Is it even possible to upgrade this?

[SkyBum]

Trying to help a friends kid to upgrade his PC to be a bit less crappy. Not sure if its even feasible...but hell it's worth a try.

HP Pavillion 500-424
AMD A8-6410 APU 2.0 GHz / Radeon R5 Graphics
8GB DDR3
Win10 64


So a laptop CPU in a desktop, he wants to add a video card. Clearly any decent GPU is gonna be bottle necked, he said he could put $200 toward a GPU upgrade but I'm really not sure what makes sense and what would just be wasted potential.

Also wondering if there are any possible upgrades for that CPU? If so could $200 split between CPU, GPU and possibly a PSU get him anywhere worth bothering?

Also, he's currently using a TV for a monitor which limits him to 1360x768 (ouch).

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. Let's help Erik get his game on ; )

SB

 

[cthulhuiscool]

Any gpu above say a 950 is gonna be massively bottlenecked so I'd shoot for that or a used 760 or something like that. Thankfully the 768p monitor will require much less chops than a 1080p so he probably will be able to play pretty much anything at medium-high settings fine.

As for cpu, there aren't really any sensible upgrades that'd fit that socket. Throwing an A10 in there would improve it a bit, but not substantially. Also no need to upgrade ram on that thing.

 

[Sheep221]

buy used quad core CPU and something from R9 series, it will kick R5's ass beyond your imagination

 

[24601]

It's an APU where the horribad CPU bottlenecks even the anemic GPU it comes with.

Most certainly do NOT waste money trying to do an upgrade that doesn't involve going with at least an entirely different CPU.

If you are in the USA, try this build.

BIOSTAR Hi-Fi B85S3+ Ver. 6.x LGA 1150 Intel B85 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
55 USD with 4 DDR3 DIMM slots for future expansion.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138384R


Intel Core i3-4170 3M Haswell Dual-Core 3.7 GHz LGA 1150 54W BX80646I34170 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4400
120 USD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117543

Good processor for all games now and for the next 5 years even with decent video cards.
Plus it has a decent integrated graphics processor that should work for casual/oldish games.

You will be able to re-use your 8GB DDR3.

 

[SkyBum]

Near as I can tell this is the spec sheet for that PC
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04453602

65w EXTERNAL power supply. WTF? Starting to wonder if a CPU +GPU upgrade is even gonna be possible...

EDIT: Yeah, seems the APU is soldered to the MoBo. Also seems that the MoBo has no slot to even add a video card either. Clearly he got what he paid for with that PC.

 

[SkyBum]

Thanks for the links, 24601. Clearly that is the direction to go. Thanks for the advice everyone...

 

[guachi]

Wow, that PC is as stripped down as you can possibly get, isn't it?

I suppose we can help your friend's kid by scrounging up $500 and building him a kick butt budget gaming PC. He's using a 768 TV, so I'm sure we can come up with something cool and playable on a budget.

 

[SkyBum]

Wow, that PC is as stripped down as you can possibly get, isn't it?

I suppose we can help your friend's kid by scrounging up $500 and building him a kick butt budget gaming PC. He's using a 768 TV, so I'm sure we can come up with something cool and playable on a budget.

LOVE your attitude guachi!

Sometimes I have left over parts myself but I learned long ago to give away old parts to friends before they had a chance to gather too much dust and become useless so I've already given them all away. Luckily one of my friends who I've sent many an old GPU to happened to have some parts to share back. He's sending an AMD Black Edition CPU, Mobo, PSU, and Radeon GPU (all retired about a year ago). Cost: A good bottle of bourbon. We'll re-use the 8GB mem (though I wonder about it's quality considering) and HD, and Erik only needs to buy a case.

LOL edit: I'll handle the bourbon...

GOTTA love it when a plan comes together! THANKS EVERYONE!

 

[garagisti]

LOVE your attitude guachi!

Sometimes I have left over parts myself but I learned long ago to give away old parts to friends before they had a chance to gather too much dust and become useless so I've already given them all away. Luckily one of my friends who I've sent many an old GPU to happened to have some parts to share back. He's sending an AMD Black Edition CPU, Mobo, PSU, and Radeon GPU (all retired about a year ago). Cost: A good bottle of bourbon. We'll re-use the 8GB mem (though I wonder about it's quality considering) and HD, and Erik only needs to buy a case.

LOL edit: I'll handle the bourbon...

GOTTA love it when a plan comes together! THANKS EVERYONE!

I just had to say, very cool on part of both of you. Here's a toast in your names.

For the GPU, if, and only if... if he must get a new one, than the retired old one. The 470 & 460 are coming about. Should be decent for the money ($100-$150) & power. They'd possibly work on any 400W 80+ PSU or thereabouts, unless black edition CPU chugs 200W and so on.

 

[boozzer]

buy used quad core CPU and something from R9 series, it will kick R5's ass beyond your imagination

this is the best advice, buy used parts for cheap and enjoy the massive improvement.

 

[sm625]

This is why I started this thread two years ago:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386984

Some of my "remarks" on what I thought of AMD for calling this chip an A8 were kindly omitted by the mods, but rest assured I was not happy about this chip knowing that it would quite literally victimize it buyers. But if you can sort of just accept that the cpu will always be slow, then a video card would definitely help. I wouldnt go higher than 950 level though.

 

[2is]

I know beggars can't be choosers, but if there's anyway you can swing an SSD for an OS drive in that system, it would make a world of difference.