OK, here's the deal. My computer sucks. It's very old, I built this thing over 10 years ago.

Current Specs.

Windows 7 64bit

Mobo: Asus P5E3 Pro
GFX Card: Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT
MEM: 4gb
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66Ghz
PSU: 650W

What i'd like to do is upgrade memory to 8gb and video card to the gtx970.
Will I be able to simply swap out memory and video cards without problems?
Or, do I have to upgrade my mobo, psu, and cpu as well?

Over time I am trying to fully upgrade this computer, just don't have the funds to do it all at once. My main concern right now is just memory and gfx card.

Thanks for the help.

This post was edited by donk3yk0ng on Nov 18 2015 12:59pm

Idk man, that cpu probably still wouldn't be able to handle it, and it's more important to upgrade than your memory.

Also the 10 year old psu seems a little sketchy

For the sake of saving money -

Overclock the snot out of your CPU and or pick up a cheap xeon alternative for modding/clocking, like an x5470 and overclock that to 4.5ghz+.

DDR3 ram is cheap right now, I'd get 8gb for sure.

Now the issue is, unless you can get that quad up to 4.3~ghz, you will bottleneck that GPU; At 4.3ghz, that CPU will perform like an i5-2500 which will do you fine, I'd also pick up an r9-380 if it's cheaper as it's better in most situations.

Gtx 970 currently performing better in fallout than the 390 I'm pretty sure

Nvidia's the way it's meant to be played br0

They mightve fixed that by now tho lol

This post was edited by BluntsGLI on Nov 18 2015 01:26pm

thank you everyone for the input. I figured my cpu would bottleneck the new gfx card. I'd also prefer to stick to intel/nvidia instead of amd/ati.

i'll look into xeon pricing, might just try an i5 out just not sure if it'll work with my old mobo.
how do I find out if my old mobo can even support the i5? or even the gtx 970? i know the mobo max mem is 8gb and it has to be ddr3 1600Mhz or less

upgrading the memory shouldn't be a problem. its also fairly cheap. Think I found some for around $40. GTX 970 is around $300. not sure on new cpu pricing yet.
if anyone can help me out with parts compatibility and what parts would work best with this mobo.

If you want an i5, you will be needing to upgrade your motherboard as well, expect another $300 to be spent.

That sucks, so the i5 won't fit the mobo I currently have? How about the xeon x5470?

Id just build a whole new PC from scratch. 600$ would easily give you a pretty nice PC.

The xeon would only be a cheap alternative if you can't overclock your current processor high enough.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Sharksbreath/saved/DkBnTW
would this be sufficient?




thank you for your help, but i've tried overclocking my cpu and can only reach around 3.3ghz

This post was edited by donk3yk0ng on Nov 18 2015 06:45pm