Help with upgrading PC

alexday96

alexday96

New Member
Hi guys,
I'm not even remotely tech savvy and I've just got a new PC for christmas to do uni work on, but i'd like to play videogames on it too. I have about £100 to sink into a new part and I wanted to know if anyone could give me some advice on what, specifically, i should buy.

I believe these are the specs. I have literally no idea. I wasn't kidding when I said i'm not even a little tech savvy.
Capture.png


thanks for any help you guys can offer! :)
 
Capture_1.png

Is this the right information? Like I said, I have no idea.
It was a gift from my parents from the Christmas just gone
 
Under the SPD tab it should give you an option to view each RAM slot. If there's only one stick then adding another one will give the integrated graphics a pretty big boost.

If you already have two then a graphics card would be your best bet. What kind of games do you play and where does your system fall short from a performance expectation perspective?
 
Capture_2.png

Does this mean that I only have one? Slot #1 is filled with information but this one is entirely greyed out.

Normally I'd play World of Warcraft, but this new PC seems to run at a slower FPS than my older one did, which i thought was odd because my new one can actually run more demanding games such as the new Dragon Age or ARK (albeit on the lowest settings) as opposed to my older one that just crashed when I tried to launch them.
 
alexday96 said:
Capture_2.png

Does this mean that I only have one? Slot #1 is filled with information but this one is entirely greyed out.

Normally I'd play World of Warcraft, but this new PC seems to run at a slower FPS than my older one did, which i thought was odd because my new one can actually run more demanding games such as the new Dragon Age or ARK (albeit on the lowest settings) as opposed to my older one that just crashed when I tried to launch them.
Click to expand...
Yeah, most likely this means that 1 of 2 slots are populated. This would leave you open to purchase a kit say 4GBx2 or 8GBx2 (if the machine can accept 16GB total)
 
alexday96 said:
Capture_2.png

Does this mean that I only have one? Slot #1 is filled with information but this one is entirely greyed out.

Normally I'd play World of Warcraft, but this new PC seems to run at a slower FPS than my older one did, which i thought was odd because my new one can actually run more demanding games such as the new Dragon Age or ARK (albeit on the lowest settings) as opposed to my older one that just crashed when I tried to launch them.
Click to expand...

Don't post the information from the slot that actually has RAM in it. That would just be silly.

You can play games on your A10 based machine as is. It will run most games at low settings.
 
johnb35 said:
Meaning its a micro atx motherboard since they usually only have 2 memory slots.
Click to expand...

I don't know how to check, could you explain to me please?

mistersprinkles said:
Don't post the information from the slot that actually has RAM in it. That would just be silly.

You can play games on your A10 based machine as is. It will run most games at low settings.
Click to expand...

It seems to struggle running any of the games i've tried on it, even on lower settings... All I want is a decent framerate really :P
 
If you want to game decently, you'll need a dedicated video card. What games are you trying to play?
 
Also, the specs of your existing RAM stick. The APUs run pretty horrible with single channel RAM. You likely can get what you're looking for by adding another stick but a dedicated GPU would also help immensely
 
Your're gonna need a higher budget than 100. I would of just completely built one yourself. There are many videos on the internet showing you how to build a PC. I suggest YouTube. The users LinusTechTips or either Jayz2Cent(or whatever it is).
I Suggest, if you're going to build a PC...
-Quad-Core Processor (or more cores)
-Two 4 Gig RAM Sticks
-A Dedicated Graphics Card
-600 Water Power Supply
It's much cheaper if you build it yourself, believe me.
 
Last edited:
RollingZeroz said:
Your're gonna need a higher budget than 100. I would of just completely built one yourself. There are many videos on the internet showing you how to build a PC. I suggest YouTube. The users LinusTechTips or either Jayz2Cent(or whatever it is).
I Suggest, if you're going to build a PC...
-Quad-Core Processor (or more cores)
-Four 2 Gig RAM Sticks(if you get the full size board with 4 DIMM Slots)
-A Dedicated Graphics Card
-600 Water Power Supply
It's much cheaper if you build it yourself, believe me.
Click to expand...

