Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

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Trench
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Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Trench »

Creamy wrote:Any tips on upgrading my PC? There are so many to choose from and I don't really know what to look for. I'll probably only be playing DC but would like to record it smoothly and have the option for other games with better graphics. What should I be looking for in terms of specs?

Looking at buying used for $250 or less... if anyone wants to have a quick browse at this endless list I'd really appreciate it http://www.trademe.co.nz/browse/categor ... =price_asc
Getting a good value PC with limited investment is definitely possible. I cringe a bit to see most of these systems stating "Core2QuadCore" or "Core2Duo" processors; that's "too old of technology" in my opinion for something I want to newly-acquire and keep using for a few years. Despite it definitely falling into this price point; the prices for most of those available "Core2" machines feels like someone trying to maximize $$$ from unloading now-obsolete business-class machines that should really be going for under NZD$150.

If possible, I would wait it out to see if a dual-Xeon 2.4Gz 8GB or higher fell into my range, and jump on that. At this point there should be some circa 2008 Xeon systems that would be good but can't command premium price. But I'm not in NZ local market, so maybe I'm describing unicorns.

Wish I had seen this last month; just let go of two quad-Xeon 3.0Ghz 16GB HP xw6400 machines that could have been yours for the shipping. (But maybe that still wouldn't have been less than NZD$250! lol Stupid far reaches of the Earth.)
Creamy wrote:http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/desk ... 541605.htm What games could I run on a machine like this if I went for it? Just out of curiosity. Need some guru advice lol
2.5GHz and 8GB RAM are decent / minimum of what you're looking for in this range. Still cringing at the Core2Quad, just since my recollection of my Core2 machines wasn't very "snappy" performance. But I haven't run less than Xeon for quite some time, so my expectations might be unrealistic for what you'll actually find available if it must come from your local market.

GeForce 210 1GB is at least a game-capable card with apparently DirectX 10.1-level support. I would certainly play Battlefield 1942 on that machine; but that's a pretty low bar to meet. I'm not a good source of information on any other games that would play okay on those specs. It's certainly "the minimum" of graphics gaming performance.

I picked up "essentially new" Dell Precision T1650 quad-Xeon 3.6GHz 16GB machines for under US$400 recently (eBay), so I'm definitely thinking that machines like I just let go of (which are circa 2008 machines at this point) should be falling into your target range on occasion. But probably have to watch and snap them up.

If you were just looking for something to use at home for homework/internet/etc., I'd probably be willing to pull the trigger on Core2 at NZD$200 or less. But knowing you're wanting to play games, I think I'd hold out to see if a "dual-Xeon 2.4GHz 8GB or better" opportunity happens, if you can wait.

Let's see what other opinions are out there, too.

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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Creamy »

Trench, thanks heaps for such a great response.

There's no major hurry to upgrade so I will hold off on buying for a while until the right PC comes along with the specs you mentioned.

Much appreciated,

Creamy

:D
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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Mauser »

I have recently made almost a new computer for a friend of mine, and spent for it 1650 ARS, or 150 NZD. The specs are, an Asus p5g41t-m lx motherboard, an Intel e5200 cpu, 4gb DDR3 and no graphics card at all. I'm not counting the power supply, case and HDD as he already had that. I could test it only in DC, and I can assure you that it was damn smooth compared to the computer I am using now (E4600, 2gb ddr2). I loved it.

I don't know what the prices of hardware in New Zealand are, but I can tell you that in Argentina it's some expensive shit. So I'm sure you can buy something great for these kind of games for less than 200 NZD.

Hope it helped!
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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Mali Mrav »

creamy if u want to know what are the minimum recomended specs use this page http://www.game-debate.com
u can find out what specs u need for those games u want to play
and if u know anything about pc's its better to build your self one then buying something that may be broken
i can build u something like mine
i have:
xeon x5450 3.0 ghz
radeon 4850 1gb dx 10.1
4gb ram
hp compaq 500b mt motherboard
the xeon is socket 771 but i manage to hack bios to recive xeon in my 775 motherboard
im gonna find something on these trademe.co.nz and find something that u can run games smoothly
whats ur budget 250?
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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Mali Mrav »

here i found this on first 5 min


here's the gpu http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/comp ... 719456.htm


the pc's : http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/desk ... 981577.htm

this is 270$ and u can play a lot of games on med and high

or u can have something better

http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/desk ... 992997.htm

i found this one its i3 4 gen cpu u can always buy a i5 4 gen and put it inside and ul have a beast

just tell me what u need i can help you with that
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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Creamy »

Thanks Mali, but I just want something I can plug in and use right away and not spend extra money on for parts, labour to install them etc.

