Building a new system with parts from the old

billinlakewood · Mar 1, 2018

I'd like to upgrade my system. I have a fairly old HP P7-1421 which has an AMD A8-5500 APU. I recently bought an NVIDIA GTX 1050 graphics card which dramatically improved the speed of play of Civ VI, but my system still apparently doesn't meet the requirements to see all the graphics features of Civ VI. I'd like to get it to the point where it will at least render most of the graphics, like leader animations, etc, but would prefer to keep as much of my existing hardware as possible. I have also upgraded the old hard drive to an SSD but aside from that and the graphics card, I haven't done any other upgrades. I was thinking maybe I could get a new motherboard and CPU that would fit in one of my HP desktop boxes but I'm not sure what's compatible or if I'm better off buying a new box as well.

I also wondered about my monitor. It's an HP 2009M with a VGA adapter. Has monitor performance improved to the point where a newer monitor could also improve my gaming experience?

Thanks in advance.

imsqam · Mar 1, 2018

Would you consider buying used parts? The reason I ask is that it would be nice to keep the RAM but that limits you to motherboards/CPU's that support DDR3 RAM. Because DDR3 is aging it jacks up the price of new mobos. Your current mobo is a micro-ATX so that is a good thing, it is a pretty standard size/shape.

maxalge · Mar 1, 2018

billinlakewood :

only if the hp case is a tower design, you also may be limited to matx sized mobo

open and look inside, then plug in the mobo model into google and see what size it is

yes, a higher resolution monitor at 1080p is VASTLY better than your current resolution

you have ddr3 so i guess you also want to keep that

something like a i5 4690k with proper z97 mobo

recommended gpu for civ6 is a gtx 770 or better, so yeah the 1050 is too weak

you want a gtx 970, they can be had for cheap
so you also want to make sure your power supply is at least 500w or better with the proper pcie cables

at this point, price wise you would be MUCH better off just saving a bit more money and go i3 8100 with proper ddr4 ram and mobo + gtx 970

billinlakewood · Mar 1, 2018

imsqam :

Sure I'm open to anything. I'm trying to get an idea of my options and don't know the hardware side very well. My preference is to end up with a computer that will be pretty good for another 5-6 years, so if it means a little extra now to buy a new mobo and ram, that's fine as well. I'm just kind of exploring my options and wanting to learn a little more about building (or rebuilding) my own computer.

Lehan123456789 · Mar 1, 2018

Hi,
Those AMD APUs are getting quite old now, and honestly that will be your bottleneck. As a general rule storage is easy to keep, but:
The case may be a non-standard form factor, and therefore you will not be able to use the case with a standard motherboard
The PSU will probably be really terrible. You will need to get a new one.
Your monitor is 900p, which will significantly handicap your experience
And your ram is ddr3, which is not compatible with newer platforms.

With that in mind, I would suggest upgrading your CPU, MOBO, RAM, Case, Monitor and PSU:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($104.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($64.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($97.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($42.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: BenQ - GW2270 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($89.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $444.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-01 20:02 EST-0500

maxalge · Mar 1, 2018

Lehan123456789 :

Hi,
Those AMD APUs are getting quite old now, and honestly that will be your bottleneck. As a general rule storage is easy to keep, but:
The case may be a non-standard form factor, and therefore you will not be able to use the case with a standard motherboard
The PSU will probably be really terrible. You will need to get a new one.
Your monitor is 900p, which will significantly handicap your experience
And your ram is ddr3, which is not compatible with newer platforms.

With that in mind, I would suggest upgrading your CPU, MOBO, RAM, Case, Monitor and PSU:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($104.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($64.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($97.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($42.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: BenQ - GW2270 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($89.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $444.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-01 20:02 EST-0500

with that mobo you are crippling his ability to upgrade

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