Opinions/Recommendations on PC upgrade

[impuLsE_zA]

Hi all,

I am busy planning an upgrade to my computer. The current specs are as follows:


Case: Thermaltake Shark
Screen: LG 32LE7500 - Resolution 1920 * 1080
Motherboard: Asus M3N-HT Delux
PSU: AOpen Prima Power AO700-12ALN
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE ( AM2+ )
CPU Cooler: Standard AMD
GPU: XFX 260 (216) Black Edition
RAM: 4 GB (4 * 1GB) Corsair Dominator PC8500 DDR2@ 1066mhz
HDD 1: Seagate 160Gb SATA
HDD 2: Seagate 1TB
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I am planning to upgrade my RAM and GPU:

I want to buy 8GB of Kingston HyperX RAM and the MSI GTX570 M2D12D5 - links are below:

http://www.amazon.co...18250083&sr=1-4

and

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/N570G...=Specification

Due to financial constraints I am not able to do a full overhaul of my system at the moment - this is the last upgrade I plan on doing until I do a complete new build next year. The upgrade is for BF3 and Skyrim.

I purchase from South Africa so prices are a lot higher than North America and Europe.

I would like your opinions on this upgrade and any recommendations you might have.

All input on this matter is greatly appreciated.

[Shadowmeph]

I am wondering if think you need more ram? myself I probably wouldn't upgrade anything until I knew for sure that I needed to upgrade.
I checked for the system requirements on each game
Skyrim


Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Core 2 Quad 3 GHz
* RAM: 3 GB
* HDD: 15 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c
Supported Graphics Cards:
Minimum – 8800 GT
Recommanded – Geforce GTX 460/Radeon 5850


BF3
OS: Windows 7 64-Bit
Processor: Quad-Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 or ATI RADEON 6950)
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD ROM Drive


Now unless you need every single bell and whistle that comes from dx 11 ( which I think is minimal difference) you should be fine the way you are.


the only thing I would worry about is when playing Online BF3 because of Internet connect and lag. and being an old school player from a clan playing playing in allot of competition of Enemy territory, you might should be able to just turn down some of the Bells and whistles a little bit to gain an advantage for online play because when I used to play online I wasn't spending to much time looking at the scenery I was listening and watching for the enemies lol But this is my own personal opinion

[LarkStarr]

Honestly, I wouldn't dump any more money into a DDR2 system anymore, save up to overhaul the Mobo, CPU and RAM to current specs. You can however, go ahead and purchase a video card, I'm sure you'd definitely feel a bump in framerates just from that alone. The link you posted however, is apparently broken.

[impuLsE_zA]

Originally Posted by LarkStarr

Honestly, I wouldn't dump any more money into a DDR2 system anymore, save up to overhaul the Mobo, CPU and RAM to current specs. You can however, go ahead and purchase a video card, I'm sure you'd definitely feel a bump in framerates just from that alone. The link you posted however, is apparently broken.

I have fixed the link for the GPU in my post - here it is aswell:

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/N570G...=Specification

I must admit I am with you on the RAM - I really don't want to spend money that could be spent on DDR3 RAM in the future on DDR2 RAM now. Besides 4GB is more than adequate for most games.

Having had the chance to play the BF3 beta I know that my GPU needs a serious upgrade - even with the latest 285 driver I was still getting sub-par fps on lowest settings.

As I stated above. I am going for a full system upgrade next year but ,being a HUGE BF fan, I just want a system that will run the game adequately medium to high settings - I don't want to feel like I'm playing CS 1.6 ;)

Unfortunately over here in South Africa, components are super expensive and that's why I have to leave the overhaul to next year :(

Just as a side note, do you guys think my PSU will be able to handle the 570GTX?

Thanks again for the input.

[LarkStarr]

The PSU has enough power easily. I don't believe it's a high quality power unit or anything, but you've got it now so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

A GPU upgrade would definitely help, and that's a good card you've chosen. In the meantime, I suggest you overclock that BE CPU and GPU (if you haven't already) for the time being to squeeze out some more FPS. You should be getting smooth frame rates on the lowest settings, though. Make sure you have the most recent drivers as well! (285.xx I think right now?)