System Upgrade Question

[ivatt]

I live in the UK and I currently use a ASUS A8N-SLI (purchased 2005) with AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 3800+ with 2GB DDR RAM, ATI Radeon X700 with 256M of memory, Blue Storm 500 Watt PSU all housed in a Shark Thermaltake Case. The OS is Windows Vista Home Basic. The PC is used JUST to run Open Rails and Flight Simulator X Gold with Acceleration Pack, nothing else.

The system has an unidentified hardware fault that causes it to reboot periodically it is therefore not worthwhile trying to upgrade the graphics card etc.

I have been looking at various low budget customised gaming PCs and concluded it is a nightmare trying to work out the best options and who gives the best service. I have also looked at refurbished ex business Dell & HP systems which are listed as gaming PCs and have the attraction of being low priced but wary of how good they actually are. The same applies to used gaming Pcs.

I have now turned my thoughts to perhaps having my existing system completely upgraded and have looked at the Gigagbyte GA-970A-DS3 motherboard which seems to have fairly good reviews but need advice on which CPU ( and cooler) and graphics card would be best also, how much and what type of RAM.

I would like to retain my existing Shark case and if suitable the Blue Storm PSU, I would also retain my existing SATA drives and optical drives.

I would unfortunately have to have the work done for me (there is someone local but no idea of what he would charge) as although I have built systems in the past I am not as confident as I once was.

I would appreciate any advice on what what I would need to fit into the Gigagbyte board (open to suggestions if there is an alternative at not too much extra cost) to get a reasonable system for both Open Rails and Flight Simulator (I hope that some people on the forum run both) so that I can price things up.

Thanks

[rdamurphy]

If you've built systems in the past, let me assure you: It's easier now.

My advice: Stick with intel, the new i3 (dual core), i5 (dual core w HT), and i7 (quad core 2HT) series are out this month, and there's good prices.

Gigabyte MB's are good, but remember, those i5 and i7's can be had unlocked.

I'm using an i3 ivy bridge 3225 3.3, in a Biostar H77MU3, 16 GB of DDR3 Ram (WAY too much. 8 is good enough, but it was just over $20 for 8 gig,what can I say?) and a Radeon 7790. Basically I got the MB free in a package deal with the i3...

I get solid frame rates in MSTS, and fps over 100 in OR.

And I didn't break the bank to do it.

Plug in the cpu and heatsink/fan (stock one is fine, i-series processors don't get that hot...), plug in a couple of sticks of RAM, plug in your power supply, and lock in you video card.

Hard drives and SSD's are all SATA now, and are easy to connect, just be mindful if they're SATA3 or SATA6. My "storage" Terabyte drive is SATA3 and my Velocraptor is SATA6

SSD's are a better upgrade.

You're done.

Oh, and Windows 7...

http://www.microcenter.com/site/bran...r-bundles.aspx

Robert

[slipperman]

Hi Robert,
Just a clarification! There is no such thing, at present, as SATA 6; there is SATA 6Gbit/s which is commonly, erroneously, called SATA III. The correct name, according to : www.sata-io.org/sata-naming-guidelines , is SATA Revision 3.x.

Then there is SATA Express which uses the PCIe interface to achieve (theoretical) rates of 8 Gbit/s or 16 Gbit/s

Cheers,
Ged

[ivatt]

Hi thanks for the replies and apologies for the delay responding.

As far as building my own is concerned I should have said that lack of dexterity in the hands would make it difficult.

Not heard of the Biostar motherboard. I have to admit to being completely bemused by all the different socket types there are these days. I have always elected to use AMD in the past but open to a change of direction.

Looking at the various components there doesn't seem to be much difference in price between buying individual components and an "off the shelf" low budget gaming PC.

The biggest difference is of course that buying a ready made system limits the choice especially when it comes to the motherboard and CPU.

Also I do have a limited budget so need to think carefully about what I buy although I think most current gaming PCs, even the low budget systems, will give better performance that my existing system.