system upgrade

[myfriend]

Hello everyone i'm looking to upgrade a computer

Current specs
Windows 7 home 64 bit

AMD Athlon II X3 445 processor 3.10 GHz
4 GB ram
GTS 450 video card
Antec power Supply 380W
I'm not sure about the other parts it has, with that being said it looks like the mobo supports 16 GB of Ram at 1600 and it has two slot for graphics card i think and its made my ASrock

Looking to play Sim City games on 1080p

Would it be a good idea to upgrade just power supply and Video Card?
Maybe with HD7850 or 650 Ti

Anyways let me know what i should do

thanks,

 

[Essence_of_War]

Hi myfriend,

Would you mind answering the questions here

My suspicion is that you could probably get away with a GPU/PSU upgrade, but a lot of the actual recommendations would depend on your budget and other system configurations. That CPU is getting long in the tooth for example...

If you're not sure about the MoBo, you could run Speccy to pull your system info.

 

[myfriend]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. Games

2. What YOUR budget is. 300

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
US.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. No

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are. CPU,case, possible RAM and Motherboard

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. nope

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using? 1080P

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.
Within a week

This is my Girlfriends computer and the she's only interested in playing Sims games and LOL on high or even ultra setting. Also the graphics card has to be under 9.5 inches

 

[mfenn]

We really need to know if your RAM is DDR2 or DDR3. Either the mobo or RAM model will let us future that out. DDR3 is easily reusable, DDR2 is not.

 

[myfriend]

Hey guys this is the mother board I have and it only takes ddr3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157176

 

[myfriend]

also my other option is I could try and sell this old system for maybe a hundred 100 bucks and build something better maybe FX processor and 8GB ram with 7850 or something along those lines.

 

[Essence_of_War]

With that budget, you may be able to make some major renovations. CPU, gpu, and more modern motherboard that includes USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s (especially handy if you might ever upgrade to an SSD!).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($77.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M-HD+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($76.97 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $319.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-05 16:03 EST-0500)

It's a little over your budget, but if you have a case, HDD(s) and DDR3 RAM that can be re-used, this will perform really well. The CPU is currently out of stock, but I think you can buy now at $77 and wait for it to come in stock and ship.

You can get under budget with this PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139027

It's not quite as nice as the SeaSonic designed XFX unit, but it is less than half the price AR, and should easily be enough power for this system.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Current Athlon x3 and a 7850 GPU should do the trick for cheap. A phenom ii x4 965 used off ebay will add a bit of extra ability. Current power supply should be OK for these parts at stock speeds.

 

[myfriend]

Hey guys i think i'm just going to build her a new rig fx 6300+HD7850 970 mobo and 500Watt power supply.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Cool, let us know if you'd like any advice/recommendations for the new rig.

I think it's a little unclear if the AM3+ socket will be supported with new CPUs in the longterm, while it does appear that the FM2+ socket will be getting new chips, so I might be somewhat inclined to pick up either the athlon, that I mentioned above, or an A10 as my CPU (even if you'll be using discrete graphics!).

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Hey guys i think i'm just going to build her a new rig fx 6300+HD7850 970 mobo and 500Watt power supply.

Solid budget build right there. :thumbsup:

 

[bonehead123]

Solid budget build right there. :thumbsup:

2nd that