Potential Upgrade Adivce

[Jamalsid]

Budget (including currency): up to £300

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Fortnite mostly

Other details: I have acquired an old Lenovo Desktop PC and was wondering if there is any way to upgrade it to run Fortnite for my son. The Lenovo has the following specs

• - Intel® Core™ i7 i7-6700 3,4 GHz
• - 8 GB DDR4-SDRAM 2133 MHz 1 x 8 GB
• - NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 730 2 GB Intel® HD Graphics 530
• - Ethernet LAN Bluetooth 4.0
• - Windows 10 Home 64-bit

More details can be found here Detailed Specs

 

I am assuming that an SSD, RAM and GPU upgrade are in order but I do not know what to get. This is an old system and I don't want to spend money on a GPU that might be bottlenecked by the CPU. I also don't want to spend money upgrading this if it's not worth it. I haven't built a PC since 2015 so I am a out of the loop these days.

Any advice that anyone could give would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[BahnStormer]

new or 2nd hand?
 

SSD would be nice, but just for Fortnite it won't make much difference

 

I would say focus on CPU and run it in low graphics mode (so "performance", NOT DX11 or DX12).... it runs nicely with a GTX1050Ti with that, but the GT730 is v v slow.

 

How old is your son - teenagers will want something competitive, but a 10yr old will be happy with a pretty slide show.

[BentleyOwen123]

yea, that cpu will run fortnite quite well, just the gpu... not so much haha

 

 

 

wait mb i thought that was a 8700 sorry, the 6700 may struggle

[BahnStormer]

I think this CPU+motherboard is overkill for your needs (focus on GPU + RAM).... and will have lots of problems moving into a new case, so you'll need a new PSU, etc.... but I saw this interesting eBay bundle!

 

£280

 

MSI B550i Gaming Edge Wi-Fi.
Ryzen 5600x (incl unused box cooler)

2x 8gb Patriot Viper DDR4 4400MT/sec

[BentleyOwen123]

do you know if your mother board has any m.2 slots, some oems took them off to cut cost

[BahnStormer]

If you're just looking to make it "playable": then a GTX1050Ti 4Gb - seem to be some on eBay for ~£40 or £50 buy it now.

 

Here's the eBay search: £50 max on a GTX1050Ti 4Gb  

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2332490.m570.l1311&_nkw=gtx+1050+ti+4gb&_sacat=0

[venomtail]

Even a GTX 960 is gonna be a huge upgrade. Here's a list of new, no external power GPU's. Used at most will be like £100. Newer NVIDIA pricier but will go really far.

 

I have a 13y old cousin who can just about play all the games kids want to play these days with a 1050TI. Something like a 3050/6400 will be plenty. There are some AAA games he can't run like Cyberpunk but nothing he can't get over with.

[BentleyOwen123]

deleted

[venomtail]

9 minutes ago, BentleyOwen123 said:

oh never thought about that, do they need no external power?

No. these are plug and use, running of motherboards PCIE lane supplied 75W's.

 

Many office PC's come with bottom of the barrel PSU's only designed to power the PC as sold, resulting in no spare power cables, often biting newbies who buy a sale old office PC, used GPU and then get home to find out that not only can they not power it, the PSU doesn't have the power to do so nor is there enough space cause case is too small.

 

We'd need for you to tell us if case can fit a "full height" GPU or only a "half height." Reference:

[BahnStormer]

36 minutes ago, BentleyOwen123 said:

some oems took them off to cut cost

Ouch.... good point! let's get that confirmed!! It was 8 years ago, but I know the 6th gen Intel HP desktops we had at that time didn't have M.2!

 

I'll assume "no" for now, so we need SATA SSD?

 

Also worth checking the max output of the PSU. Do you have the exact model and form factor of that Lenovo PC? Might have got lucky and you have one with a Quaddro GPU power connection!!

Okay, current best guess on a £300 budget... 

 

RAM:
16Gb RAM: 2x8Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX (16Gb kit) 3600MT/sec CL16 - slight overkill for your needs, but only £10 more than the low spec stuff and it will work well in a later upgrade  

£50 new from Amazon

 

SSD/HDD:

£68 new from Amazon "worst case": for a 1Tb WD Blue SATA SSD.

 

GPU:

This leaves £180 for a GPU - I think the best 75W GPU you'll get will be a GTX 1650 4Gb, which will be around £60-£75 on auction (or £90 on this Buy It Now) or blow most of the budget on getting one from Amazon for ~£150: HERE If you're going for this GPU, try to get one with the GDDR6 though!

