Need Help Buying New CPU and Motherboard

MattJ07

Reputable
Aug 14, 2014
1
0
4,510
Hi, I'm relatively inexperienced when it comes to upgrading my PC. I have an eMachines T5230 from about 8 years ago. I have upgraded it some and it runs games like Skyrim and such, but I am currently having a problem running newer games because my CPU is out of date. A friend suggested I buy a affordable i5 processor and compatible motherboard, but I get lost among all the choices and am not sure what would be right for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here are my specs:
eMachines T5230
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+
2.31 GHz, 1GB of RAM (recently bought upgrade to 2GB)
NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT video card installed several years ago

 
If you get a new MB then you'll need to buy new RAM, as your existing ram is only DDR2.
DDR3 is the current standard, (with DDR4 out next month).

The HDD in this eMachines T5230 and the 9600GT are also rubbish by today's standards.

You'll also find your case doesn't support USB3 front ports. Plus the power supply might not have the newer SATA power connectors.

In short there isn't anything worth keeping, except maybe the keyboard and mouse.