Upgrades

Associate
Joined
7 Sep 2011
Posts
41
Hi
After browsing about have seen some threads that sort of deal with what i want to ask. I have an dell inspiron 570 and was wondering what it would take and how much money it would take to upgrade it for some of the new games coming out. Have been a pc gamer for a fair while but have never really done much upgrading or building wise so i am not really confident doing anything until i know what i am doing.

So somethings about my current pc
processor is a amd phenom II x4 820 processor 2.8 GHz
Ram = 6gb
NVIDIA Geforce GT220

As i said i would be looking to play some of the newer games coming out this year like battlefield 3 and skyrim.

Would really appreciate any advice
Thanks for looking
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Feb 2003
Posts
10,999
Location
telford, shropshire
i'd go for a new case, psu and something like a ati 6850 gfx card, so reuse the mobo, processor, memory and hard drive.

if you add a new mobo and new hard drive to the things below price would be upped to £330

(mobo MSI 880GMS-E35 AMD 880G (Socket AM3), hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £119.99 (£99.99)

Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXV2UK) £62.99 (£52.49)

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £49.99 (£41.66)

Sub Total : £194.14
Shipping : £11.75
VAT : £41.18
Total : £247.07
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
23 Oct 2008
Posts
5,032
just throw away/give to friend, relative/sell etc the dell and build a new from stratch sandy brdge system ;)

and mp why do you insist on suggesting that particular graphics card when the 6870 can be had for £5 more?
 
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Sep 2011
Posts
41
Unfortunately living on a student budget i don't think i can afford to build from scratch :/ if there is stuff i can salvage and be able to play the new games if not i am afraid i may have to wait and get them on xbox O_o
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Oct 2008
Posts
5,032
whats the budget?

other than optical drive, hdd, os(oem but maybe able to activate it on new build, with xp I've changed hard disk, motherboards and still manage to activate), maybe ram and cpu(if you go amd but not if you go sandy bridge).
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Sep 2011
Posts
41
Could afford the upgrades that mp suggested pretty easily however the more it goes up from there the harder it gets for me...around 600 possibly at an absolute push and that isnt leaving much cash for much of anything else lol.
So am i going to get better out of the stuff i already have + upgrades or rekon it is a better idea building from scratch?
Thanks for all the advice so far
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Feb 2003
Posts
10,999
Location
telford, shropshire
and mp why do you insist on suggesting that particular graphics card when the 6870 can be had for £5 more?

other than i forgot the price was that cheap ?, no particular reason, feel free to swap to the 6870 fowler suggested.

frampi:

if the budget is tight i'd go with the new case/psu and 6870 gfx card, maybe at a later date save up for a new hard drive.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Sep 2011
Posts
41
Oki thanks a lot for the advice...tbh upgrading seems a better option for me atm due to funds.
How difficult is it to transfer the components over to the new case?
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Feb 2003
Posts
10,999
Location
telford, shropshire
shouldn't be too difficult.

make sure you unscrew all the mobo stands and you match all the ones in the new case with holes on the mobo, as if you leave one unscrewed or loose it can cause boot problems.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Sep 2011
Posts
41
Oki thanks a lot guys you've been a great help.
Will post a wee update when i get sorted out :)
Thanks again really appreciate it
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Oct 2008
Posts
5,032
posible upgrade:

cpu: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

motherboard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

graphics card: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-143-OK

psu: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-118-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

all that is £450, add case + shpping comes in little over £500. add a cpu cooler if you want to overclock tho can leave for later.

can you check what the ram is (brand, voltage etc).
 
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Sep 2011
Posts
41
Hi so soz for the noob bombardment but would the gfx card psu and case that mp suggested be compatible with the motherboard and cpu fowler suggested.

If i could do it in 2 stages it would make things a bit easier financially.
Thanks again.
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Oct 2008
Posts
5,032
the graphics card I suggested isn't that much more expensive than the one mp suggested(especially at the moment, 6870 = faster/thus better than 6850), but yes they are all compatible.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Sep 2011
Posts
41
Yeah sorry i was looking at the 6870 for it if they are all compatible i might try upgrade in stages starting with graphics psu and case. and then move on to the cpu and motherboard. Is there a program i can use to grab that info looking for 1 now.
Thanks
 
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Sep 2011
Posts
41
hi so under SPD its saying the manufacturer is elpida and voltage is 1.5v....hope it means something to u guys doesnt mean anything to me :S lol
 
Back
Top Bottom