[SOLVED] What CPU upgrade can I get?

[kiwiinmelbourne]

Hi team,
-before you read, don't laugh, I know it's old, but it's all he has.
My 11-year-old son was given a "Hand me down" PC from a relative. It's a little old but with his pocket money, he is keen to try and upgrade some of the components to make it suitable for some gaming.
My first question is the option for a processor upgrade to what he currently has.
The motherboard is an MSI H61M-P20(G3) with an i5-3470 @ 3.2GHz CPU.
We will get some new RAM, 16GB (2x8GB) 1600mhz

So what are his options?

 

[Quanticriver]

Hi team,
My 11-year-old son was given a "Hand me down" PC from a relative. It's a little old but with his pocket money, he is keen to try and upgrade some of the components to make it suitable for some gaming.
My first question is the option for a processor upgrade to what he currently has.
The motherboard is a MSI H61M-P20(G3) with an i5-3470 @ 3.2GHz CPU.
We will get some new RAM, 16GB (2x8GB) 1600mhz

So what are his options?

Hi, and welcome to the forums
the mobo has an LGA 1155 socket

The max cpu that your mobo supports is the venerable I7 3770(K)

If you can find one cheap it's worth your while, if not don't bother
same goes for ram, but you should be able to find ddr3 1600 mhz for cheap

that being said the i5 3470 is an "ok" cpu still for gaming

Can you tell us any other specs? like PSU/GPU

i think you would benefit the most from a good gpu

 

[kiwiinmelbourne]

Hi, and welcome to the forums
the mobo has an LGA 1155 socket

The max cpu that your mobo supports is the venerable I7 3770(K)

If you can find one cheap it's worth your while, if not don't bother
same goes for ram, but you should be able to find ddr3 1600 mhz for cheap

that being said the i5 3470 is an "ok" cpu still for gaming

Can you tell us any other specs? like PSU/GPU

i think you would benefit the most from a good gpu

Thankyou for your reply.
It has a 700w Power supply.
Graphic's card is terrible and is going to be replaced. Its a 210......
We had being toying with the idea of installing a 1030 DDR5? Yes/No? any other options?

 

[Quanticriver]

Thankyou for your reply.
It has a 700w Power supply.
Graphic's card is terrible and is going to be replaced. Its a 210......
We had being toying with the idea of installing a 1030 DDR5? Yes/No? any other options?

i wouldn't recommend a 1030, what is your budget? and is 2nd hand ok?

 

[kiwiinmelbourne]

i wouldn't recommend a 1030, what is your budget? and is 2nd hand ok?

We are open to other options - Second hand is ok? Looking for semi-budget options
What do you recommend?

 

[Quanticriver]

We are open to other options - Second hand is ok? Looking for semi-budget options
What do you recommend?

i would look into a GTX 1060 6gb or RX580 8Gb ideally

more budget friendly options would be a gtx 960/970/760/770 etc
or an r9 280/290 x or non x

At the very least aim for a minimum of 2gb (nv)ram on the gpu

 

[Eximo]

GT1030 would allow most e-sports and lighter titles to run. More recent AAA games would struggle at minimum settings. And those cards are at least regularly available, if a little expensive.

GTX 1650, buy it if you see this in time:

https://www.adorama.com/EV4GP41257K...0Mo3b5UkBVK3RGiTlg3E0&utm_source=rflaid912925

Also this GTX 1050 Ti , but we are getting into silly price/performance:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M360WG6?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

To get a GTX1060 or RX580 means going through the used market, totally possible, but there are a lot of fake Nvidia cards out there, if you don't see a reputable label from the likes of ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, best to avoid.

 

[logainofhades]

For CPU, your best price/performance is probably a Xeon E3 1230 or better, like this 1245, that I found. You will probably need to upgrade cooler, unless you already have a decent aftermarket one. Intel stock cooler is junk.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403181215104?hash=item5ddf791d80:g:VNIAAOSwveVhShA5

 

[SkyNetRising]

It has a 700w Power supply.

What make/model PSU?
Can you look at label printed on PSU?

Usually you won't find a good 700W PSU bundled in a pc with GT210.
Might be necessary to replace the PSU to support a gaming grade graphics card.

 

[geofelt]

Options implies a budget.
What is your budget, and where would you shop?

For a cpu upgrade, here is a list of supported processors for your motherboard:
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/H61M-P20-G3#support-main-block-qvl

List the make/model of the other parts.

Your i5-3470 is a decent cpu.
The graphics card is usually the more important component for gaming.
ANY discrete graphics will be better for gaming.
What that could be will be determined by your power supply(and budget)

And if the C drive is a HDD, I would look to upgrading that early on.

 

[Bob.B]

Hi team,
-before you read, don't laugh, I know it's old, but it's all he has.
My 11-year-old son was given a "Hand me down" PC from a relative. It's a little old but with his pocket money, he is keen to try and upgrade some of the components to make it suitable for some gaming.
My first question is the option for a processor upgrade to what he currently has.
The motherboard is an MSI H61M-P20(G3) with an i5-3470 @ 3.2GHz CPU.
We will get some new RAM, 16GB (2x8GB) 1600mhz

So what are his options?

Run this and post a link to the results page.
PC Benchmark

Post the make and model of the psu.