Small upgrade

[times_champion]

I built my PC a couple of years ago with the help of a friend, using components he had lying around. It has served me pretty well but it is a little slow now. My system currently looks like this:

M3N78 Pro mobo
Athlon 64 X2 dual core 6000+
Radeon 4850
4GB RAM

I do most of my gaming on a PS3 + PS4 so I don't want to spend a load of money on a top end gaming rig, I will be happy if Dawn of War 2 and its expansions (which I play a lot) and a few other steam games like Alan Wake, Sleeping Dogs and World in Conflict run well. I also only have a 1600 x 900 monitor, so don't need to support higher res than that. Basically I would be looking to spend probably £100-£150 (perhaps up to £200) to speed things up a bit and let me play the games I cant play on the PS4 (mainly strategy), any ideas for realistic upgrades? Would adding more memory help most, or would I be better off with another processor and/or graphics card?

 

[Doomedspeed]

That system looks pretty dated now, its tough to get hold of DDR2 RAM anymore. You are looking at a CPU/GPU upgrade for sure. This sounds costly but you may be fine.

The AMD APU line would be your best bet. They are a CPU with very decent inbuilt graphics (for a CPU). From the games you play an A6 would be fine for your needs. As this involves a motherboard change you'll be needing some new RAM too, so you can get 8gb..


Is there anything to be salvaged? SATA HDD? Case? PSU? Optical drive?

You'd need to spend about £200 but you may be able to get something.

 

[times_champion]

Thanks, thats pretty much what I feared - that my entire system is pretty outdated. I can salvage the HDD (750gb), DVD drive and case, and my PSU is pretty new as I replaced that last year. Perhaps though I might be better off selling the rig and putting it towards a modest gaming laptop? Would something around £400-£500 suit my needs?