PC Gaming Upgrade Advice

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Hi all,

I'm looking to upgrade the components of my current pc to a reasonably light weight gaming pc. Here is my current spec:

Packard Bell IXtreme M5801
Intel Core i3 3.20GHz
6GB DDR3 RAM
nVidia GeForce GT 420
1TB SATA HDD

I am on a tight budget so not looking to spend too much. Something around £150 would be ideally. My guess is that all I'd need to buy is a new ram, gpu and power supply, but not 100% sure what to invest in.

Thanks for your help.
 
It's quite an old system around 10 years or so and not really worth spending a lot of cash on, also since it's a pre build system the psu might not be able to handle upgrades which would use more power so you would need to check the watt rating.
 
With a budget that restricted your first purchase should be a GPU. Something like a 1050 Ti or 1650 Super. If you can wait then the RTX 3050 should be out in a month or two. But right now GPUs are very expensive - even second-hand ones.
 
TBH with a system that old the cheapest way into quality gaming is to save up for a console. You will need to check the wattage of your psu and if it has 2 decent pcie cables to run a decent gpu, although your cpu will bottleneck a new powerful gpu. If you replace your psu make sure it is the right size to fit your case
 
To upgrade that system, for general use, I would upgrade to SSD. Hard drives are so slow.

▷ WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid Sta… | OcUK (overclockers.co.uk)-£94.99

For that budget, not much else to do. DDR 3 is now 7 plus years out of date, dual cores are now replaced by quad cores as the minimum, an SSD will be silent in use, work on Sata 1/2/3 and will give some speed to your system.

Regarding a PSU, a good gold rated 80 plus PSU will cost over £50.00. Below is an example PSU.

▷ be quiet! Pure Power 11 500W 80 Plus Gold Pow… | OcUK (overclockers.co.uk)-£62.99

Oh and these two items could carry over to a new system, when you have more budget.
 
Quartz said:
The OP is interested in gaming.
Click to expand...

The OP has a budget of £150.00 and an SSD will improve game loading times and the general use of his computer at a reasonable price. The GPU market is in a mess at present He also stated he wanted to upgrade his RAM, GPU and power supply, both items listed are in his budget. Unless he wants an GT 710 GPU or similar graphics card. DDR3 can be obtained cheaply second hand, but I have not looked for that.
 
Quartz said:
Or even go for a subscription method console.



Not really. With that budget, he's looking at xx50 class cards.
Click to expand...


Depends if he buys second hand GPU, eg easy to pick up one that requires 2 pcie 8 pins and over 200 watts. With £150 I would buy a new psu and a second hand GPU like a nvidia 760/770. Yes long in the tooth but great if you play older games like LOTRO
 
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VonScar said:
To upgrade that system, for general use, I would upgrade to SSD. Hard drives are so slow.

▷ WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid Sta… | OcUK (overclockers.co.uk)-£94.99

For that budget, not much else to do. DDR 3 is now 7 plus years out of date, dual cores are now replaced by quad cores as the minimum, an SSD will be silent in use, work on Sata 1/2/3 and will give some speed to your system.

Regarding a PSU, a good gold rated 80 plus PSU will cost over £50.00. Below is an example PSU.

▷ be quiet! Pure Power 11 500W 80 Plus Gold Pow… | OcUK (overclockers.co.uk)-£62.99

Oh and these two items could carry over to a new system, when you have more budget.
Click to expand...

Will the above PSU work for my system? I wouldn't mind second hand.
 
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ASMB said:
Depends if he buys second hand GPU, eg easy to pick up one that requires 2 pcie 8 pins and over 200 watts. With £150 I would buy a new psu and a second hand GPU like a nvidia 760/770. Yes long in the tooth but great if you play older games like LOTRO
Click to expand...

Second hand is fine for me. Considering how old my system is, I'm not really expecting new parts.

Is a PSU and GPU all I need? Would upgrading ram benefit performance? Sorry for the silly questions, I'm a complete noob and not too sure what is worth paying for.
 
Many big brand computers use non standard parts so I would suspect that an ATX psu probably will not fit, which is a shame as a new psu could be transfered to a new system if you decided to upgrade further in the future.

https://youtu.be/pwTVAJ7tZ1c?t=105

I suspect that the best outcome is that you should be able to pick up a 2nd hand nvidia 730 and swap it for the 420. Save the rest of your money towards a console or a new laptop/desktop for when this system packs up or can't do what you want.

https://youtu.be/KdFQkRRZdA8
 
ASMB said:
I suspect that the best outcome is that you should be able to pick up a 2nd hand nvidia 730 and swap it for the 420. Save the rest of your money towards a console or a new laptop/desktop for when this system packs up or can't do what you want.
Click to expand...

Ok this prob makes sense. I'm assuming ddr3 for the 730 if i was to invest? Would I need to upgrade the ram and psu if this was the case?
 
I would follow the advice on the video and get a 730 with GDDR 5. It should be a simple case of taking the old card out and putting the 730 in as they have similar watts. The new card should not need a pcie power connector as its such low watt, but you can check when you buy. You will not need to change your psu this way
Have a look in your system, see if there is a spare ddr3 slot, read the speed of what is already in there and add an extra 2GB if you a have a slot for it and want to pay for a couple more GB, its up to you if you want more

You can youtube videos for updating GPU and system memory if you are unsure
 
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