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Upgrading a prebuilt system

post #1 of 8
5/14/12 at 1:07pm
Thread Starter 
I acquired a Packard Bell iExtreme M3720 and was thinking of upgrading it into a light gaming PC.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5 GHz
Generic DDR2 RAM @ 800 MHz
MCP73PVT-PM Motherboard (It's a mATX board and has a x16 slot)
GeForce 7100 IGP <-- Yup, sucks.
Windows 7 Home Premium

I'm going to spend up to £100 upgrading the power supply and getting a dedicated graphics card, for the hell of it.

Power Supply: http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/powersupplies/cmpsu-430cxv2uk.html - Would 430W be enough?
Graphics Card: http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/atihd6600series/90-c1cqr5-l0uay0yz.html - Seems to be a decent performing card for the price.

I should also mention that the PC is hooked up to a 17" 1280x1024 monitor.

One more thing, I'm debating weather or not to buy a case too, The OEM one it's in at the moment can't be very good. The Fractal Design Core 1000 looks great value.

Opinions? Any better suggestions?

Thanks in advance.
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post #2 of 8
5/14/12 at 1:43pm
that corsair cx430w would be fine for what you have inc. the HD 6670.
Would you consider buying used parts?
I have seen HD 6850's going used for around £60-65
and you could get a good 500w psu for around £40, i got my corsair hx520w for £40 last year, still with 3 years of warranty left on it (iirc all corsair psu's have 5 years warranty)
also avforums have a good classified section, just need to pm a mod to start buying


Oh if gaming, try to have 4gb ram
personally i would get a higher res monitor before getting a case, it will be worth it
edit. can you see the link to avforums? as i cant confused.gif
Edited by j.col - 5/14/12 at 1:48pm
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post #3 of 8
5/14/12 at 1:46pm
You can go used, with the 7xxx series popping up, your going to be seeing a lot of people selling their last gen cards for dirt cheap so the can upgrade. Or you could go with something like a 7670, but your going to have to wait until it is released in the not so distant future. 400-500 watt PSU's can power most mid-low range cards with ease.
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post #4 of 8
5/15/12 at 12:31pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a look out for any used graphics cards but I'd much prefer to buy new.
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post #5 of 8
5/23/12 at 2:44am
Thread Starter 
Sorry to double post but it seems as so the x16 slot on the motherboard is dead or something. I tried installing my dad's old 9500GT in it, which has been working fine for over 3 years and it doesn't show a display but it does heat up like it would do if it was running normally.

So to the above paragraph, is it worth buying a 775 motherboard bearing in mind I only have DDR2 RAM or should I just buy a newer motherboard, processor and RAM and increase my budget to £200?

Essentially this will be like a new budget gaming PC as it would appear.
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post #6 of 8
5/23/12 at 3:14am
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you will get a Intel 2nd gen Gxx Series CPU with H61 motherboard 4Gigs for RAM and 6770 in that budget something like
PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Pentium G840 2.8GHz Dual-Core Processor (£50.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: ASRock H61M-VS Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£36.50 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: AMD Entertainment Edition 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£12.49 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 6770 1GB Video Card (£70.25 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply (£34.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £205.22

thats a dual core CPU but a Great CPU for budget gaming builds and the CPU is as good as a FX-8150 when it comes to gaming have a look HERE even Tomshardware says the G840 is in the same class of CPU as FX-8120 when it comes to gaming Linkie eek.gif
Quote:
Tomshardware.com

Intel's $75 Pentium G630 beat the FX-4100, -6100, and -8120 in our recent sub-$200 CPU gaming comparison. In fact, it finished right on par with the Phenom II X4 955.
biggrin.gif

source

that CPU is just making me nuts man

588


hope you like it smile.gif
Edited by Tarun - 5/23/12 at 3:38am
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post #7 of 8
5/23/12 at 4:22am
Thread Starter 
Wow, thanks so much. Really helpful! I'll certainly take a majority of that into consideration. Though I do need to add a case into that price, so I'll have to settle with a cheaper graphics card like a 6670 to keep it near £200.

One more thing, will I be able to overclock that pentium?

+Rep
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post #8 of 8
5/23/12 at 6:02am
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try the 6750 you can flash it to 6770 i have heard and if going with a 6670 make sure it GDDR5 aka DDR5 is the same thumb.gif
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