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LF Help with Upgrades

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Attitech

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Mar 3, 2015
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Hey guys,
I received a desktop PC from a friend of mine and after further inspection I am looking to make a few upgrades, but I'm not sure where to start with the graphics upgrade for this particular model. I'm not looking to spend a lot of money but I am looking to get the most I can without justifying an entirely new PC.
Specs:
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q
Processor: Intel Core2Quad Q9400 @ 2.66ghz
Memory: 4GB DDR-800mhz
Graphics: GeForce GTS250 1GB

If it's not too much money, I'd like to upgrade to a better graphics card and more ram, but I'm not sure what kind of graphics card or where to even start.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

 
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Uoles. low quality cheapo PSU. Dont spend any money before upgrading PSU otherwise you risk your new parts getting fried by that cheap PSU.

Frankly though you are looking at a full upgrade in order to do any modern gaming or anything substantial. That is a 10 year old system and upgrading it is basically going from 12% to 16%.
You will also run into issues like your motherboard likely not supporting the newest generation GPUs that are EFI boot only.
So besides a PSU (which can be reused in a new build) I would not recommend spending good money on old upgrades.
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you start by looking at the make and model of the power supply

and the case size

what exactly do you want to do with this pc?
 
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The whole system can use revitalisation pronto, but the first place to start would be the PSU, this will allow other components to be upgraded SAFELY . PSU will not provide any performance upgrades (unless your shutting down every few mins) but it will allow more powerful components to be added to the PC in the future.
 
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Had to take the PSU all the way off to find the info lol
PSU: Silencer 500EPS12V 500watt
Case: ATX
RAM: DDR2, I missed that in my original post.

I'm not intending to use it as a heavy gaming machine or 3D design workhorse, but some of the lower requirement newer games I might touch (Heroes of the Storm, Diablo 3 ect) and I also use Blender for recreation so I don't need the best 8gb Graphics Card (obviously those don't work with this machine but you know what I mean), but anything better than the GTS 250 since it has known issues with current versions of Blender.
 
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Once again I would upgrade the PSU first, last thing you want to do is buy a few new parts and then have the PSU blow up which could potentially take out some of the other components inside your PC.
 
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I missed your post there, shane. Yeah, I know the 500 isn't going to work being pushed any further without breaking something. Do you have anything else that might help in the graphics card area.
 
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Uoles. low quality cheapo PSU. Dont spend any money before upgrading PSU otherwise you risk your new parts getting fried by that cheap PSU.

Frankly though you are looking at a full upgrade in order to do any modern gaming or anything substantial. That is a 10 year old system and upgrading it is basically going from 12% to 16%.
You will also run into issues like your motherboard likely not supporting the newest generation GPUs that are EFI boot only.
So besides a PSU (which can be reused in a new build) I would not recommend spending good money on old upgrades.
 
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