In which order should I upgrade my PC?

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Toncey

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Mar 11, 2013
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I'm 14 and my parents are extremely cheap. My birthday is on September 23rd and
I plan to spend 168 dollars in upgrades on my ancient Acer Aspire E380. As of now my specs are as is:
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ @2.3 Ghz
- 2GB DDR2 RAM
- HD 6450 GDDR3 1GB
- 250W Power Supply

The new parts I plan to order are:
- 2GB DDR2 RAM (4GB is the max my mobo can hold) - 37.99
AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ @ 3.0GHZ - 34.88
Sapphire HD 7750 GDDR5 1GB - 94.99

In the event that the cheap bastards do not pay in full, in what priority should I get these parts?


 
Solution
n1ghtr4v3n
ditch the cpu upgrade as those options arent much different. go for memory and gpu. but the new gpu may get bottlenecked. even if its bottlenecked its much better performance for you.

My advise would be to save some more for a better cpu.

good luck.
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n1ghtr4v3n

n1ghtr4v3n

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Feb 27, 2013
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ditch the cpu upgrade as those options arent much different. go for memory and gpu. but the new gpu may get bottlenecked. even if its bottlenecked its much better performance for you.

My advise would be to save some more for a better cpu.

good luck.
 
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Solution
angaddev

angaddev

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Jan 10, 2012
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$168, that's exact. Anyway, before upgrading the cpu or gpu, definitely upgrade the motherboard to AM3+, since steamroller is coming out soon. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157366) Then upgrade your cpu. Since you're coming from athlon 64, practically ANYTHING is better, so get this : (http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Athlon-II-X3-450-3-2-GHz-Triple-Core-ADX450WFGMBOX-Processor-/281139335803?pt=CPUs&hash=item417535d27b) $70+$50 = $120, so $48 for a GPU o_O
http://www.ebay.com/itm/XFX-ATI-Radeon-HD-5750-HD-575X-ZNDC-1-GB-GDDR5-SDRAM-PCI-Express-x16-/181180775485?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item2a2f373c3d
This 5750 is better than your 6450, but by no means is it good. Get a paper route or something, save an extra 75 bucks, and then get a used 6950, unless you need it now.
 
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Toncey

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Mar 11, 2013
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Oh, and when I say cheap it doesn't mean they give me a low amount of income. It means they take the money I receive. This is about a once in a year oppurtunity for me.
 
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kiaff75

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Jun 10, 2013
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Youre pretty limited with the am2 socket. Unless you can update your motherboards bios to accept am2+ processors the athlon 64x2 5000+ is pretty much the best you can get. Upgrading anything besides your GPU (which WILL be bottlenecked) on that build would pretty much be useless. RAM might help a little but trust me.. in the long run youre better off replacing the whole cpu/mobo/ram setup. What games are you playing? You can rebuild for a reasonable price if your games arent very demanding.
 
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Toncey

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Skyrim is as demanding as it gets, friend. I can play on High detail at 800x600 subsitute msaa with fxaa. (People on youtube play at 1024x768, but I do not have the tolerance to allow my minimum fps to drop into the high teens). In my vast knowledge of graphics capabilities, I figured that if I got a card 4 times faster than my current one, I could play at 720p on high. (Somewhat 720p, since once again in my vast wisdom I traded in my 16:9 monitor for a 4:3 one because I thought bigger meant better.)
 
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Toncey

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I suppose a a mobo upgrade would be better in the long run, but that would mean applying for a job. Companies say the minimum age for applicants is 14, but they will still choose a 16 year old over a 14 year old regardless of the 14 year olds AP classes and examplary grades (thats a lie, I got an 89 on my report card ._.). I want to enjoy gaming while I still can, which means while I'm not juggling college courses and part time jobs, or when I'm forty and out of college, but have lost my appetite.
 
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kiaff75

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Yeah skyrim is pretty demanding as well. Just making sure you wernt upgrading to make minecraft look better :p Also see if your mobo is able to update to accept am2+ socket cpus. If it is the AMD 8650 toliman triple core isnt a bad little cpu, I had one before my currrent build and I found that used for $30. Was able to get a fairly decent overclock out of it as well.
 
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Toncey

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I just saw a bastard on youtube who had a similar setup to which I was thinking (psych), he would have 4gigs of ddr3 ram where I would have DDR2, we would both have the same processor, ... wait no this is all wrong, this asshole was able to overclock his shit beyond proportion because of his fancy psu and cooling system. >_>
 
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kiaff75

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It more than likely isn't anyways, most mobos that come in a manufacturer build like that aren't. But anyways, If it really comes down to these items being the only components you can get Id get the gpu, then ram, then cpu. Lets hope your psu can power it all though :/

or you can just get an xbox<-------blasphemy
 
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Toncey

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:L Nonononononnonono with this fucked up system I spend more time in the Skyrim workshop than playing the game itself. Mods make Skyrim the awesome game that it is. Never has an Elder Scrolls game had such a large fan-base. Ok, someone just hand it to me straight. What must I do within this goddamn budget to achieve 720p with high detail by my shitty excuse of a birthday.
 
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