Oldie, but Goodie...

[Therion777]

Hello everyone! Long time lurker here, and I really need a bit of advice, as I am not as up to date on current hardware as I once was. This has been asked before, but this was asked several years ago, which is why I am asking this again, due to the fact that there is new hardware on the market now..

Ok, here goes.. I have an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66GHz Kentsfield 65nm, 6.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 533MHz (8-8-8-20), Intel Corporation DP45SG (CPU 1) mobo, 1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 5700 Series (XFX Pine Group), 698GB Western Digital WDC HDD. My biggest question here is, where would my biggest upgrade path lie? Budget wise, I have next to nothing. I know video card is a pretty big bottleneck at the moment, but I am wondering if, in your recommendations, there is anything I can do to eke out a bit more performance out of what I have? HUGE appreciations for any help I can get! I should note, I play in 1680 x 1050, and don't play a whole lot of top end stuff, though Pillars and the Witcher 2 and 3 are on my radar...and also D3 and WoW.

Thank you!

[Deleted]

Both cpu and gpu are very old. Whatever you upgrade the other will be the bottleneck. You basically looking for new pc. Without budget you get nothing to upgrade anyway. So we can't really help you.

[Therion777]

Well, I've roughly got about $200 atm, which isn't much, I know.. I'm not looking to blow doors off, just be able to play a couple of the games I picked up... I figure I can reuse ram and power, and most likely the case as well. I don't do any sort of video editing or anything like that, just basic stuff, with some moderate gaming. In your opinion, is there absolutely anything I could do, atm?

[Bigvizz]

You're SOL you're going to need a complete rehaul and I'm afraid $200 isn't going to cut it. Keep saving up get to at least 600-700 dollars.

[Deleted]

Don't know what your case is but it should fit a micro mobo. I would start with cpu/mobo/psu, then when you get another 100 go for hdd/ram. Lastly gpu in which case the more you save the better, but lets just say around 150upwards would be preferable.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($102.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($54.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.85 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.50 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($50.40 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $298.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-01 14:17 EDT-0400

you could go the pentium road and overclock it easily to 4.0-4.5Ghz but you will need an aftermarket cooler. It will then play like an i5 in most games but will suffer in multitasking.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($63.00 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($34.90 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.85 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.50 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($50.40 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $309.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-01 14:20 EDT-0400