In most games you're still going to be limited by the GPU except in lower graphics settings...at least until you decide to upgrade the GPU too.

But I'd get the new Intel Core i5-2xxx (Sandy Bridge) instead. If you're not planning on overclocking the CPU, this should be fine for your purposes:

Intel Core i5-2400
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251595

Asus P8H67-M
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/252614

2 x 2 GB DDR3 RAM
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/192049

The RAM is no name, but from the comments on the site, it seems to work fine. At least one user got Micron modules, which inspires confidence. If you want to pay a little bit more for a different company to slap its sticker on the modules they're all sourcing from outside, that's up to you.

KeyboardMania

Canada1 Post

February 18 2011 23:26 GMT

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Allscorpion

United Kingdom319 Posts

February 19 2011 11:33 GMT

BUMP, need more help plz

Soleron

United Kingdom1324 Posts

February 19 2011 12:22 GMT

What is your budget and what games do you plan to play (+resolution/settings)?

What are your current CPU and RAM?

The GPU would be the weakest part if you purchased those parts, but in order to see whether it would be worth it that information would be useful.

Allscorpion

United Kingdom319 Posts

February 19 2011 12:44 GMT

My current ram and cpu specs are : 4 GB RAM DDR2 and AMD Athlon x2 250 3 GHZ Dual Core

I plan to play 1680 x 1050 with low graphics.

My budget is £280 Tops

Soleron

United Kingdom1324 Posts

February 19 2011 15:14 GMT

Your current system should run that resolution/setting combo. I don't even have a discrete graphics card on my laptop and it runs smoothly.

A motherboard/RAM switch is not necessary to change the CPU; AM3 CPUs work in the AM2+ socket with at most ~2-3% loss from using DDR2 instead of DDR3.

I think you should either:

1) stick with your current RAM and motherboard and spend the money on a CPU and GPU upgrade. DDR2 -> DDR3

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-phenom-ii-x4-955-black-deneb-core-s-am3-32ghz-8mb-cache-ht-3600mhz-125w-retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-asus-hd-6870-oc-4200mhz-gddr5-gpu-915mhz-1120-stream-processors-dldvi-i-dvi-d-hdmi-minidp

2) Save up to replace everything at once with a Bulldozer/Sandy Bridge CPU and 6950/GTX 570 in April-May time.

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

February 19 2011 19:15 GMT

I think pretty much any K10.5 to K10.5 CPU upgrade isn't worth it unless you really need the extra cores (which you usually don't gaming, unless you've actually got a Sempron). So Athlon II X2 to Phenom II X4 doesn't make sense to me.

ebuyer.com and scan.co.uk still have Sandy Bridge CPUs and motherboards (socket 1155) still for sale, right? I'd just upgrade the CPU, motherboard, and RAM now and then upgrade up from the 9800 GT later. See the previous post. The 9800 GT should be plenty to run most modern games on medium/low settings smoothly.

But likewise, I don't see any reason an Athlon II X2 and 9800 GT couldn't play 1680 x 1050 with low graphics...

Soleron

United Kingdom1324 Posts

February 19 2011 19:35 GMT

On February 20 2011 04:15 Myrmidon wrote:
I think pretty much any K10.5 to K10.5 CPU upgrade isn't worth it unless you really need the extra cores (which you usually don't gaming, unless you've actually got a Sempron). So Athlon II X2 to Phenom II X4 doesn't make sense to me.

I should have said I preferred the second option I listed: wait for the money for a complete upgrade to SB/Bulldozer. But if he was to spend the £280 right now the best upgrade he could get for the money would be a quad-core AM3 and a GPU.

ebuyer.com and scan.co.uk still have Sandy Bridge CPUs and motherboards (socket 1155) still for sale, right? I'd just upgrade the CPU, motherboard, and RAM now and then upgrade up from the 9800 GT later. See the previous post. The 9800 GT should be plenty to run most modern games on medium/low settings smoothly.

Yes, but you can't use the SATA 3G ports. Are the SATA 6G ports backwards compatible? I also think an SB CPU upgrade with no GPU upgrade would be poor value.

But likewise, I don't see any reason an Athlon II X2 and 9800 GT couldn't play 1680 x 1050 with low graphics...

I don't understand either. It should be able to do High settings or even better. My E6400/3850 setup does Ultra on that res.

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

February 19 2011 20:00 GMT

#10

On February 20 2011 04:35 Soleron wrote:

Show nested quote +

Yes, but you can't use the SATA 3G ports. Are the SATA 6G ports backwards compatible? I also think an SB CPU upgrade with no GPU upgrade would be poor value.

The SATA 6Gbps ports are backwards compatible. Also, you can use the other four SATA 3Gbps ports. Lots of people were and are doing so. The issue is just that a transistor in the phase-locked loop (PLL; responsible for syncing the receiver to the transmitter's signal in most communications systems) is getting more voltage than it was designed to handle, so it's prone to leaking current and breaking down over time as it's being actively used. Keep in mind that the defective SATA 3Gbps ports--well, the chipset, really--passed all kinds of testing and certification by Intel and others, and it was only later that somebody noticed there was a problem.

Also, since the problem is just with the physical communications link, you're not going to be corrupting any data or doing any harm to devices using the ports. If the ports do become unusable, you can just use a cheap PCI-E SATA card. I don't think most people asking for upgrade advice are the kind of power users that heavily use three or more SATA devices anyway (the two most heavily used would go on the SATA 6Gbps ports), so it seems unlikely that they'd ever have the SATA 3Gbps port/PLL issue.

I agree that a SB CPU upgrade would leave the 9800 GT well behind, but the OP seems willing to make incremental upgrades in general, so a GPU upgrade down the line seems reasonable. CPUs are good for things other than games too, while GPUs are not so much.

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