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Help with upgrade.

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  • 01-04-2017 9:03am
    #1
    pasta-solo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 794 ✭✭✭


    Hi all. I bought this pc - http://www.adverts.ie/9294053 - over a year or so ago from Terrorfirmer on adverts. It was an absolute bargain, and still runs most games reasonably well, though newer stuff needs lower resolution and settings.

    I stuck in a larger hard drive after getting it, but was wondering if anyone could give me suggestions as to any other upgrades that might be worthwhile. I don't know much about pc building, so not sure if a newer graphics card would be held back by other elements etc...

    Here are the specs from the ad:

    Intel i5-2400 (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz)
    8GB DDR3 Ram
    KFA2 GTX750Ti 2GB GDDR5 OC
    250GB Hard Drive

    Can post on more detail from the machine itself later, if that would help. Thanks everyone!


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    #2
    TerrorFirmer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    Because of the case format, you can upgrade to a low profile GTX1050Ti. Like this one.

    That is about €180 or so delivered and the GTX750Ti would get you back about €70 so it's not a huge cost and it's a big upgrade, almost twice as fast.

    Processor wise, the i5-2400 is still pretty good, few games like Battlefield 1 would benefit from swapping to an i7-2600 or i7-3770 (about 100 and 150 respectively 2nd hand) - again, the i5-2400 would get you back about €60-70 of that.

    But for now just the new card will make a huge difference and is the only obvious upgrade.

    I can't remember if that specific model Optiplex has a standard board or a custom Dell one (eg a standard ATX board with normal 24-pin power connector vs a custom Dell board with custom 8-pin power supply) - if it's the former, you could transplant the machine to a new case for about €30 and that gives you the option of installing any card you wish.


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    #3
    pasta-solo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 794 ✭✭✭pasta-solo


    Great, thanks for the tips! I might also consider sticking in an SSD, I've a 2tb regular hard drive in there but almost every post i read on here says an SSD makes a huge difference in overall user experience. Not much room in the current case, but i wonder is it possible to remove the disk drive which gets no use and put in the SSD instead?

    Like i said, i really don't have any experience with building but would like to get used to it, see myself ever going back to consoles after getting used to PC! (Aside from Nintendo of course!)


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    #4
    TerrorFirmer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    Yes, 100% it makes a huge difference and you'll almost find going back to regular HDD based machines painful once you get used to having an SSD! SSD's occupy barely any space and there's no moving parts so you can just stick it in wherever it'll fit really.

    Should be no problem to fit it into that case and keep the HDD, although possibly it only has 2 sata power connections to you may have to sacrifice the DVD drive. For me personally a 250GB SSD is plenty as I only tend to play two or three games at any one time - sometimes might keep a few other games I play less often on the normal HDD.


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