[SOLVED] Upgrading my acer aspire x3950

[James McCree]

Hello friends, so I have acer aspire x3950 with I3 550 and 4 gb ram... I want to buy some cheap and used parts to make this pc run some games like Overwatch. Can you guys give me a list with what should I upgrade to play Overwatch apex and fortnite? I need cheap parts and it will be great if they are from AliExpress. Thank you
Note: I don’t need an HDD because I have 3.5 1TB sata and 500GB of the old pc one... I forgot the type xdd

 

[tennis2]

Looks like you're dealing with a low profile single slot GPU limitation. Aka, an Nvidia GT1030 (get the GDDR5 version)

 

[SamirD]

Luckily it looks like you have 4x ram slots, so if you have some empty ones, you should load up on ram since your board can probably take 16gb (4x4gb) and ddr3 is cheap now.

I have the same socket in some of my systems and have been happy with the i5-680 which has a really fast single thread performance, which should work well for gaming:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-550-vs-Intel-i5-680/739vs771

I wouldn't buy the fakes on aliexpress and be very careful on any 'marketplace' site like amazon or ebay--waaaaay too much fake stuff out there, especially older stuff like what you need. Anything new is almost 100% fake.

Just the cpu and memory upgrades will wake the system up for sure. Then you can continue upgrading as you see fit.

 

[James McCree]

Luckily it looks like you have 4x ram slots, so if you have some empty ones, you should load up on ram since your board can probably take 16gb (4x4gb) and ddr3 is cheap now.

I have the same socket in some of my systems and have been happy with the i5-680 which has a really fast single thread performance, which should work well for gaming:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-550-vs-Intel-i5-680/739vs771

I wouldn't buy the fakes on aliexpress and be very careful on any 'marketplace' site like amazon or ebay--waaaaay too much fake stuff out there, especially older stuff like what you need. Anything new is almost 100% fake.

Just the cpu and memory upgrades will wake the system up for sure. Then you can continue upgrading as you see fit.

Oh nice! How is the performance of your pc? What parts do you have ? Do you recommend me to buy the I5 -680? Or should I go for the xeon processor cuz I heard it’s very good for gaming, I need to buy them from AliExpress cuz it’s the only cheap way to buy them cheaper. Also what graphics do you have and how many fps do you get? Sorry for asking a lot

 

[tennis2]

Be very careful about what CPU you choose. Pre-built machines are notorious for having very limited CPU support. I'd only trust CPUs that were included in other configurations of your model.

I'll be honest, I think you're wasting your money with this machine.

 

[James McCree]

Be very careful about what CPU you choose. Pre-built machines are notorious for having very limited CPU support. I'd only trust CPUs that were included in other configurations of your model.

I'll be honest, I think you're wasting your money with this machine.

I’ve watched many videos talk about buying a pre-built pc and change some parts of it so I thought it’s gonna work with me too, can you offer a cheap build for me ? It’s temporary until I get a new one

 

[tennis2]

What's a "cheap build"? A couple parts to add to this machine? Or an all new build?

Either way, what country are you shopping in and what's your budget.

this site says that machine came with up to an i7-860/i7-870. Looks like you can get an i7-870 for $30 on ebay....I suppose $30 isn't a terrible waste.

Look up any e-waste recycling centers near you and get some pricing from them on DDR3. That's going to be your best/cheapest option.

If you're wanting to jimmy the existing system, you should look to transfer it to a new (mATX) case so you can utilize normal sized GPUs that offer much more performance for less $$ and standard ATX PSUs. At least that way you can reuse the GPU, PSU, SSD(?), and case you buy now when you replace the existing CPU/mobo/ram.

 

[James McCree]

What's a "cheap build"? A couple parts to add to this machine? Or an all new build?

Either way, what country are you shopping in and what's your budget.

this site says that machine came with up to an i7-860/i7-870. Looks like you can get an i7-870 for $30 on ebay....I suppose $30 isn't a terrible waste.

Look up any e-waste recycling centers near you and get some pricing from them on DDR3. That's going to be your best/cheapest option.

If you're wanting to jimmy the existing system, you should look to transfer it to a new (mATX) case so you can utilize normal sized GPUs that offer much more performance for less $$ and standard ATX PSUs. At least that way you can reuse the GPU, PSU, SSD(?), and case you buy now when you replace the existing CPU/mobo/ram.

I’ll see what I can do, Thank you.

 

[SamirD]

Oh nice! How is the performance of your pc? What parts do you have ? Do you recommend me to buy the I5 -680? Or should I go for the xeon processor cuz I heard it’s very good for gaming, I need to buy them from AliExpress cuz it’s the only cheap way to buy them cheaper. Also what graphics do you have and how many fps do you get? Sorry for asking a lot

I can't tell the difference between my i5-680 systems and my i5-2500 systems, but I'm only using them for general work and viewing high-res pdfs. Graphics are built-in on the i5-680 systems and one of the i5-2500 systems has a low end gpu (gt something).

You're not going to be able to use the system you have for any serious gaming--it is just too limited in terms of expansion in areas that gaming needs which are the cpu and gpu.