Looking To Turn my PC into a Gaming Rig, But I'm Disgustingly Ignorant

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So, two or so years ago we bought a pre-made PC, but since then, the family has gotten more into gaming, but our lack of power is really holding us back.

Unfortunately, we don't have millions of dollars to spend, so we need to do it piece by piece, which is probably a dreadful way of doing it, but we have no choice.

System Specs, as reported by AIDA64-


Motherboard
CPU Type QuadCore AMD Athlon II X4 650, 3200 MHz
Motherboard Name Foxconn 2AB1
Motherboard Chipset AMD 785G, AMD K10
System Memory [ TRIAL VERSION ]
BIOS Type AMI (06/29/11)

Display
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 4200 (256 MB)
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 4200 (256 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon HD 4200 (RS880)
Monitor HP 2311 (DVI) [23" LCD] (CNT13793PV)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter ATI Radeon IGP HDMI @ AMD RS880 Chipset - High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Adapter Realtek ALC888/1200 @ ATI SB700 - High Definition Audio Controller

Storage
IDE Controller AMD SATA Controller
Disk Drive Generic- Compact Flash USB Device
Disk Drive Generic- MS/MS-Pro USB Device
Disk Drive Generic- SD/MMC USB Device
Disk Drive Generic- SM/xD-Picture USB Device
Disk Drive ST310005 24AS SATA Disk Device (1000 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-III)
Optical Drive hp DVD A DH16ABSH SATA CdRom Device
SMART Hard Disks Status Unknown

Partitions
C: (NTFS) [ TRIAL VERSION ]
D: (NTFS) 11412 MB (1393 MB free)
Total Size [ TRIAL VERSION ]

Input
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Mouse HID-compliant mouse

Network

Network Adapter Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter
Network Adapter NETGEAR WNA3100 N300 Wireless USB Adapter (192. [ TRIAL VERSION ])
Network Adapter Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller



DMI
DMI BIOS Vendor American Megatrends Inc.
DMI BIOS Version 6.08
DMI System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
DMI System Product p7-1003w
DMI System Version
DMI System Serial Number [ TRIAL VERSION ]
DMI System UUID [ TRIAL VERSION ]
DMI Motherboard Manufacturer FOXCONN
DMI Motherboard Product 2AB1
DMI Motherboard Version 1.00
DMI Motherboard Serial Number [ TRIAL VERSION ]
DMI Chassis Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
DMI Chassis Version
DMI Chassis Serial Number [ TRIAL VERSION ]
DMI Chassis Asset Tag [ TRIAL VERSION ]
DMI Chassis Type Desktop Case

I hope that's what you needed!

What's the best way to get from this, to a gaming capable rig?
 
Solution
N


I would only really recommend trying to salvage the likes of your HDD and Optical drive, for playing any kind of newer game I don't see your other components holding up too well, but it really depends what you want to play

The most recent budget build I did was $630 (This doesn't include Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor)

Since you already have the HDD and Optical drive, you can knock that off the price, also I believe you are in the states and components are cheaper there, I would imagine you could fairly easily come in around the $450 mark, cheaper if you are willing to sacrifice more performance, hard to be accurate when I don't know...
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gcatalin

gcatalin

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Aug 18, 2011
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Get a hardware detecting software like aid64 or everest. There you can see what components you have. But if the computer has a HD 4200, it most surely is a weak office pc. You will most surely need a new PSU when you buy a new gpu. But the question is, does your motherboard have a pci express slot ? And does your case have space for a gpu ?
 
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Niallh

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May 21, 2011
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Usually turning a computer like what you currently have into something for gaming is very impractical as you say, as mentioned above you will have problems with adequate power, space etc

Upgrading part by part will probably not do much for performance as you will still see bottlenecks, i.e. a new GPU won't do much if the CPU isn't able to cope with the new games

If you are on a budget have you considered buying piece by piece and building it when you have all the parts, alternatively, save and buy all the parts and maybe salvage a few things from your current computer, such as the case, HDD, optical drive etc
 
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I put the system specs up, so hopefully we'll be able to figure some of these things out.
 
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What would it theoretically cost to build a new pc, using some scrapped pieces from our current one?
 
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gcatalin

gcatalin

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Aug 18, 2011
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The cpu is not that bad, at least for the time being. You could get a new gpu (and a new power supply if needed, aida does not tell anything about the power supply), also if the space in the case allows, you could get way better performance than with the current on board gpu.
 
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Niallh

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May 21, 2011
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I would only really recommend trying to salvage the likes of your HDD and Optical drive, for playing any kind of newer game I don't see your other components holding up too well, but it really depends what you want to play

The most recent budget build I did was $630 (This doesn't include Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor)

Since you already have the HDD and Optical drive, you can knock that off the price, also I believe you are in the states and components are cheaper there, I would imagine you could fairly easily come in around the $450 mark, cheaper if you are willing to sacrifice more performance, hard to be accurate when I don't know what you want to play
 
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