My ancient rig

[hazmatt]

I think your best bang for the buck is a motherboard/cpu/memory upgrade which you could do for less then $200. (to get to a current gen Intel and DDR4)

If you don't want to do that you might consider something like this one. (you could prob put the motherboard/cpu in your old system or swap your drives and GPU to this system. (I used this exact system with a 4770 and an upgraded GPU to play AH3 in VR until I recently upgraded) Now my kids use it.

https://www.amazon.com/HP-ProDesk-400-Tower-Bit-Multi-Language/dp/B08HQZQFCD/ref=sr_1_27?c=ts&keywords=Tower+Computers&qid=1706576859&refinements=p_36%3A10000-15000&rnid=2421879011&s=pc&sr=1-27&ts_id=13896597011

It benches 30% faster then the fastest CPU that you could put in your motherboard you are upgrading. It moves you up to DDR3 (16GB) You get a 256GB SSD, USB 3.0 ports and a Windows 10 license that may or may not be upgraded to 11.

Upgrading that motherboard you have isn't going to get you anywhere near the bang for the buck other upgrades would.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

For now we're just going to throw a CPU and memory at what I have. I have found a deal on the CPU.I'm looking at memory. Since we can't go above 8GB with DDR2 PC 8500, because you can't use all four slots, and it's actually near impossible to find even 4GB sticks of that, I'm thinking I'll throw in 16GB of PC6400 DDR2. The PC6400 is only 800mHz, but I can run 2 to 4 times as much, and run true 4 slot dual channel. I'm looking at memory options, I can get server memory super cheap, probably half price of non ECC memory. I'll have to look at the speed difference. And what the over clocking does to it.

Later, we'll build something seriously new. Better AMD CPU, DDR5 memory, and more of it, and a killer video card. If I'm buying a new motherboard, I'm going to make a much larger step up. A new case and power supply as well.

The DNA test shows me to be cancer free, for now. So I can see my way clear to play a little.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

I snagged a smoking deal on some memory and a CPU. But then I stumbled across an even better deal on a much better CPU and motherboard, and some fast DDR3. I'll eventually put that in a new tower, with new hard drives and a new video card. I'll be looking at video cards in a month or three. My old stuff will then be a business rig, and I'll stop using this POS Lenovo lap top.

[GasTeddy]

I'm running AH with pretty ancient rig w/ DDR3, made from parts I stole from a museum and still have very good fps.

Tower is from year 2010, mobo and CPU 2012 etc. CPU is Intel Core i7-3770K, "slightly" overclocked, as factory specs are 3.5-3.9 GHz and I run it base speed 4.20 and turbo 5.02. My son plays War Thunder and Enlisted with maximum graphics and fps stays around 100 in both. Proper cooling is essential when overclocking.

As a video card, I have GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING 8G and seems to be strong enough. Was second hand and costed me $115 w/ shipping.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

My current card s a 560ti, so I'll need to move up. But my updated rig will be running at 4.5ghz, and have 32mb of 2400mhz Vengence memory