PC Upgrading

[Extreme Angle]

With Battlefield 3 on the horizon I thought it'd be neccesary for me to upgrade my PC a little.

Problem is, I don't know where to begin :-\.

In 2007 my friend told me which parts to buy and then how to put them together, here's my current specs:

Motherboard - Asus P5K-E/WiFi-AP
Graphics Card - Nvidia Geforce 8800GT
Processor - Intel Core 2 Quad CPU 2.40GHz
Hard drive - 500gb
RAM - 3GB
Operating System - Windows 7 64-bit

Is there anything that I don't really need to upgrade?
Or am I looking at a complete new computer?
Not bothered about any of that 3D mumbo jumbo tbh.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Only really need to up your RAM and GFX card I think.

Best bet is to save your money and wait for the open beta or at least specs of the open beta though. If you need a CPU upgrade, because it's Intel, you'll need a whole new computer.

[Purgatory]

Yeah, processor speed looks good enough. Should prolly bump up your ram to at least 5GB and go with at least a 1gig video card, maybe an ATI HD model. Before you get a card, make sure you have the power supply. The average PC usually has a low-end Power Supply (250W-300W). Check the specs on the card to see what it requires.

I killed my old PC with this mistake. :(

[ClockShot]

I concur with Hasney and Purgatory. Looks like you gotta update the graphics card and throw another stick of RAM in and you should be good to go. But go over everything else with a fine tooth comb. If you're gonna get a better card, you may need to up your power supply to compensate.

[Purgatory]

I think I may have even posted something about my PC problems back when my PC was randomly rebooting, or just flat out shutting off on it's own. Didn't realize it was because my power supply couldn't handle the new vid card till I had already bought my new one and was trying to help someone else through a similar issue.

Needless to say: lesson learned. lol

[LoDownM]

Like Hasney, I'd say wait till the specs for BF3 come out before doing anything.

[LoDownM]

I think I may have even posted something about my PC problems back when my PC was randomly rebooting, or just flat out shutting off on it's own. Didn't realize it was because my power supply couldn't handle the new vid card till I had already bought my new one and was trying to help someone else through a similar issue.

Needless to say: lesson learned. lol


I was having this problem when I put a new video card in, computer was just shutting off, but the thing that confused the hell out of me was that it would only do it when I would try to play Shogun 2 :|

[Purgatory]

I was having this problem when I put a new video card in, computer was just shutting off, but the thing that confused the hell out of me was that it would only do it when I would try to play Shogun 2 :|

Yeah, mine would only do it while playing a certain game. Most of the time, it was while watching vids or while my wife was playing a game online.

Dunno, it was just so weird and random. I thought for sure it was a bad harddrive and I really didn't wanna dump any money into an already 7 year old PC. Happened that right around then was when I got my 401k payout from my last job, so we just bought a brand new HP. 21 inch HD monitor, 5gig ram, Multicore AMD processor, shitty vid card (ATI 3000 something, 256mb). I can't run alot of the newer games without a nicer card, but will need a bigger power supply. At least I know now. lol

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Yeah, I got lucky with this thing. Had a 35w CPU and and on board GFX when I bought it with 2gb RAM, but upgrading to 8gb, an 85w CPU and 560 GTX TI (with those funky PCI-E extra power supplies) has caused no issues.

[Extreme Angle]

How do you guys get a sort of "knowing" of this type of thing?
When you say all these '560 GTX TI' things, I need to google it to find out what it is...
Thinking of buying a PC Gamer magazine, perhaps subscribe, just to get on to the scene :).
Really feeling the need for PC gaming...

[#BROKEN Hasney]

This is quite regularly updated and is well worth your time looking at:

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/ghiwf/475_gaming_system_w_upgrade_options/

It is American links, but the parts shoud be in a similar price range. I would recommend going to a 560 TI GFX card instead of the 460 though, decent speed bump and drinks less power with lower heat output than the 460.

Looks like Nvidia and ATi should have a new series of cards out by the end of the year, so defo wait either for them with some cash to burn, or the current generation of cards will come down in price just before.

[Purgatory]

How do you guys get a sort of "knowing" of this type of thing?
When you say all these '560 GTX TI' things, I need to google it to find out what it is...
Thinking of buying a PC Gamer magazine, perhaps subscribe, just to get on to the scene :).
Really feeling the need for PC gaming...


Experience (I'm 36 now, been dealing with PC's since Windows 3.1) and just reading PC magazines, tech forums, etc. With all that, there's still stuff that I don't understand and have to ask others.

PC Gaming is much more rewarding, I think, because of modding. It adds more to games that you can on a console. BUT, I prefer console gaming because it's easier for me right now, and I don't have to worry about system specs not being up to par.

If your PC has the horsepower, then by all means. If mine had the muscle right now for a higher end game, I'd prolly play more on the PC.