System Upgrade

[CapinOrange]

I currently have a cruddy MDG computer from around 2006. Its all original aside from 3 or 4 graphics card replacements, and it currently has a gts 450. It serves its purpose for me witch pretty much is watching youtube videos and playing league of legends. Sorta. It takes about 3 or 4 minutes to load a game of League, witch if you play that game, is much to long. The game also crashes 9 out 0f 10 games. Not good. So i have $200 give or take to fix it. My other computer runs fine, and has been without a graphics card for a month, so I planed on replacing the motherboard and CPU.

 

Specs---

                CPU- Pentium® 4 CPU 3.40GHz

                RAM- 1.00 GHz

Graphics Card- GTS 450

 

So what I need to know is if I pull out the old stuff and put the new stuff in, are there drivers I need to uninstall and reinstall. Also, my disk drive is connected using ribbon cable, and I’m not sure what connections it has, and I need to now if and how I can re-connect it to a modern motherboard. It resembles the picture on top right (as in all the connections are the same).

 

 

 

[L.E.D]

Honestly I am surprised you could even play league of legends on a P4... I would look at buying a system prebuilt, you can't do much with $500 in terms of upgrading this.

[CapinOrange]

SO ya.. I have $200 and my other computer that runs league fine, has cheapo parts too, it was about $700 for the whole thing, so I figured if I put 200 into a cpu and mother board and use onborad graphics, it at least wont crash my game ever because I dont really care about how good the graphics are as long as it runs.

[Vitalius]

SO ya.. I have $200 and my other computer that runs league fine, has cheapo parts too, it was about $700 for the whole thing, so I figured if I put 200 into a cpu and mother board and use onborad graphics, it at least wont crash my game ever because I dont really care about how good the graphics are as long as it runs.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A6-5400K 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Amazon)

Memory: PNY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($57.99 @ Best Buy)

Total: $177.97

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-07 14:54 EDT-0400)

Then just use all the old parts. Toss the old RAM (You won't need/want it.) and the old GPU (The APU is much better than the GTS 450.)

Your old PSU should be enough to handle this setup.

This motherboard does not have an IDE connector however, so I would buy an external HDD bay for it and just use that (yes, as a boot drive as well), it will still be better than your current PC. Trust me. And later you can upgrade to a modern HDD.

[jamesisninja]

If you get a new CPU, and Mobo, you'll need new RAM, and you might as well toss the GTS 450 out the window. Make sure your PSU will support the TDP of the newer CPU, though it will likely be fine. At 200 bucks you're probably only able to get like an A6, which will do you a little bit better then an old P4, but you'd be best off to save for a big longer and upgrade to a new system for about 500 bucks. As far as my knowledge goes there aren't really any IDE to SATA adapters that are easy/cheap to use, which means you'd need a new disc driver, and HDD as well. So essentially a whole new system. And you'll have to fresh install windows anyways, since windows DOES NOT like hardware changes, then you trying to boot into it without a fresh install.

[Vitalius]

If you get a new CPU, and Mobo, you'll need new RAM, and you might as well toss the GTS 450 out the window. Make sure your PSU will support the TDP of the newer CPU, though it will likely be fine. At 200 bucks you're probably only able to get like an A6, which will do you a little bit better then an old P4, but you'd be best off to save for a big longer and upgrade to a new system for about 500 bucks. As far as my knowledge goes there aren't really any IDE to SATA adapters that are easy/cheap to use, which means you'd need a new disc driver, and HDD as well. So essentially a whole new system. And you'll have to fresh install windows anyways, since windows DOES NOT like hardware changes, then you trying to boot into it without a fresh install.

I disagree. It will do a lot better than an old P4. Remember, it's a modern CPU, and it's an ok GPU too. 

As for the HDD, IDE to USB 2.0. It's not like the performance will be any different.

[CapinOrange]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A6-5400K 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Amazon)

Memory: PNY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($57.99 @ Best Buy)

Total: $177.97

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-07 14:54 EDT-0400)

Then just use all the old parts. Toss the old RAM (You won't need/want it.) and the old GPU (The APU is much better than the GTS 450.)

Your old PSU should be enough to handle this setup.

This motherboard does not have an IDE connector however, so I would buy an external HDD bay for it and just use that (yes, as a boot drive as well), it will still be better than your current PC. Trust me. And later you can upgrade to a modern HDD.

Ok well, this seems like a viable option. Do you think the crappy cpu is what crashes the game, or lack of memory? Would going $100 for 8 GB of proper momory speed up load times and stop it from crashing?

 

I know the 450 is a peice of crud, cause my other $80 mobo has better onboard, so tossing it was the plan.

 

Lastly if I use an external HDD then would I not have to buy and reinstal windows?

 

It sounds as if your all telling me to buy a new system, and if thats my best option, then thats my best option.

[Genecidalic]

Honestly I am surprised you could even play league of legends on a P4... I would look at buying a system prebuilt, you can't do much with $500 in terms of upgrading this.

yes he can pretty easily

[Vitalius]

Ok well, this seems like a viable option. Do you think the crappy cpu is what crashes the game, or lack of memory? Would going $100 for 8 GB of proper momory speed up load times and stop it from crashing?

 

I know the 450 is a peice of crud, cause my other $80 mobo has better onboard, so tossing it was the plan.

 

Lastly if I use an external HDD then would I not have to buy and reinstal windows?

 

It sounds as if your all telling me to buy a new system, and if thats my best option, then thats my best option.

It's probably the lack of memory. 

Probably not with how old the system is. 

If you don't still own the CD/product key for your current installation, then yes. 

It is your best option.

[CapinOrange]

OK thanks, I think thats what I'll try to do. Thank you all.

[CapinOrange]

Ok so its basicly the same system but now I have 2 Gb instead of 1 of memory. Will uppgrading to a gtx  750 ti from a gts 450 offer major performance increase like im seeing from other people or will my other parts bottle neck it? Im talking about basic games like micecraft, league, sim city.

[mgsstar]

Ok so its basicly the same system but now I have 2 Gb instead of 1 of memory. Will uppgrading to a gtx  750 ti from a gts 450 offer major performance increase like im seeing from other people or will my other parts bottle neck it? Im talking about basic games like micecraft, league, sim city.

It should offer a pretty significant performance improvement imo but I think you will be bottlenecked by the P4.