OLD Build uppgrade - amd phenom - critical budget

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turbo88

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Jul 7, 2017
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Hi, so i've read this web for a while now, but i've never made a post, heres the first!
So my little brother decided started gaming and a friend of mine has an old pcjust gathering dust in his room willing to give it up; i want to know the LEAST expensive (consider it extreme budget, since im giving it away) upgrade i should make in order for him (my brother) to play something.

PSU: Sentey - Extreme Rock Power 400W
CPU: Amd phenom x4
MB: Gigabyte - GA-M68MT-S2 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard
RAM: Kingston - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
GPU: ati sapphire hd 5450

Im thinking the GPU... maybe even a gtx 1050 2gb; im sure the cpu will bottleneck but i might (or even he!) upgraded in the future.

so here goes the multiple choice test:
can we save
this old pc wholely?
some parts (ram,case,maybe psu)?
nothing at all?

also kinda offtopic, 2gb vram is okay nowadays? (clearly its going to be 1080 or even 900 res)

thank you all!
 
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maxalge
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dontlistentome

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Sep 5, 2016
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You left out probably the most important information- what games? After all, something like CSGO is vastly different in demands than PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds.

Yes, you'll want 2gb vram if possible, but for 1080p gaming. If 720p is acceptable you can get away with 1gb in most games. Motherboard compatibility is my main concern. An older card would be my first suggestion, but you don't really have the power supply for that. Old, fast cards typically use a lot of power, that's their downside.

Of newer cards, AMD seem to be the friendliest to older motherboards. Personally, I'd go with an RX 460 or 560. Once again, I will point out that a GPU upgrade only makes sense if the games being played aren't the newer more CPU demanding games.

For those, it's new computer time. A new CPU means new motherboard means new DDR4 ram. You'd still need the videocard and so you might as well get a better power supply to power it all- ie new computer.
 
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turbo88

Prominent
Jul 7, 2017
13
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510


thank you for your answer, and you are right i left out the most important part hahaha, my bad. currently i believe with heroes of the storm (or any other moba)/ world of warcraft-guild wars 2- final fantasy / csgo would suffice. no need for witcher 3 on ultra settings...yet

https://pcpartpicker.com/ says that the mobo and gpu are compatible, dunno how reliable that is though
 
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maxalge

maxalge

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May 31, 2012
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go ahead a gtx 1050 is a great idea


the phenom II x4's are old, but still sorta OK

MMO'S will not run so great




this is the end of the line for this particular setup, not worth throwing any more money into it

any more gpu power, and you would need a complete rebuild
 
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