Budget Light Gaming PC Upgrade

[stanleyleecm]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for.
Web browsing, light gaming, and movies.

2. What YOUR budget is.
+/-$250

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
n/a

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
No preference

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
MSI R4850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127401

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Default

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
1680 x 1050

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
asap

Current Setup
Case: Lian Li PC-7 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112398
Video Card: HD4850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127401
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103534
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4-F 939 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130491
Memory: OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227210
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200 1TB
Power Supply: 400W Antec power supply

Web browsing, light gaming, and movies is what I will be using this for. Since most of my components are very old, I was planning to upgrade the CPU, Motherboard, Memory and power supply if necessary. My budget is not much, looking to spend no more than $250.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Termie]

So, with a budget of $250, this is what you can do:

4GB of DDR3-1600 RAM - $40
H81 motherboard - $60
i3-4130 - $130

That will give you a tremendous upgrade over your existing system, an honest 4-5x more CPU power. By the way, the HD4850 is just below a modern-day HD7750, which is to say it's more than sufficient for light gaming. It will really come alive with a new CPU, as I'm sure it wasn't running at over 50% capacity on your existing CPU, at least in any modern game.

 

[stanleyleecm]

Thank you Termie, will my 400W Antec power supply enough for the proposed components?

 

[lehtv]

The new components will consume less power than your old ones, so yes. No doubt your PSU is aging a bit though. But it's probably going to be fine, it's not that urgent to replace. If you ever buy a more power hungry video card (one that requires more than just one 6-pin connector), replace the power supply as well.

Regarding Termie's suggestions, I'm thinking that with older games in mind, a Pentium gets you 80-90% of the way for half the cost of the i3. A possible upgrade is a used i5(-4xxx), and such an upgrade would be more meaningful if coming from a Pentium than an i3. Though with your upgrade cycle, I don't see that upgrade coming.

To give you an idea of how much faster a Pentium G3220 would be compared to the Athlon: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/404?vs=40 (actually the difference is even more)
In comparison, the difference between an i3 and a Pentium is not much: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/404?vs=677

EDIT: What does 'light gaming' involve? If it's light enough, the integrated GPU on the Pentium could run your games sufficiently well

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Regarding Termie's suggestions, I'm thinking that with older games in mind, a Pentium gets you 80-90% of the way for half the cost of the i3. A possible upgrade is a used i5(-4xxx), and such an upgrade would be more meaningful if coming from a Pentium than an i3.

This is sound advice. The Haswell i3s are overpriced IMHO. Save the money for a future graphics card upgrade.

Though you just might be able to get the previous generation i3s (-3xxx) at significant discounts. If you don't mind losing the upgrade capability.

 

[nwo]

4850 is pretty bad for new games since it does not have DX 11 support. A 7750 might be on par with it performance wise, but as far as quality goes, you will see a huge difference with a DX 11 card.

Since you do light gaming and your CPU is probably bottlenecked by your everyday tasks, I would recommend you upgrade your CPU/motherboard/RAM first. You might want to consider one of AMD APUs with onboard graphics which I think would be ideal for your needs and budget.

I have a socket 939 Opteron (2.2GHz dual core) with 2GB of RAM and a 4870 which I temporarily replaced with a 7790. I don't even want to think about using it for gaming since the CPU gets overwhelmed with desktop usage such as unzipping files, installations, even windows update. Since yours is a single core, I can only immagine the pain you are going through trying to do everyday tasks. So yeah, definitely CPU/motherboard/RAM first.

As long as your PSU is still healthy, it should be enough to power the new components, especially if you ditch the 4850 and go for an AMD APU with onboard graphics.

You wouldn't happen to have a Micro Center nearby, would you?

 

[stanleyleecm]

EDIT: What does 'light gaming' involve? If it's light enough, the integrated GPU on the Pentium could run your games sufficiently well

SC2, and a game called "Navyfield" introduced in 2006 is all I play. That why I was hoping to keep my HD4850.

