Upgrading my Desktop

[Lynac]

Alright currently I am rolling with a Inspiron 660.

8 gigs of ram
Geforce 650 Graphics Card
1TB HDD
i5 3330 3ghz processor

I would like to make a few upgrades onto it, however I have learned that to upgrade the ram even a little bit I would have to buy a new motherboard for it. How should I upgrade my computer to be a better multitasker and gaming PC?

Currently playing TERA Online. No problems occur until I run into an instance or such with high amounts of monsters. Overall, I would like a smoother performance.

 

[realchaos]

I would just ditch it. The fact that it's prebuilt means the psu is probably very low quality, the motherboard is low quality as well and the case offers little room to work with.

 

[Lynac]

I would just ditch it. The fact that it's prebuilt means the psu is probably very low quality, the motherboard is low quality as well and the case offers little room to work with.

Ditch the whole endeavor? I don't have all too much money to work with, so I am wanting to keep the fair components that I have such as my RAM (if I get a motherboard with 4 slots then I could by x2 4 gig sticks and get up to 16), my harddrive, my processor, and my graphics card. I just need to know what I should do to begin to leave the whole 'pre-built low quality hardware' rut that I would not want to fall into.

 

[realchaos]

Okay actually, you can keep the HDD, optical drive, ram and maybe even the processor.
You don't need 16gb of ram for gaming, so stick with the 8.

First off, get a new case and psu. You need an actual case to work with and a high quality psu if you plan to add a stronger gpu. Next, get a high-quality motherboard. After that, I would upgrade the gpu.

 

[Lynac]

Alright thanks for the tips, greatly appreciated!

 

[Kisianik]

Alright thanks for the tips, greatly appreciated!

If you interested in real answer let me know, but I need to know your budget.
You can upgrade to any power supply you want, video card should be certain size, I think GTX660 or GTX660 TI will fit

Anything else I can help you with?

 

[Lynac]

Alright thanks for the tips, greatly appreciated!

If you interested in real answer let me know, but I need to know your budget.
You can upgrade to any power supply you want, video card should be certain size, I think GTX660 or GTX660 TI will fit

Anything else I can help you with?

Eh, I think I'm good, greatly appreciated for the both of you. My budget is probably no more than $500 in upgrades, or should I just wait and upgrade in about a year. I'm just curious.

 

[realchaos]

You could actually make a good upgrade with $500.
XFX 550w psu, non-modular 80+bronze: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013&Tpk=xfx%20550w - $60

Corsair 500r case (You can always get a difference one if you don't like the looks): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139009 - $70

MSI ZH77A-G43: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130674 - $75

That's only $200 and it lets you actually upgrade your system by adding a gpu. You can save $100 and wait to buy a GTX 770 which will max out any game on 1080p, or you can get a GTX 760 right now which will do pretty well in most games.

Edit: If you can be really patient about it, just wait for sales.

 

[Kisianik]

You could actually make a good upgrade with $500.
XFX 550w psu, non-modular 80+bronze: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013&Tpk=xfx%20550w - $60

Corsair 500r case (You can always get a difference one if you don't like the looks): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139009 - $70

MSI ZH77A-G43: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130674 - $75

That's only $200 and it lets you actually upgrade your system by adding a gpu. You can save $100 and wait to buy a GTX 770 which will max out any game on 1080p, or you can get a GTX 760 right now which will do pretty well in most games.

Edit: If you can be really patient about it, just wait for sales.

$500 USD is serious money to waste, so add Windows OS for another $100. Dell OEM OS would not work on non Dell motherboard. So motherboard change would cost actually $175.

I would not do this. I would upgrade PSU and GPU - this alone will make you play those games smoothly. Save money for better build in a year or two.
Remind me, do you have 32 bit or 64 bit Win7? 32 bit will limit your RAM to 3 GB, and this could be another culprit in your TERA performance hit.