Dell system would like to upgrade on budget

casec11

Honorable
Jan 4, 2013
4
0
10,510
Would like to play arma 2 and mods maybe planetside 2.
Should a new graphics card do the trick or should I upgrade anything else? I would like to spend under $200-250

MY PC
Dell Dimension DM061
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Cpu
6400 @2.13GHz
2.13 GHz, 3.00 GB of RAM
Ge force 7300LE

Is there any thing else i should list?
 

casec11

Honorable
Jan 4, 2013
4
0
10,510
looking at the Radeon HD 7750 would this fit or work ...
sorry guys Im a noob to this
I mainly use the computer for Graphic design and 3D design programs like inventor.
 

twelve25

Distinguished
You've got a 305W power supply, so I'd probably just throw a Radeon 7750 in there . That's the highest end graphics card you can handle without also upgrading power supply. Your CPU is pretty slow for modern games, so you might need to upgrade that, which would alse require a RAM and MB replacement.

If it were me, I'd start with the 7750 and see how that does. If you still feel like you are lagging, then you'd need to upgrade MB/CPU/RAM as well.

So step 1 ($90): 7750 2GB card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127709

if that's not enough then Step 2 (about $140):

Pentium G860: http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Pentium-Dual-Core-Processor-Cache/dp/B005LLBBSS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357333333&sr=8-1&keywords=pentium+G860

Basic H61 board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157315

4GB RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231394
 

twelve25

Distinguished
One more options would be to purchase a cheap socket FM2 MicroATX motherboard, an AMD A10 processor and 4GB of DDR3-1866 RAM. That should be about $200 total and you'd get a little more processing power than the above G860+7750 solution, but not as good graphics. AMD A10 have a pretty good build in 3D graphics that rivals a $60 graphics card like the Gt 630 or Radeon 6570.

 
Definitely graphics card.

Look strongly at the HD7770 vs. the HD7750. Much stronger and at 80W TDP will run along with a low power 65W E6400 on a 300W PSU. (I did not cross check twelve25, assumed he got the PSU rating right. The rest of his append was credible).

p.s. your CPU is a core 2 E6400. glad you gave the frequency so I could cross check. This is not a bad CPU. With a decent video card you'll be surprised how much better you can game.

edit: forgot. As you look at video card and CPU upgrades the last pages of the two articles below will let you compare the new parts to what you have. You'll see your current video is hopeless and your current CPU is not great, but ok.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html video
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html cpu