Upgrade motherboard in gateway fx6860 pc

[Anurag01]

Hey everyone,

I'm a moderate gamer.

I purchased a gateway fx 6860 prebuilt pc some years ago, and I'm planning to upgrade the 560 ti oem card to gtx 970. But I'm confused as to whether I should upgrade my motherboard first. But the bigger question is will I be able to upgrade the motherboard inside the gateway case. I know I can start from scratch with a new case but I love the gateway case. Airflow is great, and hardly any dust builds up inside the case. Any idea?

Specs are similar to
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103747CVF

The current motherboard is h67 intel chipset, and the model is Acer ipisb-vr rev 1.01

Thanks!

Edit: it's a gateway fx6860. It was prebuilt so the parts are by oem.

 

[kwa-e]

If you want to upgrade your motherboard it'll have to be in the mATX form factor, But I wouldn't really recommend doing so as it has minimal on performance.

Buying a new PSU and card would be the best choice.

 

[nostall]

Kwa-e is certainly correct about the mobo; but there is more to it then that. Your cpu uses an Intel 1155 socket; that has been obsolete for a few years now so there is no easy nor inexpensive upgrade path. You would have to invest in a new mother board (probably an 1150 socket) and a new cpu. Your current memory would work in a new 1150 board.
You might also have to invest in a new copy of an operating system: If you look at the product ID number for you OS and it has OEM in that number, then the OS is tied to your motherboard and can't be installed/reinstalled on another computer (motherboard) without asking Microsoft to allow another activation.
So to upgrade those parts alone might cost over $250 USD, and IMHO you won't gain that much performance.

So your best upgrade solution is, as Kwa-e stated, the new video card.
What about PSU? Everything I have found indicates that Gateway put a 750Watt unit in that PC. Please take a look at the side label of the PSU and post the power ratings for the +12v, 5v, & 3.3v rail(s): of importance here is how much amperage each rail can produce, not the total wattage. The system specifications (power for the whole system) from Nvidia for the GTX970 are 500Watts with a minimum of 20Amps on the 12V rail(s).
Your CPU is a very good part: It isn't going to slow down your games etc. and still has some life left in it. The biggest improvement in performance and especially gaming will be the new video card, and if necessary, a new PSU.
Kinda long, sorry, hope it helps.

 

[Anurag01]

^^

I agree with Kwa-e and you as well. If I do upgrade my mobo, then it will create a chain reaction, and i'll have to upgrade more things to it because of the socket. And about the os, I purchased it when windows had windows 8 pro for sale as an upgrade for only 20 USD!. So I have a legal copy of windows 8, which I can easily update to windows 8.1 and most likely update it to windows 10 in the coming months. But anyway, I think I can use the win 8 key on a new mobo. No? I still have the recovery copy of the original OS tied to this mobo.

The Gateway has a fsp (built for acer) non modular 750w psu The exact model is fsp750-80apg. I looked up on the web, and it seems to be 80+ certified. I'm not looking to sli or anything because I have one 1440p monitor (asus pb278q), so hopefully the gtx 970 will be more than enough. I'm not even sure why they put a 750w psu into this thing if they don't even have an extra slot on the mobo to do sli.

So upgrade psu? or upgrade and downgrade the wattage? or forget it? 😀

Thanks!

 

[kwa-e]

Looks like it should be enough for a GTX 970.

And if you have a legitimate copy you should be able to transfer it between PC's provided that it is only activated on one M/B at a time.

 

[nostall]

You are correct about the OS; you will be able to install it on another system as it is a retail copy (W8) and if MS is true to its word, W10 should be free.
That power supply is not the best, I think you already know that. But from what I found it has 4 +12V rails with 18amps per rail. No, you can't just multiply 18 times 4 to get the total amps on the 12V. It shows a total of 648watts available on the +12 volt circuit so 648/12 = 54 amps. Figure you loose 15% for aging of the capacitors, that takes you down to 46amps.
That is still plenty enough to power the new card.
Gateway probably put that size psu in there so that they wouldn't have to worry about failures during the warranty period; the pc probably never demanded more then 400-450 watts and that meant the PSU didn't have to be stressed out and work at near capacity all the time.
The only question now is Trust. Do you trust that power supply to last awhile and not fail and possibly take something else with it? Personally, if I could afford the video card, and you have had no indications of power problems, I'd get the card and give it a go.

 

[Anurag01]

Yeah I'll leave the psu alone. It seems to be running just fine. I know it's not the best psu compared to such higher quality ones produced these days. But there is more chance that problems will arise if I replace it, than if I leave it alone, i think. 😛

Also, recently I've noticed that there is a four screw slot for a front in-take fan just below and to the right of the hard drive slots; I think gateway had no means to install it there because there are only two fan connectors on the mobo, the 3 pin sys fan (for exhaust) and the four pin cpu fan (for heat sink). If I want to install a new fan, but also making sure that I'm not running it at full rpm, how can I do it?

Thanks!

 

[nostall]

If you can't connect it to the mobo, then you will have to plug it into a Molex connector. If you want to control the fan you will either have to buy one with its own fan controller (see link at end) or buy a separate fan controller to mount in the case, usually in a 3.5 or 5.25 inch bay depending on its size. You'll need to do the research, but there are low RPM 120 and 140mm fans that move a substantial amount of air at an acceptable pressure, so that is also a choice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200028