Upgrading old gaming desktop from 2007

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rodeojones

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Jan 6, 2014
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Hey there,

The time to upgrade my old gaming rig is long overdue. I had it built by ibuypower back in 2007. It's been a decent low end computer for sometime, but the framerate is killing me with newer games, I'd like to be able to play the next gen games at as high settings as possible for the budget at max fps (60 fps right?). Anyone have some suggestions/ build recommendations based on the what I already have? Which components are worth keeping? Which components should I buy? Compatibility with old components etc. This will be my first build and I have a budget of $500-700 US. Pardon my ignorance if I typed anything out wrong or left anything out. Thanks

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+

Gigabyte M55sli-s4 (rev. 2.0)

Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS

Thermaltake Tr2 600w Power Supply

Thermaltake VA8000B series Armor (ATX or BTX)

Western Digital 500GB WD5000AAKS-65TMA0

HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8164B

TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S182D

4GB Memory (not sure what brand)

Viewsonic VG2030 WM series monitor

 
Solution
jjs0891
Its not a bad idea to just leave the desktop still working somewhere in case you ever need an extra working desktop. And all the components are pretty much worth keeping. You're not going to get much from them anyway. They'll be handy when you need spare parts

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($76.97 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus...
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jjs0891

jjs0891

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Dec 26, 2012
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Its not a bad idea to just leave the desktop still working somewhere in case you ever need an extra working desktop. And all the components are pretty much worth keeping. You're not going to get much from them anyway. They'll be handy when you need spare parts

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($76.97 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card ($225.91 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $636.79
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-07 00:47 EST-0500)

You could go for the Asus GTX 760 ($250) instead which is slightly more expensive but is better.
You could also buy the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO/PLUS CPU Cooler ($30) which will be helpful in overclocking the processor if that's something you might be interested in.
 
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R

rodeojones

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Jan 6, 2014
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Thanks for the reply. You make a good point about having an extra desktop around. I figured the money saved by using some of the older parts could be used for better essential components like the graphics card. So in your opinion, it's just not worth using the scraps and I should just go with a whole new build?
 
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jjs0891

jjs0891

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Dec 26, 2012
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The only thing that you should consider reusing would be the case.
Everything else would just hinder your performance and reliability.
power supply: not reliable
hard drive: slow, but you could still reuse it for extra storage if you'd like
memory: it's probably DDR2, and DDR2 is not supported by the FX series processors.


note: you don't have to buy an optical drive if you don't use CDs/DVDs
 
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R

rodeojones

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Jan 6, 2014
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That makes sense. Not worth gutting it for the case alone then. I'll probably just go with your build using the better video card and cooler you mentioned. Thanks again. This really helped.
 
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