How's this for my first gaming machine?

[mustbepbs]

Hello all! I am a frequent visitor to this site, first time poster. I'd like some feedback on my very first gaming rig. I am not a hardcore gamer, nor do I need a super machine to play Crysis 2 and the like. The most taxing it'll get is probably Lord of The Rings Online and MAYBE Elder Scrolls Skyrim. Anyway, here's my build:

MSI A75MA-G55 AMD A Series Socket FM1 Motherboard
AMD Quad-Core A8-3850 2.9GHz Radeon HD 6550D APU
Corsair CMX4GX3M1A1333C9 XMS3 4GB DDR3 RAM - x2
Seagate 1TB SATA 3G Barracuda® Green Hard Drive
Thermaltake V2 ATX Mid Tower Case with 450W PSU

Now I've read pretty deeply into the integrated GPU in the A8-3850 and I liked the benchmarks at stock, even more OC'ed. I am willing to spend a little extra for the dual graphics, but as I said I really liked the GPU's numbers alone.

Thanks for the feedback, gentlemen.

 

[spillz1123]

What kind of benchmarks did it get for some of the more graphic intensive games?

I've seen it get decent marks on s.t.a.l.k.e.r http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1655/15/

From the looks of it, I think it could run Crysis 2, and as far as I can tell Crysis 1 was the problem with most computers.

As for Skyrim, I think it will run it because I read that it is going to be similar to the xbox 360 version, and if that's the case then for sure most Pcs will run it at medium settings.

I wonder how much of a boost of fps it would get with a cheap 5570 1gb ddr3 or a 6450 ddr5 512mb, I wonder if it would help things or create some type of bottleneck to make things slower?

 

[spillz1123]

Well that review was actually the 3650, but still impressive. I'm currently reading other reviews on the newer one.

 

[spillz1123]

Btw, which resolution do you play or intend to play at?

 

[boiler1990]

I'd probably try adding a cheaper 6670 or the like and see what kind of boost you get with the graphics. Your resolution will affect the performance though.

 

[mustbepbs]

I'd be hooking it up to my HD TV so close to the max it can go without sacrificing performance. I'm going to give it a shot and see what the performance is like without the dual graphics and go from there. The mobo has integrated graphics already (says Radeon HD6000 series and that's whats supported) and I wonder if that would work with the chip as dual graphics? Or do you need a stand alone card? Any thoughts?

 

[boiler1990]

The APU is what supports the integrated graphics (like the Intel HD2000/3000 on the new Sandy Bridge CPUs). Adding a discrete card will allow you to use the dual graphics mode.

HDTVs run at 1920x1080 for future reference I'd be curious to see what you get on that.

 

[jackspeed]

can we get your budget?

 

[mustbepbs]

My budget won't go above 500. I think I'll just stick with the APU for now and see what I get before I add another card for dual graphics. Everything else look kosher?

 

[mustbepbs]

Best answer selected by mustbepbs.