Help! Need upgrading advice for my 8-10 yr old pre-built pc

Imbalabs

Imbalabs

Imbalabs

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I'm new here and i need some advice on upgrading my cheap pre-built pc(still a student can't afford beast pcs). I looked it up and I have a compaq pc with a ms 7525 motherboard with a 775 socket. My gpu just died and i need some help in upgrading my ram, cpu and gpu. I read about cpu bottlenecking and compatibility as well. I have an old pentium cpu i forgot the model but i want to replace with a intel core 2 quad q9500, is this compatible?

Also about my gpu, i want to buy a gtx 660. I read from a website that my motherboard doesn't support gtx 700 series and up

About my ram: it already has a 2gb ddr2 ram and one remaining slot, do i have to buy a ddr2 ram or can i place it with something like a ddr3 or 4 raam?

Lastly, what other things do i need to consider when upgrading. Do i have to consider about the power system thingy. Still a baby when it comes to pcs.
I want to play gta v, wd2 and other games. For a low budget. I highly appreciate help.
 
I dont think youre gonna be able to play modern games on that pc no matter what you do.

But you can breathe new life into it for general usage with more ram and an ssd.
 
billysielu said:
I dont think youre gonna be able to play modern games on that pc no matter what you do.

But you can breathe new life into it for general usage with more ram and an ssd.
Click to expand...

wouldn't that be SATA 2? any performance of an SSD would be hit i believe - need to do some digging but might be a costly upgrade for little gain
 
OEM, what's that? I just researched a little about computers but i'm struggling to under stand.

orbitalwalsh said:
whats your budget ?
and what do you intend to do with the PC?
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I was hoping i could play some modern games, even on medium or low. I have a 200$ budget.

I heard gpu prices are hiking so i was hoping i could recycle some of its parts. Even the case
 
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OEM = original equipment manufacturer. Big companies like dell/hp/Compaq/Lenovo.
These computers tend to be tightly locked down and not many parts available to upgrade due to bios/software restrictions
 
tamzzy said:
OEM = original equipment manufacturer. Big companies like dell/hp/Compaq/Lenovo.
These computers tend to be tightly locked down and not many parts available to upgrade due to bios/software restrictions
Click to expand...

Does that mean i'm better off buying a new one? What parts could i recycle? I can post the computer's details

I don't think i can do much with a 200$ budget though. Can i?
 
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https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c01386897
Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades:
  • Core 2 Duo E7xxx (Wolfdale-M)
  • Core 2 Duo E4x00 (Conroe)
  • Pentium E2xxx series (Conroe)
  • Celeron Dual Core E1xx0 series (Conroe)
  • Celeron 4xx series (Conroe)
Click to expand...

Memory upgrade information
  • Dual channel memory architecture
  • Two 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
  • Supported DIMM types:
    • PC2-5300 (667 MHz)
    • PC2-6400 (800 MHz)
  • Non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
  • Supports 2GB DDR2 DIMMs
  • Supports up to 4 GB* on 32 bit PCs
    • 32 bit PCs cannot address a full 4.0 GB of memory.
Click to expand...
So looks like 4GB max - 2 x 2GB DDR2
 
Tbh I'd just keep saving and maybe buy something better later this year? Just try and get by with it, it's just too old to do anything with (as well as it might be locked from doing anything to upgrade it).
 
i read that the motherboard is really cheap in this pre- built pc. so im planning to replace the motherboard and cpu, ram, and buy a decent gpu(gtx 660 actually costs around 60 dollars second hand in my country.). 250 watt psu can i still use it? got a 200dollar budget any tips on how to build a decent gaming pc?(only the critical components without the mouse, keyboard, case, monitor,hdd and etc).

I'll just sllowly upgrade part by part if budget is not enough and save.
 
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You'll need a better PSU to run a GTX 660. If you're replacing that much you should replace the case as a new motherboard likely will not fit inside the old case.

You really are best off saving your pennies right now.
 
Quartz said:
You'll need a better PSU to run a GTX 660. If you're replacing that much you should replace the case as a new motherboard likely will not fit inside the old case.

You really are best off saving your pennies right now.
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yep definitely needing a new psu. Motherboard not fitting, is that because of the size(microATX motherboards fits and im planning to buy) or the placement of the thingies(slots i think)?

okay ill just save for now, but what money do i need to build a budget pc that's good enough? and what specs do i build?
 
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if you got a tower then your power supply likely be more than 250w, so find a cheap gtx 750 or newer gt 1030 or your probably looking at more older 6670 or maybe 7750 all of which run from the slot so no need to change the psu, you wont fit a quad on that board and unless you got an E7*** series then probably not worth to change.

if it is a tower that support full size parts then from my own experience of HP computers, you can replace the internals with something better, you could by 1155 motherboard combos from £20, you could also buy amd of old from like am2/am3 which would better your gaming chances, but from £40-100 if you got that sort of budget you could get a q6600 build or something abit newer on the used market as a whole which would actually be better spent of the money.
 
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