 

Here's the eBay search: careful as some of those are GTX1650Super (which are ~120W and need the extra power connector): HERE
 

[OddOod]

Welcome to the forums!
You're gonna want at minimum and in order, an SSD (500GB), a second stick of ram and a decent GPU. 
Given it's a kid's machine, you can probably be safe with used RAM. 2x16GB 3600 would be amazing and looks like it costs ~50GBP. A middling SSD looks like it's 50GBP new, and not sure on what PSU it has but GTX1080s are selling for 100GBP on UK Ebay. for a total of 200GBP that's a solid 1080p machine, unless you need a new PSU (either new new, or a used Seasonic because you can transfer the warranty)
At some point in the future you could drop another couple hundred pounds and upgrade to AM4, a 5600X and mobo would make this machine slap

[BahnStormer]

Assuming we're not going down the CPU+motherboard+case+PSU route....

 

I can actually see everything for sale, new.... and a fair bit under budget!

PCPartPicker Part List

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (£47.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£79.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI D6 VENTUS XS OCV3 GeForce GTX 1650 G6 4 GB Video Card  (£139.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Total: £267.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-04 15:05 BST+0100

 

Note that you are replacing your RAM, not adding to it: best to have a matched pair.

500Gb would probably be PLENTY and would save ~£25 for for the 500Gb equivalent.

[BahnStormer]

Actually 2x16Gb will make more sense and only takes you two quid over budget!

 

Two options now:

 

Option1: "The sorta, kinda 'future-planning' build"...

Definitely not future proof, but spending a little extra on components that you can re-use.
 

PCPartPicker Part List

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (£82.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£79.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI D6 VENTUS XS OCV3 GeForce GTX 1650 G6 4 GB Video Card  (£139.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Total: £302.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-05 17:27 BST+0100

 

I'll be honest, the memory is definitely overkill for what you need to run Fortnite. Also the motherboard that Lenovo supplied is unlikely to be able to push that to the proper XMP profile speed (probably not even 3000MT/sec!). 

 

The storage is also probably WAY more than you need: 500Gb should be plenty, I would not advise taking the next step down to 250Gb.... 320Gb might be okay though.

 

Logic for pushing the budget on those components: 

 

The smaller / lower spec equivalents only offer modest savings and the SSD will make a great future "games drive" if you upgrade to a system that will take a M.2 later.... and the RAM will be perfectly matched to a later upgrade to Intel 1700/AM4 5000 series.

 

 

 

Option2

 The minimum cost, still good components build:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (£40.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£49.85 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI D6 VENTUS XS OCV3 GeForce GTX 1650 G6 4 GB Video Card  (£139.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Total: £229.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-05 17:35 BST+0100

 

If you want to minimise spend, then this will probably get you very, very similar results right now; given the i7-6700 and Lenovo motherboard.

[TatamiMatt]

On 4/5/2024 at 5:38 PM, BahnStormer said:

Actually 2x16Gb will make more sense and only takes you two quid over budget!

 

Two options now:

 

Option1: "The sorta, kinda 'future-planning' build"...

Definitely not future proof, but spending a little extra on components that you can re-use.
 

PCPartPicker Part List

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (£82.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£79.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI D6 VENTUS XS OCV3 GeForce GTX 1650 G6 4 GB Video Card  (£139.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Total: £302.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-05 17:27 BST+0100

 

I'll be honest, the memory is definitely overkill for what you need to run Fortnite. Also the motherboard that Lenovo supplied is unlikely to be able to push that to the proper XMP profile speed (probably not even 3000MT/sec!). 

 

The storage is also probably WAY more than you need: 500Gb should be plenty, I would not advise taking the next step down to 250Gb.... 320Gb might be okay though.

 

Logic for pushing the budget on those components: 

 

The smaller / lower spec equivalents only offer modest savings and the SSD will make a great future "games drive" if you upgrade to a system that will take a M.2 later.... and the RAM will be perfectly matched to a later upgrade to Intel 1700/AM4 5000 series.

 

 

 

Option2

 The minimum cost, still good components build:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (£40.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£49.85 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI D6 VENTUS XS OCV3 GeForce GTX 1650 G6 4 GB Video Card  (£139.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Total: £229.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-05 17:35 BST+0100

 

If you want to minimise spend, then this will probably get you very, very similar results right now; given the i7-6700 and Lenovo motherboard.

Fortnite actually HEAVILY favours 32GB of RAM over 16 iirc and if they havent changed anything on that front