Trying to upgrade a Budget Gaming PC.

[Truhls]

Ok well i don't have much money and im trying to upgrade my PC means it has been quite a few years with me getting money for Christmas. I am Going to have around 200-250 Dollars to spend. I realize this isnt much so bear with me. I Use this system for pretty much gaming /web surfing.




My Preferred websites are whatever is cheapest . Same for Brand.

I can overlock, dont really need to SLI unless its cheaper for the performance upgrade.

Im using a 24 inch LCD at 1920x1080.


I am currently running a rig i built a few years ago, here are the specs.


ASUS M2N-E SLI Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131096&cm_re=M2N-E_SLI-_-13-131-096-_-Product

EVGA Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS GPU

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600.html

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz (OC'd to 2.6 GHZ)

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16819103774

2gb Corsair XMS2 Family RAM ( Not sure how to check exactly which one i have )

http://www.corsair.com/products/xms2/default.aspx

But it is one of those 5-5-5-18 2gig ones.

Also a Corsair 500watt PSU with quite a few connectors so keep that in mind if possible.



ok so my problem is this. i want to upgrade my PC. I need to upgrade all 4 of those but dont have the money right now. so i can only upgrade 1-2 Parts. I Need to know what ones to upgrade in what order, and for what. For price ranges i have been looking at the GeForce GTS 250 1GB for GPU.

Possibly http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133266&cm_re=GeForce_GTS_250_1GB-_-14-133-266-_-Product

Or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130514&cm_re=GeForce_GTS_250_1GB-_-14-130-514-_-Product

I have had nothing but good things happen from EVGA when my 8600 GT Died ( they gave me a GTS For free, was a nice upgrade ) So i have some mild trust in them + their support was awesome for me.

My other problem is i am in dire need of RAM. I would LIKE to get DDR3 Ram so i dont have to upgrade in the future. the problem with this is my MB Does not support DDR3 Ram. so if i go this route i need a new MB that will hold my old GPU/CPU while using the new RAM Until i can upgrade them.

I believe my CPU is ok for now as it runs most games without quite being maxed out yet ( Mostly playing games like MW2/Aion with mostly High/Medium High settings ) but im trying to get the Best gaming PC for the buck i can get at the moment.

So you all can see my dilemma (hopefully). I have been doing my best to read up on all the articles on here, but so much of it is confusing as i havent kept up with this stuff at all since building my PC. So i am hoping one of you can help me out on which would be better to upgrade now/first.

Thank you all for your help ( If you do help me ).

 

[mavanhel]

Alright....let's see what we can do here. Now I would suggest updating your mother board and CPU to create some more future proofing and since your graphics card isn't actually that bad. Also by updating your mobo you'll need to get some DDR3 ram which is what you wanted. Here are my suggestions:

CPU: AMD Athlon II x2 240 Regor socket AM3 $58

Mobo: ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX $84.99 ($74.99 after MIR)

This gives us around $100 to find some RAM.

I would go with either one of these:
OCZ Obsidian 4GB $109.99 (before $20 MIR)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB $91.99

I'd suggest the G.SKILL as it is the higher quality ram.

Total cost:
OCZ: 221.98 (after MIR)
G.SKILL: 224.98 (after MIR)

Hope this helps.

edit: Just so you know there will be absolutely no SLI/XFire capability on that motherboard, but it doesn't sound like you need it anyways.

 

[mavanhel]

I'm sorry, you're right admin. I screwed up and used newegg.ca for everything except the CPU. I'll fix that right away.

 

[mavanhel]

Alright, now it should be fixed, and you may notice the the price changed a fair bit. So here it's probably best to go with the G.SKILL

 

[Truhls]

is this Mobo compatible with newer CPU's ? Says only AMD chipsets as well so im guessing i wouldnt be able to upgrade to an i5/i7 with this mobo?

Also i dont care if i need to use the same site or not, just what is cheapest.

 

[Truhls]

Would it be worth it to spend the extra 40-50 bucks on this set up?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131609

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706

I realize that is a quad core, but i can overclock. would it be worth getting over the faster dual core?

 

[LStaunton]

for gaming, atm the games dont utilize the 4 cores but your pc does, say the game might use 2 while 2 cores work on background things, msn...

I would go with quad as its future proof, and upgrade ur mboard + the gkillz ram. Next christmas you can buy urself a gcard xD

 

[frozenlead]

is this Mobo compatible with newer CPU's ? Says only AMD chipsets as well so im guessing i wouldnt be able to upgrade to an i5/i7 with this mobo?

Also i dont care if i need to use the same site or not, just what is cheapest.

No motherboard supports both AMD and Intel processors.

 

[Truhls]

No motherboard supports both AMD and Intel processors.

Damn was afraid of that.

Alright thanks everyone for the help! I believe this is what ill be getting unless anyone else has any good ideas/advice