Need to speed up my PC. Help?

[Rubiks-Q-Bert]

So girlfriend recently bought fallout 4. Complaining about it lagging even on low graphics setting. She's willing to fork out the money for a new processor.

Ask whatever questions ya need to know and I will try my best to answer.

Here's the basic specs on my PC as it is now.

AMD FX 4100 Quad-Core Processor - 3.60 GHz

AMD Radeon HD 6700 - Graphics

16 GB RAM

Windows 10 64 Bit

GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 Motherboard

BLACK AZZA HURRICAN 2000 Case

Anyway, trying to find something to speed it up without going broke. Ideas?

[jmatt]

My company builds gaming rigs as one of our services.

When playing a 3D rendered game, once the game starts the GPU (video card) takes over and does almost everything. All the CPU does is stuff textures into the card while the game is running.

Here's a comparison of GPUs. If you have a limited budget I'd put everything into the video card. For about $300, I'd go for the GTX 970.

A quick glance shows that the 970 is literally 6 to 8 times faster than your current card (I see no entry for a 6700, other than the 6700m; 'm' chips usually mean engineered for laptops). I checked and your motherboard can accommodate that card. What is the wattage of your power supply? You will need at least 500w.

You can compare GPU benchmarks here.

An SSD drive is also faster than a mechanical drive for large texture files, so that could be of some use.

A faster CPU is also a good idea if you have the money. You can compare CPU benchmarks here.

[Rubiks-Q-Bert]

My company builds gaming rigs as one of our services.

When playing a 3D rendered game, once the game starts the GPU (video card) takes over and does almost everything. All the CPU does is stuff textures into the card while the game is running.

Here's a comparison of GPUs. If you have a limited budget I'd put everything into the video card. For about $300, I'd go for the GTX 970.

A quick glance shows that the 970 is literally 6 to 8 times faster than your current card (I see no entry for a 6700, other than the 6700m; 'm' chips usually mean engineered for laptops). I checked and your motherboard can accommodate that card. What is the wattage of your power supply? You will need at least 500w.

You can compare GPU benchmarks here.

An SSD drive is also faster than a mechanical drive for large texture files, so that could be of some use.

A faster CPU is also a good idea if you have the money. You can compare CPU benchmarks here.

I put a hold on this until tax return time. Always get back a decent ammount so I might just do a complete rebuild. Use the case and the fans for sure. Try and save the board if I can.

The power supply is 700 but I will probably replace that as well.

Does your company do just local builds or do you mail em out too? Website?

[jmatt]

I put a hold on this until tax return time. Always get back a decent ammount so I might just do a complete rebuild. Use the case and the fans for sure. Try and save the board if I can.

The power supply is 700 but I will probably replace that as well.

Does your company do just local builds or do you mail em out too? Website?

If you do the spec and build yourself, I'd keep the PSU and the case... unless you think the power supply is flaky.

TBH, whenever it's time for a new build, I always replace everything. Piecemealing the system together will usually leave one weak link in the chain. The technology all moves forward together and unless you really know what you're doing, there's a good chance one of the old components won't be compatible with one of the new components.

I can't tell you how many calls we get from guys building their own rigs, screwing it up and then calling us for free advice on what they should do. "Hey, I just wanna know, if my new motherboard has xxx chipset, why won't my old yyy memory work with it?" "I just wanna know" is code for "I don't expect to pay for your advice". Like I have time for that.

We do mail-out systems. I charge a flat-fee $200 to spec and build a system. People tell us how much money they wanna spend, and I make sure they're getting the most bang for the buck. You may be able save the cost of the OS if you already have a Windows activation key that you can provide.

We can build a monster box for around $1500. Some people wanna go nuts with liquid cooling systems and top of the line GPUs. That's more, but it's really hobbyist stuff. Unless you're trying to melt your chip with crazy over-clocking, nobody really needs any of that. For what, a 6% gain? I don't.

