Refurbishing Old Computer

[CharlieR1]

Hello all!

 

So my neighbor got an old computer for free from his office, and is looking for me to upgrade it so his son can play Minecraft. I tried updating drivers, etc but still runs less than a frame per second at lowest settings.

 

He has a budget of about $200.

 

The current specs are:

Pentium E3500 @ 2.6gHz, LGA 775 socket

-6gb of DDR2 RAM

-Decent ~500w PSU (does not need to be upgraded)

-500gb to 1tb hard drive (does not need to be upgraded)

 

Am I on the right track here? I hear Minecraft is oddly optimized.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($45.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($52.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $208.97

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-26 01:13 EDT-0400

 

Thanks!

--Charlie

[Kyuubixchidori]

Need to throw a cheapo graphics card in there. my brother ran a Pentium for a long time, could even handle modded minecraft. 

[samcool55]

An OC and a $100 gpu can help a lot. Maybe you can search for a quad-core cpu for socket 775. Should be easy to find 2nd hand.

GPU can also be a ~$50 2nd hand one.

[costacis21]

you can get a used gpu for cheap and a used mobo that can oc the cpu.

  

to oc the cpu you can look up for x38, x48, p45, p55 mobos