Stock computer upgrade help

[apple_banana_grape]

Hi, I have an Aser Aspire M3900 (specs in link below).

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/acer-aspire-m3900-u3042/4507-3118_7-34192802.html

I upgraded it with a Geforce GTX 550 Ti and a ULTRA Professional LSP 550 Watt power supply.

I want to get into PC gaming more, specifically I want to play Battlefield 4. I know I'll have to get a new CPU, GPU, mother board, and possibly other things as well.

I would like to know what hardware I should buy $600 budget.

Please help thanks.

 

[stickmansam]

So you want a complete upgrade?
With your current build, you can probably play at 720p low in bf4

Here is a nice build
HD 7870XT, good for 1080p High+ in BF4
FX6300, beats an i3, cheaper htan i3 and i5
1TB HDD, you can add an SSD later since mb supports SATA3
MB is okay for overclocking if you want to in the future

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($72.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.75 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($163.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $571.22
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-02 20:17 EDT-0400)


If you want to reuse your current case, you'll need to ditch SATA3 to keep the AMD cpu (this motherboard can be used with an all new build as well)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($49.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.75 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($163.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $503.67
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-02 20:17 EDT-0400)

 

[MauveCloud]

I suggest replacing that power supply, the Ultra LSP series is tier 5 here: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
Also, I can't find a pic of your case with the side open to get an idea what size graphics cards would fit, so I included a case (you might be able to fit the graphics card into your current case, in which case you won't need it):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M LX PLUS Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($52.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.75 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($236.43 @ Mwave)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($55.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $579.13
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-02 20:19 EDT-0400)

 

[stickmansam]

^ nice build if you're keeping the HDD's and reusing them
PSU is pricier, I usggest an $45 Antec 620W HCG
Choose the USB3 Version of the ASUS board, though I like the gigabyte better as it has heatsink on the VRM's
I prefer the Antec 302 personally

 

[apple_banana_grape]

So you want a complete upgrade?
With your current build, you can probably play at 720p low in bf4

Here is a nice build
HD 7870XT, good for 1080p High+ in BF4
FX6300, beats an i3, cheaper htan i3 and i5
1TB HDD, you can add an SSD later since mb supports SATA3
MB is okay for overclocking if you want to in the future

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($72.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.75 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($163.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $571.22
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-02 20:17 EDT-0400)


If you want to reuse your current case, you'll need to ditch SATA3 to keep the AMD cpu (this motherboard can be used with an all new build as well)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($49.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.75 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($163.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $503.67
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-02 20:17 EDT-0400)

I suggest replacing that power supply, the Ultra LSP series is tier 5 here: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
Also, I can't find a pic of your case with the side open to get an idea what size graphics cards would fit, so I included a case (you might be able to fit the graphics card into your current case, in which case you won't need it):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M LX PLUS Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($52.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.75 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($236.43 @ Mwave)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($55.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $579.13
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-02 20:19 EDT-0400)

Wow, thanks so much for your contribution, very detailed, I love it.

On a side note: Maybe I'm doing something wrong, currently I cannot play BF3 on my PC it's unplayable with all the lowest settings.

I know it's another question but any idea why that is?

 

[apple_banana_grape]

I suggest replacing that power supply, the Ultra LSP series is tier 5 here: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
Also, I can't find a pic of your case with the side open to get an idea what size graphics cards would fit, so I included a case (you might be able to fit the graphics card into your current case, in which case you won't need it):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M LX PLUS Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($52.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.75 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($236.43 @ Mwave)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($55.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $579.13
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-02 20:19 EDT-0400)

Thank you so much for your solution!

 

[MauveCloud]

^ nice build if you're keeping the HDD's and reusing them
PSU is pricier, I usggest an $45 Antec 620W HCG
Choose the USB3 Version of the ASUS board, though I like the gigabyte better as it has heatsink on the VRM's
I prefer the Antec 302 personally

Where are you seeing the Antec 620W HCG for $45? On pcpartpicker I see it listed at $84.24 or $97.98 depending on exact model.
USB3 isn't critical unless you already have devices that can take advantage of it, but a heatsink on the VRMs seems like a good thing to have.
The Antec 302 isn't bad, but it doesn't have a removable center drive cage to allow for extra-long video cards down the road.

 

[stickmansam]

I tend to count MIR's though some say they're risky 😛 100% MIR success so far 😀
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-hcg620m

The USB3 ASUS is same price as the non USB3 version of the AMD 760

True, though there are mini versions and afaik the 780/titan both fit

@OP what resolution are you playing at? also avoid 64 player matches, stick to 32 player ones

 

[apple_banana_grape]

I tend to count MIR's though some say they're risky 😛 100% MIR success so far 😀
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-hcg620m

The USB3 ASUS is same price as the non USB3 version of the AMD 760

True, though there are mini versions and afaik the 780/titan both fit

@OP what resolution are you playing at? also avoid 64 player matches, stick to 32 player ones

I play with my desktop resolution (1600 x 900) in an empty server I get 15-35 fps.

 

[stickmansam]

yeah your probably need to bring that down to about 720p, thats what my bro plays at, also for him, he's satisfied with 40ish fps

 

[stickmansam]

yeah your probably need to bring that down to about 720p, thats what my bro plays at, also for him, he's satisfied with 40ish fps