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I was thinking of buying this computer but im not sure if it is easily upgradeable:

ASUS M4A78T-E Motherboard and AMD Phenom II X4 920 Quad Core OEM Processor and Thermaltake TR2-R1 Socket AM2/939/754 CPU Cooler and Corsair CMX4GX3M1A1333C9 XMS3 4GB DDR3 RAM and Lite-On Inter Bundle at TigerDirect.com

It is easily upgradeable, it's basically a custom computer that someone put together for you. It looks very nice to me. The things I would consider upgrading are putting in a video card since the mobo's integrated graphics is very low end, swapping out that hard drive for something with more RPM because 5900 is pretty slow, and maybe put in another 2GB of memory or even swapping all of it out for 4-6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz, the memory included is only 1333MHz.

Thanks for the reply, So I'll just replace the integrated 128mb video card with a 512mb card(ATI?) ,and i'll replace the ram like you said, but about the hard drive how much rpm would be good?

if your going to buy a computer and upgrade it streight away, wouldnt it be a better option to built one yourself?

or if you dont know how to assemble a computer from scratch (i dont) ask around local computing stores asking if they put computers together

Smiddey723 wrote:if your going to buy a computer and upgrade it streight away, wouldnt it be a better option to built one yourself?

or if you dont know how to assemble a computer from scratch (i dont) ask around local computing stores asking if they put computers together

My dad knows how but my problem is that i'm not very good with knowing what parts are compatible with what and the whole "which is more powerful then the other if they are both the same GB's"(mhz).

lromero wrote:My dad knows how but my problem is that i'm not very good with knowing what parts are compatible with what and the whole "which is more powerful then the other if they are both the same GB's"(mhz).

if your dad knows how to put them together, he probably knows what good parts are

EDIT: if you have any questions about parts and which ones are better, post them here and someone will probably tell you

He knows how to put a computer together but he doesn't know much about which parts are more powerful.Thanks for the reply smiddey.

I have a question should i get an amd athlon II quad core 2.8ghz or and I3 intel dual core 3.0ghz. Which one would help me run arma better?

EDIT: I just decided to get a prebuilt one so would this be able to run arma 2 on high?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=5291

I'll add 4gb ram at 1600mhz

lromero wrote:I have a question should i get an amd athlon II quad core 2.8ghz or and I3 intel dual core 3.0ghz. Which one would help me run arma better?

EDIT: I just decided to get a prebuilt one so would this be able to run arma 2 on high?
AMD VISION Premium Barebone PC - MSI 785GM-P45 Motherboard, AMD Athlon II X4 630 Quad Core CPU, ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB, Cooler Master Elite 310 Mid-Tower Case, 350 Watt Power Supply at TigerDirect.com

I'll add 4gb ram at 1600mhz

Ok several things to note in your thread from a building/upgrading POV.

Firstly the computer you have listed has a reasonable CPU and ok motherboard, nothing to write home about but since you're looking @ $300 PCs, I'm assuming that you're operating on a sub $500 budget or less. This means that you're not going to be getting a good gaming PC... you can get a PC that can play games, but it's not going to be good at it The computer in your second tigerdirect link (amd vision) has a graphics card but it is a 5450 which is like a couple of steps above no discrete graphics at all.

Now if you're looking to pay minimal $$ now and put higher end components in later when you can afford them, I'd suggest looking at barebones with:
- Decent AMD motherboard (& low-mid range processor)
- Decent PSU [like a VX450]
- 2-4 GB of ram (1333mhz ddr3 - no point to higher freq ram with your budget)
- A case with at least 1x 120mm intake & 1x120mm exhaust, enough space for mid range graphics cards
- A smallish 7200rpm drive (500gb spinpoint F1?)
- A very cheap GPU or motherboard IGP so that you can save up for a decent graphics card later.



Finally... and this is very important... Graphics card's performance levels are not determined by how many MB of memory they have on them. Do not be fooled into thinking that just because 1 graphics card has 1024MB of VRAM that it is better than a 512MB variant... because that's not how it works.

To figure out how decent the cards are, you type their name into google with 'review' after it, and read a few of the articles. For example with your one:
hd5450 review - Google Search

And then one that I would recommend to you for budget gaming
hd5770 review - Google Search

Then you look for games that have been tested on both cards and compare them.

The 5450 vs 5770 on Crysis medium quality:
7 fps vs 38 fps

looks quite a nice PC apart from the GFX card

when you get that, i would upgrade the power supply to something like a 600 - 700W PSU (Just in case ) and get yourself a nice graphics card in their. i would recommend the ATI 5770

thats what i would do if i were in your situation

Thanks Psyrus, i learned something new today but i think i'll just buy it and upgrade it later on when i get a job. Anything is better than what i have now(It can barely play BF2 PR). So thanks for the help guys

ok m8, glad we could help you

see you around

lromero wrote:Thanks Psyrus, i learned something new today but i think i'll just buy it and upgrade it later on when i get a job. Anything is better than what i have now(It can barely play BF2 PR). So thanks for the help guys

Ok... well I just hope you understood from my post that the HD5450 will also 'barely play' PR at low settings

A 5750 or 5770 will do much, much better... and both would most likely run fine off the 350W PSU (although again I'd say a 500W 80+ bronze would be a good investment)

Psyrus wrote:Ok... well I just hope you understood from my post that the HD5450 will also 'barely play' PR at low settings

A 5750 or 5770 will do much, much better... and both would most likely run fine off the 350W PSU (although again I'd say a 500W 80+ bronze would be a good investment)

It can't be worse then what i have now: 128mb radeon 9600 from early 2000's, 3.0 ghz, and 1gb ddr ram. Im surprised i can even run it with this.(It only plays maps that don't have much on them, jabal,al basrah, and the small idf map i forgot the name of).

id go with what smiddy said your build right there is pretty decent, but yes i need at least a 4670 5670 or a great idea a 5770 for gfx. the first two gfx cards u only need a 400 W power supply if u want to skimp there. try to use all amd/ati products so you can use amd overdrive and fusion, it auto tunes your cpu and gfx for max performance. wow and i thought my computer could barley run this game. (1024 res med settings no shadows)amd 4000 1 gb ram, ati 4670.

lromero wrote:It can't be worse then what i have now: 128mb radeon 9600 from early 2000's, 3.0 ghz, and 1gb ddr ram. Im surprised i can even run it with this.(It only plays maps that don't have much on them, jabal,al basrah, and the small idf map i forgot the name of).

Gaza Beach...

Also be aware that the AMD vision does *not* come with an operating system [windows]. This means you'll either have to use your current OS from your system, buy a new OS (I suggest win 7 64 bit) Sending you a PM

Also don't pay more for 1600mhz ram, it makes no difference. I'm pretty sure your board won't have overclocking options so you could just purchase 1333 or even 1066mhz ram and there'd be no difference since your ram frequency is based on your CPU fsb : ram multiplier (which you won't be able to change). I haven't bothered to look @ the MSI 785GM-P45, but I'm sure it's pretty barebones