Upgrading old PC. Compatible?

ahn94

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Mar 20, 2012
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PSU: some 350w off brand

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300

Motherboard: It is from Dell Inc. #0FM586 not sure if you need any other info. that you need

GPU: Radeon HD 3650

RAM: 6g not exactly sure what brand can get more info if it is important

I want to upgrade this compute with the parts below and wondering if they make sense or if they are even compatible with each other. I would like the parts that I do get to last a while before they need to be upgraded again. It is not necessary to have ultra-high settings as long as games look nice and have fast fps. I ordered bf3 so that will be one game that I will be playing. I had a dirt 3 and couldn’t get decent fps to even play it with the gpu I had.


SAPPHIRE 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814102948


Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817371016


AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
Item #: N82E16819103727


Will I have all the right connectors to hook it up? Do I need to get any others? If I missed anything let me know. Thanks
 

GI_JONES

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Jan 16, 2006
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The power supply and card are fine, but that cpu is an AMD, and you have an Intel based motherboard. The only way to use that cpu would be to buy a new motherboard as well. Your board is a socket 775, PhenomII takes an AM3 socket. Also according to Toms CPU Hierarchy chart.. the Phenom is only 1 level above the q9300, so it wouldnt be a significant upgrade
 

ahn94

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Mar 20, 2012
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Thats good cause not up for buying all of it at the same time. Don't know much about all this but why would that phenom be only be one level above the q9300? The Phenom says 3.4 and the q9300 2.5? I just don't know much so if the answer is obvious you might have point my some place where there is some info on the subject.
 

GI_JONES

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There is more to performance than just the clock speed. The internal architecture is different in them, and the Intel chip is basically more efficient. It gets more done per clock cycle compared to PhenomII. If you look at some of the new Intel chips you'll notice they arent much faster than the older ones in clock speed, in fact actual clock speeds havent gone up very much in years, you could get a pentiumD at 3.4Ghz 7 years ago..most cpu's arent any faster than that today, but they sure do a lot more while running at pretty much the same speeds. One way to picture it is ..say you are moving and are putting all your stuff in a subcompact car. You travel at 50 miles an hour to your destination, but you have to make 8 trips. Now you move but have a truck. It can only go 45mph, but you get done in 1 trip..so the truck is a hair slower..but does a lot more and is best for the situation.. hope this helps