[SOLVED] HELP Upgrading my old gaming PC for VR

[adamye]

Hi guys, I have a 7 ish year old gaming PC I bought to do some light gaming with years ago.

SPECS:
Intel i5 750 @2.67 GHz 4cores
12gb of ram (just added 6gb)
750 watt cooler Master PSU
AMD Radeon r9 200 series Sapphire 3gb vram

It has sat for a while, until recently my wife and I decided to play GTA 5 and a few more recent games. It handles GTA on High settings fine, but we'd like to get into the VR gaming world soon as we ordered the Quest 2.

Some of the games we'd like to play require i7 processors, and 12-16gb of ram. We ran the VR test on Steam, and it recommended we update the graphics card.

Basically we would like to upgrade the motherboard/CPU and graphics card to handle these new games for VR.

Budget isn't really an issue, but not looking for the absolute best, just something to upgrade this pc to meet the newer standards/requirements.

Any suggestions or builds would be greatly appreciated because we are lost 🤔

Thanks in advance!!

 

[richiestang_78]

You need a whole new computer. There isn't a CPU powerful enough on that platform and any new graphics card wont work on that motherboard since most likely there isn't a UEFI BIOS for it. Even if this wasnt for VR putting money into such an old machine is a waste. If budget isnt a problem build a new one.

What country are you located in and whats your max budget? I will post a parts list for you.

 

[LeiHeJun]

is this good:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qwDPvf

and add 3060Ti when it's back in stock.

 

[adamye]

You need a whole new computer. There isn't a CPU powerful enough on that platform and any new graphics card wont work on that motherboard since most likely there isn't a UEFI BIOS for it. Even if this wasnt for VR putting money into such an old machine is a waste. If budget isnt a problem build a new one.

What country are you located in and whats your max budget? I will post a parts list for you.

Would it be possible to get a new motherboard and GPU and swap the new psu and ram we just purchased? Basically we are willing to rebuild since we know the hardware is very dated at this point.

I'm located in Canada, if we could keep it under 1000$ that would be ideal.

Appreciate the information

 

[LeiHeJun]

Would it be possible to get a new motherboard and GPU and swap the new psu and ram we just purchased? Basically we are willing to rebuild since we know the hardware is very dated at this point.

I'm located in Canada, if we could keep it under 1000$ that would be ideal.

Appreciate the information

you can swap the psu, but not the ram. your ram is ddr3.

 

[richiestang_78]

Would it be possible to get a new motherboard and GPU and swap the new psu and ram we just purchased? Basically we are willing to rebuild since we know the hardware is very dated at this point.

I'm located in Canada, if we could keep it under 1000$ that would be ideal.

Appreciate the information

You can use the PSU but the RAM is DDR3 and you need DDR4. RAM is pretty cheap these days and I would suggest at a minimum 16GB of 3600mhz or faster RAM, however if you can swing it 32 GB would be better IMO for the growing amounts of RAM games use. Whatever RAM you choose make sure you buy a dual channel kit, for 16GB that is sold as two 8GB stick and 32GB two 16GB.

Here is a pretty budget build, no graphics card as the prices are all over the place right now. I would suggest a new Nvidia 3000 series however a 2070 Super or 2080 Super would also be good options if you can find them on sale or used. You can also look around for a used Ryzen 3600, 2600, 2700 as well, you might find them for under 200 CAD.


PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/FB7tkX

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($229.88 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.88 @ Canada Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL19 Memory ($84.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($74.99 @ Memory Express)
Case: Corsair SPEC-04 ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.80 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $524.54
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-29 17:14 EST-0500

 

[adamye]

You can use the PSU but the RAM is DDR3 and you need DDR4. RAM is pretty cheap these days and I would suggest at a minimum 16GB of 3600mhz or faster RAM, however if you can swing it 32 GB would be better IMO for the growing amounts of RAM games use. Whatever RAM you choose make sure you buy a dual channel kit, for 16GB that is sold as two 8GB stick and 32GB two 16GB.

Here is a pretty budget build, no graphics card as the prices are all over the place right now. I would suggest a new Nvidia 3000 series however a 2070 Super or 2080 Super would also be good options if you can find them on sale or used. You can also look around for a used Ryzen 3600, 2600, 2700 as well, you might find them for under 200 CAD.


PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/FB7tkX

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($229.88 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.88 @ Canada Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL19 Memory ($84.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($74.99 @ Memory Express)
Case: Corsair SPEC-04 ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.80 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $524.54
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-29 17:14 EST-0500

Thanks for that, are older hard drives swappable to newer mother boards ect?

 

[LeiHeJun]

Thanks for that, are older hard drives swappable to newer mother boards ect?

Yes, if they're SATA.
They must be really really old to be not SATA.

But to double check, you can tell us the model.

 

[LeiHeJun]

@adamye
Because you want VR, later you may need to get even more ram.
A motherboard has 4 ram slots (some have 2, but builds we suggested both have 4)

So if you get 2x8 ram sticks, you have 2 more empty. It's best advice to have all rams of the same spec. So although it's possible to fill those 2 empty slots with 2x16 later, but it may not work and you'll be limited to 4x8. That's why I said buy 2x16 now and have 2 empty slot for further upgrade.