Note that nobody in the business gets better prices than you can get yourself on Amazon or NewEgg, even with my distributor contacts. There's no profit in the hardware. That's why I do the flat-fee. Unless you're ordering like 500 i7 processors, my costs are the same as yours.

So if you know the difference between DDR3 ram and an UEFI BIOS, you can prolly build it yourself.

My websites:

Residential: www.Bethlehem-Computer-Repair.com

Corporate: www.Valley-Network.com

[jmatt]

A friend asked me to spec a gaming rig for a friend of his today. Budget is only $700. This is what I came up with. I skimped where I had to. Here's what I told him.

-------

Putting more than half the budget into the GPU. That’s the way to go.

Case $50 http://www.microcenter.com/product/4410 ... puter_Case" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
PSU $46 http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Eli ... aster+500w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MB / CPU Bundle Take the Asus for $143.98
http://www.microcenter.com/site/product ... ndles.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I prefer Intel but if the budget is tight, AMD will work just fine.

DDR3 1600 RAM $40 http://www.microcenter.com/product/3821 ... _DDR3-1600_(PC3-12800" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)_CL9_Dual_Channel_Desktop_Memory_Kit_(Two_4GB_Memory_Modules)
8GB is enough, go with 2 sticks of 8 = 16 if you have the funds. Nice but not necessary.

SSD $90 250GB http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch- ... ywords=ssd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
SSD is better than HDD for moving large game texture files. He can always add a 1TB drive for $59 later.

Geforce $329 GTX 970 GPU http://www.microcenter.com/product/4389 ... Video_Card" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Verify that the card will fit in the case – it should, it’s a mid tower.

DVD drive / burner $20 http://www.microcenter.com/product/4067 ... rner_-_OEM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For an OS I would just scavenge a Win 7 Activation Code from a junked computer and load from an ISO disk.

Note that almost everything from MicroCenter has a mail in rebate.

Total = $708 plus tax

[Rubiks-Q-Bert]

I think I could reuse the case with the fans at least. Most of the fans are built into it so just a matter of plugging them back into the new board. Probably nothing wrong with the DVD-R drive. Barely use it anyway. Save the hard drives. Have 2 SSD drives and I think one old one. Then from there probably start with a fresh board, cpu, video card, power supply, memory.


http://azzatek.com/csaz-2000.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; That's the case I have.

[jmatt]

I should note a few things:

1) The "friend" is an employee of mine, I know he has the ability to build the system correctly, ie has thermal compound, can dress the wires nicely, etc. The guy is my network security guru, he's above the menial task of speccing a box. That's why he asked me, the lowly owner of the company. I also empty the garbage pails. And sign the checks.

2) I have never built a system with these particular parts myself; it is not one of our 'stock' builds. I put the spec together in 30 minutes. There is always an element of the unforeseen with a new, untried build. That said, I know the MB, CPU and memory will all play nicely together if the advertised specifications are to be believed.

3) I didn't check to see if the chip comes with a heat sink. You don't need one of the crazy, high end ones. A standard heat sink will suffice, just know the difference between AMD and Intel sinks. Intel usually uses the four post, square type; AMD will sometimes be rectangular, employ the old 'hook and latch' and require a MB backplate (included).

4) Don't be a dummy: Pop in the computer port escutcheon (back of the machine) before you screw down the MB. And don't scrape the MB across the standoffs trying to wrangle it into position!

[Aram]

In my opinion now is the best time to build a lasting pc. But you will need to spend $1500 for quality.

Amd gets outdated far faster than intel and will also cost you more in power usage over the years.

I've got two gaming systems i built this year and they are amazing.

I7 4790k stock 4ghz
32gb ddr3 cl9 ram
Samsung 850 pro hd
Asus mb, corsair platinum rated ps
Dual sli geforce gtx 970
Benq and acer 24in 1920x1080 144hz gsync monitors

I use them for intense tasks like web browsing and posting on valiantfans.