Can my Aspire Z3770 be upgraded to something playable?

Hi there. I'll be upfront — I need some advice on the dark art of necromancy. Here's what I have on hand:

An Acer Aspire Z3770 all-in-one PC (Motherboard: IPISB-AG, CPU: Pentium G2020, RAM: 8GB DDR3, GPU: GT620, HDD: 500GB, OS: Windows 8.1) with a 180W power supply.
I want to pay tribute to the PC of my childhood and, now that it's been passed down to me after my parents used it, upgrade it into something at least halfway usable.

Here’s a list of questions, along with my own assumptions. I’d like to hear whether I’m thinking correctly — and if not, what the actual truth is.

1) What’s the most powerful Core-series CPU I can install in this system, regardless of the power supply limitations?
My assumption: I could install a Core i7-3770K or i7-3770S, but I’m not sure which one is more realistic.

2) What GPU would give me the best price-to-performance ratio in this setup?
The motherboard has a single PCI-e x16 slot and no additional power connectors.
My assumption: Maybe a GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti would be the ceiling for this CPU. But just for the fun of it, I was wondering if a low-profile RTX 3050 6GB (which doesn’t require additional power) could work in this build. Is that even realistic?

3) A 180W power supply is obviously not enough for a setup like this.
Can this problem be solved simply by swapping in a more powerful PSU if the connector fits? Or will that potentially damage the motherboard, assuming it wasn’t designed to handle more than 180W?

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StevenGen

The 3rd Gen cpu's are not compatible with the last Acer bios versions P11.B0 for your Aspire Z3770 AIO computer.

I suggest that you do the following upgrades for best increase in performance, also upgrade to the Win-10 OS or unsupported Win-11:

CPU - highest spec cpu that Acer used was the Intel Pentium Dual-Core G850 2.9Ghz TDP 65W cpu (see below) that uses max 8GB at 2x 4GB DDR3-1333MT/s or the lower speed DDR3-1155MT/s type ram.
HDD - upgrade to a 2.5" SSD SATA III boot drive to increase the OS speed.
GPU - Acer used a 180W adapter which you can run an NVidia GT1030 / GT710 / GTX1630 or the RX6400 gpu cards with, do your research and see which is the best.

As doing all the above upgrades will speed this AIO computer up at least 100%. Good luck and hope this helps you out further.

These are all the compatible CPU's listed for the Aspire Z3770 AIO computer

Adapters

For your information I've included the Acer SG M/B Placement:

If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

Anim233

Thanks for the answer. I have some more questions now:

1)If it only supports 2-nd gen CPU, then would it support i7-2700K? Or will 2600S be the better CPU in my situation?

2)I didn't get the answer on adapter question. Can i just swap in a more powerful PSU if the connector fits or will it just damage the motherboard without making something useful?

3)And if i can change the psu, then can i install something like gtx 1050?

billsey

The i7-2700K needs more power than the suggested CPUs, so you might find yourself having to revamp cooling to get it stable. The Pentium G2020 is an Ivy Bridge design, which is 3rd gen, so you can use 3rd gen CPUs in your system with you current BIOS. Your Pentium pulls 55W of power, so pick an Ivy Bridge that fits in that power budget and you should be good to go. Look at the i7-3770T which comes in at 45W…