The cheapest upgrade in the world

[brotherswing]

I made a stupid mistake. Not once, but several times. Fall in love with a new game, find it on a Steam sale a few years later, then buy it only to find my machine can't run it.

 

My current specs:

i5-4440, 32 GB DDR3, 128 GB SSD (system), 1 TB HDD (software), nVidia GT 635 (OEM)

It's a Lenovo that I bought 5 years ago or so, it's been solid if not spectacular.

 

I knew the GPU was next on my upgrade list, but had been holding off because of what concurrency did to the market. I'm a disabled vet supporting a family of four, so money is always crazy kinds of tight. After seeing the video about how much of a waste of money cards like the R7 240 are, and knowing my budget is not going to ever reasonably grow to accommodate anything a real gamer would ever consider using, I did a little bit of soul searching. Considering I'll have to save for another five years for a GPU and a PSU that can drive it, I had an epiphany. By abandoning the games my machine cannot run, and sticking with the seven year old MMO my wife and I play (on the lowest settings) I don't need an upgrade at all.

Problem solved.

 

TL;DR The cheapest upgrade is to lower your standards/don't buy new games

[Radium_Angel]

13 minutes ago, brotherswing said:

Problem solved.

Agreed. A well thought out decision.

 

[Alec M]

25 minutes ago, brotherswing said:

TL;DR The cheapest upgrade is to lower your standards/don't buy new games

Out of curiosity, have you looked at the used market for computer parts?

Decent used GPUs can be found for very little these days (around $30 on eBay), and if you have a scrapyard or recycling center near you, they might be willing to let you take/buy stuff from them, since they don't make too much off circuit boards unless there's a fair bit of gold on them. You'd be surprised at what people throw away/recycle.

I've found some ridiculous stuff at a scrapyard near my grandparent's place. I got a working Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5 and a 600W Semi-Modular PSU plus a few other things there for only $8 once.

 

There's no reason that you shouldn't be able to play awesome new games when they come out, it just takes a bit of poking around to find the right places to get components at a good price. I have a friend who bought a new GT 650 a few years ago off amazon for around $120, and he didn't realize how terrible that price was until I showed him used GT 650s on eBay for about a fifth of the price.

 

Just a thought. I don't want to dis what you said, but a lot of people don't realize how easy it is to get computer parts far cheaper by looking for used ones.

 

-Alec

[Fasauceome]

GTX 750 ti for $60 used, not bad to save up for

[brotherswing]

After scouring the second hand market I realized everything I'm looking at will kill the 280 watt power supply in this machine. If I replace the power supply to accommodate the gpus in my price range, I'm no longer in my price range. 

Conclusion: I am not in a position to upgrade this machine. It was worth a shot, and I thank you for your suggestions.

[Alec M]

19 hours ago, brotherswing said:

After scouring the second hand market I realized everything I'm looking at will kill the 280 watt power supply in this machine. If I replace the power supply to accommodate the gpus in my price range, I'm no longer in my price range. 

Conclusion: I am not in a position to upgrade this machine. It was worth a shot, and I thank you for your suggestions.

It's super easy to find 350-450w PSUs for free though...

[brotherswing]

I did check my local Craigslist, there weren't any... right now. I'll keep an eye on it, but a decent PSU isn't hugely expensive. I just have to be patient.  And when I get that sorted, the cards I've been looking at (something around a GTS 250) will not have gotten any newer.