And why exactly would he need four 2GB RAM sticks? No mainstream platform is quad channel and AFAIK there are no 2GB DDR4 sticks in the first place. Only X79 and X99 have quad channel memory controllers in the consumer market.
On all mainstream platforms excluding AM1, which is single channel, the memory controller is dual channel, meaning that if you use 2 or 4 RAM sticks, you can operate them in dual channel mode which increases memory bandwidth. There is ZERO benefit to going to 4 sticks from 2. The only situation where you would go to four RAM sticks would be, for example, if you already had a pair of 16GB modules and wanted to add a second pair of 16GB modules. Adding more sticks puts more stress on the memory controller and it's best to use the fewest sticks possible.

Buying 4 2GB sticks would put more stress on the IMC, it would also be foolish as you would be taking up all four slots with extremely low capacity sticks of memory.

Also why does he need a 600W power supply? You don't even know what the rest of his system is. What if he wants to go SLI/CFX in the future? wouldn't he need more than 600W? What if his system consists of a 60W CPU and a 150W GPU? Does he really need 600W?

The best build videos on youtube btw are by carey holzman. Check out his channel.

OP, check how much room you have in your case, and if it'll fit, pick up a GTX 1050. You shouldn't have to change power supplies for that card, and it is about 100 pounds.
 
mistersprinkles said:
And why exactly would he need four 2GB RAM sticks? No mainstream platform is quad channel and AFAIK there are no 2GB DDR4 sticks in the first place. Only X79 and X99 have quad channel memory controllers in the consumer market.
On all mainstream platforms excluding AM1, which is single channel, the memory controller is dual channel, meaning that if you use 2 or 4 RAM sticks, you can operate them in dual channel mode which increases memory bandwidth. There is ZERO benefit to going to 4 sticks from 2. The only situation where you would go to four RAM sticks would be, for example, if you already had a pair of 16GB modules and wanted to add a second pair of 16GB modules. Adding more sticks puts more stress on the memory controller and it's best to use the fewest sticks possible.

Buying 4 2GB sticks would put more stress on the IMC, it would also be foolish as you would be taking up all four slots with extremely low capacity sticks of memory.

Also why does he need a 600W power supply? You don't even know what the rest of his system is. What if he wants to go SLI/CFX in the future? wouldn't he need more than 600W? What if his system consists of a 60W CPU and a 150W GPU? Does he really need 600W?

The best build videos on youtube btw are by carey holzman. Check out his channel.

OP, check how much room you have in your case, and if it'll fit, pick up a GTX 1050. You shouldn't have to change power supplies for that card, and it is about 100 pounds.
Click to expand...
It was only advice if he wanted to build a NEW PC. Yeah my fault on the ram thing
 
That's what I was talking about too, though. If he does buy a new PC, you can't recommend a power supply really without knowing what his current and future plans are component wise. Some people will build a machine and run integrated graphics and a single SSD and nothing else, ever. Some people start with one monster GPU and add another later... the power supply wattage really depends on what is going in the box and what will go in the box down the road. JM2C. Happy New Year.
 
mistersprinkles said:
That's what I was talking about too, though. If he does buy a new PC, you can't recommend a power supply really without knowing what his current and future plans are component wise. Some people will build a machine and run integrated graphics and a single SSD and nothing else, ever. Some people start with one monster GPU and add another later... the power supply wattage really depends on what is going in the box and what will go in the box down the road. JM2C. Happy New Year.
Click to expand...
Yeah I completely agree.
 
alexday96 said:
i have completely no idea what this means
Click to expand...

Sorry, i should have make it clear. What I meant is if you have m-atx tower?
Is your PSU 250W?

How long have you got the PC for?
Is there a chance to return it?


By the way, in terms of upgrade, you probably need £150. Probably go for £110 GTX 1050 wtih decent £40 - 45 400W -500W PSU
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top