Budget gaming upgrade under $550?

Hey everyone! So, I've got a little bit of extra cash lying around, and I’m looking to upgrade this aging rig of mine into something that won't feel like a dinosaur for at least a few years, if that's even possible. Honestly, I'm not exactly a hardware guru when it comes to all these specs, so if anyone could help me put together a decent build, I'd be super grateful. 🙂 I know how to plug parts into a tower and all that, but my main priority is finding someone who offers doorstep delivery.

Here's what I'm running right now:

Intel Core 2 Quad proc
ASUS B85M motherboard
6 GB DDR3 RAM (4+2)
AMD Radeon gigabyte HD 7770 1GB GDDR5 GPU
EVGA 600 W1 power supply
I also need a bigger drive because my 320 GB one is getting cramped, though I don't need anything massive since my budget is pretty tight.
Budget: $1267

Also, if anyone can give me some pointers regarding a new drive or upgrading my OS—since I'm still stuck on 32-bit Windows 7, I really ought to move over to 64-bit. My plan was to grab a new drive, borrow an external one from a buddy, and just migrate everything from the old drive to the new 64-bit setup (though I'm still debating whether to jump straight to Windows 10 or just stick with 7 for now). Would my installed programs actually work on 64-bit Windows if they were originally installed on a 32-bit system? Someone also suggested I pick up an SSD, throw the OS on there, and just use my old hard drive as a giant D: partition. Obviously, that would make the boot times lightning fast, but I have no clue how that process works or how to set it all up, and I'm wondering if an SSD might end up being pricier than just getting a bigger HDD.
The whole reason I've clung to this 32-bit system for so long is simply because I didn't want to lose my files and all my software, or spend a whole week reinstalling everything I own. If anyone has tips on how to port old data over to a new system, it would be a lifesaver 😁 but man, if it's not possible, I guess I'll just spend a couple of days reinstalling everything and deal with the headache.

Oh, one more thing. Once I get the new parts, about how much do you think I could squeeze out by selling this current setup? (Maybe I could use that cash to grab some better RAM). Since I'm totally clueless about market prices, I'm willing to let it go pretty cheap.

Thanks a ton for any help or advice you guys can toss my way! 🙂

There are quite a few ways you could go here... I suspect you don't actually need more RAM yet; 6 to 8GB is probably the sweet spot if you aren't doing anything super intense. Your power supply seems fine, and the processor is still decent enough—you might even be able to squeeze some extra performance out of it with an overclock. You could try something like this:

1 x OCZ SSD ARC 100 240GB, OCZ Barefoot 3 M10 Controller
1 x Gigabyte GTX960 OC, 4GB GDDR5 128bit, GV-N960OC-4GD
1 x Zalman CNPS10X OPTIMA, CPU cooler. FAN: 120mm, fan speed:1000rpm
1 x ASUS M5A97 R2.0, AM3,AM3+, AMD 970, SB950, BUS 5200 MHz, DDR3

$1152 ADM

I added a cooler in case you're stuck with a stock one if you want to overclock. If the CPU ends up being an issue, maybe you could swap to an FX 8320E for about $367 once you sell the GPU, the motherboard, and whatever is left from those $117 pieces; then you could easily push it past 4GHz.

Or perhaps:

1 x OCZ SSD ARC 100 240GB, OCZ Barefoot 3 M10 Controller
1 x ASUS B85M Pro3, S 1150, Supports 4th Gen Intel Core i7 / i5
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 (3.20GHz,1MB,6MB,84 W,1150) Box
1 x MSI GTX950 2GB GDDR5, (GTX 950 2GD5 OC), 2xDVI,HDMI, 1xDP

$1373 ADM

The graphics card is weaker here, but you get both a new CPU and a whole new platform at once. You might be able to shave off some cost if you opt for a smaller 120GB SSD instead, assuming that's enough, or just stick with a 1TB HDD.

Just a heads-up, any programs already installed in Program Files won't run on 64-bit macOS, though your standard files like photos, music, or movies should be totally fine.

thanks, looks pretty solid 🙂

so, if I’m looking to set things up where my C: drive lives on the SSD but I keep my D: partition over on the old hard drive, how would I actually pull that off? And just to be clear, I’d still be wiping everything off the old drive regardless of which partition the data is sitting on right now, wouldn't I?

It’d go down like this:

You just pop in an SSD, plug your old HDD back in, and install macOS on the SSD. Once everything is set up, you turn the old drive back on and it should show up as your D drive, or whatever letter you feel like using. All your files and the old OS stay untouched, so you can access them just like before. I guess you’ll have to reinstall all your games and apps, though, since most of them write data to the registry and other spots during setup.

Down the road, you can just wipe the old OS off the old drive. It’s probably best to just format the whole thing to clear out the old system files, bootmgr, and whatever other junk is hanging around, but if you're feeling lazy, I suppose you could skip that...

e to, to mi zvuči super! onda se definitivno isplati uzet SSD. Hvala puno na svemu 🙂

Also, if anyone out there has any clue what I could realistically get for these old parts—even if it’s just pocket change at a local pawn shop or something—that would be absolutely killer 😁

Graphics card $150
Motherboard $67

thanks a ton once again! 🙏

Man, I’ve run into a bit of a headache here. I’m staring at this motherboard and I can't for the life of me figure out where the hell I'm supposed to plug in my DVD-ROM. My old board had those obvious slots right there, but this one? Nothing. It's like they just decided to hide them or something. I was really counting on using the drive to get a fresh install of Windows 10 going, but now I'm just stuck spinning my wheels without a clue.

ironsailor28 said:Man, I’ve run into a bit of a headache here. I’m staring at this motherboard and I can't for the life of me figure out where the hell I'm supposed to plug in my DVD-ROM. My old board had those obvious slots right there, but this one? Nothing. It's like they just decided to hide them or something. I was really counting on using the drive to get a fresh install of Windows 10 going, but now I'm just stuck spinning my wheels without a clue.

What motherboard are you actually running?

It doesn't really matter which motherboard you pick, since pretty much no modern boards come with an IDE connector anymore (except for maybe a few old AM3+ or 1155 socket models)😬

I suspect it might actually be cheaper to just grab a used soldering iron for $50-$20 or maybe a brand new one for about $33.

Anyway, what did you end up getting in the end? 😁

crimsonstag84 said:It doesn't really matter which motherboard you pick, since pretty much no modern boards come with an IDE connector anymore (except for maybe a few old AM3+ or 1155 socket models)😬

I suspect it might actually be cheaper to just grab a used soldering iron for $50-$20 or maybe a brand new one for about $33.

Anyway, what did you end up getting in the end? 😁

My bad, I didn't realize from his posts that he actually had an IDE burner 😬

Just put macOS on a thumb drive, who cares what the toaster thinks