Windows 10: Help upgrading my PC

Hi,

I'm new here but was wondering if anyone could help. I've had my Alienware PC now for what seems like a lifetime & short of buying a new one I just want to upgrade this, however I haven't any idea where to start in terms of making sure everything I buy works with the other components & even if some parts need upgrading. I game on my PC hence why I got an Alienware but having a PS4 & XOne I mainly use my PC for strategy or simulation games so don't particularly need it to be boasting the latest Nvidia or ATI cards but still pack a decent punch. Apart from that it used as general PC browsing the web etc. I have included my specs for you guys to look at & hopefully recommend some parts, many thanks.

CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Motherboard - ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5N-D
BIOS - Default System BIOS
Total Memory - 4.00GB
Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
OS - Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview 64-bit 10074 Multiprocessor Free

:)

 

My Nokia C3 is not supporting softwares

I have tried so many ways to download softwares, but to my efforts are all fruitless. When i go to other sites to download and install softwares, the place to download the software will not even be active and when i download from ovi store it is not supported.
What should i do to end this problem?

 

Upgrading my PC

 

It really depends on what issues you are having with the computer - why you want to upgrade. I have the same processor and 4GB Ram in two systems. they do a great job as media servers (with a GTX750Ti and a GT640). The video card you have rather weak (a value-card NVidia calls it ) but you say you don't need any more power in that area.

So I guess I would recommend first adding an SSD (128GB) putting the OS on it, and using the exiting drive for backup/storage.

 

What sort of money do you want to spend upgrading your system? I have just changed the wifes M/B, PSU, CPU, RAM, added a SSD and a 1TB drive for about £400 but of course that is over here.

 

LOL - that's not an upgrade - that's a whole new system *Smile

 

Nooo we kept the chassis (box) hahahaha and I gave her my old graphic card - a gtx 780

 

It's a fairly old system (2008), so you don't want to get too carried away.

I concur that using an SSD for an OS drive would be a good investment. In the US, 120-128 GB SSDs are available for roughly $50. In the UK, that may be more like 50 GBP. (Sorry about that.) You may be somewhat limited by the 3Gbps SATA on your motherboard, rather than the 6Gbps of newer boards, but I think that it'd still be worthwhile.

For a graphics card, you could consider one with DirectX 12 support. I don't recall the level of hardware support, but here's a list of nVidia cards with DX12 driver support:

Drivers | GeForce

Some of the older cards may be available cheaply on Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles, Coupons and More | eBay . I'm too lazy to come up with a recommendation that is inexpensive but clearly superior to your GTS 250. A nice 750, perhaps? New, perhaps a 960. (Not that much more expensive.)

4GB of RAM isn't a huge amount these days. The bad news is that the board uses DDR2, which is more expensive than the (completely incompatible) DDR3 that is the current standard. If you have two DIMMs installed, you could add two more 2GB DDR2 DIMMs to bring the total up to 8GB. (It's possible, but unlikely, that you have four 1GB DIMMs installed. You'd have to discard two or four to expand your RAM, to maintain the dual channel addressing.) Maybe 4GB of RAM is enough. If you were seeing frequent use of virtual memory (on your hard drive), I suppose that you'd be aware of it. (Extremely slow, relatively.)

None of these are essential, as far as I know. If Win10 has drivers for all of your hardware, you may be perfectly happy chugging along with your current system, and saving to someday replace the whole thing.

 

OK cheers all, I would be looking at maybe £500 abit more if it would make a substantial difference. I admit that memory might be the best option but would it be worthwhile to just upgrade the main board + memory as DDR3 is the current standard? Graphics only really need a small but decent upgrade as I still have a stack of games on steam to get through that are a year or 2 old.

 

if you are not a heavy video or Photoshop user you shouldnt need more than 8gig of Ram and that is for the latest games.

 

Perhaps I'm being too literal-minded, but do you want to retain the old LGA 775 CPU? I think there are a few DDR3 motherboards that could use it, but your choice will be limited.

You may wish to consider an LGA 1150 (Haswell) CPU instead. There's a tremendous range in CPUs available in that, from Celerons up through Core I7.

Some AMD fans may be able to suggest a cost-effective system based on one of their CPU/integrated graphics packages. AMD appears to offer much better integrated graphics than Intel, but I'm not really familiar with them. (Haven't used an AMD CPU since the Athlon 64 X2 days.)

 

I'm looking to upgrade for little as possible depending on what needs doing though it sounds like memory & SSD for the OS is all I can really do. Except for just buying a new system.

 

your upgrade option depend on what is supported by the MB

CPU - RAM - SSD are your best options to improve performance

but if the board only supports 4GB ram then an 8GB upgrade is useless

 

I suppose you could add more RAM and upgrade to a Quad Core processor (such as this Q9500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117408 but as mentioned above, your close to the point where it doesn't make sense to put much more money in it.

You could get a "bare-bones" LGA1155 based PC for about the same $ you'd be hitting with the upgrade suggestions made. For example see http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856272012

 

The P5N-D's manual says that it has 4 DIMM slots, and can support 2GB DDR2 DIMMs, for a total of up to 8GB.

Not a lot by 2015 standards, but adequate, I'd think.

If the OP has to buy all 4 DIMMs (assuming a current 4 X 1GB, worst case), it may be possible for as little as around 50 GBP.