Hello guys, I would like some tips for upgrading my Hardware.
I would like to know what would be the best thing to buy to upgrade my computer's performance in gaming. My actual specs are:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @2.7GHz
4 GB Ram 800MHz (2x2) DDR2
Motherboard Asus P5QPL-AM
GeForce GTS250 Zotac 1GB (DirectX 10) DDR3
Power Source 500W
HD 2TB 7200RPM
I don't have a external cooler, and my monitor is not HDMI ready (Samsung VGA 19.5'' 1440x900).
I know its not a great computer, but I build it a few years ago and so fart I can run most games in High settings and 4x AA. GTA IV, Skyrim, Battlefield 3, CoD BO2 among others can be run in ultra settings (with 30 to 60 fps) while more demanding games like Guild Wars 2, Crysis 2 and so on can be ran on High with 30-60 fps.
Altough, I have really bad performance in more modern games like Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 (It seems to vary based on the game's Engine).
Sadly, my budget is not high at all. I'm thinking on something around U$150,00 (Hard to say, since I won't really buy whatever in dollar, I live in BR, and everything is more expensive here, but thats an estimate) and, maybe due to my limited knowledge, I'm under the impression that the best upgrade is a new GPU (A GTX 650Ti maybe? Or maybe go to AMD, help me here :P) but I think it would be smarter to ask ppl who knows better than me. Thats where u guys come in. Any help would always be apreciated.
As a reminder, the idea would be the best upgrade possible for Gaming with that low budget, and I'm not really sure if upgrading my RAM, for instance, would be a better deal than the GPU (Altho, my motherboard doesn't seems to support DDR3 Ram, so no 1600Mhz for me ).
Curse releases some advice for sample configurations on MMO-Champion every quarter, search for the most recent thread and take the "cheapest" config. Also, what are you aiming for? Since you're asking in a D3 forum, I'm wondering if it's just D3... in that case I'd say dump all money in an SSD. Most important thing. Actually, regardless of anything, put an SSD #1 on your list.
First, are we looking to game just D3 at max or are we talking Crysis 3 eyefinity/nvidia surround MAXXX HD GRAPHICS. Because there's a gigantic gap there and knowing what you're expecting out of your system in terms of a benchmark standard is going to help us select better components for your system. The 4GB of Ram is fine, CPU should still be running at decent speeds no reall worries there, the mobo is meh and the HDD is fine. If you're looking for better gaming it's a 100% guarentee you want to upgrade graphics cards because they are the #1 bottle neck for gaming.
@bagstone I believe the SSD is a good choice but I'd put it second on my list in terms of FPS and gaming performance. Sure load times would be a lot faster and would significantly help his overall computers performance but if he's looking for a gaming upgrade to see an increase in quality and FPS then he'll for sure want a GPU instead of a SSD, which at a 150$ starting point he could maybe buy a 256GB SSD which TBH is USELESS! I have one and I load all my games onto it and I have 0 room now and am running low on space constantly. I use 2 other HDDS at 500GB and 250GB for Movies and Music respectively and they work just fine. I'm sure a 7200 RPM HDD that has 2tb on it is way more than enough for gaming. The only real thing an SSD is good for is the OS and very highly used applications such as web browser or Photoshop or your number 1 game, you don't really need it for much else. and considering their steep price it's not worth it to me atm.
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Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
I have one and I load all my games onto it and I have 0 room now and am running low on space constantly.
Remove all games except Diablo 3 from the SSD, immediately. I don't know of any game except D3 that benefits significantly from being installed on an SSD. However, you should never "run out of space" on an SSD. There should always be lots of space left on the SSD. If you use 99% of the SSD space, the system will constantly re-write on the same memory sectors of the SSD, which might use up the re-write limit (there's a hard limit as to how often every specific memory sector of an SSD can be re-written), and that sector will then "fail", producing corrupt data and possibly result in corrupt files (or, if the system recognizes the mistake, just flag the part of the SSD as "damaged" and reduce storage space). As a good rule of thumb, always keep at least 10% SSD space free.
Second, you're right that many games don't benefit from SSD. I didn't say large SSD or SSD only; in fact, a 64 or 128GB SSD is more than enough, just put all other files than OS/apps/D3 on a cheap traditional HDD. Didn't specify that, sorry. However, if he's on a tight budget and plays many different games (more FPS games rather than D3) than upgrading GPU might be more useful. For D3, SSD > GPU in terms of upgrade, though. I think only for FPS games and the likes GPU comes first. Well, this was a question on a D3 forum, so I always like to point out how good SSDs are for D3 ;-)
I'm not going to go into details since other have already done so... I would add RAM (to about 8) and get a small SSD (to put the OS and games on it). That wouldn't cost you too much...
