Looking to upgrade, kinda confused

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Matheck

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Dec 2, 2012
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Hello!

I just recently upgraded my PC with the help of people on Tom's Hardware and a friendly roommate so I don't know how to do it all on my own, but I need to upgrade my old PC for my girlfriend so she can play FFXIV:A Realm Reborn with me.

My old PC is an HP desktop, model P6654Y

Here are two websites with the models specs :

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/hp-pavilion-p6654y-magnesium/4505-3118_7-34498550.html

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&lc=en&product=4295651

I was thinking about upgrading the RAM a little and getting a really nice graphics card for this but I wasn't to sure how to figure out which RAM and graphics cards are compatible. I've already upgraded the PSU (here is a link of the current PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817170017 )

If anyone can help me find something good it would be much appreciated, also if you could explain how I could figure out how to figure this out on my own in the future that would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks!
 
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Here is the full specs of your PC

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/hp-pavilion-p6654y-magnesium/4507-3118_7-34498550.html

Starting witht he RAM we can see that it currently has:

- 4GB out of a possible 16GB
- It is DDR3
- It is PC3-10600 (1333MHz)

I would assume it has two sticks of 2GB. Therefore, for a worthwile upgrade you will have to buy 2 sticks of 4GB. It's best to make sure that it's all the same brand to avoid any problems. And it has to be DDR3 1333Mhz. Somthing like this... http://www.cclonline.com/product/43670/CT51264BA1339/Desktop-Memory/Crucial-4GB-Memory-Module-PC3-10600-1333MHz-DDR3-Unbuffered-Non-ECC-CL9-240-pin-DIMM/RAM2097/

4GB of RAM will be enough to game on if you want to save the money.

As far as graphics...
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aldan

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Apr 15, 2013
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just finished working on a 6000 series. two things to do to yours. 1.put a dedicated graphics card in it (at present it has onboard and it isnt great), 2.upgrade the power supply to something decent (in the neighborhood of 500w. as for a graphics card the skies the limit but unless your really hard core i would go with any midrange card,keeping in mind that it has to fit your motherboard.your board has 4 ram slots i beleive so you could even throw a little more ram at it say 2gb.
 
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Matheck

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Dec 2, 2012
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The main question I had was how do I know what graphics cards fit my motherboard? And how do I know what RAM fits my motherboard? Also, my PSU is 575w already so I would think anything I get will be fine. Do you have any recommendations as far as graphics cards or RAM?
 
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BigBlueHouse

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Dec 28, 2013
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Here is the full specs of your PC

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/hp-pavilion-p6654y-magnesium/4507-3118_7-34498550.html

Starting witht he RAM we can see that it currently has:

- 4GB out of a possible 16GB
- It is DDR3
- It is PC3-10600 (1333MHz)

I would assume it has two sticks of 2GB. Therefore, for a worthwile upgrade you will have to buy 2 sticks of 4GB. It's best to make sure that it's all the same brand to avoid any problems. And it has to be DDR3 1333Mhz. Somthing like this... http://www.cclonline.com/product/43670/CT51264BA1339/Desktop-Memory/Crucial-4GB-Memory-Module-PC3-10600-1333MHz-DDR3-Unbuffered-Non-ECC-CL9-240-pin-DIMM/RAM2097/

4GB of RAM will be enough to game on if you want to save the money.

As far as graphics cards go. It really depends on what game you want to play, at what resolution, and in what detail. If you give me that info and a price range, I can reccomend you some cards.

From the specs list you can see that it has a PCI-e slot. This is all you will need to worry about in terms of compatibility. That and if your PSU can handle it and has the right connectors.

Hope this helps. Any further questions, please ask :)

 
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t21

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Jan 6, 2012
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just measure you empty space and see if it would fit by comparing with the card size spec , the problem mostly with the length of the cards but from the look at your mobo it could be also a problem with the width of the card to not hit the ram for example 660 is 9.5 x 4.38 and width about 1.5 to 2 inch
and you could know what type of ram you got by downloading cupid
 
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Matheck

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Dec 2, 2012
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This helps quite a bit, thank you very much. I would very much appreciate a recommendation. The game I'm looking to play is Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the system requirements are as follows, Operating System: Windows® 7 64 bit
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5
Graphics: NVIDIA® Geforce® GTX 660 or higher, AMD Radeon™ HD 7950 or higher
Memory: 4GB of RAM.
Disk Space: 20GB

My PSU is : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817170017 , I think it carries most connectors but I'm not quite sure. My new graphics card I bought just recently came up a good amount of adapters as well, so, that might help me out.

I have $350 to spend on all of this, the graphics card and the Ram.

Thanks for being so helpful by the way :)
 
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BigBlueHouse

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Dec 28, 2013
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Your PSU has 2 PCI-e connectors, so that will be fine.

On that budget I would reccomend a R9 270x (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161442).
You could go for a 7950 or a 7970. But they are harder to find now, as they are being replaced by the newer R9 range.

If you want to compare GPU's http://gpuboss.com is a really good tool.
 
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