CPU, Mobo, RAM Upgrade

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xclusive327

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Mar 26, 2014
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I have an old Dell 546 Inspiron that I wanted to use for gaming. It has AM2 socket motherboard with an AMD 7750 Dual core. 5GB DDR2 memory.

Recently purchased a Zotac GTX 650 Ti....Hoping it would do justice for a modded Skyrim. The game runs pretty good. A playable 30-50 fps depending where the heavily populated areas are. It get's really bad for couple of seconds then smoothes up a bit in Towns. Bought a OCZ Fatal1ty 750W PSU like 3-4 years ago.

I'm pretty sure what I got is bottlenecking the GPU. My question is it worth upgrading the Motherboard, CPU, and RAM?
 
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JOOK-D
In that case (puns) you could just swap out the motherboard for an mATX one. I had a look and there are so many different models that it's difficult to tell what the form factor is.

For the Xeon and 4670 (non-k) builds you could go with the same motherboard, just in a smaller form factor. I also changed the RAM to one which uses a lower voltage.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3hhh1
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3hhh1/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3hhh1/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.68 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H87M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x...
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JOOK-D

JOOK-D

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Aug 28, 2013
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For slightly over your budget you could get an overclocking set.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1a9ds
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1a9ds/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1a9ds/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($227.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($129.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $422.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-27 04:06 EDT-0400)

For your budget, you could get a non-overclocking Xeon 1230v3, which has almost identical performance to the i7 4770.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3hfZh
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3hfZh/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3hfZh/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.68 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($91.48 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $401.15
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-27 04:07 EDT-0400)

If you don't want to saturate your budget, here's a non-overclocking alternative too. Slightly slower than the 4670.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1lVWl
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1lVWl/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1lVWl/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($91.48 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $346.45
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-27 04:09 EDT-0400)

Their gaming performance goes in order. I'd take the 4670k preferably, and maybe overclock it further down the line. If not, then the Xeon wouldn't be a bad choice. Neither would the 4570 by any stretch of the imagination.
 
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xclusive327

Reputable
Mar 26, 2014
3
0
4,510
Not sure if you know about the form factor for the Dell case but I believe it's a microATX. It's a midtower. On your prefered setup, the motherboard says ATX. Or A ATX if that means anything. Is it compatible with a midtower?
 
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JOOK-D

JOOK-D

Dignified
Aug 28, 2013
3,910
0
15,960
In that case (puns) you could just swap out the motherboard for an mATX one. I had a look and there are so many different models that it's difficult to tell what the form factor is.

For the Xeon and 4670 (non-k) builds you could go with the same motherboard, just in a smaller form factor. I also changed the RAM to one which uses a lower voltage.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3hhh1
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3hhh1/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3hhh1/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.68 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H87M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($70.20 @ Newegg)
Total: $394.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-27 05:47 EDT-0400)

And here's a motherboard change to mATX for the 4670k option.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1arc1
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1arc1/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1arc1/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($227.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87M Extreme4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($70.20 @ Newegg)
Total: $418.18
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-27 05:50 EDT-0400)
 
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