PC upgrade help

thepersonhere

Hi all

I currently have a Dell Optiplex 745 inherited by my parents and it is nowhere near capable of gaming at the minimum specs with its AMD/ATI radeon x1300/x1550 graphics card. I have decided that I'm looking into upgrading it (due to the fact I do not have enough money to build an intirely new one, I'm just hoping to get a year out of it before the processor becomes way to outdated) to a Geforce gtx 660. I'm not sure which brand to go with, and I know that the current PSU is not capable of powering it all so I'm also going to get a new one. But the only problem I have is, will the card fit in the case? It has a VERY big CPU cooler and it only has 7 inches clearance from the back of the case to the cooler and I'm unsure if it can fit under the cooler.

PS. If it doesn't fit, can you suggest any card of similar qualities or the best qualities I can probably get, that can fit in the case?

Thanks in advance.

joetoad

How old is it and what is the model of the processor in it, what ram do you have?
From looking at the dell site it has a 320 watt powers supply. You might get away with a 7750 but other people here have much better idea than I have about wattage.

For 420 euro you can build a decent gaming rig if you allready have a copy of windows

thepersonhere

The actual computer is 6 years old and has an intel core 2 duo 2.40 Ghz, and there are 4 sticks of 1 gig ram each. I can easily upgrade the PSU with one i have that's the same size but the only thing I'm worried about is the graphics card not fitting underneath the CPU cooler because the current GPU is only 7 inches long. I have also had a look at the 650ti because it is also quite small but its not as powerful as I was hoping.

joetoad

I think your cpu is going to bottle neck any games or maybe not even run them!!. Do you know the exact model, like core 2 duo 'xxxx'? Is it running Windows seven?

thepersonhere

Its the intel core 2 duo 6600. For minimum specs for the most recent games they say my cpu can run them but its just my graphics card that's the problem. Yes its running windows 7

simon360

Seriously you would be much better off selling that and buying and making a new rig, no point on working with the core 2 quad anymore let alone the duo. You would be better off in the long run to buy an i5 processor rig if possible!

joetoad

simon360 wrote: »

Seriously you would be much better off selling that and buying and making a new rig, no point on working with the core 2 quad anymore let alone the duo. You would be better off in the long run to buy an i5 processor rig if possible!

AMD x4 range for 70 quid would do fine for gaming. I think the processor he has is 8 years old from googling the pc online, not a hope of running any new games or even games out in the last two or three years, well maybe on the lowest settings at 720p

simon360

joetoad wrote: »

AMD x4 range for 70 quid would do fine for gaming. I think the processor he has is 8 years old from googling the pc online, not a hope of running any new games or even games out in the last two or three years

Too right, I bought a AMD Phenom X4 965 on Amazon a few weeks back for 85 euro, although i didnt buy a hdd , ssd or graphics card my build totaled to 250!

thepersonhere

Hey would you possible be able to post the specs of your computer then? Also are there any parts of the computer i could possible salvage like RAM, HDD etc.?

joetoad

simon360 wrote: »

Too right, I bought a AMD Phenom X4 965 on Amazon a few weeks back for 85 euro, although i didnt buy a hdd , ssd or graphics card my build totaled to 250!

Nice!!

have a 965 be myself, reckon it will last four years or more,

simon360

thepersonhere wrote: »

Hey would you possible be able to post the specs of your computer then? Also are there any parts of the computer i could possible salvage like RAM, HDD etc.?

AMD Phenom X4 965
AsRock 970 Extreme3 mobo
Corsair Vengeance 16gb DDR3 Ram
And then these are stuff from my old rig:
Intel 520 series 60gb SSD
Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm 500gb HDD
Sapphire Radeon hd 4890 Vapor-X 2gb edition
OCZ 650w Modular PSU.

I'd say for all of that you're looking for around maybe 450 or less.

simon360

Your HDD will most likely only be 5200 rpm on the old pc so it might be a fair bit slow.

thepersonhere

is that in euros? and whats it like playing games of today?

joetoad

No nothing you can use i'd say. What resolution is your monitor?

Item|Price
8GB G.Skill PC3-12800U CL11-11-11-28|€46.19
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€58.82
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.42
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€44.97
ASRock 960GM-GS3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€37.43
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Box, Sockel AM3, 125W|€73.98
HIS HD 7770 GDDR5 1024MB DVI HDMI 2xMiniDP|€99.74
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€412.54

simon360

thepersonhere wrote: »

is that in euros? and whats it like playing games of today?

