Upgrade advice

Jacovs

Im trying to help a family member who lives abroad to upgrade their pc, as cheap as possible, to run witcher 3. They're clueless enough about pc's to have bought the game without knowing if it will run on their pc or not.

The only info I have to go on currently is this:
i5 650 @ 3.2GHz
4Gb RAM (no speed or brand given)
GT240 (no specific brand given)
32 bit win 7
no info on psu

Ive asked for photos of inside the case to get a better idea and more info, but going by what I have ive suggested the following:
i5 650 should be fine
Replace GT240 with GTX750ti, since as far as I can tell both use about the same power, and both draw their power from the pci slot, no 6pin connectors.
Upgrade windows to a 64bit version and do a clean install.
Add 4gb of same RAM.

Anything else I can suggest? I did think of ssd, but is too expensive for them at the moment.

Xenoronin

Sounds like a Dell PC
The 750TI would be a massive upgrade for games. The Witcher 3 is still going to be only playable on low though. It's a very demanding game so the 750TI isn't really powerful enough to drive it. The old i5 processor will also bottleneck the system on that game. An alternative option may be to look into an i3 build. Wouldn't cost an arm and a leg and would leave them with actual upgrade options in the future.

Jacovs

A new build would by far be the best option, but not sure the money is there right now. They bought a house 2 months ago and baby no1 is due in 2 months, so he's lucky to even get the money for a bit of ram and a new gpu, nvm a complete new build lol

Any better gpu's start using extra 6 pin connectors, am i right? which i cant advise on since I dont know if the psu has any extra connectors. Then you have to start looking at a new psu if it doesnt.
For a newer i3 I assume he'd need a new motherboard too? So then really it is an all new pc build.

As far as i know this is the first "new" game he's wanted and attempted to play, everything else is old titles.

Digital Solitude

The i5 will be a major bottleneck on the GPU

An i3 4160 with a new board and a 750 for less than €300 is a better option

Xenoronin

Would also need to check the case to see if it support ATX boards. I would assume it is new enough to not be some weird dell standard but you never know till you check.

Jacovs

Digital Solitude wrote: »

The i5 will be a major bottleneck on the GPU

An i3 4160 with a new board and a 750 for less than €300 is a better option

Will have to see what the prices are for all those, they're in a non-eu country. So even if I could buy it cheaper here they would get caught on customs fees if I sent it to them. New motherboard and cpu also means new windows key?

Xenoronin wrote: »

Would also need to check the case to see if it support ATX boards. I would assume it is new enough to not be some weird dell standard but you never know till you check.

Yeah im hoping to learn a bit more once I get photos of the inside, might be atx already. I asked if there are any brand names or model numbers on the case, but none that they could see, so im thinking not Dell. Was bought in a bricks&mortar type shop so who knows whats in there.

tadcan

Jacovs wrote: »

New motherboard and cpu also means new windows key?

Yes, but you can get a key on reddit for around $20-35 for either win 8.1(which gets you a free upgrade to 10) or 10 respectively.

Jacovs wrote: »

Was bought in a bricks&mortar type shop so who knows whats in there.

If it is a generic box then its unlikely to have proprietary connections, should be fine to reuse.

TerrorFirmer

That i5 will be a major bottleneck, it's actually a dual core as well. I wouldn't say you have to upgrade the whole core though, a socket 1156 i7 can be had for about 50-60 euro and they're still decent enough.