Need opinions on upgrades.

[Derik]

I've just recently bought a used computer. It's an hp p6803w. It has a amd athlon II X2 220 processor 2.80ghz, 4 gb of ram, and a ati radeon hd 4200 graphics card. I'm wanting to run games on it. I don't know much about computers, and what would be compatible with mine. I have league of legends and WoW right now. They both run at 60 fps on the lowest graphics setting, but i'd like to be able to play on at least medium. It would be nice to be able to run Dayz eventually too. i'm not positive where to start, but i'm open to any suggestions. Any good graphics cards for under 100$, and what else should i upgrade for gaming? And I don't mind buying used.

 

[BK_123]

If you are looking for HP's info on upgrading it then see here HP Support document - HP Support Center. Anyways youare using integrated graphics which isn't good for gaming, For the budget your on you'd only be able to get a very low end card that wouldn't be very suitable for gaming. A card like this Newegg.com - Once You Know, You Newegg would be alright but is a few dollars than what you want to spend. Also consider upgrading the CPU to AMD Phenom II X4 which is compatible with your motherboard according to HP's documentation for it which you can find in the link I've attached.

 

[Derik]

Thanks for the reply. The site says integrated video is not available if a graphics card is installed. I'm not sure what that means, so what kind of graphics cards are compatible with my computer?

Sent from my PantechP8010 using Computer Forums mobile app

 

[Garbler]

It means that the computer will use the Graphics Cards Video outputs instead of the ones that are found on your Motherboard.

I don't believe that the memory your Board has installed for integrated Graphics won't be used, however I could be wrong.

So, if you install a Graphics Card you need to connect your screen to it's outputs.

 

[BK_123]

Some motherboards will allow you to use both integrated and dedicated graphics but you'd have to check the bios settings.

 

[Wherewolf?]

Hi!

First, check your powers upply's label and see how much wattage it can shell out? For any future upgrades you will need a 500W to be good. That is more or less also the minimum powersupply recommendation for most of todays cards. A modular powersupply will save you a lot of cable clutter. Corsair, are good ones for example. Never step down in quality on a psu and buy some no name stuff for like 40 bucks!
If you do? It will come back and haunt you pretty soon. Used powersupplies are not a good way to go either. You will have no idea of the mileage or the condition.

If you dont have a small form factor case? Then this card is a good choise for a small sum: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 01G-P4-2650-KR Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0(x16), 1x Dual-link DVI-I, 1x Dual-link DVI-D, 1x Mini-HDMI, DirectX 12, Dual-Slot - 01G-P4-2650-KR at TigerDirect.com

The integrated video chip are often just enough to run everything but games for most of the time. At least the slightly older chips that is. And might automatically be disabled in bios when you stick a dedicated card into the slot. Othervice, disable it yourself. Keep the card you have got now as a backup. It will keep you going if anything bad happends to the card you are going to get in the future.

Make sure to uninstall the old cards driver before you install the new cards software. The old driver may cause problems othervise.

EDIT. You will have to get a new power supply. The one you have got is only 250W. The case are ok. for any modern card as it's a mid tower.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7564402&CatId=1079