Upgrade Or Go New?

[ShockUnitBlack]

Long story short - I inherited a PC from my parents a couple of years back now, which is the PC I use currently. It was originally built in, if I remember correctly, late 2007 as a mid-range general-use PC and has had a handful of upgrades since then.

Its specs are -

OS - Windows 8 32-bit (upgraded from XP)
Processor - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Motherboard - Gigabyte P35-DS3L
Video Card - Radeon HD 5770 (upgraded from a Nvidia 8600 GTS)
Power Supply - Corsair VX550W
Memory - Patriot PC2-6400 2GB

Couldn't determine the cooling and HDD makes.

Anyways, it's been a good PC over the last few years but it can't handle ArmA3 and I have my doubts it's going to do well with Battlefield 4, so in short it's upgrade time - but I'm not sure whether I should upgrade the existing machine or buy a completely new one and was hoping to get some advice in that department.

If I were going to upgrade the existing machine, I would be looking at replacing the CPU and video card and adding an SSD. If possible, I'd like to hang on to the existing HDD just for bulk storage (pictures/music, etc), and I'd also like to continue to use the Windows 8 copy.

Anyways, I was wondering if you could lend me your opinions as to whether or not it would be wise to upgrade or else save my money for a new machine.

Budget would be somewhere in the ballpark of $700-$800.

PS - I don't care at all about audio (I use a G930 which has built-in audio).

Thank you!

[Raic]

Upgrading CPU will cause you to buy new Mobo which will most likely have DDR3, so you will need to buy new memory as well. That is a good upgrade to do. When choosing to buy new GPU try to go one tier above what your current card was back on its day if possible. The power supply is likely enough for you.

Reddit has a good sub for building PC and has lot of information on what matters most for what sort of PC you are building and I would recommend you to use their services. They have few example builds on different price range which are upgraded regularly.

Build a PC

[Build Help] For those who want a under $800 build : buildapc
For example here is one such, but you will notice it has Power supply, OS, Storage and the Case included in them. You can take this list as an example and then upgrade parts with the money you save from not buying new OS, Power, storage or Case. Easily +150$ to better CPU or GPU.

[MaSSive]

Windows 7 64bit, add more RAM its cheap, check your mainboard specs, and eventually throw some cach on new gpu.

BTW Im stunned that it cant run Arma3, which is less demanding than A2! Maybe its just memory problem. I have far weaker PC but 64 bit Win7 and 4gb of ram, and I can run A2/A3. Graphics are nearly the same only nvidia and cpu is dual core.

But, if you really want checkout thread about this and you'll see recommendations for parts.

https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f329-h ... ost1934936

[ShockUnitBlack]

It can run ArmA 3 but not particularly smoothly, and moving any of the settings off of low causes control imput lag (apparently caused by FPS being lower than 40 in ArmA 3).

Thanks for the help everybody.

[Cossack]

Sorry mate, but new rig will cost less and bigger bang for buck than upgrading rig.

[carmikaze]

Agreed, you'll get an excellent new rig for 700-800$.