Christmas upgrade

[ejrocks63]

Sup guys, since Christmas is coming I thinks it time that I upgrade my computer. I'm not sure what needs to be upgraded so I want your opinions. As of now my specs are...

Processor: Intel Core i3 CPU 550 3.20GHz

Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 5750

Mother Board: Dell Inc. 0C2KJT A00

Ram: 4GB

Power Supply: 650watts

I play a lot of games on steam like L4D but mostly I play Warcraft in my spare time. When I play WoW, I usually get frame drops in major citys and while I don't have serious lag it would be nice if it looked crisp. I have seen streamers running wow above 60fps in fights while im sometimes below 30fps. I would appreciate any recommendations that you guys give me that will boost my gaming performance

 

[hilltopmonk]

hmm....

first things first, how much are you looking at spending?

you are going to need a new graphics card, but as your using a Dell it is highly likely your PSU is going to be a made-to-fit job. So it'll be missing needed connectors.

Also what type of case is it? (if you dont know the type of case "tower" or "desktop" will do.

that should be all you need for a WOW machine, but if budget is permitting other stuff can be done too.

 

[ejrocks63]

Im willing to spend anything under $200 for a new graphics card.

I had gotten rid of the PSU that came with the Dell computer and installed a new one. The old one was like 250W.

I don't know the specific type of case but the Dell model is a Inspiron 580

 

[djangoringo]

Best video cards 200$ :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133470 (the best)


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125451 (if you want cheaper)

Both are low power demanding for the psu, your cpu will not bottleneck the cards.
Both comes with different games.

 

[hilltopmonk]

before committing, check that this will physically fit in your case.

some of the newer cards are freaking masssive. - length is what you need to be focusing on here.

also worth checking for the power consumption of the card. - seeing as you did not say you output power (in Watts) of your PSU.

 

[djangoringo]

The 660 gtx is really a small card for it's performance, there's a one now at 189.99$ after rebate 169.99$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500270

It's length is 7.53", it will fit for sure.
As for the power consumption it draws less than 150w full load :

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_660/images/power_maximum.gif

As long as it's a decent psu with a 6 pin pcie connector it will do.