Old PC upgrade suggestion

[b.zsombor96]

Hi everyone
I would like to upgrade my brother's computer which has the following specifications:
Motherboard: Asrock a55m-hvs
CPU: AMD A4-3400
RAM: 4 gigs (1333 Mhz, DDR3)
No VGA
Power supply: HKC SZ-400R (got with the pc case so it's pretty low quality)
I want to spend the lowest possible amount of money and the goal is to be able to play games like Borderlands 2, League of legends mainly and maybe other low spec games at 720p low quality but with stable 40 fps. We have a pretty strong "main" gaming computer so it is really not important to be able to run games like Witcher 3 etc. and the monitor has a resolution of 720p so being able to play 1080p is an overkill for us.
I thought 2 options:
First is that I buy a GeForce GT-1030 for about 105$, I hope I won't have to upgrade the power supply. And maybe later I will get a new motherboard with a Pentium G4560 CPU which costs 110$ here.
Second option would be to buy the aforementioned mobo and cpu combo without a graphics card and get the graphics card later.
I think that if looking from the gaming side the first option would be better but I'm really not sure if it would work.
If there is any other option which comes to you mind i would be glad to hear it!
Thank you very much

 

[velocityg4]

Hi everyone
I would like to upgrade my brother's computer which has the following specifications:
Motherboard: Asrock a55m-hvs
CPU: AMD A4-3400
RAM: 4 gigs (1333 Mhz, DDR3)
No VGA
Power supply: HKC SZ-400R (got with the pc case so it's pretty low quality)
I want to spend the lowest possible amount of money and the goal is to be able to play games like Borderlands 2, League of legends mainly and maybe other low spec games at 720p low quality but with stable 40 fps. We have a pretty strong "main" gaming computer so it is really not important to be able to run games like Witcher 3 etc. and the monitor has a resolution of 720p so being able to play 1080p is an overkill for us.
I thought 2 options:
First is that I buy a GeForce GT-1030 for about 105$, I hope I won't have to upgrade the power supply. And maybe later I will get a new motherboard with a Pentium G4560 CPU which costs 110$ here.
Second option would be to buy the aforementioned mobo and cpu combo without a graphics card and get the graphics card later.
I think that if looking from the gaming side the first option would be better but I'm really not sure if it would work.
If there is any other option which comes to you mind i would be glad to hear it!
Thank you very much

Buying that low end CPU, GPU and RAM is not the cheapest option. You'll get a better deal with a modern Ryzen. As a 2200G or 2400G will give far better CPU performance and GT 1030 equivalent GPU performance.

CPU: Ryzen 2200G or 2400G (preferably 2400G for a longer use life and better performance)

Motherboard: B350 or B450 chipset. If getting B350 make sure it has a Ryzen 2000 ready sticker. So that you hopefully won't have to deal with a boot kit. A320 chipset will work same caveat as B350 you just won't be able to OC.

RAM: 8GB RAM minimum

 

[theyeti87]

Hi everyone
I would like to upgrade my brother's computer which has the following specifications:
Motherboard: Asrock a55m-hvs
CPU: AMD A4-3400
RAM: 4 gigs (1333 Mhz, DDR3)
No VGA
Power supply: HKC SZ-400R (got with the pc case so it's pretty low quality)
I want to spend the lowest possible amount of money and the goal is to be able to play games like Borderlands 2, League of legends mainly and maybe other low spec games at 720p low quality but with stable 40 fps. We have a pretty strong "main" gaming computer so it is really not important to be able to run games like Witcher 3 etc. and the monitor has a resolution of 720p so being able to play 1080p is an overkill for us.
I thought 2 options:
First is that I buy a GeForce GT-1030 for about 105$, I hope I won't have to upgrade the power supply. And maybe later I will get a new motherboard with a Pentium G4560 CPU which costs 110$ here.
Second option would be to buy the aforementioned mobo and cpu combo without a graphics card and get the graphics card later.
I think that if looking from the gaming side the first option would be better but I'm really not sure if it would work.
If there is any other option which comes to you mind i would be glad to hear it!
Thank you very much

Buying that low end CPU, GPU and RAM is not the cheapest option. You'll get a better deal with a modern Ryzen. As a 2200G or 2400G will give far better CPU performance and GT 1030 equivalent GPU performance.

CPU: Ryzen 2200G or 2400G (preferably 2400G for a longer use life and better performance)

Motherboard: B350 or B450 chipset. If getting B350 make sure it has a Ryzen 2000 ready sticker. So that you hopefully won't have to deal with a boot kit. A320 chipset will work same caveat as B350 you just won't be able to OC.

RAM: 8GB RAM minimum

+1 your advice is spot on here.

I would like to add you'll want to have DDR4 3000 or faster for a Ryzen APU.

 

[b.zsombor96]

Hi everyone
I would like to upgrade my brother's computer which has the following specifications:
Motherboard: Asrock a55m-hvs
CPU: AMD A4-3400
RAM: 4 gigs (1333 Mhz, DDR3)
No VGA
Power supply: HKC SZ-400R (got with the pc case so it's pretty low quality)
I want to spend the lowest possible amount of money and the goal is to be able to play games like Borderlands 2, League of legends mainly and maybe other low spec games at 720p low quality but with stable 40 fps. We have a pretty strong "main" gaming computer so it is really not important to be able to run games like Witcher 3 etc. and the monitor has a resolution of 720p so being able to play 1080p is an overkill for us.
I thought 2 options:
First is that I buy a GeForce GT-1030 for about 105$, I hope I won't have to upgrade the power supply. And maybe later I will get a new motherboard with a Pentium G4560 CPU which costs 110$ here.
Second option would be to buy the aforementioned mobo and cpu combo without a graphics card and get the graphics card later.
I think that if looking from the gaming side the first option would be better but I'm really not sure if it would work.
If there is any other option which comes to you mind i would be glad to hear it!
Thank you very much

Buying that low end CPU, GPU and RAM is not the cheapest option. You'll get a better deal with a modern Ryzen. As a 2200G or 2400G will give far better CPU performance and GT 1030 equivalent GPU performance.

CPU: Ryzen 2200G or 2400G (preferably 2400G for a longer use life and better performance)

Motherboard: B350 or B450 chipset. If getting B350 make sure it has a Ryzen 2000 ready sticker. So that you hopefully won't have to deal with a boot kit. A320 chipset will work same caveat as B350 you just won't be able to OC.

RAM: 8GB RAM minimum

I appreciate your answer and this sounds really nice but my problem is with that is that it costs too much, because I have to buy 8 gigs of RAM (and a faster one for the apu). Altogether it adds up to 260 USD which right now I can't afford. Maybe I could buy it in 6-7 months but the goal is to be able to play games this summer.