Need help upgrading old PC for gaming

[killermoe33]

Current computer: Acer Aspire M1201-E1604B

Specs:
- MOBO: Acer RS740DVF (Chipset ATI)
- CPU: AMD Athlon X2 Dual core processor 4050e
- GPU: Integrated ATI Athlon 2100
- RAM: 2 GB DDR2 memory
- HDD: 250 GB

Goal: Need to upgrade my PSU and GPU and RAM to be able to play games like "Minecraft" & "Counter Strike: GO". I understand upgrading my CPU would help the performance but i will only if I have to.

Budget: I want to say achieve my goal for cheap. I know a gpu for around $70 would do and a psu around $70 and ram is usually cheap.
Let me know what I have to work with I got more money I just do want to spend much on this old computer.

Preferred sites: Newegg.com/.ca & Amazon.com/.ca

Here's a pic of my motherboard for help with clarification:

 

[icybow14]

First off, you will most likely want to purchase a new motherboard to get ddr3 ram. Also, does your current Mobo have a PCI slot for a graphics card? Please submit the name/model of the MOBO.

 

[killermoe33]

I'm sorry about that, I just updated the information and posted a pic of the slots. It has a video card slot but I'm not sure if it's PCI I would think it's possibly AGP slot like the older ones? Thank you all for the help in advance, if you need any further info please let me know!

 

[icybow14]

That is a PCI slot, you can see here what an AGP slots looks like. Personally if I were you, I would go and build a whole new PC.

 

[killermoe33]

Anyone have a solution to upgrade this computer? I understand building a new one would be better but I just want to upgrade this one. If no one has a solution then does anyone have a really cheap build that will play those games (minecraft & CS: GO) smooth and good?

 

[Luketheduke03]

Current computer: Acer Aspire M1201-E1604B

Specs:
- MOBO: Acer RS740DVF (Chipset ATI)
- CPU: AMD Athlon X2 Dual core processor 4050e
- GPU: Integrated ATI Athlon 2100
- RAM: 2 GB DDR2 memory
- HDD: 250 GB

Goal: Need to upgrade my PSU and GPU and RAM to be able to play games like "Minecraft" & "Counter Strike: GO". I understand upgrading my CPU would help the performance but i will only if I have to.

Budget: I want to say achieve my goal for cheap. I know a gpu for around $70 would do and a psu around $70 and ram is usually cheap.
Let me know what I have to work with I got more money I just do want to spend much on this old computer.

Preferred sites: Newegg.com/.ca & Amazon.com/.ca

Here's a pic of my motherboard for help with clarification:

I think you would have to upgrade your motherboard to get good ram, and gpu.

You as matter in fact need to upgrade your psu or otherwise the card wont run well. I wouldn't go cheap on graphics cards otherwise your going to have to be playing CS:GO on low settings at a low resolutions. Don't take this tip for granted. If you go to like a 7950, or gtx 760, it will play all your games at a such high fps.

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately there is not much you can do with it. That board is an AM2 board. The CPU is quite dated and likely does not even meet the minimum requirements for those games. Finding a CPU that will fit into an AM2 socket is quite hard these days. You may be able to find one on Ebay, but it would be used and there is no guarantee it will work with your board's BIOS version. A Phenom X4 is the fastest AM2 CPU you could get, but you would likely have to flash to a newer BIOS version, and that can brick your board if done incorrectly. You can also run into issues with higher power draw from a faster CPU on an unsupported board. Not to mention OEM's other than Asus usually don't provide BIOS updates to handle different CPU's beyond what the computer came with. You can still buy DDR2 RAM at reasonable prices though.

So in short your CPU cannot really be updated which could be a problem as it will probably bottleneck most modern GPU's. You could try putting more RAM in it, and a GPU, but there is no real way to guarantee it will run those games that well. I'd recommend building a new budget rig. If you want, I can link a few set ups for you to look at.

 

[Karadjgne]

Hate to say this, ugh even thinking it sours my stomach, but I believe that the only thing you can do, for the cheapest possible price, for what you want to achieve, is go to Walmart or similar store. Just about everything they carry is OK for a general purpose, nothing fancy or great pc, and you can always add a better gpu/psu later if that's not enough.

 

[Guest]

Lol glad you said it! That is probably the best route, and actually integrated GPU's are pretty powerful these days and could most likely easily handle less demanding games such as the 2 listed quite well. I think Best Buy stocks rigs with low end discrete GPU's in them every now and then that are pretty affordable.

 

[icybow14]

Just throwing it out there, it won't even compare to the 760, that card can run many games on max if not very high settings.