Navyfield
Recommended Specifications:
OS: Windows XP or Vista
CPU: Pentium IV or better
RAM: 1024 MB or more
HDD: 1.0 GB
Graphics Card: 32 mb video memory or more

 

[stanleyleecm]

You wouldn't happen to have a Micro Center nearby, would you?

You know it is so slow that I have been using my HTPC in my dinning room for a little while.

We do have a Micro Center nearby.

 

[nwo]

You know it is so slow that I have been using my HTPC in my dinning room for a little while.

We do have a Micro Center nearby.

You're in luck then because Micro Center has unbeatable CPU/motherboard combo deals. Even after sales tax, it will be tough to find a better deal anywhere else.

 

[Termie]

This is sound advice. The Haswell i3s are overpriced IMHO. Save the money for a future graphics card upgrade.

Though you just might be able to get the previous generation i3s (-3xxx) at significant discounts. If you don't mind losing the upgrade capability.

If he upgrades on a 5-year basis, as it seems he does, the $30-40 extra for an i3 is well worth it. I've found the i3 to perform at least 50% faster than same-clocked non-HT CPUs in many games (which the Anandtech benches above don't even list): www.techbuyersguru.com/CPUgaming.php

You know it is so slow that I have been using my HTPC in my dinning room for a little while.

We do have a Micro Center nearby.

You can score a great deal on the 4130 and an H81 motherboard at MicroCenter. Given that you already have a GPU faster than any integrated AMD GPU, I don't think you should get an AMD-based system. DX11 isn't even used in any of your games.

 

[lehtv]

There's something to be said for power consumption though... The 4850 is outperformed by a 7750 (~4870 level) which consumes less than half as much power. You'd save at least 80W while gaming and another 40W when idling (from the wall socket). Let's say you game one hour a day and do other stuff / let it idle for 3 hours a day. That's 200W less per day. At a modest cost of electricity of $0.1 / kWh, you would save $7.30 a year. A 7750 can be had for as low as $64 after rebate and shipping, and a used 4850 can be sold for about $20 on eBay.

If your electricity costs significantly more than that and/or your computer is on for significantly longer 4 hours in an average day, it would make sense to start thinking about upgrading the graphics card sooner rather than later. Not only would it impact the electricity bill, but it would perform slightly better, run quieter and put less strain on your aging power supply.

 

[stanleyleecm]

Micro Center offer the following...
Intel Core i3 4340 + MSI Z87-G41 for $205
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=614982
Intel Core i3 4340 + AsRock Z87-Extreme4 for $230
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=607911

Is the AsRock combo worth extra $25?

 

[stanleyleecm]

There's something to be said for power consumption though... The 4850 is outperformed by a 7750 (~4870 level) which consumes less than half as much power. You'd save at least 80W while gaming and another 40W when idling (from the wall socket). Let's say you game one hour a day and do other stuff / let it idle for 3 hours a day. That's 200W less per day. At a modest cost of electricity of $0.1 / kWh, you would save $7.30 a year. A 7750 can be had for as low as $64 after rebate and shipping, and a used 4850 can be sold for about $20 on eBay.

If your electricity costs significantly more than that and/or your computer is on for significantly longer 4 hours in an average day, it would make sense to start thinking about upgrading the graphics card sooner rather than later. Not only would it impact the electricity bill, but it would perform slightly better, run quieter and put less strain on your aging power supply.

Will definitely keep an eye on a used 7750. Thanks

 

[nwo]

Is the AsRock combo worth extra $25?

In your case I would say no. I would say you would be better off putting $25 towards a GPU upgrade rather than investing in a slightly better motherboard. Especially since you will not be overclocking.

Will definitely keep an eye on a used 7750. Thanks

Or a used 7770. Someone was selling two of them on the forums earlier for around 50 or 60 each.

 

[lehtv]

If you want to spend that $20 extra, spend it on the 3570K + B75 board combo. Even though they are last generation, the B75 board still has USB 3 and SATA 6gb/s, and the processor is quite a lot ahead of the i3-4340.

