Due for a PC Upgrade, need help

Hi guys,

I am due for a PC upgrade and I would like some input on what to buy. Currently, I play on a really old desktop and I get about 10 fps in 6 man groups. My current computer can't handle laggy spells like discharge and CoC. Right now I play on low settings.

I don't know much about computers, so I will detail what I'm looking for in a new computer and hopefully you guys can make me some suggestions. I have never built my own PC, but if it is significantly cheaper, then I would be willing to give it a shot. Anyways, I want to buy a PC that can run PoE and similar graphic-intensive games on high. I want to buy a PC that constantly gets 60 fps and can handle laggy skills.

I appreciate any and all suggestions. I will be purchasing an upgrade this upcoming Black Friday/Cyber Monday. My budget is $500-600 US dollars and it has to be reliable for at least 2 years.

Thanks for the help.

I've heard that on some high end machines you sometimes still get frame drops.

However, whatever you do, get an SSD instead of a HDD (or additionally, HDD for data like music, videos etc., SSD for operating system and PoE).
I'm a bit out of computer business and especially high end graphics, but keep that SSD in mind.

Gaming Pc build at 500 dollars simply wont play any games on high graphics besides maybe Runescape...

Im a budget builder. Secondly ignore the guy above. The cost of an SSD in a 500-600 dollar build just is not justified. The only thing it would do would improve windows load time and area load times in PoE. Its not a big enough improvement to really matter nor will it change your fps or anything else.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/W4dJNG




**CPU** | [AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor] | $98.98 @ Amazon
**Motherboard** | [ASRock 880GM-LE FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard]| $59.38 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory]| $70.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Seagate Constellation ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive]| $50.00 @ Amazon
**Video Card** | [MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card] | $156.00 @ Newegg
**Case** | [Azza CSAZ-206 ATX Mid Tower Case] | $24.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply] | $28.99 @ NCIX US
**Optical Drive** | [Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer]| $13.99 @ Newegg
**Operating System** | [Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)]| $89.98 @ OutletPC
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $593.30
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-14 03:15 EDT-0400 |

I would definetly add an aftermarket cpu cooler. I dont have that specific case though so I am not to sure if the cooler that I like would actually fit in there (CM hyper 212 evo). You could buy it and then just try to check it yourself. Do note that if you do not buy a good cooler before hand and decide to buy one later on most radiator styled fans will require you to remove the old fan mounting points and put on new ones which will require taking your motherboard out and putting it back in.


Now as far as saving money goes. Heres the thing. You could probably get this prebuilt for the same price or a little bit more expensive. The problem with prebuilts though are that you wont find exactly what you want. For most people it doesnt matter but the things I listed are great budget wise components. Have fun exile!

Get a GTX 970 if you can, just hope that it isn't delivered by Paul.

"

Mikrotherion wrote:

I've heard that on some high end machines you sometimes still get frame drops.

Well, you heard correct. I'm playing on a 2600k@4,5Ghz with dual Titan Black in SLI and 3x2560x1440 monitors, and I still get the occasional drop to 0 FPS. Those are mostly related to stuff being loaded, like when boxes are being opened.

To the OP, building a computer from scratch and assembling it yourself surely gets you the most bang for your buck. It isn't even that difficult putting it together, you can find tons of good instructional videos and guides on youtube e.g. As for the components, there are dedicated hardware sites out there with lots of similar requests as yours and exellent proposals for hardware in every pricerange. (my favourite site e.g. is computerbase.de, but it is in German). I'm sure a quick google search gets you a lot of hits.

As for your budget, it should get you decent components that play almost all games at nice settings. Almost all games. "Laggy builds" as you call them (I assume CoC?) even bring my rig to drop below 60fps, and this is a 3500€+ machine...

Just some ideas to consider, also for suggestions above:
-if you're main focus on gaming is POE, you wont profit from multiple cores at all. (I'm just to decide between a core i3 and i5 from this)
-depending on what 'really old desktop' exactly means: you probably can reuse the case, the hdd (with the suggested, additional ssd for system and poe), maybe even the system's licence and the ram... the more of this you have to buy in addition to the 'rest', the less I'd advice to selfbuild from scratch with no experience with it.

To shop a prebuild system, look around your place for sellers that offer flexible configuration, choose the cpu you can afford and the gpu that suits your budget and look where you land. 600$ should at least mean average gaming capabilities - high(er) class barely starts at this amount just for cpu+gpu.

"

Mr_Cee wrote:

Just some ideas to consider, also for suggestions above:
-if you're main focus on gaming is POE, you wont profit from multiple cores at all. (I'm just to decide between a core i3 and i5 from this)
-depending on what 'really old desktop' exactly means: you probably can reuse the case, the hdd (with the suggested, additional ssd for system and poe), maybe even the system's licence and the ram... the more of this you have to buy in addition to the 'rest', the less I'd advice to selfbuild from scratch with no experience with it.

To shop a prebuild system, look around your place for sellers that offer flexible configuration, choose the cpu you can afford and the gpu that suits your budget and look where you land. 600$ should at least mean average gaming capabilities - high(er) class barely starts at this amount just for cpu+gpu.

Ah I didnt realize PoE was programmed with just 2 cores. I3 then over fx6300 definitely unless you want to multitask a lot. If you want to stream though you cant argue that fx6300 beats the i3 :P

Why not:

I5
8 Gb ram
GTX 970

Pure win.

"

bhavv wrote:

Why not:

I5
8 Gb ram
GTX 970

Pure win.

I doubt his current desktop has a motherboard that supports an i5. Not to mention the gtx 970 is outclassed by the r9 290.

Lol no, the 290 does not outclass the 970, much lol.

And I thought he was getting a new mobo.