I don't know what to do to improve my pc for gaming

xplayca

Honorable
Dec 28, 2013
2
0
10,510
Hello, my budget is atleast $250 USD
I'm very new to this and I bought a computer on black friday but I didn't know it was this bad in gaming haha. Well, I don't know what to buy to upgrade this computer and I can just go to BestBuy to get it installed. What should I upgrade to make it faster for gaming? Everything else is good except for gaming. I'm not going to be playing BF4 and I just wanna play some fun games on steam.
Well, please help me what should I buy and I don't understand what I'm supposed to be upgrading, is it the Processor or Graphics Card? I was thinking about the core i5 but I don't know if that's the only thing I need? Sorry about the noobiness, please help. THANK YOU!

Will any good thing fit into this computer to improve gaming? I want to record and make vids.
Computer: HP PAVILLION 500-A60

Specs:
Color: Black
Processor: AMD A6-5200 Accelerated Processor @ 2 GHz
Memory: 8GB DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive: 1TB HDD
Optical Drive: SuperMulti DVD burner
Graphic: AMD Radeon HD 8400
Audio: Realtek ALC662 5.1 channel audio
LAN: Realtek RTL8106E-CG 10-Base-T Ethernet
WiFi: 802.11b/g/n
Card Reader: Multi-Format Digital Media Card Reader for Secure Digital (SD, SDHC, SDXC), Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick Pro (MS-Pro)
External Ports: 2 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0, 1 x VGA, 1 x DVI-D, 1 x RJ-45 (LAN), 1 x Headphone, 2 x Microphone in, 1 x Audio Line in, 1 x Audio Line out
Operating System: Windows 8 with all original preinstalled software from HP
 
Solution
It's not a laptop. Your best bet is going to be to upgrade the Power Supply. Once that's taken care of you can install a better graphics card. Using 250 dollars as your budget, this is what I'd do.

The Cpu might bottleneck this Gpu, but I don't think it's worth it to drop down anymore than this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 270 2GB Video Card ($183.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $233.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-29 00:03...
It's not a laptop. Your best bet is going to be to upgrade the Power Supply. Once that's taken care of you can install a better graphics card. Using 250 dollars as your budget, this is what I'd do.

The Cpu might bottleneck this Gpu, but I don't think it's worth it to drop down anymore than this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 270 2GB Video Card ($183.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $233.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-29 00:03 EST-0500)

Right at your budget before the MiR, and it'll do wonders for your gaming experience.

Any other upgrade is going to involve replacing the Cpu, and at that point you might as well just buy a new motherboard/cpu combo.

:edit: Ok, that Pc only supports that Cpu, so no upgrade there. You'll have to buy a motherboard(about 70 dollars) and a new Cpu(figure 120 dollars) for anything that'll game fairly well with a new video card.
 
Solution
Ahh crap! Yeah, you are right. No pci-e slot on that motherboard. There is no upgrade path for that Pc other than buying a new motherboard/cpu, video card and power supply. At that point he might as well just buy a new system.

He could reuse his HDD, Ram, and optical drive though, so not a complete loss.