5 year old gaming rig needs upgrades!

[mark1413]

Built this computer 5 years ago, and it just isnt cutting it anymore.

I want to be able to play my games without lagging to **** during big fights and running constant low frame rates on low quality gfx settings.

any suggestions?

I was thinking mainly i need to upgrade my cpu, ram, and graphics card. will this work for me?

NOTE: my build below has changed. the graphics card blew out about a year or so ago and i got a cheaper one at the time, an Nvidia geforce gt 430

EDIT: what upgrade would yield the best results? its gonna be a piece by piece thing, i cant drop a lot of money all at once.

would it be the ram?

 

[Ornamexito]

You said you want to play games without lagging - so the first thing i would change is the CPU. the GT 430 will do for now.
The problem is that you will also have to spend money on a new motherboard, and DDR3 RAM otherwise you wont be able to change the CPU.

Also if you want to upgrade the RAM first, dont buy DDR2 for this motherboard because when you will buy a new motherboard for a new CPU it will be DDR3.
My suggestion is start with the motherboard and CPU

 

[Trotter]

Ouch.

First off I would go for either a new graphics card or a quad core CPU. If you go with a CPU you will be restricting yourself to remaining with you current mobo, or at least staying with the AM3 socket as you upgrade.

For GPU I would recommend this 560 Ti 440:
Newegg.com - MSI N560GTX-Ti 448 Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 448 Cores (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

It is the cheapest one on NewEgg. I have a non-440 MSI and it handles BF3 super nice.

For a CPU this one will work in your current mobo according to Asus's page:
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ADX640WFGMBOX

 

[Ornamexito]

Yeah you wont get a better CPU with an AM2 socket so at least go for AM3

 

[PP Mguire]

Certain AM2 boards can actually handle newer AM2+ chips if the board makers produces bios support for it. As was said, the 640 propus would handle it.

OP as long as you want to play non-demanding CPU games I suggest getting the GTX 660 over that 560ti and if you can upgrade the motherboard/CPU/RAM. If you can't you could wait it out with the 6000+ easily. You would only see some lag dips on games like Skyrim or GTA4 which like to each CPU for breakfast.

 

[mark1413]

thanks for all the replies.

i was somewhat fearful that i would need to upgrade my mobo...

i really dont know what to do. should i get a lower end cpu and some ram, or should i start witha new mobo and cpu and then get some ram and later on address the gfx card.

would my current mobo make any use out of some new ddr3 1600mhz ram?

 

[Ornamexito]

If your current mobo has ddr2 ram then it won't support ddr3. The best thing to do is to get a decent mobo and a cpu and some ddr3 ram. it mayy cost you more but it will last for longer and you will be able to play games in good quality for longer.

 

[PP Mguire]

No it wouldn't as that board and CPU are both limited to DDR2.

Your biggest problem is the GPU. The GT430 is quite weak. I would address that first, then when you can upgrade the rest. I can pop my GTX 580 in my 6000+ rig to show you what kind of figured you would be looking at with a stock 6000+ and 4GB DDR2 800.

 

[mark1413]

heres what im thinking:

cpu: Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K

mobo: Newegg.com - ASUS P8B75-V LGA 1155 Intel B75 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard this should be fine right? i have no plans of using two gpus so the one pci slot oughta be fine. I know nothing about mobos, so please advise if this is not a good one.

ram, ill just but some new ddr3 ram to go with it. prob 8 or 16gb @ 1600+

 

[mark1413]

No it wouldn't as that board and CPU are both limited to DDR2.

Your biggest problem is the GPU. The GT430 is quite weak. I would address that first, then when you can upgrade the rest. I can pop my GTX 580 in my 6000+ rig to show you what kind of figured you would be looking at with a stock 6000+ and 4GB DDR2 800.

ok, good input. appreciate the help