Upgrading Dell dimension 530

[shakerist]

Well a friend of mine decided to upgrade cpu and gpu and if required a psu of his dell dimension 530 his got 1gb ram and intel celeron cpu 420 @1.60 ghz his budget is 110 pounds

[Pob255]

Umm do you mean the Dell Inspiron 530? or the Dell dimention someothernumber?

[shakerist]

yes pob sorry my mistake it is the inspiron 530

[scaryjim]

Some more info pls?

Is it the slimline case? If so that'll limit graphics options.

What arrangement is his RAM? 1GB seems a little light for a modern PC, and could probably do with an upgrade - but that would definitely but you over budget for a reasonable CPU and GPU as well.

What does he want to *do* with the PC after the upgrade? i.e. if he's looking for smooth Crysis framerates, he's not going to get that for £110!

A quick google of Dell suggests that the motherboard will support 45nm processors, which makes the Celeron E3300 the obvious upgrade for the CPU - it's a dual core, 2.5GHz 45nm processor. The only caveat is that, while the chipset will support the processor, it may not be recognised by the BIOS. This isn't always a problem (I've run unrecognised CPUs with no issue in the past) but it's something to be aware of.

If the case *is* slimline the only realistic option for a worthwhile graphics upgrade would be this ASUS Radeon 5550 (IMNSHO, that is!) - it's the lowest priced low profile card that can be considered suitable for gaming. If it's not a slimline case you have more options, but they're all about the same price / performance level, tbh. And that doesn't leave any budget left for extra memory, which I really think he'll need...

[shakerist]

well i asked him he said it is not the slimline case it is im guessing the matx case also he said he has 1gb ram but he doesn't know if he has a spare slot (he doesn't know what ram looks like) he wants it to run Modern warefare 2, fifa 10-11 to run smoothly.

[shakerist]

he told me he got 300w power supply and 4 memory slots with 2 of them being occupied

[scaryjim]

Based on the recommended system requirements of FIFA 11 he's going to need to move up to at least a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, at least another 1GB RAM, and a minimum of a HD5570 / 5670 or nvidia 9800GT. tbh the Celeron and 5550 I recommended above would be cutting it *very* fine for those games: he'd have to keep the resolution and image quality quite low.

If he only goes for that minimum spec he'll *probably* be alright with a 300W PSU and might just squeeze it under £110, but then frankly his computer will need upgrading again when FIFA 12 comes out! I think he'd be much better off considering a new computer, if he can scrape some more money together...

[Pob255]

I'd say another 1gb or 2gb of memory
a pentium dualcore e5500
9800gt (make sure it's ddr3 and no pci-e connector)
From ebuyer
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5500 2.8GHz (quickfind 200938) £57.34
PALIT 9800GT Green 512MB GDDR3 (quickfind 205449) £67.16
Crucial 1GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory (quickfind 142390) £17.50 (x2 so £35.00)
Total is £160
We can knock the price down a bit
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 £48.76
HIS HD 4670 IceQ Edition 1GB DDR3 £56.42
Extra Value 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz £27.99
That would knock it down to about £120ish
Maybe able to get 2nd hand for cheaper if you hunt.

I have to dissagree with jim on the ati 5550 as any form of gaming card, I'd not go below the 5670, that 4670 I listed is really pushing the minimum
As a gaming card the 9800gt gddr3 is still very hard to beat at just under £70 for a new card
However you can pick up 2nd cheaper

[scaryjim]

I have to dissagree with jim on the ati 5550 as any form of gaming card

I thought the 5550 was 320 shaders and 128bit DDR3 memory? Basically it's the same specs as a 4670, so at lower resolutions & IQ it will turn out acceptable framerates - if you're not a serious gamer it would be sufficient (and I assume the OP's friend isn't a serious gamer if they're currently coping with a Celly 430 / 1GB RAM / GMA Graphics, and consider £110 to be enough for a gaming upgrade).

I'd agree it's the very bottom of the barrel, but we're talking a £110 budget here, so we're bound to be scraping the bottom of the barrel

[Pob255]

Umm I though that the 5550 was below the 4670 in performance and the 5670 is only a little better than the 4670

I think 2nd hand is a viable option for this sort of budget

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The GT240 GDDR5 can be had for around £60 delivered from Ebuyer:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179471

[Pob255]

Yes but the gt240 is not that good, the extra £7 for a 9800gt is worth it.

However a 2nd hand card might be better in this situation.

[scaryjim]

Umm I though that the 5550 was below the 4670 in performance and the 5670 is only a little better than the 4670

Hmmm, having read back on reviews the 5570 falls just a little *behind* a 4670, which presumably means a 55[b]5[b/]0 performs in the same ballpark as a DDR3 4650. That might be just a little too low on power for gaming, although it's much better than a 5450 / 4350 / 4550 / G220.

The 5670 is between 10% and 20% faster than a 4670 depending on the game in question, and is therefore probably very close to the 9800GT performance-wise, but should have lower power consumption (even than the Eco / Green versions). Otherwise you're looking at feature lists to make a decision: DX11, bitstreaming audio over HDMI and Eyefinity vs. PhysX / CUDA and 3D...

... the gt240 is not that good ...

The GT240 GDDR5 gives and takes with the HD4670, and is consistently behind the HD5670. Given that the 4670 is cheaper and the 5670 and 9800GT are both faster, I don't think I'd bother with it: but it's definitely in the right kind of performance ballpark to come into the picture...

I think 2nd hand is a viable option for this sort of budget

I don't think the budget is viable for the performance the OPs friend wants to acheive But certainly 2nd hand is the only way they're going to manage it, if at all... don't forget that they're looking to run all this on a standard 300W OEM PSU...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The GT240 GDDR5 is around 10% faster than a HD4670 GDDR3:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...GT_240/30.html

[shakerist]

hmm ok thank you for your replies, well ive already recommended new computer but he said no, so best spec for 150 pounds would be what?, Ill try convince him for a minimum of 150, who knows if i could get sense into him he might go up to 200 coz otherwise he will probably be upgrading agen quite soon, oh and he has got 4 slots with 2 taken up with 512mb ddr2 modules

[scaryjim]

The GT240 GDDR5 is around 10% faster than a HD4670 GDDR3

Not in the Hexus 5670 review, it isn't...

The moral of that is to always read several reviews before making a decision

As to the best upgrade for £150... I think I'd go for the 5670 as it has lower power draw than a 9800GT and is more likely to get on with the 300W PSU - ebuyer have a Sapphire 5670 for £66; either a Celeron E3300* for £36 or a Pentium E5400* for £49; and 2x 1GB DDR2, either generic @ £28, or Crucial for £33. Going for the Crucial and the Pentium hits almost dead on £150: going for the Celeron and Generic RAM puts you at £130.

The problem with a £200 budget is that it wouldn't give you enough extra for a better graphics card *and* the upgraded PSU he'd need to run it! Graphics-wise, the next step up is a HD5750 512MB or a GTS450; they're both around £95. The problem there is he'd want to go for the Pentium Dual Core rather than the Celeron to make sure he avoids a bottleneck, so there'd only be £20 left over, and that's not enough to buy a good quality 400W PSU, which he'll need if he upgrades beyond a 5670...

*EDIT: this assumes that the Dell PC supports these CPUs - it'd be *very* wise to contact dell and make sure first. If it doesn't he'll be hunting for second hand Core 2 Duos in the E4000 range, I think...