Remove all games except Diablo 3 from the SSD, immediately. I don't know of any game except D3 that benefits significantly from being installed on an SSD.
BF3 BF4 GW2 lots of games benefits significantly, load times become like x4 x5 times lower. On the other hand i don't see anything in D3 that needs faster loading times from hdd. Its already loads in seconds with 7200rpm hdd's
About what possibly to change > you can check for new amd video cards 2** series (if you ok with amd) and yeah, add more ram
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I would like to know what would be the best thing to buy to upgrade my computer's performance in gaming. My actual specs are:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @2.7GHz
4 GB Ram 800MHz (2x2) DDR2
Motherboard Asus P5QPL-AM
GeForce GTS250 Zotac 1GB (DirectX 10) DDR3
Power Source 500W
HD 2TB 7200RPM
I don't have a external cooler, and my monitor is not HDMI ready (Samsung VGA 19.5'' 1440x900).
I know its not a great computer, but I build it a few years ago and so fart I can run most games in High settings and 4x AA. GTA IV, Skyrim, Battlefield 3, CoD BO2 among others can be run in ultra settings (with 30 to 60 fps) while more demanding games like Guild Wars 2, Crysis 2 and so on can be ran on High with 30-60 fps.
Altough, I have really bad performance in more modern games like Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 (It seems to vary based on the game's Engine).
Sadly, my budget is not high at all. I'm thinking on something around U$150,00 (Hard to say, since I won't really buy whatever in dollar, I live in BR, and everything is more expensive here, but thats an estimate) and, maybe due to my limited knowledge, I'm under the impression that the best upgrade is a new GPU (A GTX 650Ti maybe? Or maybe go to AMD, help me here :P) but I think it would be smarter to ask ppl who knows better than me. Thats where u guys come in. Any help would always be apreciated.
As a reminder, the idea would be the best upgrade possible for Gaming with that low budget, and I'm not really sure if upgrading my RAM, for instance, would be a better deal than the GPU (Altho, my motherboard doesn't seems to support DDR3 Ram, so no 1600Mhz for me
Thank you very much for any tips.
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Moderator@bagstone I believe the SSD is a good choice but I'd put it second on my list in terms of FPS and gaming performance. Sure load times would be a lot faster and would significantly help his overall computers performance but if he's looking for a gaming upgrade to see an increase in quality and FPS then he'll for sure want a GPU instead of a SSD, which at a 150$ starting point he could maybe buy a 256GB SSD which TBH is USELESS! I have one and I load all my games onto it and I have 0 room now and am running low on space constantly. I use 2 other HDDS at 500GB and 250GB for Movies and Music respectively and they work just fine. I'm sure a 7200 RPM HDD that has 2tb on it is way more than enough for gaming. The only real thing an SSD is good for is the OS and very highly used applications such as web browser or Photoshop or your number 1 game, you don't really need it for much else. and considering their steep price it's not worth it to me atm.
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ModeratorRemove all games except Diablo 3 from the SSD, immediately. I don't know of any game except D3 that benefits significantly from being installed on an SSD. However, you should never "run out of space" on an SSD. There should always be lots of space left on the SSD. If you use 99% of the SSD space, the system will constantly re-write on the same memory sectors of the SSD, which might use up the re-write limit (there's a hard limit as to how often every specific memory sector of an SSD can be re-written), and that sector will then "fail", producing corrupt data and possibly result in corrupt files (or, if the system recognizes the mistake, just flag the part of the SSD as "damaged" and reduce storage space). As a good rule of thumb, always keep at least 10% SSD space free.
Second, you're right that many games don't benefit from SSD. I didn't say large SSD or SSD only; in fact, a 64 or 128GB SSD is more than enough, just put all other files than OS/apps/D3 on a cheap traditional HDD. Didn't specify that, sorry. However, if he's on a tight budget and plays many different games (more FPS games rather than D3) than upgrading GPU might be more useful. For D3, SSD > GPU in terms of upgrade, though. I think only for FPS games and the likes GPU comes first. Well, this was a question on a D3 forum, so I always like to point out how good SSDs are for D3 ;-)
About what possibly to change > you can check for new amd video cards 2** series (if you ok with amd) and yeah, add more ram