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Upgrading Older Rig

J

Jon55

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
2,349
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (Skyrim), standard internet/MS Office work
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$400 MAX TOTAL (but would rather keep it more towards $300 if possible)
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

California (want to get everything online only)
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
GPU (currently an old Radeon X1300/X1550 256MB), PSU (stock Dell PSU, i.e., CRAP!), possibly more RAM (currently 4x1GB PC2-5300)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Case (Dell DXP061), Mobo, CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo E6600), HDD (WD 1TB Black)
6) Will you be overclocking?
Just the GPU
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1080p
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
N/A
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 64-bit (he bought a new retail license)



I'm helping a friend of mine to improve the parts in his older rig. It's an older Dell DXP061. As I said above, its' main use will be gaming (primarily Skyrim).

I have a WD 1TB Black for him, but he'll definitely be needing a new GPU (and PSU as well), and possibly more RAM.
 
Last edited:
Wait, did that PC come with Windows 7? Or was it installed from a retail/OEM key? I ask because that Dell should have came with Windows Vista considering the age of the CPU.
 
Dangman said:
Wait, did that PC come with Windows 7? Or was it installed from a retail/OEM key? I ask because that Dell should have came with Windows Vista considering the age of the CPU.
Click to expand...

Haha no, he bought a new license.
 
Greetings

Read this first

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:System_Requirements

I would recommend checking to see if the board will take a quad core cpu, if it does then I would recommend buying a Q6600 (make sure the code is SLACR) or Q6700 of Ebay for around $50.00, if the boards bios is also capable of taking the next versions after that (die shrink) like a Q9450 or better. I would get those instead for around the same price or say up to $20.00 more (either ones will perform around the same), then overclock gently from 3.0 to 3.3 Ghz with a good heatsink in place like a Thermalright true spirit.

PSU I always recommend a good to premium powersupply, something like an Antec or Seasonic 600-800 watts, doesn't have to be a gold power supply but shouldn't be their base one either.

RAM Is 4GB not enough for Skyrim? 4x1GB means you have to junk the existing RAM as all your slots are filled, it should take 8GB easily (check motherboard manual) but what is it DDR2? that will be expensive if its not DDR3.

GPU can't comment about ATI because I don't know much about them, so I suggest a used Nvidia also off Ebay, something reasonably high end like a GTX660Ti which is almost identical to a GTX670 except for having a 192 bit bus Vs a 256 bit bus on the GTX670 (gets about 90% performance of a GTX 670).

I guess that would be $50.00 for the CPU, up to $100 for the P.S. and is $150 unrealistic for the GPU price? maybe also $40.00 for a good used CPU cooler if he doesn't have one already.

You can OC the GPU somewhat but I think you may need a much beefier CPU, check Skyrim benchmarks to see what dual cores Vs quad cores get and then decide whether you need to upgrade the cpu, you probably may have to.

That my 2 cents worth, hope it helps

Cheers
 
Hmmm... considering what Hobertas said and the fact that your friend has a retail Windows 7 key, it might be more cost-effective for him to do an entirely new PC build:
$119 - Intel Core i3-3220 CPU
$70 - Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H Intel B75 mATX Motherboard
$56 - Crucial CT102464BA1339 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$105 - Sapphire 100358L Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$40 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
$43 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
---
Total: $433 shipped

Yes it is overbudget but totally worth it IMO. You're probably wondering why I went with an IB setup over a Haswell setup: Basically it was due to the slightly lower cost and a slight reliability concern about the cheaper LGA 1150 motherboards. Now your friend will get a significantly faster CPU and a setup that has room to grow.

If you're looking to do just the GPU and PSU upgrade, just get the PSU and GPU from the above build list.
 
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