AlexHxyz, on 09 January 2012 - 01:26 PM, said:
Alright, so I'm not very good with computers. Most of my info is outdated so bare with me.
so this is my computer stats...
Intel R Core TM2 Duo CPU, E6750 @ 2.66GHz 2.67GHz, 2 GB of RAM, window xp. I don't know what any of those numbers mean. I know I don't have graphic card in there but I'm pretty sure it's GeForce 8500.
anyways, let's say in the future i want to run modern warfare 3 and mechwarrior online... about how much do I have to spend for a decent set that won't get replaced soon?
lemme know if i need to post any more information and where to find it.
oh and please, answer in noob friendly format. also is it better to just get a whole new computer?
The first thing we'd need to know is what power supply you have, to see if it'll even support upgrades.
It's not enough to give wattage; what model is it, exactly? (if you don't know, no problem; just open up the side of the case and there should be a sticker with the model on it).
Beyond that, you're getting close to the point at which further upgrades are hard to justify. Let's say you needed a new power supply, maybe something of halfway decent quality with a low-mid output, and your motherboard let you upgrade that processor to something newer, and then you wanted a passable video card. Your upgrade would look like this:
PSU: ~$50 (to run a budget system)
Core 2 Duo E8400 (older dual core, but still okay, would fit in your system): ~$80 used
Radeon HD 6770/6790: ~$100
That that point, you're out probably $250 with shipping and/or taxes. IF your motherboard would support that chip, that would actually be an okay system. Any Call of Duty game should run fantastically (because they're not that intensive), and MWO would probably run at some kind of mediumish setting, look pretty good, and be decently smooth.
That's
probably a worthwhile upgrade, since a full system would start at about $500-$600 (that's the low-end of prices for something to play games fairly well), but it's still spending a couple hundred to get an outdated CPU and a low-mid GPU, so it's money you won't have later if you wanted to build something new altogether, and these will be the absolute last upgrades you'll be able to do for that system before doing a full replacement.
So it's up to you.
Maybe others have different options still?
Edited by Catamount, 09 January 2012 - 01:46 PM.