Help with new pc

[timlangleyohio]

I just got laid off from work and they let us keep our computers. They are nothing special. The one i have is a hp 5800. It has a 3.00ghz core 2 duo, 4gb memory and a 75gb hd. I want to use it as a gaming pc. I already know how to upgrade the hd but i don't know how to upgrade the video card. Will i have to replace the power supply with a bigger one. I want to do this as inexpensively as possible. Any suggestions or links to good cheap hardware would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Indigo]

Is it the small form factor or MiniATX case? There are two pictures on this page, which one is the one yours looks like?

HP Compaq dc5800 Business Desktop PC - comparison results Products and Services - HP

 

[vistakid10]

Hi. As og said above, it depends which case you have as to which graphics card/power supply you're going to need. I'm going to assume that unless you're going for a cheap graphics card that draws power from the motherboard then you're probably going to need to upgrade your PSU as 300W just isn't enough juice for a gaming machine. As for the graphics card, if you've got the MATX case you can get just about any PCI-E graphics card so long as it will fit in that small case, and the PSU is big enough (anything over 500W should be good), if you've got the SFF (small form factor) case then you'll need a low profile PCI-E graphics card. These are harder to find... so upgrade your PSU to one that's 500W or more powerful and then make sure you get a graphics card that will fit in your case, and you should be good to go... good luck!

 

[Indigo]

The problem is, and why I wanted to know which tower type he had, is that most of the smaller power supplies can't go above 350-400 watts, so upgrade options are extremely limited in that formfactor. We need to know that first before any real advice can be given.

 

[niiko101]

as both of the guys stated above, but also, just wondering what games you plan on playing ? it all plays a roll, if you going to play latest games, then well i wouldnt really bother, all in all gaming pc's are cheap to built these days, if you decied to go down that path just talk to og about amd stuff, way better value for money then the intel stuff

 

[Indigo]

and that's where I'll throw a curve ball. AMD's value proposition is shrinking for lower resolution gaming. Intel is actually faster at lower resolutions where the video card doesn't do ALL of the heavy lifting. In this case however, it looks like it's just a matter of GPU upgrading that the OP is asking about.