New computer or upgrade?

[fizban140]

I am planning on making a new PC for BF3, but I still have a pretty decent computer. I have a couple options in mind right now.

1. Upgrade my current PC so it can run BF3 better. I would likely save a lot of money doing this but I am not sure the best way to go about upgrading.

2. Get a whole new PC and sell my current one to friend/family for cheap.


3. Maybe a little of both, salvage what I can out of this PC (RAM, PSU) whatever and then get new parts from there and help friend/family make a new PC with my old parts.

Currently I have

4 gigs of RAM
640 GB HDD
A large enough case
Mobo
Phenom II X4 940, overclocked to 3.8
CPU fan
Radeon 4890
PCP&C 750W PSU

Budget isn't really a concern (within reason, I mean...I am not rich but this a hobby I am willing to spend money on). I bought this system with one goal in mind. Get as much performance as possible for my dollar, sadly though I feel like it wasn't that fast of a computer and it had trouble running TF2 at a stable FPS even when I got it. Maybe I am just picky but I want to run at a stead 40+ FPS without a drop, ever.

Anyways what are my best options here in regards to bang for my buck and performance. I know I have a lot of options, I think idealy I would just get a new PC and then upgrade the old one a little and sell that. Would it be possible to get my current PC to run a game like BF3 at a decent setting with some minor (less than $200) upgrades?

 

[mnewsham]

I would recommend windows 7 home premium 64 bit if you dont already have it. then 2x4GB of RAM. And an HD 6950.

If you want a total rebuild I would recommend Going with the upgrades I already suggested and this:

Motherboard
CPU
HSF
SSD

And then keeping your HDD, case, and PSU.

 

[fizban140]

Mostly I am trying to determine what would be most cost effective and also how much life does my current PC have left in it as a gaming PC? I can't even play SC2 on high settings, it start to lag in larger fights and I get weird lag at the start so I play with textures high everything else low. In team games I even lag on those settings.

 

[mnewsham]

It has some life left in it, if you upgrade the GPU (in the 200-300 dollar range). However BF3 is going to be a CPU hog, the more cores/threads the merrier. Your CPU isnt in the best shape for this game, but with a powerful enough GPU. you should see some decent FPS. But probably not on "ultra" or anything.

 

[mfenn]

Mostly I am trying to determine what would be most cost effective and also how much life does my current PC have left in it as a gaming PC? I can't even play SC2 on high settings, it start to lag in larger fights and I get weird lag at the start so I play with textures high everything else low. In team games I even lag on those settings.

This sounds more like a software or cooling issue (ie. the hardware is throttling) than a lack of horsepower. A Phenom II X4 @ 3.8 with a 4890 should have absolutely zero trouble running SC2 at all ultra. A computer 1/2 that powerful should laugh at TF2.

I'd go out and buy Windows 7 (if you don't already have it) and install from scratch before dropping a bunch of cash on new hardware.

 

[fizban140]

I do have Windows 7, and I will reformat I suppose.

I have never done it with windows 7, anything I should know for win7?

 

[mfenn]

I do have Windows 7, and I will reformat I suppose.

I have never done it with windows 7, anything I should know for win7?

No, not really. It is pretty painless compared to XP or Vista. Just make sure to install the newest Catalyst suite after you install the OS.

 

[fizban140]

I am going to sound like an idiot, but how much can I backup when I reformat? I mean can I save all my games so I don't need to reinstall them all, same with my music and movies. Thats about 300 gigs of stuff.

 

[mfenn]

I am going to sound like an idiot, but how much can I backup when I reformat? I mean can I save all my games so I don't need to reinstall them all, same with my music and movies. Thats about 300 gigs of stuff.

Depends on how the games are installed. If they are through Steam, then yeah, just back them up via Steam (or just copy your steamapps folder). If they are installed normally, you do not want to try to back them up. That'll only lead to problems when you try to run them in the new OS.

Documents and media files you can of course copy to a different location and then copy back.

 

[fizban140]

Yeah that makes sense, I wasn't sure if it would be a bad idea to keep certain things or not. I remember I did have a problem with steamapps before and that there is a rather specific way of keeping it and then naming it when I reinstall steam...hope I can remember.

 

[mfenn]

Yeah that makes sense, I wasn't sure if it would be a bad idea to keep certain things or not. I remember I did have a problem with steamapps before and that there is a rather specific way of keeping it and then naming it when I reinstall steam...hope I can remember.

Hmm, I haven't had that problem before. What I do is:

1. Make sure that Steam and all games are completely up to date.
2. Copy the steamapps folder to the backup location.
3. Reinstall Windows and drivers, etc..
4. Reinstall Steam.
5. Launch Steam and log in.
6. Exit Steam completely.
7. Rename the new steamapps that was created when you reinstalled steam to steamapps.bak or something like that.
8. Copy the old steamapps back to the original location.
9. Launch Steam, all games should be installed.

 

[fizban140]

Cool thanks, hopefully everything goes well.

So sort of a more focused idea now, what if I take the PSU (or would I need a new one?) and case and make a new PC and then give my brother the parts for a PC for a birthday gift. Would that work out to be cheaper, or would I actually save money if I just helped him buy a newer PC? I am just trying to judge how upgradeable this PC is really.

 

[mfenn]

In your current PC, you can easily reuse the case, PSU, HDD, and optical drive. Those are fairly decoupled from the core system (mobo, CPU, RAM, GPU) so really you would have to buy another case, PSU, HDD, and optical drive either way (either for you or your brother).