Upgrading an Asus Essentio CM1730

[FlyingHigh85]

I have an old Asus Essentio CM1730 and was thinking of upgrading it. It was a mid-low-end PC a few years ago, but with its Asus M4A78LT-M motherboard, I think it has potential.

Possible upgrades are:
CPU: 125W Phenom II x4 (and aftermarket fan/heatsink)
PSU: 650W Corsair
GPU: Suggestions?
RAM: Suggestions?

Some links:
http://www.asus.com/Desktops/Essentio_CM1730/specifications/
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4A78LTM/specifications/

 

[atariman72]

This is a PC that has plenty of potential, and will last at least for another two years with proper upgrades. You don't want to bottleneck the GPU, and you have a good PSU wattage with a reliable brand. I would recommend upgrading from two GB of ram to 8 GB, even though you can upgrade to 16 GB, your processor wouldn't utilize all of it. I would recommend the G-SKILL Value Series 8GB 240 pin DDR3 1333 MHz memory as an upgrade. It is from a reliable brand,is compatible with your mobo, and inexpensive at only $75. If you are on a budget, it also comes in sets of 4 GB at a price of $38. Your Mobo socket is AM3, so you can only use processors up to the AMD Phenom II X6 series. Your Phenom II X4 processor speed is 2.8 GHz, which would be average for a low end budget PC. A good upgrade for your graphics card would be an AMD R7 265 2GB. It is from AMD's mid-line of new GPUs,should not be bottlenecked by your processor very much, and it is a steal at only $160 for the ASUS model. If you are on a tight budget, you could purchase a used card from AMD's 7000 or 6000 series. If you would rather purchase an Nvidia card, then I would recommend the NVIDIA GTX 760 1 GB DDR5. The main difference between these two cards is that the AMD card is much newer and has 2 GB of video memory, whereas the NVIDIA card only has 1 GB. Good luck!

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231422&cm_re=ddr3_1333_ram-_-20-231-422-_-Product

AMD GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121868&cm_re=r7_265-_-14-121-868-_-Product

NVIDIA GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133492&cm_re=nvidia_1_gb-_-14-133-492-_-Product

 

[FlyingHigh85]

I believe the stock PSU is only 330W (AcBel pc9045-za1g). I'd like to run a 125-Watt Phenom II X4 or X6. It currently has a 65-Watt Athlon II X2 220. With the more powerful CPU, a discrete GPU, and 1-or-2-more HDDs, wouldn't I have to upgrade the PSU? Also, according to the ASUS site, the M4A78LT-M mobo has a PCIe 2.0 slot, but not a PCIe 3.0. Are the AMD and NVidia cards mentioned above compatible with my mobo?

I was looking at possible GPUs, and here are two:

$104 ZOTAC 2GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 ZONE Edition VGA/DVI/HDMI pci-e Video
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UB20H2988)

$55 ASUS GT610-2GD3-CSM GeForce GT 610 2GB 64-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121646)

Is the Zotac card worth the extra $? Why? I noticed both are passively-cooled. Would I be better-off with a fan-cooled GPU?

 

[atariman72]

I believe the stock PSU is only 330W (AcBel pc9045-za1g). I'd like to run a 125-Watt Phenom II X4 or X6. It currently has a 65-Watt Athlon II X2 220. With the more powerful CPU, a discrete GPU, and 1-or-2-more HDDs, wouldn't I have to upgrade the PSU? Also, according to the ASUS site, the M4A78LT-M mobo has a PCIe 2.0 slot, but not a PCIe 3.0. Are the AMD and NVidia cards mentioned above compatible with my mobo?

I was looking at possible GPUs, and here are two:

$104 ZOTAC 2GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 ZONE Edition VGA/DVI/HDMI pci-e Video
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UB20H2988)

$55 ASUS GT610-2GD3-CSM GeForce GT 610 2GB 64-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121646)

Is the Zotac card worth the extra $? Why? I noticed both are passively-cooled. Would I be better-off with a fan-cooled GPU?

Yes, you will definitely have to upgrade your power supply, at least to a 550W to accommodate for two hard drives, a faster processor, and a discrete card. PCIe x16 3.0 is fully backwards compatible with PCIe x16 2.0, so you can use any PCIe x16 3.0 card, it will just perform at a lower level. If you plan to upgrade to a Phenom II X4 or X6, the graphics cards you are considering are very low end, entry level cards, being that they both use DDR3 memory, which is very slow, being the current generation of cards are DDR5. Secondly, these cards utilize a 64 bit memory interface, which is very slow, as the average interface of mid-range cards nowadays is 256 bits. If you are planning to use this for any gaming, you will hardly be able to run anything on more than low settings. It doesn't matter the amount of memory as much as the type and the interface. a 512 MB DDR5 256 bit card could easily outperform these cards with twice the FPS. Your CPU would be absolutely bottlenecked by any of these cards. To answer your other question, no, it would not be worth it to purchase the Zotac model. The difference is nominal, and they both will underperform. Passive cooling is a common feature on low end cards, and they tend to overheat when under heavy load. I would recommend the AMD R7 265. It has a 256 bit interface, utilizes DDR5, supports DirectX 11.2, and has 2 GB of memory, is completely compatible with your mobo, and will run well with a Phenom II X4 or X6. It also is only $60 more than the Zotac GT 610 you mentioned, with significantly better performance. If you add in 8 GB of RAM, a 550W power supply, and a Phenom II X4, you should be able to play most games on medium settings. Good luck!

A word of advice: Phenom II processors are no longer sold retail and can only be bought used through sites such as ebay. The best one for the money is probably the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. it goes for around $100, and is still a fast processor.

 

[FlyingHigh85]

Thanks for the advice, atariman72. I'll likely follow it. I'm not a serious gamer, but I occasionally like to "play" Microsoft Flight Simulator X. I read somewhere that FSX relies more on the CPU than the GPU, but a mid-level GPU like the AMD R7 265 definitely wouldn't hurt. I've also heard that FSX is limited to utilizing four cores of a CPU, which is one of the reasons I don't think I need a Phenom II X6.

 

[atariman72]

Thanks for the advice, atariman72. I'll likely follow it. I'm not a serious gamer, but I occasionally like to "play" Microsoft Flight Simulator X. I read somewhere that FSX relies more on the CPU than the GPU, but a mid-level GPU like the AMD R7 265 definitely wouldn't hurt. I've also heard that FSX is limited to utilizing four cores of a CPU, which is one of the reasons I don't think I need a Phenom II X6.

Hey, no problem! Glad I could be of some help. In total, this kind of upgrade shouldn't cost more than $455, much less than purchasing a new PC, and your system will perform well and keep up for approximately 2-4 years, and possibly longer if you are not demanding much of the hardware. Good luck!

Note: FSX is a relatively older game (2006), so with an upgrade you will speed right through it without a hitch. However. it is useful having a mid-level GPU, if you ever plan on doing any video editing or more demanding games. You can essentially future-proof your system for nominal cost.