Yep Euro! Running the following games on settings:
ArmA 2: Very High
ArmA 3 Alpha: High (70 fps)
Skyrim: Ultra w/ HD texture pack
Battlefield 3: Ultra
Metro 2033: Ultra
All source games maxed out
Medal of honor: Ultra
and a few other oldies on maxed out!

thepersonhere

joetoad wrote: »

No nothing you can use i'd say. What resolution is your monitor?

Item|Price
8GB G.Skill PC3-12800U CL11-11-11-28|€46.19
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€58.82
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.42
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€44.97
ASRock 960GM-GS3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€37.43
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Box, Sockel AM3, 125W|€73.98
HIS HD 7770 GDDR5 1024MB DVI HDMI 2xMiniDP|€99.74
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€412.54

Its also a very old monitor, its resolution is 1280 x 1024. That website that those were linked to, have you ever bought from there? Also is the processor not an am3 socket and not an am3+?

simon360

thepersonhere wrote: »

Its also a very old monitor, its resolution is 1280 x 1024

VGA or DVI? I run on 1280x1024 on my monitor and I really don't mind!

thepersonhere

simon360 wrote: »

VGA or DVI? I run on 1280x1024 on my monitor and I really don't mind!

It runs on vga but I'm currently using a dvi to vga converter, also i made an edit to the last post about the website you linked me to.

simon360

thepersonhere wrote: »

It runs on vga but I'm currently using a dvi to vga converter, also i made an edit to the last post about the website you linked me to.

AM3+ is quite the same but handles more processors than AM3.

thepersonhere

Also whats your thoughts on the "AMD FX-4100 Prozessor, Tray, Sockel AM3+" I might get that instead because of the socket it uses, apposed to the am3 for future possible upgrades?

thepersonhere

And have you ever bought anything from that, what I'm assuming to be German, website?

simon360

Its very trusted within the boards community, everybody is referred to it, Ya swear they're getting paid to do it :P Stick with the phenom its cheap and cheerful and will do the job!

thepersonhere

simon360 wrote: »

Its very trusted within the boards community, everybody is referred to it, Ya swear they're getting paid to do it :P Stick with the phenom its cheap and cheerful and will do the job!

but what if they are within 10 euro of each other? would i be worth going with the am3+

joetoad

Your monitor isn't really a gaming monitor. Most people game on a 1080P monitor which is 1920*1080 resolution so 7770 is really overkill for that monitor.

Yea apologies as well get the x4 965 or another AM3+ processor

thepersonhere

joetoad wrote: »

Your monitor isn't really a gaming monitor. Most people game on a 1080P monitor which is 1920*1080 resolution so 7770 is really overkill for that monitor.

Yea apologies as well get the x4 965 or another AM3+ processor

Yea i know it may be overkill for the monitor but would it not make the games run better than something in the 6000 series range? and i will also allow for me to get a better monitor and instead of having to get a new monitor AND graphics card i only have to get the monitor?

Photoshop

joetoad wrote: »

No nothing you can use i'd say. What resolution is your monitor?

Item|Price
8GB G.Skill PC3-12800U CL11-11-11-28|€46.19
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€58.82
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.42
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€44.97
ASRock 960GM-GS3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€37.43
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Box, Sockel AM3, 125W|€73.98
HIS HD 7770 GDDR5 1024MB DVI HDMI 2xMiniDP|€99.74
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€412.54

Great build

Would a 7870 be bottlenecked by that cpu? They can be had for under 180 now.

High settings @ 1080p would surely be possible for most games with that rig?

Mobo good for overclocking?

joetoad

Photoshop wrote: »

Great build

Would a 7870 be bottlenecked by that cpu? They can be had for under 180 now.

High settings @ 1080p would surely be possible for most games with that rig?

Mobo good for overclocking?

Yea that would run most new games at full settings on 1080P at 30_35 FPS. I'd probably upgrade the processor to the black edition x4 965 for an extra tenner or even a 8120.

But yea that processor wouldn't hold back the 7870 at all for 50 fps gaming.

Yes the motherboard is overclockable

marco_polo

The 955 is a multiplier unlcker black edition too, it just doesn't specify this on the title.

I have a 965BE @3.9 GHz and a HD7850 overclocked to 1200Mhz and can confirm the GPU is still very much the bottleneck in even in the most recent games like for Crysis 3, Far Cry 3 etc.