Realistically, can I make my PC much better without spending a lot of money?

BetterThanThou

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 520
RAM: 6.2gb

I'd like to get into PC gaming, my PC is already decent at running pretty much anything up until around 2010/11, but after that, it's not great, I bought the PC second hand, but I believe it was built in 2008. Would I be able to significantly improve this PC? Or would I be best off building an entirely new PC?

SuperTortoise

What MB and PSU do you have?

Daniel S

BetterThanThou wrote: »

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 520
RAM: 6.2gb

I'd like to get into PC gaming, my PC is already decent at running pretty much anything up until around 2010/11, but after that, it's not great, I bought the PC second hand, but I believe it was built in 2008. Would I be able to significantly improve this PC? Or would I be best off building an entirely new PC?

I just bought an E8400 (€15) and a GTX 285 (€35) today for €50 total. Loads of stuff on adverts.ie. Won't get you to play the latest games on Ultra, but it'll play most things.

I think I saw a 6770 for €40 as well, which is a very good deal.

Baked.noodle

Download Speccy and copy and paste from the summery. It won't tell us your PSU though. For that you will need to open the case and take a look.

BetterThanThou

I just downloaded it there, I didn't include it in the first post, but it is a Dell pre built, though I believe the guy who sold it to me made a number of upgrades, upon closer inspection, I learned it's a Vostro 200. Here's what the program said(I removed things I thought were irrelevant):
Operating System
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.20GHz 43 °C
Conroe 65nm Technology

RAM
6.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15)

Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0CU409 (Socket 775) 43 °C

Graphics
LCD TV (1292x752@60Hz)
1023MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 (Undefined) 47 °C

I'll take a look at the PSU tomorrow.

truedoom

Without spending a lot of money?

No.

hare05

You have two hard limits. One is the CPU: you're limited to compatible chips. The other is your graphics card: what can fit in the case and what will the PSU be able to power.

You can get a significant upgrade quite cheaply but those are your limits.

BetterThanThou

Can I make it considerably better at all? I'm not interested in PC gaming for the pretty graphics, I'm mainly interested in it for Steam sales and mods. I'm not aiming to play games on ultra. And I'm fine with not being able to play some newer games at all. Is this PC a lost cause at this point? I remember the guy I bought it off told me I can't put a quad core processor in this. Was he right or wrong? I noticed the Core 2 Quad is socket 775, so does that mean it's compatible? Or is that concerning something else?

Baked.noodle

Unfortunately I don't think that motherboard will support a Core 2 Quad, and I doubt you will be able to overclock the CPU you have with a Dell motherboard. If the PSU is weak you would be better off with a new or second hand build.

5uspect

Can you even upgrade the CPU on a Dell mobo? I know they're pretty heavily locked down.

ED E

5uspect wrote: »

Can you even upgrade the CPU on a Dell mobo? I know they're pretty heavily locked down.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. My home server is a 775 box that had an E6700 swapped for a Q6600. No problems. Dell Dimension 9200. The chip was then stolen back for another mobo. But it worked that way for years.

Typically, you can put in the fastest chip that dell offered to ship it with.

ED E

Suggestions on Yahoo answers(take with a handful of salt) that with the BIOS update quad support was added.

Tea_Bag

ED E wrote: »

Suggestions on Yahoo answers(take with a handful of salt) that with the BIOS update quad support was added.

seems to be bios v1.0.3 but is that just the G0 Q6600? could be harder to find.