Helping a Friend Upgrade

[Beresford]

Hello,

My friend has the following specs on his computer and he would like to upgrade;

Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit)
AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core Processor 2.5ghz
2GB Ram
Nvidia Geforce 8500GT
Gigabyte M57SLI-S4 MOBO

Looking at it, it looks like he needs to upgrade everything...

If we upgrade the Ram to 8GB Corsair Vengeance and drop in a GTX 760 will the processor be too much of an issue? If it is then can I upgrade the processor without replacing the mobo?

I know he is funny with money so will want to spend as little if possible but if there is no hope I will tell him he needs to spend between £600-700 to get a decent rig that will be better than next-gen consoles.

Thanks

Beresford

 

[swifty_morgan]

how much money for the upgrade? find out from him don't give us your estimate.

 

[drtoast]

That cpu would castrate a 760.

There is no point dropping in 8gb of RAM as windows 32bit can only recognise 4gb. You need to replace the OS for the 64 bit version.

Most games have a recommended spec of a quad core CPU now, there are some where dual core isnt even in the minimum rec, specs. Any upgrades you could do are more than likely wasted so in the long run it would be cheaper to rebuild from scratch.

Why did he get ultimate? In the 32bit its a complete waste of money.

With regards a rebuild. Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit is the OS you want to use.



You will also find it hard to get parts to upgrade that as its a very low freq RAM and an AM2 socket restricts you to very old CPU's

 

[Beresford]

Hello Guys,

I've taken your advice on board and I have relayed the information. I have built a pc myself and for a friend so I kinda knew before hand that we would have to rebuild from scratch but it's good to have a second opinion.

He wants a PS4 but I am going to try and convince him that if he spends a little more he can get better graphics, better performance and cheaper games not to mention you can do more on a PC.

Thanks for your help!

 

[sam_p_lay]

Your quest is a noble one. You could actually put together an OK system for as little as £450, though £750 could do a really nice setup.

 

[drtoast]

Think that the ps4 is an APU based on a custom build of the 7850 I believe it was.

If you just had a PC containing the 7850 and a mid range CPU it would already outperform the PS4, Use that as a rough baseline if you need.