Question Best upgrades for ASUS P8H61-M LE?

[BeerMe67]

I've got my old PC up and running again. I'd like to try to upgrade some of the components on it so it is better able to run the few games I play like Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warplanes. I'm hoping to be able to play War Thunder on it also, just to give you an idea of what I need to cover those bases.

It's currently running with an i3-3220T chip, 8GB DDR3 and onboard graphics. With that I'm just about able to play LOTRO and WoW, although the frame rates are low at critical moments. From what I can gather, I'd be able to upgrade to;

i7-3770 chip
16GB DDR3 via 2x8GB sticks

Can anyone tell me if that would make a significant difference, and which GPU I'd be looking to use with it? The PSU is an AC Bel HBA005-ZA2GT 350W. Would I also need to upgrade this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Eximo]

Yes, that CPU should be fine. I see a few 2x8GB kits in the memory support list, so that should go okay.

Depends on how large the chassis is. If it has two full height expansion slots you have little in the way of GPU limitations with a new power supply.

With that power supply, you should stick to sub-75W cards. GTX1650, GTX1050Ti, GT1030. Also older AMD cards like the RX550/RX560 if you can track one down. I would avoid the RX6400 because it uses a 4 lane connection, and your PCIe bus speed is very low compared to what it is looking for.

Maximum card I would pair with a i7-3770 is probably something like an RX6600 or RTX 3050. With these you will want a quality 550W PSU. Corsair, EVGA, Seasonic, etc.

Any of the above cards will let you play WoW with ease, it is a more CPU limited title. And 720p at low-medium settings is pretty easy to run. You basically have a very early iGPU without much power.

 

[BeerMe67]

Yes, that CPU should be fine. I see a few 2x8GB kits in the memory support list, so that should go okay.

Depends on how large the chassis is. If it has two full height expansion slots you have little in the way of GPU limitations with a new power supply.

With that power supply, you should stick to sub-75W cards. GTX1650, GTX1050Ti, GT1030. Also older AMD cards like the RX550/RX560 if you can track one down. I would avoid the RX6400 because it uses a 4 lane connection, and your PCIe bus speed is very low compared to what it is looking for.

Maximum card I would pair with a i7-3770 is probably something like an RX6600 or RTX 3050. With these you will want a quality 550W PSU. Corsair, EVGA, Seasonic, etc.

Any of the above cards will let you play WoW with ease, it is a more CPU limited title. And 720p at low-medium settings is pretty easy to run. You basically have a very early iGPU without much power.

Thanks, all great information and you've convinced me that with my limited budget, upgrading this is my best bet. I've had a look at GPUs that you mentioned and noticed different variations of the GT1030, one of which was DDR4 with a shorter interface, and a DDR5 with a longer interface. I assume the length of the interface is irrelevant and both versions would work ok?

Also, I've checked the BIOS, drivers, etc and they are all up to date and the BIOS would support the i7 3770 chip. Is there anything else software-wise that I'd need to consider before I started installing a new chip, memory and GPU? Also, would I need to change anything in the BIOS for the system to recognise the GPU, for example?

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks again.

 

[Eximo]

You should always get a GPU with GDDR5 / GDDR6. GPUs with standard DDR4 or DDR3 are very budget oriented. This is a huge reduction in bandwidth to the GPU and the performance difference is a lot.

No BIOS changes are needed for installing a GPU or CPU (you've already covered the BIOS updates for new CPUs, but there is nothing further beyond that)

New system memory will need to be configured. DDR3 will typically default to a standard speed like 1066 or 1333. If the kit you buy supports 1600, 1866, or 2133, you will have to enable XMP, or manually set the memory timings.