£500/$600 PC Upgrade from Dell Inspiron 660

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zeldor711

Commendable
Apr 10, 2016
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4 years ago I purchased a Dell Inspiron 660 (the type with the i5 3330). Two years ago I decided it didn't have enough power and upgraded to a EVGA 500W PSU and GTX 650 2GB GPU. Now however, it is time to upgrade again and I have a much bigger budget ($600/£500). I think that I am able to salvage the:

  • Power supply - 500W, EVGA, no problems here
    CPU - whilst a little outdated an i5 3330 should be fine for a mid-range gaming PC
    RAM - 8GB is perfect for most builds
    Hard drive - this part I am not sure about. Will I have to change this as I change the motherboard? Will I need to buy a new OS? If i can reuse it I will, as it saves $100 not buying a new drive and OS.

This leaves me needing a new case, motherboard and graphics card. I would prefer the motherboard to support overclocking in case I decide to upgrade my CPU soon as well. I would also like the GPU to be by Nvidia, at least a GTX 960 4GB or better.

I would try to do this myself but unfortunately I know nothing about motherboard compatibility or anything.

Please help


 
Solution
C
Well, this should work. The motherboard is less than ideal in pricing but H61 boards occasionally have issues with Ivy Bridge CPUs and this was the cheapest board with overclocking. I also put a new PSU in, the EVGA is fine for something basic (I assume it's a 500B) but for a R9 390 I would get something a bit better. Oh. And the case is nice. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($146.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($294.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Vengeance C70 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($87.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W 80+...
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C

ComputerSecurityGuy

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Mar 30, 2015
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Well, this should work. The motherboard is less than ideal in pricing but H61 boards occasionally have issues with Ivy Bridge CPUs and this was the cheapest board with overclocking. I also put a new PSU in, the EVGA is fine for something basic (I assume it's a 500B) but for a R9 390 I would get something a bit better. Oh. And the case is nice. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($146.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($294.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Vengeance C70 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($87.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $604.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-10 10:53 EDT-0400
 
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Solution
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zeldor711

Commendable
Apr 10, 2016
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1,530


Thanks, but the graphics card actually needs to be a GTX model as I'm getting Shield Tablet soon and want to gamestream, so I'll probably swap the r9 390 for a gtx 970 or similar. Everything else looks good though! Just to confirm, will my old HDD be compatible with the new motherboard (heard somewhere that Dell doesn't like people changing the motherboard)?

 
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sizzling

Titan
Oct 18, 2006
27,231
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Your HDD will work but your Windows licence will be invalid as its OEM from Dell and tied to the original motherboard. You can try calling Microsoft and they may take pity on you and allow you to transfer the licence buts its unlikely, you should budget to buy a new copy of Windows.
 
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Z

zeldor711

Commendable
Apr 10, 2016
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Oh right I'm in the UK where it seems no motherboard is ever in stock. I think I'll try for a Z68 (I read that they generally work fine with Ivy Bridge processors)
 
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C

ComputerSecurityGuy

Admirable
Mar 30, 2015
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Here's a revised setup for the UK (should have seen it from the £500)PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£68.42 @ Misco UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£249.98 @ Novatech)
Case: Corsair Vengeance C70 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£101.30 @ Kustom PCs)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£79.99 @ Novatech)
Total: £499.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-10 17:13 BST+0100
 
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Z

zeldor711

Commendable
Apr 10, 2016
34
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Hate to break it to you, but the motherboard is actually a broken link. I searched through Misco and could not find a single LGA 1155 motherboard, let alone a Z77 one. Thanks for your time
 
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