Looking for advise on upgrading pc

[spena]

A friend of mine is debating whether to upgrade his current pc (new vid card) or buy new set of parts (mobo, cpu, psu, gpu). He is playing sc2 and d3 (huge slow down on Act 3) and is not satisfied with the visual and performance of his pc:

AMD Phenom Quad Core 2.3 Ghz
ATI HD 5700
8 GB 1333 Ram
Asus M4A785M mobo
550W

His budget is at most $500 before taxes and will be salvaging his pc case, hd, and maybe the psu. Any input would be a great help.

[MkmBandit]

Any way to find out exactly which CPU he has? He may be okay with just a GTX670 and maybe an aftermarket cooler for some light OC'ing.

edit: sorry, meant a GTX570 *typo

[Ringgold]

If all he wants is Games then yes as said MkmBandit said, a new GPU is more than fine if it can be added to this system, he has loads of rams and the CPU is not vital for gaming, you could play with CPU load and GPU load in card utilities to minimize load on CPU and use more GPU, not expert here, just Google it.

[spena]

sounds good ill recommend him to get a 8gb performance ram and a gtx 570 or 560 ti 448 cores thanks

[Ironsmack]

His RAM is more than capable.

He just needs a better a GPU.

[MkmBandit]

Still try to find out exactly which AMD Quadcore he has.. The suggestion to just go with a GPU is based on the assumption that it's a PhenomII 8xx/9xx which is still a very capable CPU. The Phenom I Agena's, not so much. If he has the latter, that would be the best place to start with an upgrade. Good thing is the mobo supports both AM2+ and AM3+ IIRC so upgrading the CPU would be a breeze. And cheap.. (<$100).

edit: for $500 tax-in he could easily upgrade both CPU and GPU. Was just looking up some prices, AMD 6950 ($200 -> http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102987&nm_mc=OTC-sho6b0tCA&cm_mmc=OTC-sho6b0tCA-_-Video+Cards-_-Sapphire+Tech-_-14102987) and any Phenom II CPU of your choice, quad or hexacore (~$100-130). Would leave enough to upgrade the PSU and maybe even a new peripheral. SSD? Not sure how well they'd work with the chipset, but may still be do-able.

[yourfriendlygamer]

as many suggested, buy a used 570, for 150-190. Let him try out and if he is still not pleased, then add a used sandy bridge combo or even new ones can be had for 300 plus tax, talking about 2500K and a z68 mobo! and that will allow him to oc as well. Don't go with AMD again tho. They are not good one bit.

[MkmBandit]

as many suggested, buy a used 570, for 150-190. Let him try out and if he is still not pleased, then add a used sandy bridge combo or even new ones can be had for 300 plus tax, talking about 2500K and a z68 mobo! and that will allow him to oc as well. Don't go with AMD again tho. They are not good one bit.

What's your idea of "good"? No matter, I'd strongly disagree with whatever reason you gave. :confused: