I need to turn this into an average gaming pc.. help please

[steadyeddie211]

Here is my current pc as it is now. http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=ET1831-07
I'm planning on changing the video card, the cpu, and the power supply first. But what else should I upgrade? Also if you have a certain item I should get ( remember I don't have thousands of dollars to spend or else I would have gotten a better pc to start with), give me the links or the details please. I appreciate any help. I'm most likely going to get the power supply first since it's cheaper. Thank you guys

 

[enzo matrix]

I can't find if this motherboard has a PCI-e 16x times slot or not. The specs don't mention the expansion cards.
I doubt you will be able to find a CPU much more powerful that would work with that computer. Even though the chipset does support up to core 2 duo, you'd need to find out the bios support from eMachines. Besides, the E5400 should be sufficient for your needs if you are on a budget.

You didn't mention an exact price but here are my suggestions. The PSU is the same for each but each GPU will not be significantly held back by your CPU in most games. The GPUs are each, in my opinion, the best in their pricerange. Don't forget, you need a PCI-e 16x slot in your motherboard for any of them to work. If you intend to spend more on the video card, then I have suggestions but it would require a better power supply than the one I am about to suggest.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371034

The radeon 4650 - the minimum. This is the minimum card you should get for gaming. The difference will be night and day between this card and the integrated you already have. Expect to play less demanding games at lowered settings.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150393

Radeon 4670 - worth the price hike but there are much better cards for only a minor price increase. It's performance approaches the radeon 3870.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150450

Radeon 5670 - for less than $100 you have a DX11 capable GPU that surpasses the performance of the radeon 3870.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150466

For comparison purposes, with my radeon 3870, I can play most games at 1920x1080 at either very high or high settings at 60+ FPS. I have an Athlon IIx4 at 3.25GHz. I can play crysis on medium at 30FPS. Cryostasis is all buy beyond me. Comparatively, your CPU is about equal to an Athlon IIx2 at 2.9-3.0GHz. This will not be significant with any of the cards I mentioned except in a few more CPU dependent games like Dragon Age.

Let me know your exact budget if it is more and I will post another comment with revised suggestions.

 

[Wolygon]

Yes it does have a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot. Here:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/382687/review/et183107.html#specs.expansionslots

Found by searching (ET1831-07 pcie expansion) in Google(Bing), first one.

Hope that helps.

 

[ssddx]

As enzo stated, most games are limited more by video card performance than any kind of cpu bottleneck. If I was in your situation I would just get a video card (and psu if required.) You will be able to play games but do not expect to compete with $1000+ gaming systems.

Enzo recommended some decent ati offerings; I prefer nvidea offerings myself. The software that comes with the geforce cards (nview) has been much easier to use imho. If you go that route look into the 9800GT offerings on newegg. sub $100 and a strong contender. As long as you do not attempt to max newly released games you should get decent framerates.

 

[enzo matrix]

Yeah, I recommended the ATI cards because I am more familiar with their models. The 9800GT is an awesome card too. Performs better than the 3870 (it's basically an 8800GT, which performs better than the 3870, but improved a bit with less power requirements). From my brief research, the 9800GT performs better than the 5670 on average but the minimum framerates of the 5670 seem to be a touch better. That's consistent across a couple of reviews.

 

[shovenose]

ok so it DOES have a pci-e slot, i looked it up. The power supply is a cheapo 250w, so you will need to replace that. I would say the corsair 400cx would do a good job.
a geforce 9800 would improve your gaming.

 

[steadyeddie211]

I can't find if this motherboard has a PCI-e 16x times slot or not. The specs don't mention the expansion cards.
I doubt you will be able to find a CPU much more powerful that would work with that computer. Even though the chipset does support up to core 2 duo, you'd need to find out the bios support from eMachines. Besides, the E5400 should be sufficient for your needs if you are on a budget.