$250 is roughly what I'd like to spend, including shipping costs. I can spend a little more if it's worth it but I can't really justify spending too much more on a PC at the moment.
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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Mali Mrav »

then this last is your choice
u can upgrade to i5 or i7 later when price drops
but first thing u need to upgrade is gpu but dont need yet
wait for prices to drop and buy a gtx 750ti or u can buy a new 1050ti/rx470 for 150$
i think this i3 is worth that money
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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Trench »

This is the kind of thing I'd be watching for:

Dell Precision T3500
CPU: 3.20GHz Xeon W3565 Quad HT
RAM: 12 GB DDR3 6X2GB
Nvidia Quadro FX 1800 768MB
http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/desk ... 987702.htm
NZD$260

The weak point here is the video card. A Quadro FX 1800 768MB card will still definitely play Battlefield 1942 for you... I know, because I did it for years in my HP xw6400 machines. But it's a "business graphics" video card not intended for gaming, and might max out at DirectX 9.x API support. Which is still plenty for Battlefield 1942 and other games not too far removed from that era. But to get into something like Battlefield 3 or later, this card probably isn't going to cut it and you would have to upgrade your video card later once other games become important. The rest of the machine would be a keeper though, and a good value for this price range.

This guy wants you to come pick up the computer, so I don't know that this specific one would be the right purchase for you. But wanted to at least point out that specs like this do pop up near your target range.

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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Creamy »

I noticed this PC during my "xeon" search and was considering asking if he'd ship (can't pick up but I'm not too far away so he might consider it).

For now I'd be satisfied with basic games like BF42, DC etc. But I could be tempted to upgrade the video card in the future if it's an easy enough procedure.

Will be keeping an eye on this one.

Cheers,

Creamy
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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Mali Mrav »

Trench wrote:This is the kind of thing I'd be watching for:

Dell Precision T3500
CPU: 3.20GHz Xeon W3565 Quad HT
RAM: 12 GB DDR3 6X2GB
Nvidia Quadro FX 1800 768MB
http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/desk ... 987702.htm
NZD$260

The weak point here is the video card. A Quadro FX 1800 768MB card will still definitely play Battlefield 1942 for you... I know, because I did it for years in my HP xw6400 machines. But it's a "business graphics" video card not intended for gaming, and might max out at DirectX 9.x API support.

Trench this isnt bad pc but he dont do rendering or video editing so he dont need that beast but on the xeon he dont have a lot room for upgrade in the future

i think he need pc for gaming and the http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/desk ... 992997.htm would be better for him only thing he would need to upgrade the gpu in the future just like the xeon build
i3 lga 1150 is better then xeon lga 1366 in gaming and if he can add a little more money he can trow 1 stick of 4gb ram and hes golden for at least couple months
and he have intel hd 4400 gpu that can run gta 5 i think on low something like that


just being realistic
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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Trench »

I certainly don't mind the more modern motherboard of the HP EliteDesk 800 GI as compared to the Dell Precision T3500, with features like USB3 and even Intel SRT. In my opinion, its trading down in every other aspect though.

Yes, the i3 processor could be upgraded to something more powerful in the future, but Creamy indicated multiple times he's not a builder and isn't interested in component work. With the quad Xeon W3565 3.2GHz it's not only a "can't" situation but a "wouldn't need to" situation, until he's ready to get rid of the machine entirely.

And its not that I dislike the small form factor (SFF) either; I own three of those and buy them for family members as easy-to-manage systems, too. But you do not have the choice of upgrading to a high-end graphics card in one of those systems. You have the option to "change" and get a "better" graphics card, but the half-height PCIe slots and the 240-watt proprietary power supply without a PCI Express video power connector (not that the power supply has enough power to provide one) explicitly limits what kind of video card you'll ever put into one of those machines. I was skipping over all the Dell Optiplex 790, 990 and 9010 machines in the list for that reason too.

Memory provides the best performance impact per dollar spent, especially for a piggy OS like Windows. If you can only spend money on improving CPU speed or on improving RAM, the best answer is usually RAM. For 64-bit Windows I would never recommend below 8GB; it absolutely does run on only 4GB, but you're pretty much just giving Windows itself the memory it needs to run, and not whatever games or applications you're intending to run in addition to Windows.

Also, don't ever put "one stick" of any size RAM into a machine, unless you're fixing someone's previous mistake of putting only one stick of RAM into a machine. One stick of 4GB into a machine with 4x slots filled with 1GB sticks will break whatever dual-channel or quad-channel access the memory controller is capable of, and can be worse than cutting your CPU speed in half.

So I don't disagree that the HP system offers some points that this Dell does not. But for Creamy's described situation of "I'm not messing around inside of the system", "I want to hit the best machine I can for around NZD$250", and "I might be willing to upgrade the video card later", I'll stick with suggesting the "Xeon 2.4GHz 8GB or better" spec search.

Too bad you're not located closer to Creamy, where having you build one or do the component work for him might open up more possibilities. (But I mean, Jesus Christchurch, it's New Zealand. Who the hell is close to that...)

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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Creamy »

Damn. Seller still refuses to ship the Dell Precision T3500. The search continues...
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Re: Tips on upgrading my PC [NZD$250 target]

Post by Creamy »

Trench, you have a PM :D
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