Potentially upgrading

Lee Monk

Lee Monk

Lee Monk

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Joined
21 May 2020
Posts
138
Hi all,

That time has (quickly) rolled around.

It's been a looooong time since I really upgraded my PC.

I'm starting this weekend with a few SSD's and a fresh install of W10 (though I know I may have to do this again if I upgrade my mobo).

The PC is primarly used for gaming though my historical choice of games are Football Manager, Hearts of Iron 4 and currently Factorio ie all games that are not massively demanding (though I understand Factorio may break that myth)

That said my son will assume control of my PC at various points of the day (or in reality at various days in the week) to play Fortnite and I attempted to download and play Red Dead 2 the other day and it wouldn't work.

I've messed up my account with OCUK so I cannot see my purchase history (I think all my kit is bought here).

I think I'm posting a pic here of my system
NsWhYdW



I want to be able to play higher graphic demanding games but am not an extreme gamer in this respect. My concern is that the rest of my system is just to old that it may just be to expensive.

Ideally I just want to know what graphics card I should buy but I think it's going to go well beyond that.

IF (and I really hope this is not the case) it all just proves to expensive (was originally thinking £250 for a card) then I have a follow up qestion.

I'm having problems updating my current card driver and, to be honest, I'm not even sure it needs a driver update but the auto softward doesn't seem to support it. If I can't upgrade then I'd want to be sure I have the latest drives and that the games are not working because the kit isn;'t good enough rather than drivers being out of date.

I have a Radeoon HD 5800

This update doesnt work for me. Is the card still supported?



TRyvDxK


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Thus my questions:
1. Can I put in a decent card without other massive updates.
2. IF I have to update other things, what are those and what should I start with
3. (A Big ask here) Could you please recomend kit and costs to do so.

I can spend more if needed but that would involve having a conversation with the Mrs and I think we all know how that goes:

Me "Hellow wifey. I need £500 to £750 for my PC"
Wifey "The garden needs doing, the house needs painting, the garage needs clearing...."
 
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Hello
Your GFX card is the problem. Its at least 10 years old. Red Dead 2 needs a much more modern one to even think about running it. I think AMD stopped supporting that card a while back, the latest drivers for it are from 2015.

I would say this is the Absolute minimum GFX card:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £179.89 (includes shipping: £9.90)
​

I'd also have a search around for a USED core i7 3770 or 3770k, failing that a 2600k or 2700k. Trouble is prices for new or used PC parts are not as cheap as they used to be, that's because of whats happening right now.

Even if you did what I suggested there's no guarantee that Red Dead 2 will run, it does ask a lot of a PC and when it was first launched back in December a lot people couldnt get it to run on their modern High end PC's, they rushed the release and it had Software bugs. Most of them have been sorted but don't don't get your hopes up. ;)
 
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Thanks guys.

okay. So if I give up on Red Dead 2 then a modest graphics card will work?


is my mobo still good enough to support further upgrades?

in term of overclocking.... that really is something I’m not Comfortabke with. Unless there is a fool proof guide
 
Lee Monk said:
Thanks guys.

okay. So if I give up on Red Dead 2 then a modest graphics card will work?


is my mobo still good enough to support further upgrades?

in term of overclocking.... that really is something I’m not Comfortabke with. Unless there is a fool proof guide
Click to expand...
I wouldn't bother spending any more on upgrading your current system. You would be better off grabbing a ryzen system and if money is tight then just switch out the motherboard CPU and ram from your current PC with a Gpu like Grimley recommended. Might be worth getting a new psu too depending on the age and model of the one you have.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £340.48 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​
 
Lee Monk said:
Thanks guys.

okay. So if I give up on Red Dead 2 then a modest graphics card will work?


is my mobo still good enough to support further upgrades?

in term of overclocking.... that really is something I’m not Comfortabke with. Unless there is a fool proof guide
Click to expand...


