Upgrading a junker to something usable

The short version is, i just got a Dell Inspiron desktop given to me. It has an I3 550 and 6gigs of DDR3 1333. Has a standard variation of an ATX board, 1150 chipset. It has a pci-e and a pci slot, and a 300w Bestec psu.

I just want to throw like a bill at this thing and let my gf play wow and a couple other older games decently at 1080. Craigslist yielded 8gb of patriot ddr3 for $45 or 16gb of dominator platinum ddr3 for $65, plus shipping from in state.

Graphics selections within the budget are a 960geforce,970msi, both for 100 (ea), and 1050 2gig for 80. On the cheaper side a geforce760 2gig for $60, gtx 285 for $50, and lastly, a radeon 2600xt for $25. Oh theres a zotac 560ti for $30, which im now leaning towards.


Frankly this stuff is old enough that without doing hours and hours of research, idk what i need and what is best bang for buck. At this point, thinking of getting the corsiar ram, and building around it. In which case, getting a decent gpu, then upgrading the cpu later is a viable option. Without looking, 1150 chipset should run up to the gen before a 8600 I5? May have to upgrade the mobo, idk, in which case id probably be better ahead to just buy someones retired gaming rig for 4-500.

Looking for any insight, appreciate all that i get.

Are you sure it's not 1156 socket?

Yeah, i3 550 is 1156, not 1150. 1150 is Haswell, and the i5 8600 is 1151 v2, not even 1150.

Grab a used i7 860/870 for ~$40 and call it a day. I've got an 860 in my second machine paired with a GTX 950 and it still handles things okay despite it's age (though I rarely use it and mine only has 2GB RAM + Windows XP).

No im not, it surprised me when i read it, just looked it up again and its 1156.

Pulled the trigger on the 16gigs of corsair, and the 560ti, guy was right up the street and $30 seemed like a really good price.

What is the advantage of the i7 over the i5 in the older chips? Little bit i was able to pull up shows the 760 outperforming the 870 in single core, am i missing something? Both are 4 core, the i7 has hyperthreading, but this pc will never see anything that would need the extra threads.

Does the i5 have a higher clock than the i7? Thats the only way i can figure it would beat the i7 in single thread

I would be more inclined to acquire the GTX 1050 to go in an old Dell like that; typically those entry level Dell desktops do not include PCIE power cables which the 560 Ti requires.
The GTX 1050 draws power via PCIE slot on the motherboard.

Indeed youre right, im picking up an evga 450w psu to run the thing. Only $25, I didnt know if the motherboard would be up to handling a graphics card without problems, and the 300w psu would be pretty questionable then.

Dont buy any of the cheap EVGA PSU´s they are not very good so if you ordered one cancel your order or return it
The Corsair CX450M is far better and is only $35 on newegg with rebate

Well, it may be time to reassess the situation. I read some mistaken information it would seem, it said the computer had a max capacity of 16gb, so i assumed 4x4 would be fine. I just looked on crucial, and it claims 8 is the max, in a 4x2 configuration.

Now i need to figure out what to do. The computer was free, i havent bought anything besides the ram ($75 with shipping) at this point. I was thinking the computer would be fine, just toss a few goodies in it and off to the races, but it isnt as expandable as i thought.



I can at this point, buy the 1050 and drop in and run it as is with maybe a chip upgrade (550 i3, 6gb ddr3),
buy a psu and drop in the 560ti for a little less than the 1050 and maybe chip upgrade,
or basically i have a case, buy a mb that will take a bit more modern processor, and build around the 16gb or dominator, which would mean buying a psu, cpu, and gpu.


I started this little project thinking i could quickly and cheaply throw a rig together for the fiance. We just moved, transitioning jobs etc, but have decent internet finally and were looking to play together. Id like your opinions if youre willing to offer them, i cant make up my mind. At any rate, its "usable" how it is, i can just try to collect parts as they become available used. I could also just pick up a used rig... even though that would kinda defeat the purpose and all the effort ive went through up to this point.