what grapics card is the BEST for a hp pavilion desktop

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motodawg1

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got a old hp pavilion a6742p, 2008. its got a Intel E5300 (dual core, 2.4ghz, hoping to upgrade to a better cpu as well, some input from you guys on a better cpu would be great), 6gb ram, 500gb hdd, and the graphics card, uses the GMA 3100. what graphics card can I use that's the best for this? hp says it can use a PCIx16
 

lowriderflow

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this gets tricky... what is the power supply, what connections does it have?

the easy answer would be ANYTHING is an upgrade for you. You could pickup a GTX 260 on ebay for $30 that would give you 50x the graphics power of that onboard gma 3100 (i didnt look that up, just a guess... but it's going to be a huge number!)

you'd also want to go into bios and disable onboard video so it knows to default back to the PCI slot
 

motodawg1

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my budget is unlimited, im doing this for a nephew and so for the knowledge of doing so. so I greatly appreciate the help. later on after this we will build a new dual xeon based pc. but for now I just need info on this.. water cooling, everything, etc.. im having a hard time looking up upgradeable components
 

motodawg1

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my budget is unlimited and im doing this for a nephew and the knowledge of it. I just don't know what I can upgrade to. the 'MAX' as he says, lol. water cooling etc.. im having a hard time looking up specs for upgrades since its old.
it says its got a 250watt psu
 

motodawg1

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well I've never built one either, so its a learning experience, and I don't wanna spend 5g's on a xeon based system and not have a little experience. as for the monitor, I don't have one other than my LG 55" 3D hdtv that I can use for the moment. could you recommend one? or should I just stick with that? the reason I ask is BECAUSE of the xeon desktop we will build later in the year. for the keyboard and mouse I figure we would go wireless...
ALSO, I forgot about asking if you could recommend a SSD?
the motherboard is a asus IPIBL-LB (Benicia)
 
Here is a build that will last him more than 5 years in the gaming industry. BTW the monitor is on sale and will go away very quickly if you are thinking about it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.68 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($95.24 @ Amazon)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($469.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R Windowed ATX Mid Tower Case ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VN248H-P 23.8" Monitor ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($14.18 @ B&H)
Total: $1438.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-24 21:47 EDT-0400)
 

motodawg1

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oh man I already had a build picked for my xeon pc. what I needed was a upgrade parts list for that old pavilion pc, can you help out on that?
 

motodawg1

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for learning, as I said I don't wanna spend tons of money on a xeon pc if I don't know how to put one together, and its more for him anyway, seeing the advancements we've made in pc technology. I don't really expect much. but I've been told it can handle a gtx 260, is that right? it has a PCIx16 slot. and I think I remember asking if it could handle a 4 core and I believe the response was yes. if so, with water-cooling and a gtx260 im thinking I could play a few of the games right? even if its on low settings, like I said its just for learning, no price on knowledge for a young kid.
also I believe it can hold 8gb of ram. and maybe even ddr3
 
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