I'm uneducated when it comes to PC parts and whatnot.

Normally I will just buy a refurbished PC from PCworld that has better specs than mine.

Right now mine struggles playing Rift or The Old Republic, so a new computer is in order.

But I want to try something new this time. I want to try and buy something that meets my requirements, or more closely than a refurbished PC would.

My budget is up to £400, I know this isn't much, but I'm not expecting a top of the range gaming PC.

I want to be able to play newly released games (Skyrim, The Old Republic, Secret World, Guild Wars 2, Witcher 2, Mass Effect 3 etc) without much trouble, I don't mind if I can't play at max settings as long as it's not lowest.

Also, I would like it to be useable for at least the next two years (or longer if I can upgrade it along the way, all the better.)

Can someone please link me some PC's within my price bracket, or parts that I can buy to create my own PC within the price bracket? I seriously don't know where to begin.

Thanks in advance, Any help would be appreciated!!

A new computer for £400 is awfully tight.  Do you have any parts from the old computer that are salvageable?  How about if you just list all the parts you have, and we can see if anything is reusable.

Also, how often do you tend to replace the old computer?  If you're paying £400 every other year, you'd be better off buying an £800 computer and keeping it for four years.

Originally posted by Quizzical

A new computer for £400 is awfully tight.  Do you have any parts from the old computer that are salvageable?  How about if you just list all the parts you have, and we can see if anything is reusable.

Also, how often do you tend to replace the old computer?  If you're paying £400 every other year, you'd be better off buying an £800 computer and keeping it for four years.

Thanks for the reply!

Purching an £800 computer would be ideal, but I can't seem to save that much, I'm crap with saving money, £400 is amazing for someone like me to have saved ha :P

My current PC I've had for around four years, but I've upgraded it a little bit along the way.

Below are my current specs -

Operating System - Vista 32bit

Processor - Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2220 @ 2.40ghz (2 CPUs) ~2.4GHz

Memory - 3326MB

Hard Drive - 250GB

Graphics Card - ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series, 400MHz, 2442MB

System Manufacturer / Model (don't know if this is needed?) - Gigabyte Technology, GA-73PVM-S2

It's also got 2 2GB DDR Memory sticks (I think that's what they are called?)

Anything I can keep? 

I don't mind making my own computer or buying one already built, whatever is best value for my money hopefully! :D

Originally posted by Valua

Graphics Card - ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series, 400MHz, 2442MB

If it's a 5700 series card, you could keep it, but that's not 400 MHz anything, and there has never been a 2442 MB video card.  So find out what you have.

What power supply do you have, and what case?

You don't mention an optical drive, but you could probably keep whichever one you have.

Originally posted by Quizzical

If it's a 5700 series card, you could keep it, but that's not 400 MHz anything, and there has never been a 2442 MB video card.  So find out what you have.

What power supply do you have, and what case?

You don't mention an optical drive, but you could probably keep whichever one you have.

Ah, I'm not sure about the graphics card then, it says 2442MB in the DXDIAG thing, but I'm sure it was 2GB. I only bought it a few months ago. 

My power supply is 220VOL and 50hz. And I think my disc drive is just an average one, I might upgrade to bluray later.

Do 2 graphics cards boost performance much? If so, then I could keep the one I have now and buy a new one too?

I get too easily confused when it comes to this stuff.

Thanks for the help so far though! :D

You found some specs on your power supply, but unfortunately, all power supplies in your country are like that (220VAC, 50Hz). You need to find a make and model, manufacturer and part number, something like that.

Two graphics cards do work (called CrossfireX for AMD) - but it's not worth the hassle in general. With a proper computer, I think either of the 5700 series video cards is fairly capable - in fact, they are still in production today (renamed the 6750 and 6770).

You probably don't need to upgrade your disc drive unless you just want to watch Blu-Ray movies on your PC. No software really needs a Blu-Ray drive, and increasingly, software doesn't really need a disc drive at all.

If you post or link to a copy of your DXDIAG we can see your video card info from that and probably tell.

Originally posted by Ridelynn

If you post or link to a copy of your DXDIAG we can see your video card info from that and probably tell.

