Desktop Upgrade

[Raavak]

Thinking of going with an Intel Core i3-Clarkdale 3.2 GHz

Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 motherboard.

Any suggestions on video card? EQ is probably my most demanding game.

[Aasimon]

Hi, Raavak. What is your budget?

[Otto]

I'm also looking to upgrade, my budget is about 800 dollars.

I don't need an OS, monitor, keyboard, mouse or speakers. Trying to get bang for my buck.

[Raavak]

I'm thinking around $200 for video card, with $500 in the cpu & mb.

Just a Radion/GeForce comparison with eq in mind?

[jeffd]

Originally Posted by Raavak

EQ is probably my most demanding game.

Originally Posted by Raavak

I'm thinking around $200 for video card, with $500 in the cpu & mb.

you have no idea what you're doing, do you?

[President]

Going to have to do research on your own. It's been too long since I've followed every video card release.. Though, lately I feel like I've heard that you can sometimes get more bang for your buck picking up two cheap cards in SLI, than going for a single more expensive card. Pretty general advice I know.. but it's really not like it was 10 years ago.

8-10 years ago what card you picked mattered a lot, now, if you have 200$ to spend, pick up the best two 100$ cards for SLI, or pick up the best 200$ card.

[dallammarr]

Originally Posted by Raavak [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm thinking around $200 for video card, with $500 in the cpu & mb.

Just a Radion/GeForce comparison with eq in mind?

Couple tips. First off, as I am sure you have been told, EQ (especially p99 using the classic graphics) does not require a whole lot of power. The game runs smooth on a Dell Inspiron 1440 with Intel based gfx card. If youre going to upgrade cause you also want to play other games in the future, then I can see it being work upgrading. I build my Fiance a computer for the purposes of playing VG and it performed quite well since her laptop (the dell insp 1440) couldn't get more that 2FPS in that game.

Her specs:
AMD Athalon X2 240 Regor 2.8ghz
ASRock K10N78M AM3/AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Sparkle Low Profile GeForce GTS 250 w/ 1gb of GDDR3 ram
4 Gigs of DDR2 800 Memory

Total cost was under $300 for those parts. Everything but the RAM was bought from newegg.

Hope that helps you out, Also the GeForce GTX 460 is out so you may want to go with that card instaid as its DX11 compliant and a bit more powerful that the 250. You will be able to play EQ with no problems at all and have room for any newer games.

[Raavak]

Case
ATX
400+ Watt power source (confirm size)

Video Card
PowerColor AX5670 1GBD5-H Radeon HD 5670

Mother Board - LGA 1156 SATA ATX
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel

CPU
Intel Core i3-550 Clarkdale 3.2GHz LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I3550

Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAJS 250 GB SATA 3Gb/s

Memory - Crucial 2 GB (2 x 1 GB) DDR3-1333 (PC3 10600) Model CTKIT12864BA1339

CF/DVD
Samsung Black 22x DVD Burner SATA Model SH-S223C

Monitor
ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" 2ms HDMI LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 ASCR 50,000,000:1

[Diggles]

dude, if you're just playing EQ, you don't need to upgrade nada.

That PSU is enormous for the gfx card you have too.

[FoxxHound]

I need to get a desktop mahself~