What should i update?

[projects2k]

Hi this is my pc spec,i am thinking of upgrading some of the parts so it can run the latest games on medium settings.

Dell vostro 200
Windows vista home premium
intel core 2 duo e6550 2.33ghz
Memory:4gb RAM
Nvidia 8600 gt 512mb
800gb hard drive space.
Any advice appreciated.

 

[CMvan46]

I know Dell can be a pain in the arse to upgrade. I'm not familiar with that desktop though so others will need to help you out. I know the last Dell desktop we had, had the video card soldered into the motherboard and most Dell PSUs are too weak to support anything more than what was shipped to you. So I'd look into what wattage your PSU is as well.

 

[djinline]

Your CPU socket seems to be LGA775, it's outdated but if you can find a cheap Core 2 Quad, it should do fairly well nowadays if your motherboard's chipset supports it. Even a more powerful Core 2 Duo would be alright. I don't know how much money are you willing to spend on the GPU and I don't have much clue on modern GPUs anyway, so that's all I can say right now.

Also tell us how much amps your PSU has, you may need to upgrade that too. I bet it doesn't have enough watts.

 

[jimftr]

Personally if i were you, i would sell your cpu, psu and graphics card. And in their place, buy a core 2 quad, a 6850 graphics card and a psu of at least 600w.

 

[nick09]

Well he is working with a rather thin computer tower. Though the case will work with a mATX board but he will be stuck with low height GPU's and has to use a TFX12V PSU. So he is limited to entry level GPU's and smaller power supplies that never go past 400watts and a 300watt PSU is the regular PSU for this type. So he would be better off getting this case and a good 500w ATX PSU(It would run a HD 7770 easily since he is looking for mid-end gaming) such as Corsair, Silverstone, and Antec are good brands. Your motherboard is fine, it has support for C2Q and they should go for pretty cheap used. This motherboard uses PCI-E 1.1, where today's GPU's run at PCI-E 2.0 but that's not a problem here. The PCI-E 2.0 x8 results have the same bandwidth as the PCI-E 1.1 x16 connector. As you can tell there is no need to change the motherboard since the change in fps is less than 1 fps. So to conclude, you need a new case, new 500W ATX PSU, new GPU(HD 7770 is good or look for HD 6770 for deals), and a possible upgrade to a used Core 2 Quad or a higher clocked Core 2 Duo(E7500 model is 2.93GHz and is a great CPU for a simple upgrade).

 

[jimftr]

If he really wants to play games then he should also buy a mid tower case for extra cooling and the ability to actually fit the new components in.

 

[projects2k]

Thanks for the advice
Ps. My budget is £100

 

[TB]

My budget is £100

In that case, If I were you, I'd upgrade nothing and when you have £500+ simply buy a new machine.

 

[jimftr]

Yea, £100 will get you nowhere to be honest. TB is right by saying wait until you can afford a new computer, maybe you could try building one, pretty fun and you get lots of performance for a relatively cheap price.

 

[projects2k]

Good idea, i built this one myself four years ago.

 

[Pako]

I would also agree with TB. There really isn't any one component to upgrade. There are just too many bottle necks at every turn.

Think along the lines of a i5, GTX470, 6gb of ram, modest mobo, and PSU. You could build something like this for around $500 USD or so....