Device ID 0x68B8 is a 5770.

You can edit down the rest of that post if you want so the thread isn't so jumbled.

For reference, the 5770 clock is much lower in low power mode (depending on the firmware and driver you have it can be very low, under 150Mhz). When you are gaming, or it detects that it needs high performance, it upshifts to 850Mhz. That's probably where you got the 400Mhz clock speed at. It also only has 1G of RAM (dedicated memory). The 2.5G Total memory you see is "shared", which means it's able to use the system memory as backup (which is a good deal slower) to boost the total video RAM available.

Graphics card is fine to keep. It's what I would consider to be the first decent gaming card as you work your way up the ranks of video cards, and the fact that it's still marketed and sold today (as the 6770) says a bit about it. That said, I wouldn't recommend anything lower or less powerful. That would point to a new motherboard/CPU/RAM for your best upgrade path (and probably power supply with that). That can be done for under £400, so long as your willing to keep your case and video card, and recycle/donate/resell the old parts.

If i was you I would reuse every part of the old machine i could ...which i do when I build my machines

Reuse:

Hard drive

OS

CD, DVD,

Monitor, mouse, keyboard,

Case, power supply, fans

Really when building a new system all you really need to replace is the Motherboard, CPU, Ram, and probably the vid card.

Doing it this way will save a some money and you might be able to get a better vid card with the savings.

Or you could take the sergeant major wifey out for a nice dinner ...bet she would love that. Comp under budget and a fine meal to boot which she didn't have to cook.

Originally posted by Valua

Originally posted by Quizzical

A new computer for £400 is awfully tight.  Do you have any parts from the old computer that are salvageable?  How about if you just list all the parts you have, and we can see if anything is reusable.

Also, how often do you tend to replace the old computer?  If you're paying £400 every other year, you'd be better off buying an £800 computer and keeping it for four years.

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

Purching an £800 computer would be ideal, but I can't seem to save that much, I'm crap with saving money, £400 is amazing for someone like me to have saved ha :P

 

My current PC I've had for around four years, but I've upgraded it a little bit along the way.

 

Below are my current specs -

 

Operating System - Vista 32bit

Processor - Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2220 @ 2.40ghz (2 CPUs) ~2.4GHz

Memory - 3326MB

Hard Drive - 250GB

Graphics Card - ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series, 400MHz, 2442MB

System Manufacturer / Model (don't know if this is needed?) - Gigabyte Technology, GA-73PVM-S2

It's also got 2 2GB DDR Memory sticks (I think that's what they are called?)

 

Anything I can keep? 

 

I don't mind making my own computer or buying one already built, whatever is best value for my money hopefully! :D

 

 

 

 

If I were you I would just replace the Motherboard, RAM and CPU and put that in your old case. As long as the old Power supply is compatible with the new board you are set. The graphics card is a bit old but if it has worked up to now it should be ok for a bit longer.

I've never looked up parts info for anywhere in the UK not sure what your equivolent is for Newegg.com

The video card is definitely a keeper, since it's about the card that you'd buy new on a budget significantly larger than yours, anyway.

But again, what case do you have, and what power supply?  For the case, I'm mainly interested in size and airflow, though the exact brand name and model would be nice if you can find it.  How many case fans does it have, how big are they (80 mm and 120 mm are the most common sizes), how are they positioned, and how are they oriented (blowing air in or out)?

For the power supply, I need the exact brand name and model.  If you have to open up the case to read the label, then do it.  If you're not sure what the brand name and model is, then just transcribe everything that you can find written in relatively large letters.

Thanks for all the help so far!

I'll be keeping my video card, thanks for the help!

Are these worth buying, and are they compatible with eachother?

CPU - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Sandybridge-i5-2500K-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B004FA8NX2/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1328820414&sr=1-2

Motherboard - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-XKT-1155-Z68AP-D3-Motherboard-Rev/dp/B0054X4I4M/ref=sr_1_9?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1328820465&sr=1-9

Power supply - http://www.amazon.co.uk/650-WATT-supply-Alpine-Silent/dp/7135799410/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328820153&sr=8-1

Any help would be beneficial, I'm looking to buy new parts as soon as possible! :D