Will This Upgrade Work?

Origin Saint

Origin Saint

Well-Known Member
Hey there guys. I've been wanting to get a new desktop for some time now. I don't use it much, but mine is a HP Pavilion a535w. Made in 2004 and running on XP Home Edition. It's hard drive is nearly full at a whopping 75GB and the processor and everything else is outdated and old. We need to either buy a new one or upgrade this one soon because my parents need a better computer to do their stuff and I want to have a secondary computer I can do a little light gaming on from time to time. I looked into it, and replacing nearly all of the internal parts is cheaper than buying a new one that would be just as good. So I want to buy all new parts and just install them in the same case. Here's the parts:

Processor: AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz Quad-Core, Socket AM3+
Motherboard: Biostar A880 GZ AM3+ 880G SATA 6GB/s, HDMI, Micro ATX
Graphics: MSI R6570 - MD2GD3/LP Radeon HD 6570, 2GB
HDD: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLHX, 300GB, 10000rpm, 3.5"
RAM: SPECTEK 8GB 240-pin DDR3 RAM
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

So is that all I will need to upgrade? Do I need to buy a new case fan or CPU fan? Heat sync? Case? Change any parts due to incompatibility? Let me know ASAP. I can give links to each item as needed. Thanks for the help guys.
 
It depends on your case as to whether you can just take out the OEM stuff and throw in your own. Sometimes OEM cases are modified so you cannot remove the original components (from my own experience). Make sure the I/O shield is removable/replaceable before you buy anything.

What you've got planned looks OK. Biostar aren't the best brand of board, but if you're limited to mATX then it'll do. I'd look into Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI and ASRock before Biostar, and I'd go for Corsair or G.Skill RAM. Possibly look into a 6700 series graphics card too.

Your budget and what games are you looking to play will determine what hardware you need.
 
OK two questions. Is your case Micro ATX only and what screen and resolution are you going to be using?
 
At the moment, I only have a crappy, big old dell monitor and some HD TVs, so I was gunna use my TV as a monitor. Not sure what the case is, I've decided to throw all my parts into my old Dell Dimension 4600 case instead so whatever that case's specs are then.
 
OK I Googled for the PC and it looks like your cases in mATX. But with $850 to spend, I reckon you should just wing it and build a new system. Even for like $500-600 you could build a fairly decent machine. There are going to be some disadvantages to using the HP case, and I think with that kind of money you as may as well go for it and start from scratch.
 
yeah, thank you both for the help. I plan to update as I discover more, if you would be so kind as to check these forums every now and then for posts by me, you would both be valuable suggestion/advice givers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top