Your motherboard is a dead end now - I suggested overclocking your cpu as, with a decent gfx card, you will still be able to play most games at 1080P but, if you want to upgrade further, its a system change thats needed, I am afraid

That chip is a belter for overclocking - I run mine at 4.5 GHz all day long and have done for years and its very simple to do - just google "3570K overclocking" - there are tons of guides - with any luck, you wont need to make many changes, just up the multiplier and a little bit of extra voltage and higher LCC
 
Guys. Thank you very much for your help and support so far.

Lots of food for thought. I'm going to try the overclocking this week (as long as panic does not settle in). I've got to do a new SSD main drive install first.

I think I am going to start looking at a new build. I just need to work out if there is anything I can keep from here (maybe just the monitor) or if I leave this alive for my son. It plays Fornite well enough at the moment.

I'll start enough thread (or see if there is one alive that is suitable) with a budget or around £1000 for a complete build.

Thank you again.
 
All.

Bring an old thread of mine back to life.

I'm going to upgrade this PC a little ahead of a slightly longer wait for things to settle down on the NVdia and AMD graphics front (as well as some stock).

Could you please recomend to me some possible upgrades on this that still 'make sense' in respect of costs vs age of the PC.

You've seen what I've got installed and its a case of what my options are at around £100, £150 and £200.

This'll be given to my Son and he's not really into anything to demanding.

Thansk

Lee
 
Hi.

Just hoping for some advice on this. Can anyone make some recommendations that will work and improve what I already have.

Regards
 
Probably pick up a used GTX 1060 6gb / RX 580 for around £100 or for new then a GTX1650 super if you can pick one up for around £160
 
Thanks for the reply.

As an amateur builder what should I look for on the other hardware to know what Gpu I can install?

Is there a way to tell my limited for the pc?

Lee
 
Any GPU should be compatible with your motherboard but it's not worth buying one that's to powerful else it will bottleneck the CPU, anything under 200 quid should be fine.
 
I ordered a 580 and it arrived today....... YAY.......

However, clearly I'm posting again for a reason.......

The machine is not powering up. I reisntalled the old card and it's working thus I'm assuming it's a power issue. This old card uses 2 x 6pin and the new one is 1x8pin. I have nothing else that needs an 8 pin so cannot test the cable however upon checking I noted that the power supply is a Corsair 520W..... so it's low.

However the description states:
"An 8-Pin power connector supplies the 25,5 cm long graphics card with power and a power supply capable of delivering 500 Watts is recommended."

I have various small drives installed 2xmech and 2xssd but no optical drives etc.

Thoughts on this? If it says 500 and I have 520 that should be enough right? The power supply is really old but does that make a difference?

I'm partially upgrading this one now for my son but mainly whilst I wait for CPU/GPU availability and pricing to settle of the next month or so. Thus ideally I don't really want to splash out on power unless I know for sure its that.

All help is appreciated.

Regards

Lee
 
I'm also slightly worried about what PSU I might need assuming an upgrade is required.

I think I have a semi-modular. I have 3 or 4 preconnected cables and the rest are plug-ins. Given that I don't know what cables I have I'm not sure what I'll need.
 
Hey Grimley.... I think I'm going to request a direct connection to you please!

There is definately an 8pin on there though, as you said, it's probably not the PCI connector in that case as it didnt work.

Does your comment mean that a normal 8 pin from one of the modular slots wouldn't work?

Found the spec for the HX520
  • Power Output Connectors Details
    4 x 15 pin Serial ATA power
    1 x power 24 pin main output
    1 x power 4 pin ATX12V connector
    1 x power 8 pin +12V
    8 x 4 pin internal power
    2 x 6 pin PCI Express power
 
That linked PSU doesnt seem to ahve an 8 pin PCI either.

PSU stuff is far from my strong point. So I may be missing something

Connectors:
- 1x 24-pin ATX Cable
- 1x EPS12V/ATX12V Cable (4+4)
- 1x2 PCIe Cable (6+2)
- 1x2 SATA Cable
- 1x3 SATA Cable
- 1x4 PATA Cable
 
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