Upgrading an old pc

optimuspraim

Honorable
Dec 15, 2013
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10,680
Hello guys! I have an old pc that I want to upgrade with my budget being at about 300 euros.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4
MoBo: GA-MA770-UD3
GPU: Broken :'(
RAM: 2x2GB
Crappy Power supply

So now I don't know if I should keep the Motherboard and the Cpu and spend my money on a Power supply (corsair vs650) , an RX 470 and 2x4GB ram or upgrade everything.
Which upgrading scenario will give me better performance? I want the pc to play some games like CS:GO , LoL etc..
Thanks in advance
 
Solution


Other than the ram, every single thing on this list is a waste of money these days. For the same price worldwide you could build an i3-6100 system with a 1050 and demolish this.

The VS is a crap PSU as well.

That said 300 euros is a tight budget...
Well you are hitting a dead in with that CPU. I would lower my standards to a RX 460, and get a decent CPU/MObo combo from Intel. Also you only have 4GB, starting off with AT LEAST 8GB is always recommended. Also, a new PSU would not hurt. All of this is going to be over budget.
 

optimuspraim

Honorable
Dec 15, 2013
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If I get the rx 470, 8gb's of ram and power supply, wouldn't I have better performance than getting all of these you said?
 


In a sense, yes. But that CPU is still holding you back. But you will notice a better performance. What country are you in? I can try to gather some prices for you.
 

optimuspraim

Honorable
Dec 15, 2013
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I live in Greece and I will get all the parts from this site: skroutz.gr
Its in greek but I don't think it will be hard to understand. If you can translate it, it would be awesome :D
 

DeathAdder17

Commendable
Jan 1, 2017
57
0
1,640
CPU quite old already same as the motherboard, i recommend you to buy new cpu and upgrade your RAM atleast 8GB then for the GPU atleast gtx 750ti. Lemme me give you some list. I would suggest you to stretch your budget.

Heres the specs I could recommend you if you want to play those games:

Cpu: AMD Kaveri A10-7700K 3.40-3.80GHz 4-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-DS2
GPU: GTX 750 ti Palit
RAM: DDR3 hyper fuxy x 1600mhz
Power Supply : Corsair VS550 Power Supply
 
Cant do a whole lot for 300 even 400 was a stretch

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (€127.30 @ Amazon France)
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-D Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€62.71 @ Amazon France)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (€39.98 @ Amazon France)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card (€169.90 @ Amazon France)
Total: €399.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-04 17:21 CET+0100
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator


Other than the ram, every single thing on this list is a waste of money these days. For the same price worldwide you could build an i3-6100 system with a 1050 and demolish this.

The VS is a crap PSU as well.

That said 300 euros is a tight budget, this is before the PSU:

http://www.skroutz.gr/s/7546182/Intel-Core-i3-6100-Box.html
http://www.skroutz.gr/s/8314684/Asrock-H110M-DGS.html
http://www.skroutz.gr/s/7768114/Patriot-Viper-4-Series-8GB-DDR4-2400MHz-PV48G240C5K.html
http://www.skroutz.gr/s/10402011/Zotac-GeForce-GTX1050-2GB-Mini-ZT-P10500A-10L.html

Then this PSU brings it just over 400

http://www.skroutz.gr/s/8570625/Corsair-CX-Series-450W.html

Thats what I would do.
 
Solution

spdragoo

Splendid
Ambassador
If you really want to upgrade that system, you're going to have to take it slow, because most of the significant upgrades are going to stress your budget quite severely.

However, the biggest thing is that you don't have a working GPU, so that's the absolute minimum you need to do to make your system usable again. With that in mind, you could easily add in an RX 460 or (preferably) a GTX 1050. They're fairly inexpensive, & unless you have a really low-rated PSU they should be fine without a PSU upgrade. Plus, I'm guessing your monitor is somewhere between 720p & 1600x900 in its resolution, so you don't need a powerful GPU (especially for the games you mentioned). If you really need more graphics power, then I would consider the RX 470; depending on your actual PSU, you might be OK without an upgrade, but you might want to consider getting a better 450-550W PSU if you can afford it now.

RAM-wise, it really depends on your version of Windows. If it's 32-bit, you're already at the maximum RAM you can run. If it's 64-bit, you can go all the way up to 16GB (4GB per slot), but you're going to have problems finding those kits in your budget. You might be able to swing the RAM upgrade if you can get by with just a GPU replacement, but forget about it coming in under budget if you have to get a new PSU.

CPU-wise, again, your games aren't going to be that stressful, so you're probably OK for now, but you can start saving up for it if you want. The question is going to be which type of Phenom II you currently have. Your particular board (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3302#sp) can handle Socket AM2, AM2+, & AM3 chips. Of those, the Phenom II X4 920 & 940 were available as Socket AM2+ chips, but you can go all the way up to a Phenom II X6 1100T on that board (http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3302). Note that the X6 1090T/1100T, or the X4 975/980 chips, will be more than OK for the games you mentioned, but will also bump you up 2 spots so that you're right up with the 6-core FX chips or a Haswell core i3, right behind the 8-core FX chips & the Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge core i5s (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html). However, assuming you can find those chips, you won't be able to get them now with your current budget.