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Upgrading my PC?

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  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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May 25, 2014 10:16:24 AM

Hello everybody, I've recently been looking into upgrading my completely stock HP Pavilion 500-214 Desktop PC, and wanted to know if these upgrades are compatible.

Current Specs:
AMD Richland A8-6500 Quad-Core APU @ 3.5GHz
with integrated AMD Radeon HD 8570D
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8GB DDR3 RAM @ 1600MHz
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2TB HDD
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Integrated 300W Power Supply unit.
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MS-7778(JasmineR) Motherboard
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...Yeah. Not the best specs, but they've served me well over the times I've had with this PC, but, i want to upgrade the parts in order to keep up with the modern times and still be able to play games like Team Fortress 2, CS:GO, Left 4 Dead 2, Minecraft, Tribes:Ascend, Skyrim, etc.. Ya know, not very demanding games that I've grown attracted to over the years. Here are the "New" Specs i'm thinking of upgrading my PC to.

New Specs:
AMD Athlon X4 740 Trinity @ 3.2GHz
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Bronze Certified CORSAIR CX series CX500 500W
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Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 OR NVIDIA GTX 640/650
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So, what do you guys think? Will i be able to upgrade this Particular PC to these new specs? If not, what do you recommend that will fit this range? Keep in mind that i DO have a budget of no more than 300$. Also keep in mind that i only wish to upgrade the CPU, PSU, and GPU.

More about : upgrading

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May 25, 2014 12:46:43 PM

With the 300W OEM PSU, you better stay with a card that doesn't need a 6 pin aux power connector. Look at getting the GTX 750 Ti. Most (not all) of them need no aux 6 pin connector. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...

If you get the 500W PSU mentioned, then the HD 7770 will be OK. As far as the APU to Athlon upgrade, that would be a sideways or slightly backward move:
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Athlon-X4-740-vs-AMD-A8-650...
The fastest processor for that socket would be the Athlon X4 760K. But even it would be a sideways move:
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Athlon-X4-760K-vs-AMD-A8-65...

If you are used to gaming with the on-die GPU, just the gfx card upgrade alone would be a major improvement, and about the only one that would make sen$e with that socket MB. With the new PSU, you could move up the a R9-270/270X or possibly even a GTX 760 before CPU bottleneck gets too bad.
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September 3, 2014 6:10:19 PM

clutchc said:
With the 300W OEM PSU, you better stay with a card that doesn't need a 6 pin aux power connector. Look at getting the GTX 750 Ti. Most (not all) of them need no aux 6 pin connector. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...

If you get the 500W PSU mentioned, then the HD 7770 will be OK. As far as the APU to Athlon upgrade, that would be a sideways or slightly backward move:
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Athlon-X4-740-vs-AMD-A8-650...
The fastest processor for that socket would be the Athlon X4 760K. But even it would be a sideways move:
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Athlon-X4-760K-vs-AMD-A8-65...

If you are used to gaming with the on-die GPU, just the gfx card upgrade alone would be a major improvement, and about the only one that would make sen$e with that socket MB. With the new PSU, you could move up the a R9-270/270X or possibly even a GTX 760 before CPU bottleneck gets too bad.


I appreciate the response greatly, and i'm about to get the card you have suggested(the 750 TI), but i would like to make sure i get the one that doesn't require a 6-pin connector, and i would like some tips on installing it, so i would appreciate it if you could answer a few questions i had.

1: Will i have any difficulty getting the default HP bios to recognize the card?
2: How would one go about getting the drivers to work out since i already have display drivers for my apu installed?
3: Is there any way to tell if the card i want to get is the one requiring a 6 pin connector? (newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... amazon: http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclock-Dual-Link-Graphic... )

A response in the next few days would be appreciated, as i expect the money for the card to come in pretty soon. Thanks!
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September 3, 2014 6:57:23 PM

1) Very good chance you will have problems if you have an HP, yes. Check on the HP forums with other users to see what their experience has been. This forum is full of HP users that have found that their BIOS chokes on cards that are not HP sanctioned and cards like the new Maxwell-equipped GTX 750 Ti are even worse.
2) You simply install the card and then boot to Windows. Win will load a generic driver to get you going. Then either install the driver pkg. on the disk or the one from the Nvidia website.
3) That card does not require a 6 pin aux connection. On the Newegg site, you can examine the photos of the card they offer. If it required an aux conection, Newegg would show the side containing the header so you could see what it took.
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September 3, 2014 8:05:34 PM

clutchc said:
1) Very good chance you will have problems if you have an HP, yes. Check on the HP forums with other users to see what their experience has been. This forum is full of HP users that have found that their BIOS chokes on cards that are not HP sanctioned and cards like the new Maxwell-equipped GTX 750 Ti are even worse.
2) You simply install the card and then boot to Windows. Win will load a generic driver to get you going. Then either install the driver pkg. on the disk or the one from the Nvidia website.
3) That card does not require a 6 pin aux connection. On the Newegg site, you can examine the photos of the card they offer. If it required an aux conection, Newegg would show the side containing the header so you could see what it took.


I highly appreciate it. Thank you for your time, and ill be sure to research the troubles people have been having with my bios. Thank you for your time, once again.
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