Upgrading a prebuilt (i5, GT 720)

[Benjji]

Budget (including currency): $200 AUD - $140 USD

 

Country: Australia

 

Games: Flight Sim, Hell Let Loose - 1080p 60hz

 

Current specs:

i5 6400

GT 720

8GB DDR3

2TB HDD

 

I'm looking to upgrade dads prebuilt as he is wanting to get into games.

I'm thinking of getting a used 970 and probably upgrading the storage to an SSD. Am curious as to what you think about this.

What would you do to get the most out of the $200?

 

Cheers,

Ben.

 

 

[cat milker]

a 970 would be an upgrade, but if you can find a 1650 for a decent price, then go for it. Your next bet would be a 1050 ti or a 6500 xt, because even though i dont know the wattage of your psu, i can assume its not too high

[An0maly_76]

Prebuilts are tricky when it comes to upgrades. They sometimes use BIOS crippled boards with a "members-only" list of supported components. I found out the hard way when I upgraded a CyberPower prebuilt.  MSI B450M board flat refused to boot or display with a brand-new Asus GTX1650S, but ran perfectly with its original MSI GT1030. Board eventually shut down and required RMA. The GTX1650S now worked, but that board was never quite right after that. So be aware of this possibility.

[Benjji]

7 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

Prebuilts are tricky when it comes to upgrades. They sometimes use BIOS crippled boards with a "members-only" list of supported components. I found out the hard way when I upgraded a CyberPower prebuilt.  MSI B450M board flat refused to boot or display with a brand-new Asus GTX1650S, but ran perfectly with its original MSI GT1030. Board eventually shut down and required RMA. The GTX1650S now worked, but that board was never quite right after that. So be aware of this possibility.

Thanks for letting me know!  Hopefully our Acer prebuilt doesn't do that.

[Benjji]

7 minutes ago, cat milker said:

a 970 would be an upgrade, but if you can find a 1650 for a decent price, then go for it. Your next bet would be a 1050 ti or a 6500 xt, because even though i dont know the wattage of your psu, i can assume its not too high

Cheers!

[--SID--]

2 hours ago, Benjji said:

Current specs:

i5 6400

GT 720

8GB DDR3

2TB HDD

What's the PSU?

 

GTX 970 needs at least a 6+2 pin PCI-e connector.

[Benjji]

24 minutes ago, --SID-- said:

What's the PSU?

 

GTX 970 needs at least a 6+2 pin PCI-e connector.

Yeah... Only a 300W dodgy one. Gonna have to pass on getting a 970 unfortunately :(. 

Also looked inside and only saw 1 stick of ddr3 ram which sucks.