grss1982

Have to agree that this is how I feel today i.e. not worth it to upgrade for small performance improvement. That's probably the reason I stuck with my i7-3770 because for use case not so AAA games and web browsing. I can basically use my rig until it breaks.

Doe she still need peripherals like mouse, kb, speakers and monitor? If he has he can try the USED Dell/HP/whatever OEM prebuilt and then add a video card: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=budget+gaming+pc+dell

Have you looked into a Xeon upgrade? You might want to look at YT videos from Tech Yes City -- guy who runs it is a fanboy of x58 and 1156 Xeon upgrades. https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=h55+xeon+upgrade+brian+tech+yes+city&oq=h55+xeon+upgrade+brian+tech+yes+city&aqs=chrome..69i57.6336j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Installed Windows 10 first and then use your Windows 7 key. IIRC, Windows 10 v1709 still accepts a Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 key for activation.

Love me some ghetto fan mods. https://www.google.com.ph/search?biw=1920&bih=965&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=RAcGXN3fMJGwrQGzobzoAg&q=ghetto+fan+mods+video+card&oq=ghetto+fan+mods+video+card&gs_l=img.3...18562.20112..20208...0.0..0.145.1331.0j10......1....1..gws-wiz-img.egahLL-hwQI

That's not necessarily true. Paying for Windows 10 that is. Actually if you have a Windows 7 key you can use that to activate Windows 10. Last I tried this was in Windows 10 v1709. Still should work with the latest version.

AWESOME! Glad you got this settled, man. It's a pain to do but troubleshooting via beep codes is the way to go in this situation. Makes you wonder why motherboard manufacturers don't have the speaker integrated still. Cut down on costs I guess? But the weird thing is entry level motherboard in the past have the speaker integrated. Thus I'd expect mid or high end stuff should have it by default. EDIT: Was working when making my comments above. So forgive me if I did not keep up. hehehehe

What O.S. are you using. Windows 10 in this day and age is a little bit more forgiving with hardware swaps than previous versions of Windows.

Location? In some parts of the world, buying everything at once can be cheap or vice versa.

Look on the top or sides of the case for service tag number. Post it here. That will help determine the configuration of the system if you did not upgrade it on your own. Also run GPU-Z (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/) and post the screenshot here.

Going for a cheap Xeon might be an option for you if you want to stay with this platform. Check the videos of this guy: https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=x58+upgrdes+tech+eys+scity&oq=x58+upgrdes+tech+eys+scity&aqs=chrome..69i57j33.7143j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 If you stay with this platform, you might also find cheap DDR3. GPU upgrade is a must by the way.

It's to eliminate the possibility of a short. If not even beeping with no RAM attached could mean a dead mobo. Try reseating the processor.

Edit you first post and include the following information: Budget: Location: What are you going to use the PC for: If you have and old PC, post the components as follows so we can recommend what can be re-used: CPU/Processor: GPU/Video Card: RAM/Memory: Hard Drive: PSU/Power Supply: Case: Monitor:

Hold off on upgrading like some are suggesting and see if you can find yourself a cheap and used i7.

Since the games she plays that seems to be not so demanding have you considered going used pre-built route?

Do you an internal speaker attached? If so any beeps being heard? If you're building on your own try assemble everything outside of the case. I mean yank the motherboard from the case and place it on top of motherboard box. Then have just the PSU, motherboard, processor, 1 stick of ram, keyboard, mouse and monitor connected to one another.. Try to boot up with just those components and work your way from there.

Check the Hardware Canucks review on a 1080 ti and a 1070 paired with a i7-2600k first and then later pairing them with an i7-8700k: Maybe that will give you an idea on numbers.

I just got offered a Powercolor RX580 Red Devil and a Sapphire RX580 Nitro Plus. Which one's better? There's supposed to be a Golden Sample of the Red Devil but what I was offered was just a garden variety version.

Which one do you have? There's an regular sized one, SFF and what looks like micro SFF. https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/desktop-and-all-in-one-pcs/optiplex-960-desktop/spd/optiplex-960 Can you look on the side of the case for the service tag number an then post it here? We can then check in the Dell website the actual specs for this PC.

DDR3 most likely. No DDR4 or DDR5 for socket 1155 IIRC. HardwareCanucks did a video a while back wherein they paired a 1080 Ti with an i7-2600K. Could give you an idea on performance:

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I am leaning to a 1060. I've also seen used RX580 for $250 in my locale. I'm surprised though no one suggested it could be my processor in general that's holding me back considering that the games I play use the Unreal 3.5 and Unity engine. It's really a non-issue with the games I play? I have seen by the way a Zotac GTX 970 AMP 4GB at roughly $160 in my locale.

Hi LTT, I'm rocking the following setup and plan to upgrade the video card. Budget is $200. CPU: i7-3770 MOBO: B75MA-P45 RAM: 2x8GB HyperX RAM DDR3-1866 HDD: 1TB HDD (Have a SSD ready to upgrade to though.) PSU: SeaSonic S12II Series S12II 620 Bronze GPU: ASUS GTX 660 Ti DirectCU II (GTX660-TI-DC2-2GD5) The games are fairly tame compared to what others play here. Mostly TBS and spectating DOTA 2. The TBS games are as follows: XCOM: EW XCOM 2 BattleTech I game at 1080p and I'm open to turning off some eye-candy. But I still struggle with XCOM 2 in maps with a lot of fire effects or when there's a lot of effects going off. I'm also foreseeing similar problems with BattleTech. I plan to upgrade the video card to remedy this and hopefully when I get off my lazy ass and play other AAA titles of the TBS genre. I've actually seen local deals on used GPUs like an RX 570 4GB ($145) or a GTX 1060 6GB ($190). Are any of those a good upgrade path for me? I must admit though that part of me thinks this might be the wrong way to look at this issue and instead I should upgrade to a newer setup like maybe an AMD Ryzen with a boatload of cores for the current games I play? Thanks in advance for any advice/guidance.

Oops. That's my queue to get some sleep. @OP: Anyway for you to test the PSU safely? Just to be sure it's not the culprit in all of this.

What's the power supply though?

Not much OC boards that are brand new nowadays. All are usually entry level stuff IMHO. They're mostly used and yeah some are pricey.