HP Pavilion s5503w-b Upgrade GFX for 60 FPS Medium

On January 13 2011 15:37 Myrmidon wrote:
You need a low-profile (half-height) GPU. Most of those don't take much power, so they'd run on the PSU. e.g. this HD 5570.

However, you have a 2.7 GHz, 1 MB L2, no L3 cache, single core processor. You're not going to be running 60-80 fps all the time, even in 1v1s on low, because of the CPU.

On January 13 2011 16:09 Myrmidon wrote:
I'm not sure. I think the Sempron would be dropping you below 30 fps in big battles, but it's difficult to say. Unfortunately, nobody really benchmarks $35 CPUs.

As for the GPU, you could wait on it. A low-profile HD 4650 or GT 220 may also be enough for just maintaining 30 fps on medium at low resolutions. You can get this HD 4650 for $49 - $15 MIR, free shipping, and prices sometimes go lower than that. An HD 5570 is definitely on the high end of what you might get, since the Sempron would be holding you back a lot of the time.

On January 14 2011 02:05 TLOBrian wrote:


Ah thank you. What would be a reasonable CPU to upgrade with? I know very little about compatibility with computers, and very little on building one from scratch. I had a build already picked out but decided to go for a prebuilt computer since I didn't have the monitor or peripherals. Plus the margin of error for screwing something up would be high, and since I have such a low budget I needed something usable NOW instead of buying parts and having it not work : P

Would I be better off just saving my money and going with this PC build instead?

Benchmarked to play Civ5 on High

$78 Athlon II X3 445e 3.1
$38 ASRock M3A770DE (Open Box)
$67 Gskill 4gb
$40 Rosewill Blackbone
$30 CoolerMaster 460W
$43 WD Caviar Blue 250gb
$100 Asus 4870 (after $30 rebate) or Radeon HD 5770
$396 Total (+ Operating system)


Also can I transfer my Windows 7 operating system from my current desktop so I don't have to pay for the operating system? (or even transfer my HDD over entirely?)