Battlefield 3 PC Upgrade

[nufckev]

Hi All,

After some much needed advice about what I need to upgrade to be able to run BF3. I'm trying to do this as cheap as possible which makes it even harder!

I currently run windows vista which I will upgrade to windows 7 ultimate anytime soon x64!

My current PC specs are as follows:

Operating System
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2
CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 @ 2.13GHz 33 °C
Conroe 65nm Technology
RAM
2.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 266MHz (4-4-4-31)
Motherboard
Packard Bell BV P5NSLI (Socket 775) 40 °C
Graphics
HP w2207 (1680x1050@60Hz)
256MB GeForce 8600 GTS (BFG Tech) 62 °C
256MB GeForce 8600 GTS (BFG Tech) 61 °C
ForceWare version 285.62
SLI Enabled
Hard Drives
488GB Seagate ST350083 0AS SCSI Disk Device (Fibre)

As much advise would be grately appreciated!

Kev

 

[13thmonkey]

no need to upgrade to ultimate, save that cash for better components.

Check if your mobo can take a Q8400/8300/9450

at 1680x1050 i'd suggest that a GTX560ti, would be good, wait for a little while and the new 560ti (448 core) willl be out, it'll either push the others price down or be affordable. And anothe 2GB of ram, i'm seeing my system useing 4GB when running bf3.

Read toms article on BF3, GPU is most important, then the quad core.

 

[megadelayed]

the fastest cpu your motherboard supports is the x6800 or the e6850 which neither at the moment is worth upgrading although if you can find the following above for a cheap price then it should give you a considerable boost in games as the 6420 is quite low clock speed wise. as for the graphic card a 256mb 8600gts is well out of date and even with two of them, it is unlikely you can run bf3 at any higher than 1280x720 with medium detail or so, maybe not even that. i suggest you get a new graphic card that is more powerful than the hd5770 or a gtx 460 for now and upgrade the rest of your system later as your cpu and ram is probably going to bottleneck your gpu anyway although you are still going to get a reasonable performance increase by upgrading your gpu

 

[nufckev]

So say I upgrade my Memory to 4gb, I have downloaded Windows 7 for free (not right I know but saves pennies). upgrade my graphics card to gtx460 and then maybe look to move to a slightly better cpu it should run?

Thanks for the replies, appreciate your help!

 

[gnomio]

How big is your budget?

Intel Core i5-2400
ASRock H61M/U3S3 LGA1155SATA6Gb/s USB3.0 M-ATX B3

That's around 250usd.

 

[nufckev]

If I upgrade to this CPU Intel E5800 and upgrade to 4gb of memory do you think I will be ok to run the game?

 

[nufckev]

I want to spend as little as possible to upgrade now as I'm saving up for a brand new build.

 

[megadelayed]

If I upgrade to this CPU Intel E5800 and upgrade to 4gb of memory do you think I will be ok to run the game?

your motherboard does not support the e5800 as this is the 45nm penryn, it only supports 65nm conroe models and apparently some of the lower end e7's
check this out, here all the cpu it supports
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5NSLI/#CPUS
as for the memory i dont think it will be worth it if you are going to get a new build as since lga1366 only ddr3 are supported so your ddr2 will become useless when you upgrade
you may as well save the money and put it toward your new build instead, also since you have a 32bit os, even if you install 4gb only 3-3.5gb ish max will be made available.

 

[megadelayed]

How big is your budget?

Intel Core i5-2400
ASRock H61M/U3S3 LGA1155SATA6Gb/s USB3.0 M-ATX B3

That's around 250usd.

well considering the op would have to get new ram and would have to give up one of his graphic cards, which would make bf3 run even worse so he will have to upgrade his gpu as well, i'd think that will be quit a lot more than a 250usd

 

[megamanx00]

Upgrade your memory to 4GB, and replace your video cards with one GTX 460 or up to a 560Ti depending on what you want to spend. After that though the main limitation is going to be your old CPU. If your motherboard has any overclocking option, and it might as I'm guessing it's an FX series, then replace the cooler and overclock it as much as you can.

 

[Energy96]

I want to spend as little as possible to upgrade now as I'm saving up for a brand new build.

Just put BF3 on the shelf for a little while then until you do your new build. You will just be wasting money that could have went into the new build otherwise. You could upgrade the vid cards and use them in the new build but that is about all that will carry over into the new one. They will be pretty bottle-necked by your CPU though.

 

[megadelayed]

Upgrade your memory to 4GB, and replace your video cards with one GTX 460 or up to a 560Ti depending on what you want to spend. After that though the main limitation is going to be your old CPU. If your motherboard has any overclocking option, and it might as I'm guessing it's an FX series, then replace the cooler and overclock it as much as you can.

don't upgarde the memory on your current build, its a complete waste of money, but do get the best gpu you can get as although it will be bottlenecked by your cpu now, it can be transfered to your future build and its full potential will be used and saves you splashing out on another gpu.

megaman:
this is NOT a FX processor, if you have read his thread, then you'll know its a core 2 duo. also its a HP and most "branded" computers have a locked bios and you cannot overclock it unless its the really high end ones e.g. alienwares

 

[megamanx00]

@megadelayed Gateway as an FX series of DESKTOPS. They are targeted towards gamers, though I never really thought they were that great for the price.

 

[KEreversal]

You litterly have the same PC as I did, before I got my 9800GT