what upgrades can i make to this machine that will really help? i am up to do anything from adding a stick of ram to replacing the cpu.
http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/model/DT.GDDAA.012
the hard drive is already a 1tb 7200rpm
thanks
Get yourself an SSD.
Massive improvment / price ratio
do you have this machine? or are you thinking of buying it?
i have it already
Well, what do you do with it? Upgrades tailor towards your goal usage for the PC
If you're gaming, and are currently using integrated, by god, buy a video card. (but make sure the PSU has pci power connectors not used or molex)
If you aren't, I personally wouldn't touch it at all.
I had an old gateway before and it was fine, just got a dedicated video card and that was it.
I have a evga 640 2gb card and im getting a power supply upgrade so i can put it in...i just do gaming and facebook twitter and little things online maybe some call of duty gameplay edits
Not to be a dick, but you're not going to get much better performance than integrated graphics with a GT 640. The absolute least I would spend on a GPU right how would be a Radeon HD 7770.
I would really recommend getting a nice dedicated graphics card and an SSD. I would suggest getting a better CPU and a cooler for it so you can overclock, but since it's a Gateway computer your bios is probably locked which means you won't be able to overclock anyway. Other than the graphics card and SSD, you could always get some faster ram.
alright so basically just take the 640 back.?
I personally would. It's not really worth the money just because it's not going to be a huge improvement over integrated. Like I said before, try shooting for at least a Radeon HD 7770, but if you can swing the money, then definitely go for a Radeon HD 7850 or 7870.
alright thanks ill be okay with the integrated for now it runs the few games i have and ill get a ssd and faster ram and then think about the video card later on down the road
Just make sure your motherboard supports higher ram speeds before you go buying anything.