Hi, my girlfriend is looking for a pc to play games on (her laptop is struggling) and we're on a bit of a budget. I have an old media PC that is no longer needed, I was hoping someone might be able to give some advice on if it might be worth installing a graphics card and which card might be appropriate. The machine is currently comprised of: Intel® Pentium® Processor E2180 Asus P5K-VM 2 x 1024MB RAM Windows XP Professional DirectX 9.0c Ideally I'd get a GPU powerful enough to run Source games at a decent fps at high settings. But, I'm extremely unsure because I don't want to have a gpu go to waste when the mobo/cpu can't keep up. There are also some size limitations and power supply concerns thrown in to the equation, something small and efficient should fit the bill. I was wondering if someone could make some gpu suggestions that might be suitable for this machine? It's her birthday soon so any help would be hugely appreciated!
Might help to let us know what resolution you'll be playing at and the PSU size and if any pcie power connectors.
I would look for something like nvidia 460, 560 or better in used market. amd stuff like 5850, 6850 etc would be fine too if you can find one for a reasonable price... radeon used market is terrible from coin miners.
Bearing in mind it's not worth spending much money on that machine, I would recommend the following! 1) Replace the CPU with a second hand Wolfdale chip, something along the lines of an E8400/E8500. 2) GPU wise I'd suggest a second hand GTX 460 256-Bit version. Aim for £30 on the CPU and about the same for the GPU!
Haven't got a monitor yet, but probably 1920x1080 since they're quite affordable these days. I think the current PSU is 380W, so I might have to resign myself to getting a new one, especially as I don't see any pcie power connectors on it. Oh to think of the days when gpu's didn't require their own power cables Neat-o, thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into those. Great idea thanks bru. Any idea how many Watts I would need to support those components?
Actually I think you're fine with 380W but it would depend on how the power is divided between the voltage rails. Have a look at the side of the PSU and see what amperage the 12v rail(s) can provide. Even better, take a pic and post it here. And you're talking about running Source games on a DX9 platform, so why are people suggesting powerful DX11 hardware? Total overkill and would be soooo badly bottlenecked by the system, LOL... I'd sooner suggest something like an X1950XT which would eat any Source game for breakfast in that machine. Heck, I had an AGP X1950XT back in 2007 and it royally shat all over HL2: Lost Coast. I do agree with Blogins' suggestion of a Wolfdale chip though... but even a Dual Core Pentium would be sufficient. Something like an E6300 (NOT the 1.86GHz core2 version) which is 2.8GHz and very capable, and you can easily bag one for a tenner. Total outgoing if you keep the PSU and upgrade CPU/GPU will be something like £20-25.
Well... that is a point... but then I also see zero reason to use XP and be forced to stick with dx9 which I seemed to have ignored. I would rather re-install trial of 8.1 ever 120 days instead of use that terrible antique OS. E2180 is a dual core Pentium... but any core duo or quad if that motherboard supports it would be a much better choice when you often can get them for very cheap.
Thank you guys! You are awsome, so many responses. It looks like I was wrong about the PSU, it's peak 300W rated 250W Browsing scan for a new one, had a hunt around the house and can't find any 80mm fans either so I might have to add a couple of them to my shopping basket too.