Need Advise on upgrading my pc

[naweeng]

Hi All,

I am looking to upgrade my pc.

I am looking for a budget gaming build.

My current config is as follows:

CPU - AMD Athlon x2 5200+
GPU - Nvidia 8800GT
RAM - 2GB
Display - 15"
PSU - Corsair 400 W


There are things i m not looking to do with my system:

1. overclocking
2. cross fire sli


things i would like to have:
1. ssd caching technology as i m planing on 120 gb of SSD i might probably go with OCZ's offerings.
2. wanna play the latest games at decent frame rates i don't wanna shell out a huge amount of money for that awesome frame rate but then decent frame rates for gaming is must.



Currently i m looking towards upgrading only my Mbd,CPU & RAM

and i have decided on the following :

CPU - i3 2120
MBD - Asus p8h77 m le
RAM - 2X4GB corsair
SSD - OCZ vertex 2 120 gb

I am looking forward to upgrade my GPU and Display(22") in the future. So these future upgrades need to be considered as well.


I want advise on if these components are correct or you feel i should change them with other options.

Do ask me if you need further details on this.

 

[oxycontiiin]

Here's my advice. If you want budget gaming, then you take as much budget as you possibly can and dump it on a solid video card. Then you 'budget' your remaining components until you get an acceptable balance of products that all cooperate with each other. But if gaming is what you want, there really is no secret to it. The bigger the video card you get, the more you can ramp up those settings. SSD's are fun and stupid fast, but they're expensive. Especially 120GB. Take that money and take out one of those memory cards and throw that money at a Radeon 6xxx series and you're golden. Memory is cheap and it's tempting to buy more because of that, but unless you're doing some very serious computing operations, that extra 4GB of RAM will never be touched. If you're on a budget, then tips like that are what is going to fund the whole operation. But if you have the loot, mobo's are always worthy upgrades considering every piece of equipment you buy is attached to it, and will inevitably be processed through the cpu, making that an equally valid consideration. But the take away is screw the SSD and cheap out on the RAM. I'm sure someone is going to come on here and tell me I'm horrible for saying that, but RAM is not very complex. I started out with a 4GB stick for 25 bucks and never had a problem with it. Don't forget, you're on a budget!

 

[g-unit1111]

First off I'd recommend skipping the SSD unless you have some sort of secondary storage. OCZ Sandforce drives are horrible choices due to their instability. Go with a Crucial M4, Plextor PX-M3, or Samsung 830 - those are the best Marvell-based drives around. OCZ switched controllers for the Vertex 4 and use a new one called Indilinx for it, but even with a firmware update it's still not up to snuff.

What is the budget here - and are you based in the US or not (knowing local availability helps) ? I can suggest parts if I knew that.

 

[batuchka]

1st if you are settled on a 1920 x 1080 resolution monitor, for a gaming rig on a budget cut out the frills, bells and whistles and try to snag a HD 7850 or better as the price/performance for these is great whilst being reachable for budget gaming rigs

Next never skimp on the PSU and if you could snag an 80+ Gold PSU - a dependable , efficient PSU eventually pays for itself with the power savings off your bill ^^

 

[naweeng]

First off I'd recommend skipping the SSD unless you have some sort of secondary storage. OCZ Sandforce drives are horrible choices due to their instability. Go with a Crucial M4, Plextor PX-M3, or Samsung 830 - those are the best Marvell-based drives around. OCZ switched controllers for the Vertex 4 and use a new one called Indilinx for it, but even with a firmware update it's still not up to snuff.

What is the budget here - and are you based in the US or not (knowing local availability helps) ? I can suggest parts if I knew that.

I do have a secondary storage , seagate barracuda 1TB(missed mentioning in the original post).
I m not based in the US and parts here in bangalore(India) cost a tad bit expensive than in us ( the mbd that i mentioned costs around 135$ and the processor $125), the parts that i have mentioned are available though.

 

[naweeng]

Here's my advice. If you want budget gaming, then you take as much budget as you possibly can and dump it on a solid video card. Then you 'budget' your remaining components until you get an acceptable balance of products that all cooperate with each other. But if gaming is what you want, there really is no secret to it. The bigger the video card you get, the more you can ramp up those settings. SSD's are fun and stupid fast, but they're expensive. Especially 120GB. Take that money and take out one of those memory cards and throw that money at a Radeon 6xxx series and you're golden. Memory is cheap and it's tempting to buy more because of that, but unless you're doing some very serious computing operations, that extra 4GB of RAM will never be touched. If you're on a budget, then tips like that are what is going to fund the whole operation. But if you have the loot, mobo's are always worthy upgrades considering every piece of equipment you buy is attached to it, and will inevitably be processed through the cpu, making that an equally valid consideration. But the take away is screw the SSD and cheap out on the RAM. I'm sure someone is going to come on here and tell me I'm horrible for saying that, but RAM is not very complex. I started out with a 4GB stick for 25 bucks and never had a problem with it. Don't forget, you're on a budget!

I can definitely cut down on the ram but they are not very expensive though. On the ssd front i can cut down to 60 gb variation i think but then i have read that SSD caching, that the aforemenioned board supports does speed up application launching and even boot times by some extent and those features would be nice to have.

 

[naweeng]

First off I'd recommend skipping the SSD unless you have some sort of secondary storage. OCZ Sandforce drives are horrible choices due to their instability. Go with a Crucial M4, Plextor PX-M3, or Samsung 830 - those are the best Marvell-based drives around. OCZ switched controllers for the Vertex 4 and use a new one called Indilinx for it, but even with a firmware update it's still not up to snuff.

What is the budget here - and are you based in the US or not (knowing local availability helps) ? I can suggest parts if I knew that.

And yeah my budget would be preferably 400$