upgrading

[sulfur101]

aye yo guys I just go a dell OptiPlex 5040 and i have been having trouble finding parts to upgrade it to a gaming pc and im just wondering if you guys can help

what was left of it was just the motherboard with a i7 6700 3.4ghz cpu with the stock fan an a dvd drive. and its the sfx version i also need ram and a gpu

[YoungBlade]

So you still need RAM and a graphics card, then?

[sulfur101]

yes sir sorry that i didn't mention it

 

[YoungBlade]

For amount of RAM, you should aim for 16GB if possible and you want at least 2 sticks to give you dual-channel operation. So, 2 sticks of 8GB each (16GB total), would be ideal.

 

Since the motherboard isn't going to be using a Z series chipset, you'll be limited to DDR4-2133 RAM for the i7 6700, as that's the maximum supported speed per Intel spec, so it doesn't really matter what speed DDR4 you get, as 2133 is the lowest speed that's sold anymore. The only reason speed would matter would be if you ever intended to move that RAM to a new system in the future.

 

Because you're limited to DDR4-2133, the only thing that will impact performance for you would be the CAS latency (CL). For that, lower is better, but really low timings like CL11 are more expensive.

 

The cheapest I could find on Newegg is DDR4-2400 G.SKILL Aegis 8GB sticks. The timings are a bit loose (17-17-17-39) but not crazy loose, and it's cheap. For some reason, the single stick is going for $35 while 2 sticks is going for $75, so just buying two single sticks would be $5 cheaper... You could shop around to see if you can find better deals/better timings you'd be willing to pay more for.

 

As for a graphics card, what wattage power supply does your Optiplex come with? Does it have any PCIe power connectors?

 

 

[sulfur101]

the sff 240w i believe from ive been researching

 

[YoungBlade]

2 minutes ago, sulfur101 said:

the sff 240w i believe from ive been researching

 

You'll be quite limited on what graphics card you can get, then. Probably best to get a card that draws all of its power from the slot, which limits the power draw to 75W.

 

That would mean that the highest performance graphics card you could get would be a GTX 1650 (non-super). Otherwise, you're looking at older cards.

 

How much money are you willing to spend on a graphics card?

[sulfur101]

about 500$

 

[YoungBlade]

8 minutes ago, sulfur101 said:

about 500$

 

Well, the GTX 1650 is selling new for around $350 these days, although I don't recommend buying it at that price. Its MSRP was $149 in the before times.

 

Considering that graphics card prices have been dropping recently, I'd wait if you can. You can still play some simpler games (like Minecraft) with the on-board graphics for now.

 

What types of games do you like to play?

[sulfur101]

old 2000's games minecraft, the heaviest games i can say that dont run at 1fps on my laptop is mafia definitive edition and pubg

[YoungBlade]

1 minute ago, sulfur101 said:

old 2000's games minecraft, the heaviest games i can say that dont run at 1fps on my laptop is mafia definitive edition and pubg

I'd try gaming with the integrated graphics once you get RAM in the system and see how it feels. In the current market, getting a low-profile GTX 1650 is going to be overly pricey. Because that card has only 4GB of VRAM, it can't be used for mining, so its price should fall pretty hard once demand for graphics cards starts being met. It might be under $200 in just a few months.

 

If you try using the iGPU and that isn't good enough, you could get a stop-gap card until prices drop.

 

I've been recommending the Quadro K620 recently because it can be found used for $50 pretty reliably. That is still overpriced - in a normal market it should be selling for around $25 - but you're only overpaying $25 rather than $250. Its performance is between a GTX 650 and GTX 750, but it has 2GB of VRAM and, importantly for you, is a low-profile card that gets all of its power from the slot. That is under the minimum requirements for both Mafia Definitive Edition and PUBG, but it will still be much better than the graphics on the 6700. I used to play PUBG using a GT 635, which was rough - I was getting 20-40fps at low settings - but I was at least able to play. A K620 should fair much better in that game; here's some gameplay recorded on YouTube in 8 games with a K620. After you're done with it, you can sell it or give it away or keep it as a backup card for troubleshooting.

[sulfur101]

kool ill look into that thx so much

[LogicalDrm]

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