You didn't mention an exact price but here are my suggestions. The PSU is the same for each but each GPU will not be significantly held back by your CPU in most games. The GPUs are each, in my opinion, the best in their pricerange. Don't forget, you need a PCI-e 16x slot in your motherboard for any of them to work. If you intend to spend more on the video card, then I have suggestions but it would require a better power supply than the one I am about to suggest.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371034

The radeon 4650 - the minimum. This is the minimum card you should get for gaming. The difference will be night and day between this card and the integrated you already have. Expect to play less demanding games at lowered settings.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150393

Radeon 4670 - worth the price hike but there are much better cards for only a minor price increase. It's performance approaches the radeon 3870.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150450

Radeon 5670 - for less than $100 you have a DX11 capable GPU that surpasses the performance of the radeon 3870.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150466

For comparison purposes, with my radeon 3870, I can play most games at 1920x1080 at either very high or high settings at 60+ FPS. I have an Athlon IIx4 at 3.25GHz. I can play crysis on medium at 30FPS. Cryostasis is all buy beyond me. Comparatively, your CPU is about equal to an Athlon IIx2 at 2.9-3.0GHz. This will not be significant with any of the cards I mentioned except in a few more CPU dependent games like Dragon Age.

Let me know your exact budget if it is more and I will post another comment with revised suggestions.

The amount I'm willing to spend is probably around another 400 dollars to make this thing run alot better (if that's enough to make this thing better). Reply back when you can, thanks so far! Also, I'm mainly wanting to play games like WoW, And total war games (empire, rome) or even civilization 5 when it comes out. I have a ps3 and 360 for shooters. For pc I stick with mmos and strategy.

 

[steadyeddie211]

As enzo stated, most games are limited more by video card performance than any kind of cpu bottleneck. If I was in your situation I would just get a video card (and psu if required.) You will be able to play games but do not expect to compete with $1000+ gaming systems.

Enzo recommended some decent ati offerings; I prefer nvidea offerings myself. The software that comes with the geforce cards (nview) has been much easier to use imho. If you go that route look into the 9800GT offerings on newegg. sub $100 and a strong contender. As long as you do not attempt to max newly released games you should get decent framerates.

I like your idea about not having to get another CPU lol. I know I won't be able to compete with them, But I want to get as close to them as I can. I'm willing to spend up to $180 on the graphics card itself since it is the most important one. I can't go online and buy stuff so do you know where I can get a good power supply for around $40-50? Thank you.

 

[Onus]

No buying online? Hmmm, $40 to $50 will buy a house brand (Dynex or Huntkey / Rocketfish) at Best Buy, the ones known to be absolutely fecal (jonnyguru, hardwaresecrets, and hardocp have all blown them up trying to pull anywhere near their labeled rating from them). You might find a 380W Earthwatts for not too much more (Best Buy sells Antec also), which would handle a 9800GT. Whatever you do, do NOT get a cheap PSU; you put your entire system at risk. Quick and dirty rules of thumb: avoid ANYTHING that has a little voltage switch on it, including Coolermaster and Thermaltake. Look for 80+ certification for efficiency. At the very least, although under unrealistically cool operating conditions, they were able to output their labeled rating for at least half an hour (so they would have warmed up some despite the low ambient temperature), and do so efficiently, so they probably were not about to blow electronic chunks.

 

[steadyeddie211]

No buying online? Hmmm, $40 to $50 will buy a house brand (Dynex or Huntkey / Rocketfish) at Best Buy, the ones known to be absolutely fecal (jonnyguru, hardwaresecrets, and hardocp have all blown them up trying to pull anywhere near their labeled rating from them). You might find a 380W Earthwatts for not too much more (Best Buy sells Antec also), which would handle a 9800GT. Whatever you do, do NOT get a cheap PSU; you put your entire system at risk. Quick and dirty rules of thumb: avoid ANYTHING that has a little voltage switch on it, including Coolermaster and Thermaltake. Look for 80+ certification for efficiency. At the very least, although under unrealistically cool operating conditions, they were able to output their labeled rating for at least half an hour (so they would have warmed up some despite the low ambient temperature), and do so efficiently, so they probably were not about to blow electronic chunks.

I understood about 70% of what you said lol. But I do know you gave some pretty good help. Im looking for something at least 500 watts. If I can get the for under 100 dollars let me know where please.

