Dear Community,
I have been meaning to do an upgrade on my Dell Insipiron 546 MT. When I bought it I could play all the games I wanted at a stable enough frame rate for them to be enjoyable, now with newer and high end games the experience is not so enjoyable e.g I can't play Mass Effect 2, call of Duty Black Ops etc.
My current specs are as follows:
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ AM2 socket (940)
Motherboard - Dell Inc. 0F896N
RAM - Samsung(?) 1024MB (x3)
GPU - ATI Radeon HD 4350
I want to upgrade my processor to a triple or quad core to support newer games. I was looking at these two: AMD Athlon II X4 630 Socket AM3 2.8GHz 2MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz Socket AM3 8MB L3 Cache 125W Retail Box Processor. Are those prices reasonable for what they are?
For either of these too work I will need a new motherboard that supports AM3. I no next to nothing about motherboards, any suggestions?
I may change my RAM, if I get a new motherboard will I have to check compatibility with that (DDR2)?
I'm looking to keep my graphics card for a little longer as I don't have the money to spend on a new one at the moment.
I'm also guessing I will need a new power supply for all this ans supplied ones in pre-built systems are usually rubbish?
I have been meaning to do an upgrade on my Dell Insipiron 546 MT. When I bought it I could play all the games I wanted at a stable enough frame rate for them to be enjoyable, now with newer and high end games the experience is not so enjoyable e.g I can't play Mass Effect 2, call of Duty Black Ops etc.
My current specs are as follows:
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ AM2 socket (940)
Motherboard - Dell Inc. 0F896N
RAM - Samsung(?) 1024MB (x3)
GPU - ATI Radeon HD 4350
I want to upgrade my processor to a triple or quad core to support newer games. I was looking at these two: AMD Athlon II X4 630 Socket AM3 2.8GHz 2MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz Socket AM3 8MB L3 Cache 125W Retail Box Processor. Are those prices reasonable for what they are?
For either of these too work I will need a new motherboard that supports AM3. I no next to nothing about motherboards, any suggestions?
I may change my RAM, if I get a new motherboard will I have to check compatibility with that (DDR2)?
I'm looking to keep my graphics card for a little longer as I don't have the money to spend on a new one at the moment.
I'm also guessing I will need a new power supply for all this ans supplied ones in pre-built systems are usually rubbish?