New Gaming pc

[Dark_Desires]

Hay guys so for about 4 months i have been researching parts for my pc to supe it up a little.So lets start of with the current rig.


I3 2100 3.1 Ghz 3MB L2 cache, 1333MHz FSB
4GB DDR3 Single Channel Corsair DDR3-1333/PC3-10600
ATI Radeon HD 6450
1 TB 5400 RPM sata
400W PSU
Motherboard Asrock

So as u can see its not that great for gaming.So this year i turn 16 and get a hole bunch of money from my family.Around 500$ so i want to get some upgrades.

So the first thing is a new PSU.The main brand is Antec High Current gamer.
Next is a better GPU the Nvidia GTX 550 Ti and 560 Ti are both in my price range but only have slight diffrences on the 1 gig models.
Next a exrta 4 gigs of ram.
If i have the money a I5 2400.

So what do u fellow gamers think.I also have a new case a friend has got since he moved to a Coolermaster.Anyway are there any better parts same price range.And the games i intend to play are BF3 Skyrim and Just cause.
And bellow are the stats from Nvidia on the GPU i selected with almost equal hardware.

560 Ti
http://www.geforce.com/Hardware/GPUs/geforce-gtx-560ti/performance
550 Ti
http://www.geforce.com/Hardware/GPUs/geforce-gtx-550ti/performance

Any advice and apoinions are apreciated.

[shadowhunter320]

you dont need the extra 4 gigs of RAM, get an i7 2600 instead. soooooooooooooo much better, buying the i3 is a death sentence. also, upgrade to the 550 if you can, itll handle BF3(which id the most demanding game of the 3, graphics wise). if you want to(id actually recommend it, you dont need it, but its nice to have) get an extra 2 gigs of RAM.

[Dark_Desires]

I said i dont have much money.And i have used I3 for a few years thay are good.And i need the extra 4 for other stuff.Also i ahve a I3 now and i said if i had the money i would get a I5.And the cards i picked are both used with many BF3 players live streaming the game.

[shadowhunter320]

your choice:-)

[Commander Thor]

you dont need the extra 4 gigs of RAM, get an i7 2600 instead. soooooooooooooo much better, buying the i3 is a death sentence. also, upgrade to the 550 if you can, itll handle BF3(which id the most demanding game of the 3, graphics wise). if you want to(id actually recommend it, you dont need it, but its nice to have) get an extra 2 gigs of RAM.

A Core i7 is absolute overkill for gaming. It's simply not needed. The only time you'd ever really use an i7 to it's full potential (besides stress tests & benchmarks) is if you're virtualizing heavily. For gaming, you're hardly going to make the i7 sweat.
A Core i3 or i5 is more than enough for gaming, especially if you're running NVIDIA cards, where all of the physics (Physx) work is offloaded from the CPU to the GPU.
And 4Gig of RAM would help out a ton actually. RAM is the single most easiest, and cheapest way to improve performance on a PC. If you can afford it, and you have the free slots to fill, yeah, get the extra RAM.


Hay guys so for about 4 months i have been researching parts for my pc to supe it up a little.So lets start of with the current rig.


I3 2100 3.1 Ghz 3MB L2 cache, 1333MHz FSB
4GB DDR3 Single Channel Corsair DDR3-1333/PC3-10600
ATI Radeon HD 6450
1 TB 5400 RPM sata
400W PSU
Motherboard Asrock

So can u can see its not that great for gaming.So this year i turn 16 and get a hole bunch of money from my family.Around 500$ so i want to get some upgrades.

So the first thing is a new PSU.The main brand is Antec High Current gamer.
Next is a better GPU the Nvidia GTX 550 Ti and 560 Ti are both in my price range but only have slight diffrences on the 1 gig models.
Next a exrta 4 gigs of ram.
If i have the money a I5 2400.

So what do u fellow gamers think.I also have a new case a friend has got since he moved to a Coolermaster.Anyway are there any better parts same price range.And the games i intend to play are BF3 Skyrim and Just cause.
And bellow are the stats from Nvidia on the GPU i selected with almost equal hardware.

560 Ti
http://www.geforce.com/Hardware/GPUs/geforce-gtx-560ti/performance
550 Ti
http://www.geforce.com/Hardware/GPUs/geforce-gtx-550ti/performance

Any advice and apoinions are apreciated.

All of your choices look pretty well placed for increased performance. Both video cards you have listed have about equal performance, with the 560 being a smidge better than the 550. I'd go with the 550 simply to save money. Upgrading to 8GB of RAM is always a good choice, though I'd personally max out all my slots. You may not need it now, but RAM is always a useful thing to have now & in the future. So if you have the budget to, why not?
And if you do decide to get the i5, just make sure that you get a beefy enough power supply to match it. With upgrading both your CPU & GPU, you'd probably be best off getting at least a 500-600W power supply to power everything.

[Dark_Desires]

Thanks for the reply Commander Thor.I only have 2 240 pin slots and windows 7 home so 8 gigs DDR3 ram is us much as i can have.And that psu is a Antec High Current Gamer 520W Power Supply HCG-520 for about 79$.But thay have the Antec High Current Gamer 750W Power Supply HCG-750 for 99$.And most of there PSUs are power saving from what i heard.1 question are any of the AMD cpu compatible with the socket 1155 I3 mobos

[Commander Thor]

Thanks for the reply Commander Thor.I only have 2 240 pin slots and windows 7 home so 8 gigs DDR3 ram is us mutch as i can have.And that psu is a Antec High Current Gamer 520W Power Supply HCG-520 for about 79$.But thay have the Antec High Current Gamer 750W Power Supply HCG-750 for 99$.And most of there PSUs are power saving from what i heard.1 question are any of the AMD cpu compatible with the socket 1155 I3 mobos

Ah, so you are maxing out your board then. Good. :P

With the PSUs, the 520W would be fine if you plan on staying with your Core i3, but if you upgrade to the Core i5, you'd be cutting it fairly close. I'd go with the 750W if you want the i5. And yeah, most PSUs sold now-a-days are powersaving. Look for what's called '80 Plus Certified'. Basically what that is is it means that the power supply converts at least 80 percent of the power it draws from the wall, into usable power for the computer. There are 3 levels to it, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, with Gold obviously being the most power efficient.
And no, there are no AMD cpus compatible with the Intel socket 1155. Only Core i-series processors (With the socket 1155 designation) are compatible. Also, be sure to check your motherboard documentation (Either the booklet that came with the motherboard, or online) to make sure the motherboard can support the processor you want. Sometimes they requre a BIOS flash to work with some of the newer processors.

[Dark_Desires]

Yeah i checked and i dont think i can afford a I5.Well i checked up my parts should be about 200-300$ australian and i can buy BF3 and many more games :).Thanks for the help dude apreciate it.

[Commander Thor]

No problem man, any time. :)