Upgrading Computer (No clue where to start)

[vega22]

sata 2 is going to hold that system back.

ssd and gpu are where i would spend on it. psu if needed.

avoid corsair psu imo, superflower or evga are much more reliable.

gpu i would say wait a couple of weeks. amd are just about to drop new mid ranged gpu and i imagine nvidia will have a 1060 out soon after too.

i say that as they are parts you can transfer to a new system. 775 is really at the end of useful life now. sata 2 and pcie2 are dead standards these days for reasons.

 

[Toothless]

sata 2 is going to hold that system back.

ssd and gpu are where i would spend on it. psu if needed.

avoid corsair psu imo, superflower or evga are much more reliable.

gpu i would say wait a couple of weeks. amd are just about to drop new mid ranged gpu and i imagine nvidia will have a 1060 out soon after too.

i say that as they are parts you can transfer to a new system. 775 is really at the end of useful life now. sata 2 and pcie2 are dead standards these days for reasons.

Yeah not much difference between PCIE 2 and 3 in terms of gaming. Much difference, such dead.

/sarcasm

 

[TRWOV]

hum... haven't read all the other responses so sorry if this has been told already.

Frankly, the system is quite old but if you only want gaming performance you can do a few select upgrades and enjoy it. I would think about getting a new system anyway.


If you only want to upgrade enough stuff to play Fallout 4 and GTA V with acceptable performance I would do the following:

1. Get a good 500w PSU. There are cheap and good units from Silverstone (Strider serires) and Corsair (CX series) available. Some are modular even. I've only had experience with those two and that's why I only mention them. 500w is plenty these days of low power CPUs and GPUs.

2. Overclock the CPU. Your motherboard has overclocking functions and your processor is an extreme edition so it comes with unlocked multiplier. Overclocking would be as easy as increasing the multiplier in the BIOS. Don go overboard and increase the multiplier by 1 at a time, boot into windows and run a stress program like Cinebench or Intel Burn Test. If it passes go up a notch. Rinse and repeat. Once the stress test fail go down by 1 or 2 multipliers just to make sure you don't get any instabilities.

There's more to overclocking than that (modifying voltages, bus speeds and such) but for your uses this will do.

2.1 If necessary, get a better cooler. You don't mention if you're using the stock cooler or not. A good $20 cooler will do (Cooler Master Hyper 120

3. Get 4GB more of RAM. Make sure it matches your current RAM. If you can't find matching RAM buy an 8GB kit (or 2 matching 4GB kits, I think DDR2 modules were 2GB per stick at most) and sell yours.

4. Buy a new GPU. I would recommend an RX 480 4GB (it will sell for $200). The only issue is that I don't know if they will be compatible with legacy BIOS (the DOS style BIOS that your motherboard has) or if it will only support UEFI BIOS. If it's the latter you'll need an older GPU with legacy bios support.

The good thing is that, save for the RAM upgrade, everything else will be of use when you get a new system.



As surely everyone has been telling you, my real recommendation would be to just get a new rig. You don't need to get high end stuff, just enough for what you want now and with some upgrade options for the future.