Upgrading my desktop for modern gaming

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CRaysball98

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Oct 15, 2013
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From the information I got off my desktop tower I have a HP Pavilion p6674y Desktop. It's never been upgraded so it still has it stock parts. ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics card, 6GB DDR3 System memory, AMD Phenom II 840 T Quad core processor, 1TB memory, Windows 7.

Basically my question is this, what all do I need to upgrade to play games like Skyrim and Minecraft on my PC properly and occasionally record my game play with Fraps and minimize my frame rate drop? I would also like to spend the least possible while getting the most, if that makes sense.
 
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smorizio

smorizio

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Jan 22, 2010
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the smallest upgrade would be a newer power supply 750w unit that you could move into a new rig latter, then drop in a faster gpu. depending on the length of the case and the case height you may have to get with the old case a low profile video card. with a working hp pc like yours you could see if you can get a tax credit donating it to library or old folks home. myself i look on newegg for there combo deals. you could reuse the hard drive and cd rom and slower memory and drop it into a newer mb and cpu combo with a larger case and gpu.
 
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fixer762

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Jan 31, 2013
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I would scavenge the 1 TB hard drive, the ram, and the Cd/dvd drive and Windows 7 (please tell me you have a windows disc)

And use the scavenged parts and get new parts to build with to include
-Psu- 750W made by Corsair or Seasonic
-Motherboard
-Processor-
-Graphics card- I'm a fan of my 7950
-New case- that cools better is a must browse until you find something you like (I'm a fan of Cooler Master and Nzxt cases atm)
-After maket heat sink fan for cpu

 
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DelightfulDucklings

DelightfulDucklings

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Jan 5, 2013
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Ok, so first and foremost I would upgrade your graphics card as that will be the thing that is mostly holding you back, one that will perform admirably will set you back between $150 and $300 which is completely dependent on how much you want to spend and what your monitor resolution is? Secondly I would also recommend a CPU upgrade however this will also require a motherboard change as well because as far as I can tell that motherboard doesn't support the new CPUs (need AM3+ socket for AMD, yours is AM3 sadly) so that will set you back between roughly $200 and $350, however I would recommend grabbing a new graphics cards first because you may be able to get satisfactory performance out of your current CPU, it completely depends on the standards and frame rates that you want to play with

Also the power supplies in OEM computer are pretty bad so I would strongly recommend getting a new one, no matter what upgrades you do go with
 
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CRaysball98

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Oct 15, 2013
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Any links to specific items? When it comes to actually building a PC, I'm a noob. And no, I don't think we still have our windows disc. I wouldn't touch windows 8 with a 40 foot pole.
 
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CRaysball98

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Oct 15, 2013
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My monitor is full 1920x1080 and I believe it supports HDMI.
 
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CRaysball98

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Oct 15, 2013
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I wish I had a specific budget, but I won't until March or April when I actually plan on going through with this, I'm doing my research at this moment.
 
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CRaysball98

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Oct 15, 2013
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$2000 would be my absolute max but I really don't want to go over $1000. Again this assuming I have the money to actually do this is March or April. (these are USD's btw)
 
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DelightfulDucklings

DelightfulDucklings

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Jan 5, 2013
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Ok, well in that case, would you be looking at top of the line parts (say a $350 graphics card etc) or would you be on more of a strict budget because if you have a big budget I would honestly recommend just building a whole new computer and saving the hard drive and maybe the ram purely because of the fact that the case hp uses will cause you nothing but pain when you're building your new computer and the other components will need replacing most likely at some point in the near future anyway (especially the power supply, that is very urgent)
 
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CRaysball98

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Oct 15, 2013
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10,510
Let me just make this simple. $1000 is my preferred budget but I might be able to squeeze as much as $1500. Basically I don't really need top of the line, just cheapest, yet best to get the job done. I do not have the budget to build a computer from scratch.
 
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