Advice please on this cheap system

:O thats epic! That's gonna be a nice boost to performance.

lol nice

so i5 3.3 ghz
up the GPU to 970 or R280
and ram to 16GB
add 2nd hdd as SSD min 256GB and put BF and games only on it.

16gb of ram is completely unnecessary if you're just gaming

Very true. You don't even need 8gb, my PC only has 6 and I run everything just fine. An SSD would be a very nice addition to any build without one (I would put common applications on there too, like browsers and stuff, maybe OS too). If you can afford a better gpu, a GTX 970 is one of the most cost effective cards out there right now, and is more than enough to play pretty much anything. If I had $350 to get a better gpu, that's the one I would get without a doubt.

Thanks heaps guys.. been looking at vid cards here in OZ and damn they're expensive here! whist i can afford a good one, being the frugal (cheap ass) person i am, I might have to dial it back to a 670 4gb... maybe.. not real sure on the performance of the "budget" cards. lots of research to do i guess.
Nevertheless... really appreciate all the input and......
CAN'T WAIT TO GET ON-LINE AND KILL YA'LL!! lol.
mAxx.

If youre going to be playing alot of BF4 id get an amd card because of mantle.

Agreed. Mantle may disable Origins in game overlay, I know it does it on steam when you use mantle on Thief at least. But using mantle does give a nice like 8fps boost for me in Thief

great advice guys.. much appreciated. Win 8.1 runs nice and has handled evreything i've thrown at it so far. BF4 runs smooth as on Medium settings all round.. all's good for now.. thanks again.