What can I salvage from my old PC?

[Rickie cheong]

Hi there, I wanted to build new PC if possible for playing some games. I got a prebuilt PC not so long ago because it was a killer deal for the monitor that it included for the price. Anyways, the pre-built PC has a single stick of DDR-4 8GB, an i5-6400, a GT730, a 1TB HDD and im not sure about the motherboard. I didnt use it much for gaming until recently until I played assassin's creed IV on it recently and it ran horribly. I was trying to see which parts I could salvage into a new case because the current case is too small for anything like a new graphics card to be upgraded. Any recommendations on what I should upgrade? 

[Thinkfreely]

So you should be able to take it all, but the biggest issue is the lack of Ram and GPU. whats your budget?

[mxk]

Hard drives are almost always the things that can be moved from PC to PC pretty easily. Unless the drive is faulty, it'll keep reading and writing data for a lonnnng time.

[Rickie cheong]

If anything, I would like to keep the budget under 500 USD if possible. I was thinking of salvaging my CPU, RAM, hard drive and motherboard while I momentarily upgrade my graphics card and a case.

[Brooksie359]

By IV do you mean black flag? Anyways the hard drive is an easy one to keep and the ram I would probably use for now and upgrade later. As for cpu and motherboard I would probably sell those and switch to a newer platform. 

[Brooksie359]

Just now, Rickie cheong said:

If anything, I would like to keep the budget under 500 USD if possible. I was thinking of salvaging my CPU, RAM, hard drive and motherboard while I momentarily upgrade my graphics card and a case.

The only concern I would have is if the motherboard uses standard mounting. 

[LogicWeasel]

Depending on what you're doing, unless your existing case has horrible airflow or is fugly, all your build needs is a better GPU, an SSD, probs more ram, and a new PSU if yours is crap.  That would really take it to the next level.  If that all gets done and there's budget left over, I'd see about maybe seeing if that motherboard could take an i7-7700 , find a good used-deal on one (would only go for the k variant if the board is Z series but unlikely on a non-maxed pre-built).

@Rickie cheong We're going to need more details like what motherboard that is, the case and PSU (or pics of them if you've got them).  DDR4 ram speed would be a plus.

[Rickie cheong]

Just now, LogicWeasel said:

Depending on what you're doing, unless your existing case has horrible airflow or is fugly, all your build needs is a better GPU, an SSD, probs more ram, and a new PSU if yours is crap.  That would really take it to the next level.  If that all gets done and there's budget left over, I'd see about maybe seeing if that motherboard could take an i7-7700 , find a good used-deal on one (would only go for the k variant if the board is Z series but unlikely on a non-maxed pre-built).

my current case is extremely small and has terrible airflow. If it was big enough, I would just upgrade the graphics card if possible.

[Rickie cheong]

3 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

By IV do you mean black flag? Anyways the hard drive is an easy one to keep and the ram I would probably use for now and upgrade later. As for cpu and motherboard I would probably sell those and switch to a newer platform. 

I only use it for gaming and nothing that intensive since I only have a 1080P 60FPS monitor. 

 

[Rickie cheong]

6 minutes ago, LogicWeasel said:

Depending on what you're doing, unless your existing case has horrible airflow or is fugly, all your build needs is a better GPU, an SSD, probs more ram, and a new PSU if yours is crap.  That would really take it to the next level.  If that all gets done and there's budget left over, I'd see about maybe seeing if that motherboard could take an i7-7700 , find a good used-deal on one (would only go for the k variant if the board is Z series but unlikely on a non-maxed pre-built).

@Rickie cheong We're going to need more details like what motherboard that is, the case and PSU (or pics of them if you've got them).  DDR4 ram speed would be a plus.

also, the PSU isnt listed as per most pre built PC's. Instead of a picture, heres the link to the prebuilt PC that I bought https://www.mysoft.hu/docs/Dell/Dell_Inspiron_3650_Mini_Tower.pdf

[LogicWeasel]

8 minutes ago, Rickie cheong said:

also, the PSU isnt listed as per most pre built PC's. Instead of a picture, heres the link to the prebuilt PC that I bought https://www.mysoft.hu/docs/Dell/Dell_Inspiron_3650_Mini_Tower.pdf

Did some googling, looks like you have a 240W PSU.  Yikes.

Also you didn't mention it's a Dell lol, yeah that motherboard is NOT going to be fitting in an ATX case.  Check out that funky BTX layout:

[Rickie cheong]

4 minutes ago, LogicWeasel said:

Did some googling, looks like you have a 240W PSU.  Yikes.

Also you didn't mention it's a Dell lol, yeah that motherboard is NOT going to be fitting in an ATX case.  Check out that funky BTX layout:

so would you suggest that I get a new motherboard as well for my new PC Build? should I get a Z270 board since it is backwards compatible with skylake if I am not mistaken, correct me If I am wrong.

[LogicWeasel]

1 minute ago, Rickie cheong said:

so would you suggest that I get a new motherboard as well for my new PC Build? should I get a Z270 board since it is backwards compatible with skylake if I am not mistaken, correct me If I am wrong.

I'll put it this way:

-To upgrade the GPU to anything gamer-grade you need a new PSU

-Your Dell motherboard doesn't take normal ATX power, it uses the crummy 8-pin power connector your see in the red circle, so if you really wanted to keep the case/mobo you'd have to use a janky 24pin to 8 pin adapter (considering that a new ATX case wouldn't fit that craptastic motherboard, you'd need a Dell BTX case or to hollow-out an old Dell case, really jerry-rig-grade goodness).

 

-So yeah, a clean setup means abandoning the case, PSU, and motherboard all.  And yes a Z270 board supports skylake so you could keep your CPU while supporting 7th gen.  Shame it does close you off from upgrading to 8th or 9th gen Intel however.

[Rickie cheong]

22 minutes ago, LogicWeasel said:

I'll put it this way:

-To upgrade the GPU to anything gamer-grade you need a new PSU

-Your Dell motherboard doesn't take normal ATX power, it uses the crummy 8-pin power connector your see in the red circle, so if you really wanted to keep the case/mobo you'd have to use a janky 24pin to 8 pin adapter (considering that a new ATX case wouldn't fit that craptastic motherboard, you'd need a Dell BTX case or to hollow-out an old Dell case, really jerry-rig-grade goodness).

 

-So yeah, a clean setup means abandoning the case, PSU, and motherboard all.  And yes a Z270 board supports skylake so you could keep your CPU while supporting 7th gen.  Shame it does close you off from upgrading to 8th or 9th gen Intel however.

alright, thank your for your help, I will try to upgrade everything stated above

 

[KarathKasun]

You can get a half height RX 560 or GTX 1050, though they all need space under the slot for cooling.

 

Best bet is new case + new-used Z170/Z270 board + new PSU.