerful. You will need a new PSU because 300W is not enough, I think 500W is min recommended for a 270.
The R9 270 is probably more powerful than the GPU in the Xbox One but games are better optimised for consoles. Also a lot of PC games are straight console ports. On the plus side PC games are cheaper and you get mods for them (which is how DayZ came about). Personally I much prefer PC gaming but I have spent a lot more than a console costs on my PC.
The R9 270 is probably more powerful than the GPU in the Xbox One but games are better optimised for consoles. Also a lot of PC games are straight console ports. On the plus side PC games are cheaper and you get mods for them (which is how DayZ came about). Personally I much prefer PC gaming but I have spent a lot more than a console costs on my PC.
130R said:
I would put an AMD R9 270 in it, they are only about £25 more than a 750Ti and quite a bit more powerful. You will need a new PSU because 300W is not enough, I think 500W is min recommended for a 270.
The R9 270 is probably more powerful than the GPU in the Xbox One but games are better optimised for consoles. Also a lot of PC games are straight console ports. On the plus side PC games are cheaper and you get mods for them (which is how DayZ came about). Personally I much prefer PC gaming but I have spent a lot more than a console costs on my PC.
It is worth the extra costs because you can use it for many more things as well!! The R9 270 is probably more powerful than the GPU in the Xbox One but games are better optimised for consoles. Also a lot of PC games are straight console ports. On the plus side PC games are cheaper and you get mods for them (which is how DayZ came about). Personally I much prefer PC gaming but I have spent a lot more than a console costs on my PC.
Whats really peeing me off is that I was going to just buy a custom pc and and Xbox one, I decided to get a cheaper PC instead because I thought I would just concentrate on the Xbox.
Now I'm thinking about losing a few £100, binning them both and buy a better custom pc.
130R said:
Personally I much prefer PC gaming but I have spent a lot more than a console costs on my PC.
I suspect over the life cycle of the PC you would recoup a lot of that in the cost differential of games (plus the freedom to do whatever you like to them mod wise, which increases the value of the game in itself).Power-wise http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx recommends 500w (so I'd not look at anything less than 550w) with the specs above plus average number of addons
Build it yourself it will be substantially cheaper and it's pretty easy to do. Previous pc lasted about 5 years before I had to upgrade the graphics card and would still run most newer things. I think I spent around 6/700 on that building it myself equivalent from a company like alienware etc it was just shy of 2k...
TonyTony said:
Is it worth me messing with this or am I just better getting them to custom build me one?
For ~ £200 (PSU + GPU) it would be worth it, a R9 270 (for example) is fine for gaming @ 1080p on high settings with most games. Of course a custom built gaming PC with top end GPU(s), overclocked CPU, SSD, 144hz monitor, etc, would be even better, but the sky is the limit on what you can spend on hardware.
TonyTony said:
I've just specced it up to £11538.61 
I'll have 2, just in case I am too tired to walk to a different room.
Sorry for asking dumb questions but if I did fit the 750ti into my PC how would it compare to the XB1?
Its hard for me to compare not being a PC gamer, also with a PC you can completely change all the settings and Ultra graphics is much better than the Xbox will ever put out, so I'm not sure what level of PC graphics are on par with the XB1?
If I can I think I will upgrade the PSU and get a more powerful GPU if it fits in and in the future sell the whole lot and start from scratch.
Its hard for me to compare not being a PC gamer, also with a PC you can completely change all the settings and Ultra graphics is much better than the Xbox will ever put out, so I'm not sure what level of PC graphics are on par with the XB1?
If I can I think I will upgrade the PSU and get a more powerful GPU if it fits in and in the future sell the whole lot and start from scratch.
I'd say from what I have read the XB1 is equivalent to a roughly midrange PC at the moment (with the PS4 being the more powerful of the two); where consoles usually gained is through optimisation. However, as the new consoles are all basically pc's, that advantage is lessened somewhat as it should just come to scaling of graphics and resolution due to the common development platform.
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