Im thinking of upgrading my PC's hardware but i personally have no idea what to get and what will work. I want to buy and extra 8gb of RAM taking me up to 12gb but will any RAM do? i also want to upgrade my graphics card but have no clue how that works .

Heres my PC info (copy and paste)


Computer: Dell inspiron 620


Processor: Intel Core i3 2100 CPU 3.10 GHz


Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 420, Total available graphics memory 2807 MB


Thank you

I've never used over 8GB of RAM, RAM is usually a 'quickfix' upgrade.

Maybe a new processor and mobo is a good place to start

i have about a £150-200 budget so what would be better...upgrading to an i5 processor or getting a good motherboard? any recomendations of motherboards aswell?

18.5-inch widescreen LED-backlit
1366x768 res screen
Intel Core i3-2120M 3.30-GHz processor
4GB DDR3 RAM
HDD 1TB 7200rpm
AMD Radeon HD 6450 (1GB)
8 USB ports
DVD Writer
Multicard Reader
64-bit Windows 7 Home Basic (Service Pack 1)

Thats what the general tech spec I got from a website was.

As it stands, 4gb of DDR3 ram is good for most things, 8GB will cover everything.

Your largest performance upgrade with either be a Mobo/cpu combo or a gpu.

The issue with cards is that you have to be sure you have big enough power supply to handle new cards. In general, AMD cards are more efficient then Nvidia. So are a safer option unless you can give us the rating of your power supply.

Your card is currently rated at needing 50w.

This chart ranks the graphics cards currently available on the market. This should allow you to see what cards are worth getting.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Replacing a GPU is far easier then the mobo and cpu. So GPU over CPU.


EDIT: Just to clarify, could you possibly find out the spec of your motherboard? I believe* that your current set-up should allow for a easy upgrade without replacing the mobo.

Be aware, most Dells have 'proprietary' motherboards, so its not easy to just swap out their motherboards to be able to use a much faster processor. Also, some Dells use a non-standard power supply with special connectors. I'm afraid, unless you investigate and find out differently, that you might be stuck with your current motherboard.

A better video card couldn't hurt (with the constraint of the power supply capacity as mentioned in the post above). You might just want to save up for a new PC. Build one yourself using parts salvaged from the Dell. That will make the new one cheaper.

As much as I would like to build a new computer, the one I have is only around a year old. I will look into what my mobo is, what I can use with it, and the rating of my power supply tomorrow as I'm not on my pc right now.

my pc is OP! 16gb RAM

As much as I would like to build a new computer, the one I have is only around a year old. I will look into what my mobo is, what I can use with it, and the rating of my power supply tonight as I'm not on my pc right now.

Michael_scott

Save up a little bit, get a mobo, new PSU, and CPU, upgrade everything else piece by piece as you can afford it.

I downloaded CPUID which seems to show me everything about my computer:

Mainboard (presume this is the same as motherbard?) :

Dell model 0GD8Y A00

Chipset: Intel Sandybridge

Southbridge : Intel H61

LPCIO : SMSC

it also says this about graphics interface:

Link width x16 Max supported x16

Oh and it says my max TDP is 65W if thats what you ment about power.

Id be happy to tell you anything else

Eh, I believe a small additional 4gb of DDR3 ram will do if you have the space.

Otherwise, it is a good rig, save up and build a monster for around £500 in a few years time.

The additional specs for the computer don't really tell us that much. The chip architecture is "sandy bridge", but a core i3 is not a high end CPU. You might be able to upgrade to an i5 or even i7 quad core on that motherboard, but you will run into issues with heat dissipation. Hotter processors might require more case fans. Not sure the Dell has the spots for additional fans. The 65 watt TDP rating of the processor is just how much heat the CPU can potentially generate, and thus, how much heat the cooling system is expected to dissipate. Moving to a higher end CPU might mean moving to a 95 watt TDP, and a bigger CPU cooler, and an additional case fan. Since you already have a 3.1 GHz CPU, this might not give you that much more performance in a game.

You could throw in an additional 4 Gigs of RAM as Aconan suggested, but if you currently never run out of physical memory now...it will have zero benefit. My system has 4 gigs, and unless I'm running Minecraft along with multiple other programs, like an image viewer, browser, TS, Libre Office, etc, I never even approach 90% physical memory utilized. Large amounts of RAM are definitely needed for things like video editing and photoshop (for large raw images) but its almost never needed just to play games. And, even if you did actually NEED the additional RAM, it won't speed up game performance that much, just loading times will be reduced a bit since the system doesn't need to swap physical memory pages out with virtual memory on the hard drive.

I really think your biggest bottleneck right now is your video card and your CPU. Since there could be upgrade issues with your CPU and the Dell box (they often have very proprietary motheboards with special CPU cooler attaching points and air tunnels), then your video card is the easiest and best 'bang for the buck' upgrade. Just look at this chart to that has your video card listed as dead last against these other average cards:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GT+420

Its not only dead last, its less than a third of the speed of the next nearest card on the list.

Well, if you want a graphics card. Try an AMD mid range card. They require less power and are more efficient.

7750 provides reasonable performance yet sips on the power.

However I would suggest a 6770, or even a 7770. Both Nice cards from £70-100. After that, the price escalates a fair bit.

The 6770 is the more intensive of the three. But your psu should easily handle it.

Thanks guys i will probably go for a new graphics card and possibly the extra RAM. And then hopefully in a few years ill be able to build my own monster PC

Sorry just checking that i would be buying the right thing.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007A6TDU0/ref=asc_df_B007A6TDU07925172?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=hydra0b-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B007A6TDU0&hvpos=1o1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12514326572023362586&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=

Also one last thing...I am planning to use the computer for recording and editing audio (music not speech) , will anything improve quality or is that all in the recording devices / software?

id say cpu speed and memory would effect that but with the spec you have now and will have in a few days i dont think you will need to worry. Also that gfx in the link is sweet i wanted one but i was short on cash so i had to get the lesser one, Its still better than my previous one that kept failing even the replacements didnt work so i got my amd radeon hd 6570 instead

If you want good quality of music you'll need better recording equipment and speakers. also if your wanting to do editing or mixing the software will make quite a difference.