23 replies to this topic

[+McKay]

I've bought an entry level desktop and I was wondering what kind of performance I can expect running modern games at 1920x1080.

I've been a console gamer since 95 and while I've always had a PC, its never really been one truly capable of playing games properly.

The desktop currently has

Intel® Core™ i7-3770 3.4Ghz
6GB of RAM
2GB AMD RADEON HD 7770

[Enron]

I would get a 3770K and up those graphics to a Titan, even if it means going into debt.

[+McKay]

Lol I will upgrade it in the future, this is my "bare bones" set up. From what I understand the video card is a bit weak, its why I'm wondering how well the system as a whole will fair. Isn't the Titan for people will multiple monitor setups? I mean surely that much memory isn't going to help otherwise?

[tsupersonic]

You mentioned that you bought it - just to clarify did you build it or buy a pre-built desktop from Asus, Dell, etc.? You'll want to be careful if you bought it pre-built, as these systems generally come with weaker PSU's. Just make sure your build it up to spec. before upgrading.

[+McKay]

tsupersonic, on 18 March 2013 - 00:49, said:

You mentioned that you bought it - just to clarify did you build it or buy a pre-built desktop from Asus, Dell, etc.? You'll want to be careful if you bought it pre-built, as these systems generally come with weaker PSU's. Just make sure your build it up to spec. before upgrading.

It's a pre-assembled build (an old one I think), it mentions a 600W PSU

Here is a compete list of specs

http://h20000.www2.h...eriesId=5295991

[tsupersonic]

If it has a Core i7 3770, it's fairly new, less than a year old...A 600 W PSU is good and all, but there are no technical specs on that site that indicate what kind of load you can put on the 12v rail(s). If it was a decent brand PSU, then you could upgrade to a nice video card, but only way you can tell is if you look at the specs of the PSU (should be on the PSU itself)

[Beyond Godlike]

Depends what ur playing. I gaming laptop is about that speed and it works well.

[+McKay]

It's gong to arrive on Tuesday so I'll have a look, what's the odds of being able to rip the PSU out and put a new one in?

[Luc2k]

McKay, on 18 March 2013 - 01:37, said:

It's gong to arrive on Tuesday so I'll have a look, what's the odds of being able to rip the PSU out and put a new one in?

Unfortunately, it's likely that the system has a warranty for the whole thing and therefore sealed. But if that will not be the case then a new PSU shouldn't be too hard to install as long as you plug everything in its proper place.

[SadJoker]

With another 2GB of RAM and a decent video card, you can expect to play modern games at 1920x1080 with max or high settings.

If you need to, switching out a PSU isn't that hard at all. Just mark or take pictures of what you unplug.

Regarding the warranty, you'll have to look up if upgrading/switching parts will void it.

[PsYcHoKiLLa]

It's got nice specs, to be honest, I would've gone for an Nvidia card or even buy an additional cheaper Nvidia card. A lot of games now use PhysX which can run on your CPU but would be better run on an Nvidia card.

Here's a nice site which will let you know exactly what power of PSU you'll need/want :

http://extreme.outer...culatorlite.jsp

Replacing the PSU is quite easy as long as it's a roomy case, some cases might limit your access to the PSU, making it impossible to remove without removing/replacing coolers, etc. Have a look inside the case and see if you'll have enough room to remove the PSU before you actually do. The plugs for all the different component from the PSU are all universal so a new PSU should be fine.

[Davo]

I have a pre-built OEM HP PC and the only thing I can stress about upgrading it is that space is tight. I put in a bunch of new parts and I had to do a lot of creative thinking in how to make sure everything worked.

[alwaysonacoffebreak]

First, OEM PC's usually have the crappiest PSU's, no matter what wattage it says on it, most of them will just fry under stress so I'd suggest you to switch that for a decent one.

Secondly like the person above me said the room in the OEM PC box is tight, really tight so you need to get a bit creative fitting new stuff in it.

If it doesn't get out of your budget I'd suggest switching you graphics card to an 79xx series or at least 78xx one (Or what ever Nvidia has in that range). The CPU itself is good enough but if you plan to overclock switch to an K-series one, if not keep the current one. Also stick a couple of more gigs of ram in there and you're good to go.

[+McKay]

So nobody knows what kind of fps I can expect? I didn't buy it to get ludicrously high fps at ultra settings, if i did i would have bought one with those kind of specs in the first place. I didn't buy it for that. I'm happy with 30+ FPS at medium/high settings.

[YounGMessiah]

Well you would have to google more so the games and the gpu for revieiws.

I would suggest getting a GTX 680 or 690