UPGRADING

[jamie951021]

hello there,
i am planning to upgrade my PC. Spending about $500 on it
I currently have a HP Pavilion P6340a
Motherboard: H-I41-uATX (Eton/EtonL)
RAM: 4GB. Speed: PC3-10600 MB/sec (message as PC3-8500)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD4350
Power Supply: 250W
Running Windows 7 64bit home edition.

I am planning to upgrade for battlefield 3 and am buying parts off www.pbtech.co.nz

any ideas on what to upgrade?

 

[Outlander_04]

I would look at pricespy.co.nz and compare the pbtech prices . Every pbtech shop seem to have different prices at times .

You wont be able to change the motherboard , or you will need a new copy of windows too .
You have enough memory.

The things I would look to change would be

The graphics card . AMD Radeons are better value in NZ than their nVidia equivalents usually
Sapphire 6870 $299+tax
http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=VGASAP6872&name=Sapphire-HD6870-1G-GDDR5-Video-card-Dual-link-DVI-
You are also going to need a better power supply
Antec 650 watt $119 + tax
http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=PSUANT0650&name=Antec-EA-650-Power-Supply-80-PLUS-certified--120mm

 

[jamie951021]

what about my processor?

 

[Outlander_04]

You would be limited to other core 2 duo's or quads and they pretty much blow your budget out of the water .
Theyre also 3 generations old so investing more money in one isnt a good return for your dollar .

Besides games, and particularly games at high graphic detail , need a strong graphics card more than they need a strong processor .
You could overclock the e7500 , and thats worth checking out . They usually have a ton of head room . There's a messageboard with complete instructions on how to overclock a C2D here on Toms .

I have gamed on a very similar spec rig and it plays Crysis on high settings on a 1080p monitor really well .