If it were me though, I'd still grab a Pentium and a low end board. I don't really see the Z87 board being worth spending so much extra on, even if it's in a combo with the i3; nor the i5-3570K, given how huge the upgrade to Pentium is from an Athlon 64. It's always possible to upgrade the pentium to a used Haswell/Broadwell i5 anyway later down the road.

G3220 $60 @ MC
MSI H81M-P33 $50 @ newegg
2x4GB G.Skill Ares 1600MHz $52 @ newegg (only $15 more than a single 4GB module)

$162 so far. Can fit this in the budget too:

PowerColor HD 7770 $100 ($70 AR) (about 40-50% faster than your card, consumes less power, has more VRAM - perfect match for a Pentium)

Or this:

SanDisk 128GB SSD $70 (Shell Shocker) or
PNY XLR8 120GB SSD $95 ($75 AR)

 

[nwo]

If you want to spend that $20 extra, spend it on the 3570K + B75 board combo. Even though they are last generation, the B75 board still has USB 3 and SATA 6gb/s, and the processor is quite a lot ahead of the i3-4340.

I've never liked mATX in my desktop builds. But if I had to choose between an mATX and 3570k or ATX and i3 4340, I would definitely go for the i5 3570k for $20 more. It will last you much longer since it is a quad core and the performance difference between the two is pretty significant.

 

[stanleyleecm]

If you want to spend that $20 extra, spend it on the 3570K + B75 board combo. Even though they are last generation, the B75 board still has USB 3 and SATA 6gb/s, and the processor is quite a lot ahead of the i3-4340.

If it were me though, I'd still grab a Pentium and a low end board. I don't really see the Z87 board being worth spending so much extra on, even if it's in a combo with the i3; nor the i5-3570K, given how huge the upgrade to Pentium is from an Athlon 64. It's always possible to upgrade the pentium to a used Haswell/Broadwell i5 anyway later down the road.

G3220 $60 @ MC
MSI H81M-P33 $50 @ newegg
2x4GB G.Skill Ares 1600MHz $52 @ newegg (only $15 more than a single 4GB module)

$162 so far. Can fit this in the budget too:

PowerColor HD 7770 $100 ($70 AR) (about 40-50% faster than your card, consumes less power, has more VRAM - perfect match for a Pentium)

Or this:

SanDisk 128GB SSD $70 (Shell Shocker) or
PNY XLR8 120GB SSD $95 ($75 AR)

If I were to go with the Pentium G3220 route, should I spend a little more on a slightly better MB so that I can keep it when I upgrade to i3/i5 in a year or so?

 

[lehtv]

A more expensive motherboard will do nothing to further compatibility or performance with an i5

 

[Termie]

A more expensive motherboard will do nothing to further compatibility or performance with an i5

This.

In fact, I'm not sure how we started down the line of suggesting Z87 boards. That's the wrong pick, as there are plenty of H81/B85/H87 boards that can be purchased in a discount with a 4130.

Unfortunately, the catalog is showing up for me right now: http://www.microcenter.com/site/specials/catalog/Catalog.aspx

 

[lehtv]

Actually, a Z87 board would allow all cores to boost to the maximum turbo clock with i5's, but the performance difference would be very small. And Z87 would also allow overclocking a 4670K, but that's also not worth the money.

 

[mfenn]

This.

In fact, I'm not sure how we started down the line of suggesting Z87 boards. That's the wrong pick, as there are plenty of H81/B85/H87 boards that can be purchased in a discount with a 4130.

Unfortunately, the catalog is showing up for me right now: http://www.microcenter.com/site/specials/catalog/Catalog.aspx

So it looks like the i3 4130 is not eligible for the MC combo discount, you have to go up to the i3 4340 for that.

So what you can do is:

i3 4340 $140
MSI B85M-E33 $33 AP
G.Skill Ares DDR3 1600 8GB $53
Total: $226 AP + tax

This will go a good job of keeping SC2 fluid at high or medium details even in big games, I think that ultra would overwhelm for 4850.