Question Beginner needs help fixing an old PC ?

[imuuri]

My dad was alright with computers and got me an old Raidmax Smilodon Dirktooth case in 2015, he passed away since and the computer has been sitting for quite a while. The case is old school looking with a lot of features such as a DVD drive with Laserscribe engraving and lots of extra room and 5 fans. I love the case and just want to upgrade the internals around the video card we last put in.

The last thing we put in was a 750w power supply and the video card, which is

EVGA GeForce GT 730 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 Low Profile Video Card 02G-P3-3733-KR​

We never got a chance to upgrade everything around the computer before it started freezing up and I shelved it for years, I can't tell what the motherboard is but I know it has DDr3 ram slots and only 2 2gb ram sticks, the processor is also outdated. I was hoping to find a cheap option for a processor and motherboard for my current video card as well as what kind of SSD I should use for my operating system, it was running in windows 7 and i plan on upgrading to windows 10, advice would be helpful as to whether i should order a disk copy or not as well as a good source for windows 10 without overpaying (when I search the price variation is insane and half the websites with "product keys" seem very sketchy)

Lastly the computer freezes, this may be due to the processor fan being dusty and the thermal paste being separated but the longer it's turned on the worse it bogs down, this is also likely due to the fact that when I was 15 and had the computer I would try and bootleg games from any website I could find on Google, so I need to understand how to troubleshoot the issue and find the viruses and clear my extra hard drive without clearing out all my extra data. I was hoping these hardware upgrades might help but I need to save this 2tb drive if I can as I am on a budget! (I have tried to find a video tutorial on how to troubleshoot the virus from safe mode and still couldn't fix the problem with the one I followed, need a proper tutorial video on how to clear viruses from windows 7...)

I'm mainly trying to build around this video card as I only really plan on playing games like Rust and Arma 3 or DayZ that are already in my library, I see some options for motherboards with a processor and even 16gb ram sticks included altogether for $45-60 from Chinese websites as featured on $200 computer build videos on YouTube but I can't tell how their gt480 video card (or whatever it was) compares to mine, id really like to narrow down one of these budget choices if possible.

A long list I know, but I plan on slowly learning what I can to fix upkeep my simple computer for simple gaming and building it back over the upcoming months, I am on a budget and dont have the resources to experiment too much with my purchasing, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[CountMike]

My dad was alright with computers and got me an old Raidmax Smilodon Dirktooth case in 2015, he passed away since and the computer has been sitting for quite a while.

The last thing we put in was a 750w power supply and the video card is

EVGA GeForce GT 730 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 Low Profile Video Card 02G-P3-3733-KR​

I can't tell what the motherboard is but I know it has DDr3 ram slots and only 2 2gb ram sticks, the processor is also outdated. I was hoping to find a cheap option for a processor and motherboard for my current video card as well as what kind of SSD I should use for my operating system, it was running in windows 7 and i plan on upgrading to windows 10, advice would be helpful as to whether i should order a disk copy or not as well as a good source for windows 10 without overpaying (when I search the price variation is insane and half the websites with "product keys" seem very sketchy)

Lastly the computer freezes, this may be due to the processor fan being dusty and the thermal paste being separated but the longer it's turned on the worse it bogs down, this is also likely due to the fact that when I was 15 and had the computer I would try and bootleg games from any website I could find on Google, so I need to understand how to troubleshoot the issue and find the viruses and clear my extra hard drive without clearing out all my extra data. I was hoping these hardware upgrades might help but I need to save this 2tb drive if I can as I am on a budget! (I have tried to find a video tutorial on how to troubleshoot the virus from safe mode and still couldn't fix the problem with the one I followed, need a proper tutorial video on how to clear viruses from windows 7...)

I'm mainly trying to build around this video card as I only really plan on playing games like Rust and Arma 3 or DayZ that are already in my library, I see some options for motherboards with a processor and even 16gb ram sticks included altogether for $45-60 from Chinese websites as featured on $200 computer build videos on YouTube but I can't tell how their gt480 video card (or whatever it was) compares to mine, id really like to narrow down one of these budget choices if possible.

A long list I know, but I plan on slowly learning what I can to fix upkeep my simple computer for simple gaming and building it back over the upcoming months, I am on a budget and dont have the resources to experiment too much with my purchasing, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

You must find exact MB or at least chipset, socket and CPU. Any upgrade hinges on those.
SSD is least problem, judging by DDR3 memory it certainly has SATA3 interface so any 2.5" SATA SSD should work.
PS. can you at least post picture of opened case ?

 

[imuuri]

You must find exact MB or at least chipset, socket and CPU. Any upgrade hinges on those.
SSD is least problem, judging by DDR3 memory it certainly has SATA3 interface so any 2.5" SATA SSD should work.
PS. can you at least post picture of opened case ?

