Upgrading Pavilion 500-520qe

[justphamin]

Product number: K6V69AV#ABA

•HP USB keyboard and optical mouse

•16GB DDR3-1600MHz [2 DIMM ]

•3TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

•SuperMulti DVD Burner

•No TV Tuner Card

•Integrated Sound, DTS Audio

•Microsoft Office Trial

•7-in-1 Memory Card Reader, 2 USB Ports (Front), Audio [Front 2USB3.0]

•No Additional Security Software

•16GB SSD Disk Cache

•4th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 processor quad-core [3.6GHz, 8MB Shared Cache]

•HP WLAN 802.11 b/g/n Mcard (1x1)

•Windows 10 64

•2GB AMD Radeon R7 240 [DVI, HDMI, & DVI to VGA Dongle]

•Home and Home Office Insert

Hello, 

I've been playing what ever games my PC can handle on potato graphics for a while. I would like to finally try optimizing my desktop for gaming. Hoping to spend no more than a few hundred dollars if possible. Can you inform me of some of the best compatible upgrade options I have? I'm assuming I would need a new graphics card and, probably, power source. Should I hold off, for now, on upgrading the SSD and or RAM? 
Thank you very much.

Justin

[wb2001]

@justphamin,

Lets try to mellow your inquiry, and set some parameters.

1) The CPU and RAM are at the maximum potential.   CPU       RAM

2) The 300W PSU has no PCIe power 6+2 plug. That was never a issue for the R7 240 (30W).

So, you need to specific the most intense game you want to play (do not disregard your monitor resolution).

That way an informed suggestion can be made.  Regardless, the max PSU I recommend is the Corsair CX650

as it is an exact fit.  Measure you old PSU.

go to Can You Run It for examples

PS<> amused, what is "potato" graphics?

[justphamin]

If I were to play Death Stranding or Borderlands 3, Can You Run It recommends an AMD Radeon RX 590. If I were to purchase that and the Corsair CX650 and install them using the instruction posted here https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04100691 and https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-500-500-desktop-pc-series/7477729/model/7485492/doc..., would I be good to go? or would graphics cards come in different sizes, and I would have to use one that fits?

I'm not sure about resolution, but I think I would be playing at 1080p. 

Haha, by potato quality I mean running a game on the lowest allowable graphics settings to run as smoothly as possible. 

Thanks for responding to my question!

Edit: Ah,, I see the R7 240 is 168mm and the RX 590 is 241mm. So I guess that's out of the question.

[wb2001 · Accepted solution]

@justphamin,

The only way to know is to make a cardboard template the length and height of the card, and try it.