Upgrade options for my Dell Tower computer

mrm198 · Jan 20, 2016

I would like some advice on what my upgrade options are for my pc to meet the requirements of a couple of games I'd like to play.

Approximate Purchase Date: 12 July 2010

CPU_Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 530 @ 2.93GHz

Memory Module
Mem_Capacity: 2048MB
Mem_BankLabel: DIMM #1 times 4

Video_Caption: ATI Radeon HD 5670
Video_AdapterRAM: 1024MB

ST3750528AS
Disk_Model: ST3750528AS
Disk_Size: 750 GB

Budget Range: max £500 but hopefully less

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, surfing the internet

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: Whatever necessary, the less the better. Will post power supply details shortly

Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Please note that if you're using an OEM license of Windows, you will need a new one when buying a new motherboard.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preferences.

Location: St Helier, Jersey, United Kingdom

Parts Preferences: by brand or type . None

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: Samsung 40 inch TV , will post resolution shortly.

Additional Comments: Games i want to buy include Fallout 4 and Xcom 2.

Xcom 2 recommended specs; 3ghz quad core, 8gb ram, 2GB ATI Radeon HD 7970, 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 or better

Fallout 4 recommended specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 8 GB
OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent
Free Disk Space: 30 GB

Why Are You Upgrading: I think my PC is not falling behind minimum recommendations for games that I want to play. I am also occasionally seeing an intermittent weird slowdown/freeze (for up to 30 seconds) then a recovery to normal operation again every now and again. Perhaps this is a sign that an important component will break soon anyway.
I'd rather updgrade/replace as little as possible to minimise cost/waste. I'd consider a full replacement but i don't think my computer will have much resale value.

My tower is big and the pc is very heavy, I'll provide measurements are important.

Thank you for your help.

bodeen2012 · Jan 20, 2016

what are the specs of your current computer.

Barty1884 · Jan 20, 2016

What are your current specs? Which DELL model?

If you have an i5 (or maybe even an i3) you should be able to get by with it. If you have a dual-core, you're going to need a new CPU, Motherboard + OS to be playing those games (and at that point, you're halfway to a new rig anyway).

If your GPU is where you're being let down, a new GPU + PSU would probably be the minimum.

As far as the freezing up goes....a clean OS install and a good clean out of the case with compressed air should fix those issues.

mrm198 · Jan 20, 2016

I'm so sorry for missing the specs, but i have included them above now

Barty1884 · Jan 20, 2016

Ok, an i3-530 is a dual core with hyper-threading (so 4 threads) and should allow you to game at a somewhat decent level during CPU intensive situations. Ultimately though, it's a 6 year old chip (which is really a lifetime old in a CPU sense).

I'm maybe not understanding fully, as each DIMM is normally laid out fully...
Memory Module
Mem_Capacity: 2048MB
Mem_BankLabel: DIMM #1 times 4
Is that 2GB total?!

Looking over your build, I think even a 500GBP 'budget' build would serve you really well.

You;'re correct that your current setup probably doesn't have much of a resell value, but hopefully you could get 100-150 out of it.

An example of what you can do with 500quid....

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£34.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£27.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston HyperX Fury 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£39.03 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card (£121.98 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.59 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£41.99 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) (£65.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £502.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-20 21:47 GMT+0000

mrm198 · Jan 20, 2016

Its 4 x the chip I posted, so 8GB total?

I was trying to shorten the cut and paste from my system information, but didn't realise I wasn't being clear.
Thanks for checking.
Let me read the rest of your answer!

Barty1884 · Jan 20, 2016

mrm198 :

Ah sorry, didn't realise you were editing it & it wasn't just a clean copy/paste job.

mrm198 · Jan 20, 2016

Wow. Thank you very much for putting all this information together for me.

Is ordering the parts and putting it all together achievable for me? The most I've ever done is replace a graphic card on my previous PC, but fortunately this was just a matter of unplugging the old card and plugging the new one in.
I noticed there are some threads on here about building your own rig so I will look at those.

