Upgrade graphics card, or totally not worth it?

S

serialthrilla

New Member
Let me start off by saying that my knowledge about computers is very basic. Anyway, I'm currently playing most of my games on a computer I bought a couple years ago from Costco:

Windows 7 operating system
intel core i7-2600s processor @ 2.80ghz (8 CPUs)
8.00 GB of RAM
video card is AMD Radeon HD 6570

Here's the motherboard (and stuff):

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/si...ac.admitted=1407117992249.876444892.199480143

I was thinking I could salvage the processor and build around it, but is the 2.80ghz going to too slow?

It hasn't received any upgrades, but it runs most games well enough. The only thing that gets me down is the graphics card (radeon HD6570). Would I see a noticeable improvement if I upgraded to a better graphics card? Once again I am a complete newbie, so I wouldn't even know what kind of cards would fit. If some of you great folks here could offer your insights I'd be very grateful! :D

p.s. if it is worth upgrading, which cards would you recommend? (that would also fit?) Also I live in Canada, so I would be buying my parts from NCIX.
 
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The CPU and RAM are both pretty nice parts, but the scoket the CPU uses is dead. So it would probably be a bad idea to build a PC around it. S

If you want to upgrade your GPU, I am assuming your planning on gaming. I would go with something like a single slot 7750. It should be a significant upgrade from what you have now.
 
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Yeah I'd get a new power supply and graphics card and call it good. The CPU is actually pretty powerful and 8GB is enough RAM. What's your budget?
 
serialthrilla said:
My budget is ~$700. Would I need a new case too?
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Sometimes moving motherboards out of OEM machines (noticeably HP ones) can be a little tricky, so probably it's best to stay in the case.

$700 will buy you a good power supply and a nice graphics card and leave you with change. You could probably afford a GTX 780 and a good Corsair TX power supply - or similar. That will perform very well with the i7 and your RAM and probably still leave you with some change.

If I were you though, with $700 at my disposal I'd probably look to sell your HP and build something from scratch with the $700 and the money you get from the sale. It sounds like you want to build a new system anyway, so why not do that?
 
Yeah if you've got a budget like that I'd sell what you have now and start afresh. Also a higher end GPU is most likely too long to fit in that case anyway. You could probably get a few hundred bucks for that machine and put it towards a new system.
 
Yeah if you got say around $200 for that machine (possible - just brag about the i7! You might get more! :P) you would have about $900 to spend and that would buy you a very nice Intel i5 setup with a good graphics card in a nice case.

I think that would be better for you. :good:
 
New PSU & mid-range Video card. Probably cost you $300.

i7 2600 is still a decent CPU, I personally don't see a need to change it.
 
Because it sounds like he wants to build something and he can sell the PC for a bit of money and then he'd enough to build himself a whole new system.

The 2600 is still a good performer but it is over 3 years old now and runs on an outdated socket.
 
spirit said:
Because it sounds like he wants to build something and he can sell the PC for a bit of money and then he'd enough to build himself a whole new system.

The 2600 is still a good performer but it is over 3 years old now and runs on an outdated socket.
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But is it worth spending extra $400?

A $1000 machine could probably get i5 with gtx 760. However, i don't think i7 2600 bottleneck gtx 760. So spending $700 or spending $300 make no difference in gaming.

It may be better get ssd, new psu and video card, and save $250.
I don't see the point changing the socket as by the time you thinking of upgrade the cpu, there will be another socket.
 
Cisco001 said:
But is it worth spending extra $400?

A $1000 machine could probably get i5 with gtx 760. However, i don't think i7 2600 bottleneck gtx 760. So spending $700 or spending $300 make no difference in gaming.

It may be better get ssd, new psu and video card, and save $250.
I don't see the point changing the socket as by the time you thinking of upgrade the cpu, there will be another socket.
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There's still the issue of the case, no mid range or higher video card will fit in there.
 
Cisco001 said:
But is it worth spending extra $400?

A $1000 machine could probably get i5 with gtx 760. However, i don't think i7 2600 bottleneck gtx 760. So spending $700 or spending $300 make no difference in gaming.

It may be better get ssd, new psu and video card, and save $250.
I don't see the point changing the socket as by the time you thinking of upgrade the cpu, there will be another socket.
Click to expand...

What is an "ssd"?
(Pardon my ignorance:o)
 
It's a new technology for hard drives that stands for Solid State Drive. Instead of using a spinning disc as in the case in normal HDD (or mechanical drives as they're sometimes called) it has no moving parts and works in a similar way to a flash drive. They're much faster than a normal HDD but also more expensive. You typically install your operating system and frequently used programs like your browser on it.
 
You want to install all of your programs onto the SSD, usually with the exception of games which take up a lot of room (500GB SSDs have only just become affordable but they're still quite expensive) so you might want to install those onto a large hard drive instead.
 
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