Need serious help with system upgrades

marrissey

marrissey

marrissey

Associate
Joined
22 Dec 2015
Posts
34
I posted this on another forum but I thought i'd much rather get a non biased view of what I need help with lol.

Its probably no surprise that from the title you have guessed I have no clue what I'm doing. And you're right!

I bought a prebuilt computer off of ebay, and its actually not as bad as I thought it would be, I've mainly been playing DayZ and I average around 30fps, but I really want to get a dedicated graphics card as my cpu is integrated graphics.

I've been watching YouTube videos on how to install graphics cards and they all have these 8pin, 6pin and 4pin connectors in their computers but ive looked in mine and I cant see any spare ones or anything. But anyway, I need help deciding what graphics card I need and how I would put it in my pc.

I also need a new cpu too lol.

Specs:

AMD A8-7670K 4.2GHz Quad Core CPu

Gigabyte F2A78M-HD2 AMD Socket FM2+ Motherboard

Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB DDR3 Ram

1TB SEAGATE BARACUDA SATA3 7200RPM 64MB Cache Hard Drive

500W Power Supply (unbranded: http://www.aone.co.uk/ProdInfo.ASP?ProductID=4067 )

24X DVD-RW Optical Drive



Any advice and help will be greatly appreciated, feel free to roast me for buying a cheap prebuilt, I'm only 17 and only work on weekends and make pennies lol.

I'd say my budget is around £300-400 (id save up) especially with Christmas in a few days, I was looking at ****.co.uk, I don't know any other pc parts that I can find cheaper.
 
reuse your mem and, case use hdd as data drive you can upgrade cpu later if needed

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £419.01
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​


​

you may want another cpu cooler as the stock one can get a bit loud
 
marrissey said:
okay thank you very much!
Click to expand...

Definitely replace the PSU and add a GPU but leave the CPU and motherboard for later. If you buy a SSD you'll have to reinstall everything if you can't clone the old drive. Do also be aware that replacing the CPU and motherboard may invalidate your Windows licence.

So, for a quick boost to your games, get a GTX 970 and a PSU

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £315.48
(includes shipping: £10.50)
​


​


If you decide to go for a SSD:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £376.07
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​


​

Note that I've chosen a short GPU because I don't know what case you have - there are standard length GTX 970 cards available for a few pounds less.

(The GTX 970 uses much less power than the R9 380 so doesn't need such a powerful PSU.)
 
I'd definitely replace that PSU as a priority. It's got 22A on the 12V rail, which equates to 264W. It's supposed to be a "500W unit" but I'd doubt the quality of the internals.

For any single graphics card build, a good 550W unit is fine and gives you a good PSU to base the system around if you upgrade in the future.

Non-modular (got one of these in a backup system):
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...0-plus-gold-power-supply-black-ca-003-sf.html

Modular - internals by seasonic:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga...plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-023-ea.html

Modular - made by superflower
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...0-plus-gold-power-supply-black-ca-038-sf.html

If you've got room in your case:

Asus GTX 970
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/20-p...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-352-as.html

or

Sapphire R9 380X Nitro
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sapp...rd-with-backplate-11250-01-20g-gx-375-sp.html

If you change the motherboard/CPU, you'll have to reinstall everything and you may have fun with your Windows licence as Quartz has mentioned. I agree that the AMD APU is holding you back. If you're willing to save and wait, you can upgrade the CPU/motherboard at a later stage, by which time you'll probably be more confident with what you're doing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom