Upgrade plans

[NoobOfTech]

I'm a gamer and I've been hoping to hopefully move onto PC gaming but I don't have much of the money to buy a brand new PC. I've had my Pavilion 550-110 for about 5 years now and it's not very good with the video games of today so I was wondering what I would need to upgrade to be able to to play games at decent settings. (If possible have these as budget items). Thank you.

[old_geekster]

@NoobOfTech , welcome to the forum.

You have to realize that a five year old computer is only as good as its weakest link.  The Chipset (H87) is far from top of the line in today's gaming market.  With that said, I will will give you my suggestions of upgrades that will help increase system performance.  Here is the Product Specifications page.  You should look at the sections titled "Processor upgrade information" and "Memory upgrade information".  Here are my suggestions;

1) Processor - i7-4790 (Quad-Core) replacing your i3-4170 (Dual-Core)

2) Memory upgrade to 16 GB - up from 8 GB (Here is the memory recommended by Crucial Memory: https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/HP-Compaq/pavilion-550-110

3) Add a SSD as boot drive - See SSD's recommended by Crucial in my link above.  (This will be the best money that you could spend.  It will improve boot times and loading times.  I will never have another computer without a SSD boot drive.)  Here is a link to my Knowledge Base article on upgrading to a SSD: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Knowledge-Base/Upgrading-Desktop-to-a-SSD/ta-p/7304861

4) You could add a discrete video card, but that would mean that you would have to upgrade the power supply unit (PSU), also.  Most video cards today require a minimum of 300W to operate properly.  Your PSU is only 180W.  This would cost a minimum of $300 for both of them.

If you have further questions, just ask!

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