Key

I have two different things that i'd like some feedback / opinions on in regards to equipment with my PC:

Request #1: I'm thinking of getting a new graphics card for my current set up, but I have no idea where to start. I have a pretty standard PC.

Specs: Intel Core i3-2130 CPU @ 3.40 GHZ, 6GB RAM, 64-bit operating system.

I honestly have no idea what to look for or if that information is helpful in any way. I've done some small PC upgrades in the past, but graphics cards and RAM and all that i'm not too experienced on. So any help or recommendations there would be greatly appreciated.

Request #2: I'm looking for a way to be able to have my speakers and my headset plugged in at the same time. They both have the cables that go into the orange and green slots in the back of my computer. Don't remember the proper name at the top of my head, but it looks like this:



A friend of mine has recommended to get something that I could plug both my headset and my speakers into, than plug whatever that is into the PC. He says it'll allow me to switch between the two with ease. I'm not really sure what that "thing" is or even how to look it up.

Thanks guys. Hopefully this was easy to read and hopefully I could get some help in these two areas.

Key

Man, so many replies. Thanks guys.

Chula Vista

This is what I have in my work PC for Solidworks 3D design work. It's fast and I've never had a problem (knock on wood).

AMD FirePro

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innerspaceboy

Just saw your post. This should take care of the headphone + speaker deal - 1 cent on Amazon.

Amazon.com: 3.5mm Audio Y Splitter Cable for Speaker and Headphones: Electronics

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Mister Mushroom

As for the graphics card:

Your CPU is aging. I have the same one pretty much (i3-2100 so clocked a bit lower) and I'm significantly noticing it's age in games.

I'd suggest something like a 7770/7790 at most. (or waiting for the 8xxx series to release to the public and get the equivalent of the 7770/7790.)

If you don't do that, you might want to get a higher-end GPU and deal with a bottleneck until you can upgrade your CPU, though personally rather than doing this I'd just save and upgrade my CPU and GPU at the same time.

Also your RAM's fine for most things nowadays, so if you were considering upgrading that I personally would not.

Hope this helped!

Key

This is definitely helpful. Thank you.

Toe

Also keep in mind if you are upgrading your graphics card your computer overall will be drawing more power. This may mean that you will have to upgrade your power supply to be able to handle the increased load. If possible try to find the information on your supply possibly post a picture if you can.

Many prebuilt computers do not have much breathing room for more power so if possible finding a low power graphics card could save you a significant amount of money because you may not need to buy a new power supply.

Key

^um...

This is old news and no longer relevant.

Toe

Oh my bad I didn't notice the date.