 

[Onus]

Wow, they've got a 650W Corsair for $85: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair+-+650W+ATX+CPU+Power+Supply/9358269.p?id=1218090911783&skuId=9358269 which is a much better price than I'd expect out of Best Buy. That's a LOT more power than you need, but is cheaper than the 550W Corsair there. If you'd rather spend less, you can get a 450W Corsair for $75. That one would absolutely be big enough for your system. There's a cheaper 500W unit, but it's a crappy, overrated Thermaltake (i.e. it isn't really capable of 500W).
With $180 available for the GPU, you should be able to pick up a HD5770 there too.

 

[steadyeddie211]

Wow, they've got a 650W Corsair for $85: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair+-+650W+ATX+CPU+Power+Supply/9358269.p?id=1218090911783&skuId=9358269 which is a much better price than I'd expect out of Best Buy. That's a LOT more power than you need, but is cheaper than the 550W Corsair there. If you'd rather spend less, you can get a 450W Corsair for $75. That one would absolutely be big enough for your system. There's a cheaper 500W unit, but it's a crappy, overrated Thermaltake (i.e. it isn't really capable of 500W).
With $180 available for the GPU, you should be able to pick up a HD5770 there too.

I like the 650 corsair. The HD5770 does seem pretty damn great. How well would my system be able to play games after I put those in? I hope I can get the radeon at best buy too cuz that's definatley where I'm going to head out to tomorrow. Thank you Jtt283.

 

[steadyeddie211]

and are you sure they are compatable with my current pc?

 

[Onus]

Yes, they should work well for you. Four GB of RAM is a decent amount. Your CPU is no speed demon, but you should be able to play most games on it.

 

[steadyeddie211]

Yes, they should work well for you. Four GB of RAM is a decent amount. Your CPU is no speed demon, but you should be able to play most games on it.[/quotemsg

Thanks man. I have one more thing since you reminded me. I want a better CPU if it would make my computer faster. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[Onus]

By the time you've added / replaced all these parts, you will have spent enough to build another system, which will outperform it since you would be able to overclock it.
As far as replacing the CPU goes, I'm not sure what the eMachines' BIOS supports as far as a replacement, or what CPU wattage the board can safely handle. Stock is a 65W chip, so you wouldn't want to go above that without guidance from them. I really think replacing the CPU would be a waste of money. If, after getting the other parts, the machine cannot handle the games you want to play well enough, the thing to do would be restore this machine to its original condition, and use all the new parts you bought in a new build. You'd need a CPU, mobo, RAM, HDD, ODD, and maybe a cooler if you wanted to overclock more than the stock cooler safely allowed.

 

[steadyeddie211]

By the time you've added / replaced all these parts, you will have spent enough to build another system, which will outperform it since you would be able to overclock it.
As far as replacing the CPU goes, I'm not sure what the eMachines' BIOS supports as far as a replacement, or what CPU wattage the board can safely handle. Stock is a 65W chip, so you wouldn't want to go above that without guidance from them. I really think replacing the CPU would be a waste of money. If, after getting the other parts, the machine cannot handle the games you want to play well enough, the thing to do would be restore this machine to its original condition, and use all the new parts you bought in a new build. You'd need a CPU, mobo, RAM, HDD, ODD, and maybe a cooler if you wanted to overclock more than the stock cooler safely allowed.

Yeah, your right. It would be a waste of money. I'll just use the video card and Power supply and see how much of a change I'll get. Which will most likely be a whole lot more. How many framerates do you think I'll get on WoW with the Radeon 5770?

 

[Onus]

I've never played WoW, but I built a budget PC over a year ago for a friend to play Guild Wars, and it uses an e5200 with a HD4830, both slower than yours, and he has always said he loves it.

 

[steadyeddie211]

I've never played WoW, but I built a budget PC over a year ago for a friend to play Guild Wars, and it uses an e5200 with a HD4830, both slower than yours, and he has always said he loves it.

Thank you. I think guild wars is more graphic than WoW judging by what I've seen. I believe this might be plenty enough for it. I appreciate everything jtt.

 

[steadyeddie211]

Best answer selected by steadyeddie211.

 

[Onus]

Glad I could help.