i3-530 w/ r9 380/380x. Will it play games?
- Thread starter BHall12
- Start date
yes, but. You will be strongly CPU limited. How much memory do you have? (need 4GB)
You have a pretty good strategy though, the R9 380 will work nicely with your eventual CPU/mb/memory upgrade.
Update: Look on youtube for videos of the games you want to run that use an i3-530. R9 380 will be stronger than the video they are apt to use so you should have a lower bound on how playable.
You have a pretty good strategy though, the R9 380 will work nicely with your eventual CPU/mb/memory upgrade.
Update: Look on youtube for videos of the games you want to run that use an i3-530. R9 380 will be stronger than the video they are apt to use so you should have a lower bound on how playable.
Some games are CPU sensitive, others are strongly video limited. Suggest you look at benchmarks for the games that you are interested in. Your i3 is not a strong CPU, but it's not pathetic. People still game with quad cores like the q6600 and you should be in the same range multi-core and faster single thread. Not a beast but workable. 8GB is plenty of memory. A pair of 4GB dimms is faster than a single 8GB dimm with i3-530's dual memory channel support.
If you happen to need a CPU upgrade you could look for a used i7-870. Seems like that's the best CPU you could put in that PC. Be sure to update to the latest BIOS. You might have to upgrade the stock heatsink and fan too.
If you upgrade your video card, you will need to upgrade your power supply as well. The 300W one that comes with that PC is inadequate. I recommend a small single fan 380, the dual fan versions might not fit.
I recommend this power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1N83U88558
And this 380: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202151
If you upgrade your video card, you will need to upgrade your power supply as well. The 300W one that comes with that PC is inadequate. I recommend a small single fan 380, the dual fan versions might not fit.
I recommend this power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1N83U88558
And this 380: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202151
I've upgraded HPs of that era before. PSUs, drives and video cards all go in easily. The one CPU swap I did also went fine.
Getting a new MB in that case will be difficult because the IO shield currently installed is not removable. If you are good with a dremmel it can be done. If I had gotten the IO shield to work I still needed to make the front panel IO connectors work.
I said the heck with it and bought a new case from fractal (r4).
The surprising results of the new case (surprising to me, maybe not to most others)
1. Quieter (this I expected)
2. Video card temp dropped 20C. This shocked me. The much better airflow made a huge difference.
If you plan to get
(1) new MB
(2) new CPU
(3) new memory (likely you will end up needing DDR4)
(4) new PSU
Then consider a new case. Good Luck.
Getting a new MB in that case will be difficult because the IO shield currently installed is not removable. If you are good with a dremmel it can be done. If I had gotten the IO shield to work I still needed to make the front panel IO connectors work.
I said the heck with it and bought a new case from fractal (r4).
The surprising results of the new case (surprising to me, maybe not to most others)
1. Quieter (this I expected)
2. Video card temp dropped 20C. This shocked me. The much better airflow made a huge difference.
If you plan to get
(1) new MB
(2) new CPU
(3) new memory (likely you will end up needing DDR4)
(4) new PSU
Then consider a new case. Good Luck.
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