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Upgrade advice-budget around 200-250 GBP

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August 25, 2014 9:34:17 AM

Firstly, apologies. I submitted a request for help around May but due to financial constraints and moving house etc, I never got around to it. I'm looking to upgrade my computer. Main purpose is for mid-range gaming, usually a couple of years old. Also watch a lot of video/sports online. I'm comfortable with building and overclocking.

Current config (taken from CPU-Z):

MOBO: ASRock G31M-S
CPU: Intel E6500 Dual core. Clock speed 2925.56mHz
RAM: 4gb DDR2 freq 332.5
GFx: NVidia Geforce GTX 550 Ti
PSU: Winpower ATX-450


Approximate Purchase Date: This week

Budget Range: 200-250 GBP

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Mid-level gaming, live sports, general browsing

Are you buying a monitor: No


Parts to Upgrade:

Desperately need PSU upgrade.
MOBO
CPU
+/- RAM

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preference

Location: United Kingdom

Parts Preferences: by brand or type: No preference

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe (but doubt it given price range!)

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Old computer, have been upgrading bits and pieces here and there but it is struggling to keep up with newer games. I play TheHunter a fair amount and want to increase my FPS from 20fps to something more reasonable. Keen to play DCS-A10C as well.

Include a list of any parts you have already selected with descriptively labeled links fo

More about : upgrade advice budget 200 250 gbp

August 25, 2014 9:46:39 AM

Here you go, your budget is super tight but this will be a great budget option at 1080p or less.

There's almost nothing worth saving from your old build, the motherboard, RAM and processed were totally defunct
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£43.14 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus H81M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£39.37 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£35.09 @ Aria PC)
Total: £257.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-25 17:45 BST+0100
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August 25, 2014 9:49:03 AM

Do you know, doing some reading around maybe you should keep the 550ti and put the money into a better processor.... Give me a few mins!
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August 25, 2014 9:50:53 AM

Thanks so much plywrlw. I thought I could salvage the 550 Ti from that but if you think it is worth binning, I'll be happy to push my budget up a bit!
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August 25, 2014 9:51:33 AM

Here, the 550ti isn't much behind a 260x in performance so keep it for a little while longer. The CPU will stand you in good stead for a good while.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£126.14 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus H81M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£39.37 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£35.09 @ Aria PC)
Total: £260.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-25 17:49 BST+0100
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August 25, 2014 10:00:20 AM

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£57.31 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI A55M-E33 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£28.19 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Kingston Blu Red Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.37 @ PC World Business)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F1 DT 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£22.00 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R7 250X 1GB Video Card (£64.98 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Zalman ZM-T3 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£19.40 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£35.09 @ Aria PC)
Total: £259.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-25 18:00 BST+0100
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August 25, 2014 10:03:33 AM

But the performance of the 250x is so similar to the 550ti so what's the point of the above build really? Surely better to build a better foundation of CPU and processor then upgrade to a great GPU later
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August 25, 2014 10:03:55 AM

ScrewySqrl said:
..


Thanks for the reply. I'm happy to keep my existing HDD (250gb) and case, +/- my video card. Would that influence your choice?
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August 25, 2014 10:12:00 AM

in that case

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6350 3.9GHz 6-Core Processor (£92.40 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£53.23 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£35.09 @ Aria PC)
Total: £240.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-25 18:11 BST+0100
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August 25, 2014 10:17:30 AM

But for an extra 20 quid the OP could get an i5. A much better chip.
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August 25, 2014 10:53:01 AM

plywrlw said:
But the performance of the 250x is so similar to the 550ti so what's the point of the above build really? Surely better to build a better foundation of CPU and processor then upgrade to a great GPU later


plywrlw said:
But for an extra 20 quid the OP could get an i5. A much better chip.


Is the i5 4570 worth the price difference from the 4440?
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August 25, 2014 11:02:34 AM

Its a nice little step up but you probably won't notice the extra 100mhz and 50mhz turbo. The 4570 is only 7 quid more than the 4440 and will definitely work with that motherboard and gives you the same turbo boost and 100mhz extra clock. The 4590 might require a BIOS update before it boots.
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August 25, 2014 11:05:07 AM

plywrlw said:
Its a nice little step up but you probably won't notice the extra 100mhz and 50mhz turbo. The 4570 is only 7 quid more than the 4440 and will definitely work with that motherboard and gives you the same turbo boost and 100mhz extra clock. The 4590 might require a BIOS update before it boots.


Sorry, I don't understand what you meant by that post! Did you mean to put another model number in there? What will the 4570 give me the boost and extra clock over?
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August 25, 2014 11:08:10 AM

sineapse said:
plywrlw said:
Its a nice little step up but you probably won't notice the extra 100mhz and 50mhz turbo. The 4570 is only 7 quid more than the 4440 and will definitely work with that motherboard and gives you the same turbo boost and 100mhz extra clock. The 4590 might require a BIOS update before it boots.


Sorry, I don't understand what you meant by that post! Did you mean to put another model number in there? What will the 4570 give me the boost and extra clock over?


Over the 4440. I'm answering your question just above my post, sorry to be confusing!
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August 25, 2014 11:20:40 AM

No, I think it was me just misreading!

Any disadvantages to using a single 8gb RAM module, such as this instead of 2x4gb?
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August 25, 2014 11:49:41 AM

Its slightly slower running in single channel. The difference is worth buying the dual channel sticks (can be 5% or more)
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August 25, 2014 12:22:52 PM

Thank you! Ordered, will wait for the parts and see how it goes :) 
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August 25, 2014 12:44:32 PM

Oooh exciting! Enjoy your new build and please get in touch if you need any help :) 
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August 28, 2014 6:43:52 AM

plywrlw said:
Oooh exciting! Enjoy your new build and please get in touch if you need any help :) 


Went for the i5 4570, seemed to get good reviews for a marginal price difference.
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August 28, 2014 2:58:44 PM

sineapse said:
plywrlw said:
Oooh exciting! Enjoy your new build and please get in touch if you need any help :) 


Went for the i5 4570, seemed to get good reviews for a marginal price difference.



Good choice, that's my processor :) 
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