Heya.
Wife's computer has bricked so I need to replace some bits and pieces. the extent of her use is Web/email/netflix and MMOs, so GW2 Wow and anything else in that genre which is graphically scalable, and still pleasant to look at (cartoony graphics).
When I'm building my rigs, I go for as close to enthusiast as I can afford, but she wants to spent the absolute minimum, and that's not a familiar territory for me at all, so am happy to take advice.
She's not interested in the latest and greatest techs and as long as the game looks passable she's happy. Another thing she would like is a non noisy solution, unlike her current handmedown which was one of my older high end rigs and sounds like a jet engine (Radeon reference card loud).
Outgoing rig:
core i7 920
12GB Ram
Radeon HD 4890
I'm fairly certain after previous troubleshooting and swapping out that the gfx card is the main culprit (hopefully only), so I'm going to do a phased upgrade starting with that and a fresh HDD too.
So any opinions on the card? I'll start researching on myself too but the choice on this end of the scale seems bewildering, with newer lower end cards and older middle and high end ones.
Any help appreciated.
Wife's computer has bricked so I need to replace some bits and pieces. the extent of her use is Web/email/netflix and MMOs, so GW2 Wow and anything else in that genre which is graphically scalable, and still pleasant to look at (cartoony graphics).
When I'm building my rigs, I go for as close to enthusiast as I can afford, but she wants to spent the absolute minimum, and that's not a familiar territory for me at all, so am happy to take advice.
She's not interested in the latest and greatest techs and as long as the game looks passable she's happy. Another thing she would like is a non noisy solution, unlike her current handmedown which was one of my older high end rigs and sounds like a jet engine (Radeon reference card loud).
Outgoing rig:
core i7 920
12GB Ram
Radeon HD 4890
I'm fairly certain after previous troubleshooting and swapping out that the gfx card is the main culprit (hopefully only), so I'm going to do a phased upgrade starting with that and a fresh HDD too.
So any opinions on the card? I'll start researching on myself too but the choice on this end of the scale seems bewildering, with newer lower end cards and older middle and high end ones.
Any help appreciated.