Okay, I have an issue. I was going to be building a new pc soon, but then I ran into some issues. I set my hopes too high and though I was going to be building a $650 pc. Well, I guessed $300 over. I realize I can't build a pc in this budget, so I am probably going to be upgrading my current pc: https://support.gateway.com/s/PC/DX400/1009194/1009194nv.shtml
I know this is nothing much, which is why I am going to have difficulties upgrading it. Any ideas?
PS: the card is a 7300 LE. It plays the main game I play (a simulator from 2001) at 7 fps.
you can build i a real nice pc for $650. I would put less then $100 in upgrades in that desktop. E6600 is less then $20 bucks on ebay if you have pentium d i would change that out then look for a cheap gpu like 6670 look around you can find them new for like $50. I wouldnt trust anything more powerful on that old psu. for $70 you gain a lot of performace. but real just build a new pc.
buy a used E4400/E6500, buy a used video card like a hd 4850/hd 6670 or gt 240/250/550. if you have 2gb or less, buy more ddr2 ram, find 4gb ddr2 800 and you'll be happy with it. I'm not sure you can overclock this but it's decent enough for games until 2011 on high/med and under 1680x1050 res. I am telling you this from experience with similar hardware.
if you want to keep this a while and not overclock (due to chipset limitations) then go with e6600. Check motherboard bios version and compatibillity before.
$650 pc .....it's not worth spending on that old gateway pc salvage the harddrive from it and biuld a new rig
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1dlKE
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($94.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.13 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($41.73 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $653.80
All that for a 2001 simulation game? He might just like the conroe upgrade more if he doesn't need any more performance than that. Seriously it's fine for most games, not so much as for recent games. What do you need this PC for bnsfup1?
The 7870xt is the same price as the 7870 ghz right now.
I will be playing that simulator (like I said before) I will also maybe do a little video editing here and there, but not too much. That and browsing the internet. I was hoping to get into modern pc gaming, but not with a pc like that. I just found out yesterday that I got hired from my local mechanic. Minimum wage plus mowing lawns around the shop. Its not much but it will sure help.
Oh, and also, if I did come up with the money to do the $650 build, I would need an os, however I think I can get a copy of windows 8 for $70. Also if I did go that route and got windows 8, I would need an nvidia card as that simulator has issues with the drivers of amd cards and uefi mobo's in windows 8 and will not boot. Nvidia cards are fine, however.