Upgrading Acer Aspire AX3950

dan_rag

Hi,

 

i have the following computer:

 

Acer Aspire AX3950

Windows Home Premium 64Bit
Intel Core i5 processor 650
4GB DDR3 Memory
1.5TB Hard Drive
DVD-Super Multi drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT320
Multi-in-One Media Card Reader

 

and would like to upgrade the components to make it as fast as possible, but i want to keep the casing, power usage and noise level as it is. What should i replace? I would even replace the mainboard, if you know a better one, that fits the casing.

 

Regards

Dan

nosscar

Hi, i have the acer aspire x3470, like you i wanted to make it faster to play games, the onboard graphics on most pc's are useless for games. So i had the a6-3620 cpu, not too bad, not great either but will play 90% of all latest games. The main issue was the graphics, so i checked and decided i need at least something like a gtx 560 for the latest games. So i bought one for £75, but this was never going to work with my 225w PSU, so i bought 500w PSU (nvidia states 450w 24a needed for this card, but that means for the system not just the card). I also had to make sure it had the 2 6 pin plugs on for the card. But hey, my new PSU will not fit in the small form factor case i had, so next thing i bought was a new case, and i had to allow for the heat from the new graphics card, so i bought a gaming case so i could put some extra fans into it to keep it cooler.

      The latest game i am buying puts my CPU as just capaple (just above minimum requirement) so pretty soon i will have to get a better CPU, fx 6300 seems to fit the bill and budget.But i will have to get a new motherboard to put that in too.

So i will eventually end up with a new PC other than the hard drive and dvd rom. Also because i changed the motherboard my oem acer windows 7 wont work, so have to buy another windows OEM too.

       The moral of this story is in my experience, if you want better, then one thing leads to another. I now wish i had just bought a better pc in the first place for what i wanted it for. because i will end up with one now. Anyone wanna buy an x3470.

Looking at your rig, it seems the intel cpu isn't too bad, all you can do is put a discrete graphics card in to improve it. But it would have to be inline with your PSU and case, the gtx you have is probably as high as you can go in that case with your psu or maybe just push to a GeForce GT 520. But to play games like crysis, skrim, BF4 ect, you would need a much more powerful card.  More memery might help, but not a lot of games use more than 4gb. Changing motherboard alone will not make much difference, unless you do it to put a faster cpu into it. Putting a faster CPU on the same board would be a better bet, but you would need to make sure your board is compatible, but this would not help much with games as your existing one should be fine with most games. A good graphic card is more important with most games.

dan_rag

thanks :-) the computer is three yars old, i hope there are/will be some components i can replace. I like the compact format, also the very quiet work of this system. if there is nothing yet, i just have to wait.

 

regards

dan

Mrsleepin

buy New psu and gfx and are good to go play allmost any gamesdont see point wast 200Euro on a new cpu that probbly only will be like 15% faster/better. 

pikopoko

Hi there! I don't think I can help much with your conundrum but I can tell you that I bought an nvidia GT610 , 1gb, low profile (very important that is low profile or will not fit) and bought 4 extra gb of ram and now I can play Assassin Creed Black Flag on it and other new games without problems. I can't set everything to high but It looks pretty good and goes pretty smooth.

The video card makes more noise then the integrated one because the fan is always at 100% speed. I think the video card is marked MSI and this particular one has no way of controlling the fan speed but it does not bother me. I tried a 2gb of the same card and did not fit (the cooler was too thick) and the gt620 verheated I have no idea why. If I were you I would buy from a place that lets you return the item if you are not happy with it (bestbuy and frys electronics allowed me to return the cards that did not fit in my computer).

I don't know if it helps.

Piko