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Zeldred424
Stranger
Registered: 09/14/13
Posts: 3
Last seen: 10 years, 3 months
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Upgrading Computer
#18842745 - 09/14/13 10:39 PM (10 years, 4 months ago) |
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I recently received a free desktop computer from my father in law which is the HP Pavilion p6510y computer. I have games that do not run on it the way that I want them to, namely Skyrim and the Total War series. Here is a link for the specs on the computer itself. I know that for the big price items I need an upgraded graphics card and an upgraded CPU. I also know that upgrading the RAM will help and while a 1TB Hard drive would be nice too, I'm good with a 750GB for the time being. I'm looking at one of the "I series" (I-3, 5, or 7) and definitely an NVidia Graphics card. Money is of no object, but I can only buy one at a time and there will be a two month or so delay between buying the two of them. So first question is which should I buy first, a new Graphics Card, or a new CPU? And then for each, what are recommendations? If I can keep the CPU as it is that would be fantastic, but I know that with higher end graphics cards there will be bottlenecking.
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Zeldred424
Stranger
Registered: 09/14/13
Posts: 3
Last seen: 10 years, 3 months
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Sorry, the specs list is here.
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CosmicJoke
happy mutant


Registered: 04/05/00
Posts: 10,848
Loc: Portland, OR
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It also has a 250W power supply in it which is entirely inadequate for a high end graphics card. Basically, my advice would be to sell the rig and build yourself a new one. But, to do it your way, start with a new power supply, a corsair 650tx is a solid option.
and then a graphics card... if you need to be cheap, get 650ti boost, and if you can put a little more money into it get a gtx 760 or better...
use those until you have the money to plunk down on a chassis, motherboard, cpu, and ram and totally rebuild.
-------------------- Everything is better than it was the last time. I'm good. If we could look into each others hearts, and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care. It takes a lot of courage to go out there and radiate your essence. I know you scared, you should ask us if we scared too. If you was there, and we just knew you cared too.
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Shroomism
Space Travellin



Registered: 02/13/00
Posts: 66,015
Loc: 9th Dimension
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Working in the GPU industry, I get calls and emails from people every single day, who think they can just slap a $500 graphics card into an old, $200 HP computer (just like this), and have some kind of super gaming system... but inevitably have tons of problems.
First of all those motherboards are very basic and not designed for handling high end modern GPUs. (As mentioned the PSUs in almost all prebuilts are always entirely insufficient for any aftermarket GPU, you will have to upgrade that first of all) Assuming a high end modern video card even works in the motherboard (80% of the time with an older prebuilt basic board, they do not work and there will be compatibility issues with older motherboards). Assuming you CAN even get it to work, the CPU will almost always be a major bottleneck.
In other words, if you want to build a real gaming system, it would be a travesty to just plop a high end graphics card in that thing. You are MUCH better off in the long run starting from scratch, with a relatively modern motherboard/CPU, a 500+ watt gold PSU, a cheap-ish but decent card like as mentioned the 650Ti Boost.
With your current CPU... Benchmarks put it right under a Intel Q9300.. so I'd ballpark it around anything higher performance than a 550Ti or so, and you'll start to see some pretty heavy bottlenecking, depending on the game of course. Skyrim is a very intensive game both CPU and GPU intensive. That CPU can probably lightly handle it but I wouldn't slap any 600 series card in that thing. If you want to do it right then upgrade the Mobo+CPU first
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CosmicJoke
happy mutant


Registered: 04/05/00
Posts: 10,848
Loc: Portland, OR
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Re: Upgrading Computer [Re: Shroomism]
#18843174 - 09/15/13 01:54 AM (10 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Shroomism said: Working in the GPU industry, I get calls and emails from people every single day, who think they can just slap a $500 graphics card into an old, $200 HP computer (just like this), and have some kind of super gaming system... but inevitably have tons of problems.
First of all those motherboards are very basic and not designed for handling high end modern GPUs. (As mentioned the PSUs in almost all prebuilts are always entirely insufficient for any aftermarket GPU, you will have to upgrade that first of all) Assuming a high end modern video card even works in the motherboard (80% of the time with an older prebuilt basic board, they do not work and there will be compatibility issues with older motherboards). Assuming you CAN even get it to work, the CPU will almost always be a major bottleneck.
In other words, if you want to build a real gaming system, it would be a travesty to just plop a high end graphics card in that thing. You are MUCH better off in the long run starting from scratch, with a relatively modern motherboard/CPU, a 500+ watt gold PSU, a cheap-ish but decent card like as mentioned the 650Ti Boost.
With your current CPU... Benchmarks put it right under a Intel Q9300.. so I'd ballpark it around anything higher performance than a 550Ti or so, and you'll start to see some pretty heavy bottlenecking, depending on the game of course. Skyrim is a very intensive game both CPU and GPU intensive. That CPU can probably lightly handle it but I wouldn't slap any 600 series card in that thing. If you want to do it right then upgrade the Mobo+CPU first
Bet that case is gonna suck for a rebuild too, am sure it wasn't thought out for longer graphics cards... Really though only things I'd keep possibly would be the hdd and dvd player and just make the rest go away.
-------------------- Everything is better than it was the last time. I'm good. If we could look into each others hearts, and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care. It takes a lot of courage to go out there and radiate your essence. I know you scared, you should ask us if we scared too. If you was there, and we just knew you cared too.
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infected_2

Registered: 08/09/11
Posts: 844
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You will end up rebuilding a PC bit by bit, poorly because you tried to squeeze it into old case or make it compatible with one old piece of kit.
Happened to my bro, upgraded Grafix card, needed larger PSU to run it, then needed a larger case for the PSU. Then needed cooling for add heat output. etc etc. ends up with a new pc but with pieces he could have went all out on but settled for something to make it work on old machine.
There isn't much salvagable from the old pc if you want to play modern games. Best bet is to build from scratch and think carefully bout what you need. You could pull the HDD, memory card reader, DVD drive but then the old machine wont sell for much and you'll likely buy more HDD space etc anyway.
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