Wanting to upgrade my old gaming rig

[rnice9542]

Hello,
I'm fairly new to PC building and am interested in upgrading to run the current games Planetside 2, Bioshock Infinite, Guild Wars 2 etc... on decent settings on my little 22" TV. I'm on a pretty tight budget of $200, perhaps a bit more if I end up selling my 360.

My current set up is:
ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
Corsair 4gb DDR3
AMD HD 6450
Windows Vista 64-bit
Mad Dog 550W PSU

My current intention is to buy the HD 7850 since it comes with two games but I'm unsure if my rig can power it. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[nathanial117]

i would recomend the amd 7770 its only 125 and offers great preformance, and use the rest for other things such as more ram, i would recomend 8gb, or u could just get the 7850 if you really want

 

[ARICH5]

the machine specs for bioshock infinite were released a few days ago...i can barely run it (see sig)

youll need more than a 200$ budget to get yours to play it.

 

[guanyu210379]

USD200?
I would first get HD6850/HD7770 and 4GB RAM...or only HD7850...

That will still not yet optimal for Bioshock 2 but it will help.....at least that is it for 200 bucks...I guess...

 

[marshallbradley]

The 7850 should be able to run on your rig. As a card it is very power efficient, and draws next to nothing. On a decent 650w powersupply it can run in Crossfire, so I'm sure there is no problem running it on your 550w power supply. The rest of your rig is decent, it will blow your 6450 out of the water.

Best of luck,

M

 

[scragnoff]

Hi rnice9542!

I suggest the first thing you should do is replace your power supply. Only go for trusted power supply manufacturers with 80+ efficiency ratings. Manufacturers like SeaSonic, Antec, XFX, or Corsair.

 

[marshallbradley]

I've heard that Mad Dog are just re-branded PSUs of a fairly high quality. Also if it's worked for him so far, I'm sure it's suitable. The video card would certainly make more of a noticeable difference.

M

 

[scragnoff]

I agree that the video card is the best upgrade for a massive performance boost.

I would not trust a company that is out of business, though.

Here's a link to users ranting about Mad Dog: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/deal-discussion/838093/

 

[rnice9542]

Thanks for the replies, I think for now I'll get the 7850 and 8G of extra ram and invest in a better power supply later on down the road.

 

[rnice9542]

Best answer selected by rnice9542.

 

[Rue22]

just get the 7850 and you'll be good to go, I had it in my older computer with a 500w supply, everything worked great and could almost max out everything in gw2, only reason why it couldn't is because of my cpu at the time.

I suggest getting the gigabyte http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125419

Its a great card.

 

[Glite]

i would recomend the amd 7770 its only 125 and offers great preformance, and use the rest for other things such as more ram, i would recomend 8gb, or u could just get the 7850 if you really want

Plus taxes and perhaps shipping 135