I'm trying to post an image to you but it's asking for a URL?
This is my motherboard, I found the name under the video card... Genuine ASUS P5QPL-AM G41 Socket LGA 775 Desktop Motherboard W/ I/O Shield

The processor is a Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Dual Core 2.8GHz 1066MHz FSB Processor SLGW3 and it's likely burned up.

I need to see how these are compared to my video card, what I need to upgrade to to suite my video card and how to properly troubleshoot viruses, a good layman's guide for dealing with viruses preferably. Thank you for your help on this

 

[CountMike]

I'm trying to post an image to you but it's asking for a URL?
This is my motherboard, I found the name under the video card... Genuine ASUS P5QPL-AM G41 Socket LGA 775 Desktop Motherboard W/ I/O Shield

The processor is a Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Dual Core 2.8GHz 1066MHz FSB Processor SLGW3 and it's likely burned up.

I need to see how these are compared to my video card, what I need to upgrade to to suite my video card and how to properly troubleshoot viruses, a good layman's guide for dealing with viruses preferably. Thank you for your help on this

I'm afraid nothing you can do to that system to allow you to play those games. Much had changed in those 16 years.

 

[imuuri]

I'm afraid nothing you can do to that system to allow you to play those games. Much had changed in those 16 years.

I'm confused, do you mean my GT730 can't run any of these games? I am basically looking to see if anyone can point me to one of those cheap Chinese kits to change out my motherboard processor and RAM to one that suites my video card such as you see on the budget builds on youtube.

Are you saying that the video card would also need to be upgraded? I see people making budget builds that can run GTA V at just under 50fps on medium settings with $200 budget builds, I was hoping to find one of those kits to suite my video card as i am not good with identifying the compatible parts.

 

[imuuri]

I'm afraid nothing you can do to that system to allow you to play those games. Much had changed in those 16 years.

I saw a guy do a build with a GT430 that ran GTAV and similar games at medium settings and I assume that's lower than my GT730 and he got a kit from AliExpress with a motherboard processor and ram sticks all in one for $60 coming to a $220 build including his case and power supply which I don't need, and I also don't need the video card upgrade i assumed, so I think I just need to change out my outdated processor and motherboard as well as RAM, possibly a SSD? Problem is I am not good at telling which parts are better and more up to date so I was wondering if anyone knew a good budget kit to pair with my GT730 to revamp the rest of the computer, as well as a good tutorial suggestion for viruses. Maybe even whether or not it would be necessary to upgrade my operating systems SSD to one of the new Samsung or Seagate style models..

Sorry for confusion, thanks for help.

 

[DSzymborski]

What exactly is the budget here?

I'm not sure this will be a cost effective plan or lead to a pleasant GTA V or Rust experience, unless 20-30 fps at 720p low (or even lower resolutions) is fine with you. The GT 730 is a decade-old, entry-level GPU, not something it makes sense to "build around."

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'm trying to post an image to you but it's asking for a URL?

Upload your photo to imgur.com and post link to it.

This is my motherboard, ASUS P5QPL-AM G41 Socket LGA 775 Desktop Motherboard W/ I/O Shield
The processor is a Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Dual Core 2.8GHz 1066MHz FSB Processor SLGW3 and it's likely burned up.

Please update your opening post and list all pc specs there.
Include PSU model name and storage devices.
What model monitor will you be using?

Please specify your budget - max you're willing to spend on upgrade.

BTW - GT730 is not a gaming card (not even entry level).

 

[CountMike]

I saw a guy do a build with a GT430 that ran GTAV and similar games at medium settings and I assume that's lower than my GT730 and he got a kit from AliExpress with a motherboard processor and ram sticks all in one for $60 coming to a $220 build including his case and power supply which I don't need, and I also don't need the video card upgrade i assumed, so I think I just need to change out my outdated processor and motherboard as well as RAM, possibly a SSD? Problem is I am not good at telling which parts are better and more up to date so I was wondering if anyone knew a good budget kit to pair with my GT730 to revamp the rest of the computer, as well as a good tutorial suggestion for viruses. Maybe even whether or not it would be necessary to upgrade my operating systems SSD to one of the new Samsung or Seagate style models..

Sorry for confusion, thanks for help.

Games in low resolutions, 720p-1080p most of work is done by CPU while GPU provides detail and picture quality. You could have best GPU and still have low FPS. Some performance could be gained by running games windowed even across whole screen. With a good processor you could run games with relatively weak GPU. Problem is wit newer games without options for low resolution.
Problem with those old CPUs is that they don't have everything needed by "Heavy" games to run efficiently.
For most of games you can find minimum and recommended hardware and OS.