Computer Upgrade, NOT AN ENTIRELY NEW COMPUTER BUILD

Gerardo Naranjo

Honorable
Jun 2, 2013
29
0
10,530
Hi, I have been trying to find online howto upgrade a Gateway DX-4710-301A computer. It currently has the specs of 6gb of ram, windows 7 home premium 32-bit, Intel Core 2 quad Q6700 2.66 Ghz, BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG, 300 watt PSU (im not sure what kind it is), 250Gb western Digital Sata II (product name: WD2500YS) Hard drive [ 2 hard drives in computer, can't remember the second one other than that its 160gb ram and a SATA II]. I am not sure about the heat sink she has either, a radeon silent hd 5450 graphics card. If you need anymore information, please ask. Mainly im concerned with the CPU and PSU. I do not want a new computer to build, I just wanna know the options. This is my friend's computer and she's a gamer with a low budget. The limit of her games are mainly skyrim, far cry 3, assassin's creed revelations and the one's below.
 
There aren't really any upgrade options for those old components. I know it's not what you want to hear, but that system has reached the end of its upgrade potential. Other than maybe re-using the HDDs I don't see any other components that could be upgraded or brought over to a new system. What kind of budget are we talking about? The only upgrade that may possibly make sense would be to upgrade the PSU and add a decent GPU. One obstacle to that option may be that the motherboard uses proprietary connectors that would not be compatible with a new PSU.
 
Without knowing exactly what motherboard you have, it's impossible for us to say what CPU upgrades are possible. Given that you've already got a Q6700, it'd be a reasonable bet to say that is about as good as you can put in there. If the Q9xxx series processors are compatible, I'm not sure the performance increase would be worth the cost.

To be honest, as far as games are concerned, you should be looking to replace the power supply and the graphics card. Something like a quality 450 watt PSU and a GTX760 would pair up nicely with your current CPU.

Do you have an upgrade budget?

-Wolf sends
 
To be honest, I'm looking what options I have, and seeing what I should do from there. These answers are what I've been looking for so thank you both. As for the Graphics card, I have been considering, but am not sure what I should go for. Any recommendations would be nice to know, but for the motherboard, I am not sure what it is, sorry. What I remember, the computer was bought and contains its original factory parts for the motherboard, I only added a graphics card in, so if you could find the specs of what motherboard this type of computer would have, it could help. It could vary, but its the best I can remember.