Budget i3 system...

Definitely the AMD route. If you are reeeeeeeally budget concious there's always the 2.8Ghz quad core Athlon II 630.
 
You can upgrade you graphics card, if you're really into games, and have the $$$ but so far it looks good.
 
I don't think any quad will bottleneck any single-GPU card at the moment, not even a Q6600 or lowest end AMD quad.

May be wrong about AMD's cheapest quad, but you'll definitely be fine with a 955 or 965.
IMO it won't be worth going for the Athlon II 630, unless you're really struggling to make ends meet.
 
Last edited:
I doubt your current system is bottlenecking, with that resolution you should run games just fine. Depends on what you play though.
 
Your current system isn't that bad. If I were you I would rather save 6K or more and do a full upgrade: CPU, Motherboard, RAM & Graphics card.

I seriously doubt that you'll get a massive increase in your framerate by simply buying either a new Core i3/AMD CPU OR faster graphics card. If you had like a Pentium 4 3.0GHz & GF7600GS like I have, then it would've been worth it to just upgrade the CPU to a Core i3.

Edit: Also check Prophecy.co.za & Sybaritic.co.za for PC components, since PCInt's component list is very limit, although some of their prices are very good.
Could you perhaps say what you want to play (specific game titles) or use your computer for?
You could always overclock your CPU to 4.3GHz like this oke: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1140744&postcount=13 :D

Here's a thread at Tomshardware that would be of use here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/265876-28-dualcore-e5200-9800gt-core2duo-e7400-9600gt
 
Last edited:
Pada said:
I seriously doubt that you'll get a massive increase in your framerate by simply buying either a new Core i3/AMD CPU OR faster graphics card. If you had like a Pentium 4 3.0GHz & GF7600GS like I have, then it would've been worth it to just upgrade the CPU to a Core i3.
Click to expand...


I'm not worried about framerates because I saw benchies of an i3 system and 965BE system.I want my system to be futureproof....They say a change is as good as a holiday....Goodbye Intel/Nvidia..hello ATI/AMD:D
 
If you're happy with your current rig then why upgrade? A nice new big screen is much nice IMO.
 
jacking up my resolution will drop fps in games,so what will be an acceptable resolution for my GTS250 on say a 23'' screen?I don't want it to drop too much so that I can't enjoy playing games......
 
You can still play many games at native rez - 1920x1080, the more demanding games maybe at 1680x1050.

The screen is the thing you are staring at all the time and an often neglected component among PC enthusiasts. They also have a slower pace of development ie. getting a good screen is more "future-proof" than getting the latest CPU or GFX which are outdated quickly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X