Is your suggested build a good step up? I'm used to the idea of replacing/upgrading every few years or so. I'm very happy my current PC has lasted 6 years.

bodeen2012 · Jan 20, 2016

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£58.83 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£48.03 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£35.48 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£42.98 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB Superclocked Video Card (£159.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Aerocool Aero-500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£30.99 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£52.80 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) (£65.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £495.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-20 22:02 GMT+0000

Barty1884 · Jan 20, 2016

mrm198 :

It's really not too complicated at all. Provided you give yourself.....say a full day for your first build, take your time, read the manuals etc, it's not very difficult at all. There's always people on this forum willing to help out if you get stuck, but it's more than achievable for most. If you've been comfortable replacing a GPU in the past, then you'll do just fine.

There are really helpful tutorials on this site, and numerous YouTube videos that will help out too.

I like the build I put together, but give it a little while. You'll get a few opinions & suggestions here, and it'll likely spark a debate above one component or another (and more than likely AMD vs Intel too!). I'll take a look and see if I can make any improvements. Do you have any flex in the budget at all? At a 500quid pricepoint, you're somewhat limited. Every little bit extra you could put forward to it would help. I'll try to come up with some options at other pricepoints so you can see what I mean.

An i5 is the gaming 'sweet spot' and, while your budget doesn't stretch to the latest and greatest (Skylake), Haswell chips are still viable options. The 4460 wasn't top of the line, but it's a true quad-core versis your older i3+HT so will have the advantage.

The GTX 950 I included is a common 'go to' middle-ground for GPUs. A 960 would be better (but costs more) and there are AMD options too.

I included a small SSD - assuming you'd repurpose your existing HDD. If you decide to look to sell your setup, you'd probably be better off picking up a mechanical 1TB HDD in place of (or in addition to) the SSD.

@bodeen2012 has suggested an 860k. I have the chip myself, and it's a pretty good budget chip. I don't have any direct experience with the chip & some of the more popular games though. I exclusively play Football Manager (and the 2011 version at that!). The 860k is not universally recommended for many truly intensive games though.

Barty1884 · Jan 20, 2016

Ok, as an example of where a bit more of a budget would get you a substantially better rig:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170-HD3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£80.99 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£31.98 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£61.98 @ Novatech)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.14 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB Superclocked Video Card (£159.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.59 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£41.99 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) (£65.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £661.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-20 22:26 GMT+0000

Comments:
1. CPU - You'd be on the latest intel platform (Skylake). The top of the line i5 would be the 6600k (an unlocked multiplier, for overclocking). For 50quid less you can have the 6600 (so, second top I guess) and it comes with a stock cooler. Means you can do minimal OCing, but it's a surprisingly good price.
2. Motherboard - Going with Skylake means a more expensive motherboard. The H170 chipset isn't ideal (the Z170 would be. It would allow OCing even on a locked CPU), but it's substantially cheaper.
3. RAM - DDR4 is the latest tech. The H170 chipset is limited to 2133MHz speeds though.
4. SSD - Samsung is 'king; when it comes to the SSDs. The 850 is great for your OS. There are cheaper options, but unless someting else has kicked on & gotten better, the 850 still gives the best performance (relative to cost).
5. HDD - 1TB storage.....'nuff said.
6. GPU - GTX 960 4GB would be ideal for your needs and still reasonable priced. 4GB VRAM. Generally speaking, more VRAM will allow you to push better frames & higher resolutions.
7. Case - I just like that case....and it's surprisingly cheap.
8. PSU - 450W is more than enough for the setup. You can't trust too many PSUs on brand alone (most brands, think Corsair etc. Have good & bad PSUs), but XFX and SeaSonic are two that you can. The 450W Pro was simply the cheapest, quality unit.
9. Windows 8.1 ...... you can install W10 (and you should be able to use the 8.1 key to do so), or you can install 8.1 and upgrade.......then clean install. Saves a little bit of money over buying a W10 license outright.

mrm198 · Jan 20, 2016

Thank you Barty1884 and Bodeen2012 for your great answers. I will read them through properly tomorrow and look at the links etc. I'm going to get some sleep!

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