Help and advice wanted on upgrading to run BF3

[northmoor]

Hi guys,

I would like to upgrade my homebuilt system to run BF3 when it comes out at the end of the month.

here are the specs as is

Win XP sp3
Core 2 Duo 6600@2.4 GHz (unclocked)
Conroe 945G-DVI motherboard (LGA 775), BIOS 1.20
4 Gb DDR2 RAM (Dual channel)
GeForce 8800 GTS 640 Mb PCI-E graphics card (DirectX 9.0C)
3 x 320 Gb SATA hard drives C (System and programmes/games), D (TV and films), E/F (ITunes and photos)
2 x optical drives (1 x DVD-RAM, 1 x DVD-RW)

This system has done me proud and still works fine but its five years old now.

I dont have a lot of money to spend so for the moment I will have to keep the mobo and the RAM and have been advised to upgrade either the processor or the graphics card.

I'm happy with XP sp3 and I also want to keep my original C drive so that I can still run XP programmes/games

The Win 7 upgrade advisor says that my rig passes the requirements to run Win 7 Pro 64 therefore in order to run BF3 I will be installing Win 7 Pro as a dual boot option on a seperate 1 Tb hard drive and I will use this purely for running any new games which require Win 7 and for back up storage.

(Eventually I will probably migrate everything over to Win 7 and just have XP for running the older games).

I would like to know the best options I have for upgrading the CPU and the graphics card.

(and if any of you would recommend "overclocking" the system to improve performance, bearing in mind I've never touched the motherboard nor do I have any experience in doing it).

Or is it time to start building another PC? (suggestions welcome, £500 limit).

Regards

 

[northmoor]

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) 32-Bit
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ or Althon X2 2.7 GHz)
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card (AMD): DirectX 10.1 compatible with 512 MB RAM (ATI RADEON 3000, 4000, 5000 OR 6000 series, with ATI RADEON 3870 or higher performance)
Graphics Card (NVIDIA): DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 OR 500 series with NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT or higher performance)
Sound card : DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD ROM Drive

Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows 7 64-Bit
Processor: Quad-Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 or ATI RADEON 6950)
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD ROM Drive

I would suggest picking up a copy of windows 7 from newegg since you are going to need it to run BF3, they have a deal on it for $84.99 with this promo code - EMCJKJJ42

the deal for it ends in 28hrs

For cpu, check and see if you live near a micro center www.microcenter.com they have gg deals on mobo/cpu.

What is your budget? We need to know this so its easier for us to help you find the right setup.

If you can try to pick up an i5 2500k / p67 or z68 mobo along with a 560ti a new power supply and the win7 os.

What case are you using? Is it big enough to fit large graphics cards?

What power supply are you using? You will most likely need a new one.

Let us know so we can help you.

Hi, thanks for quick reply.

Thanks also for system req for the game, it looks like my rig as is will just about pass muster on the minimum requirements front.

I've already got win 7 pro in the mail, as for my budget well I'm pretty limited to whatever I can pick up on Ebay, which will depend on any CPU and graphics card recommendations I get for my current mobo which is a ConRoe 945G-DVI.


My case is a generic 16 x 18 inch box with a 400w PSU and it can fit the GeForce 8800GTS in with 2 inches to spare from the sidewall (it's 9 inches long from the end wall).

I'm also in the UK so my budget for a new build rig, £500, would be about $750 if that's any help

 

[northmoor]

Thanks p07h34d

Ebay was if anybody gave me suggestions to upgrade current graphics card/processor on the conroe 945g mobo as a stop gap until I have the cash to build a better rig.

Cant do newegg because they dont post to the UK.

however your advice on a new system was very welcome, I've just done a quick google for UK suppliers and found

i5 £133
P67 £85
560Ti £143
Case £48
PSU £75

£484 !!

What was your recommendation for RAM?

Regards

 

[tatter_punch]

Go with the quad I5 and at least a GTX 550 probably more if you can afford it, and your ram may be ok though it couldnt hurt to add in another 2 gigs or so just because its DDR2. Id recommend any corsair RAM. Im running 4 DDR3 and treats me beautifully

 

[tatter_punch]

yup id avoid ebay fer sure, you dont know what the pervious user truly ran it at i mean they could be selling you an old worn out CPU and that was just be annoying, always buy new. Though ebay could have some good deals of course just be cautious when buying from a place like that