Okay with new games comeing out and my computer getting older and older I am wanting to upgrade it although I have no idea where to start so I figured I might aswell find the cost compared to just getting a new computer. I'll write my current computer and specs below.

HP Pavilion Elite HPE-210y

AMD Phenom II 945 Quad-Core Processor

8GB DDR3 system memory

1 terabyte hard drive

ATI Radeon HD 5450 Graphics Card with 512 MB  DDR3 dedicated Graphics memory

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

The game I am looking to play is planetside 2.  I also play Guild Wars 2 but I am not haveing as many issues with that as I am Planetside.  Someone on Planetside forums told me this...

"z77 platform.....msi gd 55.....asrock pro4.......decent boards for the price
3570k
you can use your ram.......not good for overclock, but it fits on stock
get the hd 7950 or the gtx 670........dont go with an less than 256 bit bus card....the 7870 is a great choice
get the corsair CX600w or the HX650w ...........you dont need an 750w psu...is overkill for single card
you can still use your HDD even if it is a sata 2....but i recommend you get an sata 3 ssd as a main drive....you can get in future"

But this didnt really make much sense to me as I am not that computer savy and I dont even think the graphics cards he recommended would fit. So just wondering if the computer I have is just garbage and not worth upgrading, if I do upgrade it how much would it cost on average and what would I need in order to play these games on atleast medium settings?

Thanks for reading and to any replies.

 

New case, new motherboard, new power supply, new graphics card, new OS because it will most likely ***** at you that you're not using an HP computer when you go to reauthorize it...talking about $500 for quality components.

So the question is, is a crappy game which forced the studio to close worth $500?

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Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom II x4 965 w/ Corsair H60, 8 GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, XFX HD 7970 Ghz, 512GB Vertex 4, 256GB Vector, 240GB Agility 3, Creative X-Fi Titanium w/ Creative Gigaworks S750, SeaSonic X750, HP ZR2440w, Win 7 Ultimate x64

~150€ can get you a 7850 which should be enough to play those 2 games and most console ports without issues. The HD 5450 is really really slow.

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 i5 2500k @ 4,2 GHz ][ ASUS P8P67 Pro ][ HD 5850 ][ 8GB Ram GEIL ][ ASUS Xonar DX

Woo, look who DIDN'T READ THE SPECIFICATIONS before he chipped in. From the HP Website:

 

 

You do NOT want to run a HD 7850 with a stock 300w HP POS PSU, you'll end up with a €150 paper weight and possibly even your whole system as a boat anchor.

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Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom II x4 965 w/ Corsair H60, 8 GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, XFX HD 7970 Ghz, 512GB Vertex 4, 256GB Vector, 240GB Agility 3, Creative X-Fi Titanium w/ Creative Gigaworks S750, SeaSonic X750, HP ZR2440w, Win 7 Ultimate x64