Need some advice on upgrading

[dave2849]

I was thinking of upgrading to a new video card for my desktop along with a new power supply. I am looking to be able to play modern games on at least medium low settings and I also play emulators. I was considering getting the Radeon HD 6670 for around $85 and a decent power supply for around $60. I use Paypal Bill me later and they have a financing option through Newegg where you get 6 months (no interest + no payments) on purchases of $250 or more. I was thinking of using this financing plan and buying some additional things such as a wireless keyboard and mouse, case fans, a dvd drive, bluetooth adapter, sound card and usb hub.

However, considering that I would have to spend $250 to get the financing plan, would it make more sense to spend that money on a motherboard and cpu and upgrade the video card and power supply later? If I was to do this I would get an AMD cpu in the $100 range and a motherboard in the same price range.

My PC specs:
Motherboard-Gateway G33M05G1
Video card-Integrated Intel GMA X3100/Intel G33 chipset
Processor-Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 (2.5 Ghz)
Ram-4GB
500 GB HDD
Monitor-Gateway HD 1900 (FDP 1930)

 

[ghost03]

The problem with financing computers is that depreciate before you pay them off. That CPU has aged well, and wireless keyboards and sound cards don't actually make the experience that much better.

If it were me, I would save the money and just go for a video card and maybe a power supply. What PSU do you have now and why do you think it needs upgrading? A 6670 or especially a 6570 are actually pretty power efficient and may not require a new PSU. You can find plenty of bencharks from Anandtech and others with both of those cards (any many more) at various settings in games that you want to play.

 

[dave2849]

My PSU is 250W and it came with my computer which is a Gateway desktop. On their website, AMD says the 6670 needs at least a 400W power supply.

 

[Ken g6]

[soapbox] In general, you should use credit for needs, not wants. [/soapbox]

The Corsair CX430 is usually a good low-end PSU at a good price. At $35 it's higher than usual right now - if you can wait it's likely to come down in price, at least a little, soon.

In the meantime, I suggest searching eBay or FS/T (once you've been around here long enough to get access) for a used 5770 or something. (5770 == 6770, so you should be able to get one for less than that price.)

 

[mfenn]

[soapbox] In general, you should use credit for needs, not wants. [/soapbox]

The Corsair CX430 is usually a good low-end PSU at a good price. At $35 it's higher than usual right now - if you can wait it's likely to come down in price, at least a little, soon.

In the meantime, I suggest searching eBay or FS/T (once you've been around here long enough to get access) for a used 5770 or something. (5770 == 6770, so you should be able to get one for less than that price.)

Agree. Buying a bunch of stuff that you don't really need in order to get some questionable financing deal seems like a bad move. The Q8300 is certainly not fast any more, but it is still good enough for plenty of games.

All you need is a new PSU and GPU like Ken suggested. When looking at AMD GPUs, try to get something that at least has a 7 as the second number (x7xx) because that's where the true gaming GPUs start.