Old Dell upgrade

[The_Stig]

A friend of mine recently got a Dell Optiplex 780 with a Q9400 and 8gb RAM and, predictably, he wants to make it into a gaming pc. He doesn't play any particularly demanding games so I was thinking just getting a 750ti and calling it a day but I don't know if the power supply will support it (235W) or if it was even worth it. This is why I am asking the forums, is it worth it to upgrade it? (Scrapyard wars style) or sell it and build one from scratch? To be exact, this is the one in question. 

 

TLDR; My friend has a pc with a Q9400, is it worth it to get a GPU?

[johnt]

A friend of mine recently got a Dell Optiplex 780 with a Q9400 and 8gb RAM and, predictably, he wants to make it into a gaming pc. He doesn't play any particularly demanding games so I was thinking just getting a 750ti and calling it a day but I don't know if the power supply will support it (235W) or if it was even worth it. This is why I am asking the forums, is it worth it to upgrade it? (Scrapyard wars style) or sell it and build one from scratch? To be exact, this is the one in question. 

 

TLDR; My friend has a pc with a Q9400, is it worth it to get a GPU?

 

If he doesn't really play any demanding games, then it doesn't really matter. A 750ti will work. The power supply is a little weak, but that shouldn't matter if he doesn't do anything too demanding.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

A friend of mine recently got a Dell Optiplex 780 with a Q9400 and 8gb RAM and, predictably, he wants to make it into a gaming pc. He doesn't play any particularly demanding games so I was thinking just getting a 750ti and calling it a day but I don't know if the power supply will support it (235W) or if it was even worth it. This is why I am asking the forums, is it worth it to upgrade it? (Scrapyard wars style) or sell it and build one from scratch? To be exact, this is the one in question. 

 

TLDR; My friend has a pc with a Q9400, is it worth it to get a GPU?

The Q9400 is a good processor, and should still hold up to a mid-range GPU pretty well today, what I would do is upgrade to either a 750ti or 950 and pick up the EVGA 430W PSU which actually has amazing reviews and is only 30$. Check out the review here. Either one of those GPU's and that PSU will give you a pretty impressive step up in performance. Also I'm pretty sure Gigabyte has a half height GTX 750ti that would fit into that case if you can't afford to upgrade to a Micro-ATX case.

[RyanMacRocks]

Definitely, a Q9400 is still a very capable CPU. 

[Ophidio]

It's funny, my friend just upgraded to a Q9400 today in his PC and he has a 260x. It works really well for him as well. He's playing GTA 5 on Medium-High settings. It is worth putting a GPU in for a decent gaming build. 

[DarkBlade2117]

Yes, power suplly.. Ehhh, a cheap SeaSonic or XFX should work. 350w minimum

[iHardware Shelden]

WAIT! If that is the optiplex 780 that I am thinking of then it is the last of Dell's Optiplex line to use BTX. That means that dual slot cards will not work. If you decided to pick up a 750ti then make sure it is a single slot model because it will not fit due to the flipped motherboard design of BTX.