Is it possible upgrade this computer for the best game-play performance?

[BeanyBean]

Hello, I'm a bit new to all of this and I'm not the most tech savvy when it comes to computers, so please bare with me if I seem a bit new, and thank you to anyone who can help! 😀

Info
I've recently bought a new computer (HP 110-352na Desktop PC) because my old one couldn't run games well even on medium settings. I thought buying an up-to-date computer would hopefully make my games at-least playable (mainly mmos like Tera and C9 as-well as the sims 4 etc), I asked the man at the computer center whether buying this computer would help my games performance, since in the description, it did say it was suitable for games, and he said it should be okay, but the problem of lag was still the same.

So then I bought "Radeon R9 Gamer Series" memory, in hopes that this would help the problem. They fit into the computer nicely, but the problem of lag was still the same, so I figured the it must be something else.

Here are the specs of my current computer:

Click for computer specshttp://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=uk&dlc=en&lang=en&lc=en&product=7233078#N243

Main Question
So I'm wondering, my current graphics are AMD Radeon HD 8400 graphics (combined with the processor), + the specs say:

"The motherboard supports the AMD Kabini A6-5200 APU only. The processor is not upgradable."

since it's combined with the processor, does this mean I have no way of upgrading the graphics at all? Would it be possible to get a new motherboard, processor + graphics separate? or is there no hope with this computer?

since I'm new to upgrading hardware, I've been making mistakes and learning from them as I go along, which is a pretty reckless thing to do, but I'm just at the point where I'd love to have a computer that can handle at-least making a game some-what playable.

I'm really sorry if this is all over the place, I'm not great at getting points across but if anyone would like to help, I'd be really thankful haha.

Thanks for your time!
- Jenna

 

[Entomber]

For MMOs the most important piece of hardware you can invest in is the CPU. With a prebuilt computer it is often relatively difficult to upgrade the CPU, since you may have to also change the motherboard - which would probably invalidate your Windows license unless you have 8.1 Pro.

Do you have a budget in mind? Is the computer that you recently bought still under the period where you can return it for a full refund?

 

[IROCZ]

Entomber is right. If you swap out the motherboard, you will be buying windows again. You could salvage the case, memory, and hard drive. That would save you 130.00 on a build. And you are correct, that pc has a soldered on CPU, no PCI x16 slot for a graphics card, and has a 65W PSU. You will be starting from scratch, minus the few items i noted

 

[Nikola Aslanov-1338074]

The best option is to return/sell the hp and buy a new machine after some research in the forum, or build one if you have a friend that has the skills.

 

[JoakimL]

The motherboard is a ITX form factor board, which limits your possibilities to upgrade it. There are a few ITX boards that support powerfull CPU's, however that brings up the next problem. If the page you linked to is correct then this PC has an external power supply, with a rating of only 65W. This is very, very little, and will not support any of the powerful CPU's you will need.

So that means you would have to exchange motherboard, CPU and power supply at the same time. I think it would cost almost as much as buying a new better computer, so as the previous poster said: If you can return it or trade it in for something else then go for that.

 

[BeanyBean]

Aah I see, thanks for the quick replies!

I bought the computer from PC World, and when I checked the Returns policy, it says

Return until 26/11/14

so unfortunately it's a bit too late to return it 🙁
I'll try and email them to see if there is anything they can do, maybe a trade or something

if not, I guess I'm stuck with this computer and will have to make do with it haha

thanks so much for all the info, I was told it would be able to run games without problems, but it was exactly the same as before, so I don't know whether this was a fault of theirs for kind of miss-selling me the product, since I'm not great at 'building' the best computers or knowing what the best components are, I was hoping to lean on the help of PC World, but they've given me practically the same PC just with more RAM and Windows 8.1

 

[Entomber]

Yeah unfortunately sometimes the people who work at PC stores, especially the clerks, actually know very little about computers or technology, they just restock the shelves and ring up the merchandise. The computer that you bought is not really suitable for gaming.