Upgrade advice

wilber

wilber

wilber

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Evening.

My friend has an old PC he plays farm Sim 2017 on and would like to upgrade it as its a bit pants for gaming

Now I've had a quick look at it and it doesn't have a graphics card so i thought that the best place to start. He doesn't want to spend much money so if possible maybe an SSD, G Card and maybe a second hand CPU? (i have a spare SSD i could throw in)

What could i get for about £200?

Spec is below:

AMD A8-6500 APU 3.5 Ghz
8gb DDR 3 Ram
Asus F2A55-M/M11BB/DP-MB (motherboard)

I think he would like to play Red dead redemption 2 or ghost recon breakpoint is that achievable?
 

pastymuncher

pastymuncher

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That's going to restrict things considerably. I would stick to a gpu that is just powered from the pci-e slot on the motherboard such as a GTX 1050/1650 or less. Double check that the card does not require a 6/8 pin pci-e plug because some of those cards do.
 

pastymuncher

pastymuncher

pastymuncher

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That Kolink psu is garbage and so is the KL series which is their next level up. I wouldn't touch a Kolink psu even if it was given to me. The psu should never be skimped on. Is it a normal size ATX psu in his pc or some variation on the small form factor ones? That cpu will probably badly bottleneck a RX580 anyway.
 

wilber

wilber

wilber

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Yeah i did think that regarding the PSU. I just want to try and get him sorted with something, then upgrade the rest of the components in 12 months. Its a normal ATX power supply.
 

Gray2233

Gray2233

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The AMD A8-6500 was an entry level chip even when it launched 7 or so years ago.

The new AMD 5500 series cards are set to launch in November I believe, I'd suggest waiting on them and seeing if he can get a deal on a more complete package when the Christmas sales hit.

If he tries to play something even remotely modern such as RDR2 on that CPU I suspect he's going to be sorely disappointed and likely incapable.

You could also consider posting in the Members Market on here, someone might have some old/spare kit sat around that they'd let go for cheap.
 

pastymuncher

pastymuncher

pastymuncher

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For just £2 more than the Coolermaster psu you can have the Bitfenix Formula series 550w. Yes it's 100w less but 550w is still more than that pc will ever need and it's a better quality gold rated unit. I would say that his cpu is badly going to bottleneck a new gpu though.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
​

Gray2233 has pointed out a good alternative as well. If you take a look in the members market you should be able to pick up a gpu much cheaper or more powerful. For example GTX 1070 cards go for £150 or less and there have been quite a few bargain cards in there recently such as a GTX 970 for £70, GTX980 for £85. Same with SSD's and PSU's. You could pick up a year old BeQuiet Straightpower 11 550w fully modular psu for just under £50. ;):D
 

wilber

wilber

wilber

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Right after a chat with him, i think im going to add the following

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £184.84 (includes shipping: £9.90)


Will add another 8gb ram here i have spare bringing the machine up to 16GB

Everyone think this will be OK or any other suggestions? he definitely doesn't want to spend anymore than £200.​
 
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