Need system builder's help for CPU upgrade

[timeshifter]

I'm giving my son an HP Pavilion p6570t desktop that one of my clients gave me when he upgraded. My son would like to dip his toe in the water of PC gaming and play Overwatch on it. He'll need a new graphics card and power supply and hard drive.

The machine is solid. It has 16GB RAM, an Intel Core i3 550 processor and comes with Windows 7 Ultimate license that has been upgraded to Windows 10 Home. I think I can figure out the graphics card and power supply upgrades but need a little help with a possible CPU upgrade.

The motherboard is an MSI 2A9C with BIOS 6.07. The CPU is Intel Core i3 550, Clarkdale and Socket 1156 LGA. I *think* we could put in an Intel Core i5-6xx CPU like those listed here, but I'm not 100% sure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...#.22Clarkdale.22_.28MCP.2C_32_nm_dual-core.29

He'll be starting with the base machine as I described. He will need to buy the power supply, graphics and storage (and CPU if he wants, he seems fixated on an i5). I figure that anything he buys (except for the CPU) he can move to a new system if he wants to upgrade further. He toyed with the idea of building a whole system from scratch a few months ago, but I think I was too overwhelming and expensive. This will give him a nice base and a fast start.

Anyhow... can someone help me narrow down the CPU choices for this machine?

 

[NYJimbo]

I would google "MSI 2A9C cpu choices" and read what some others already did.

 

[timeshifter]

Yeah, it looks like an i5-680 or i7-870 are some possibilities. But looking at the CPU marks I doubt you'd be able to tell much difference in the real world:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=739&cmp[]=771&cmp[]=832

Plus, if it makes the Windows 10 activation fail then a processor upgrade really isn't in the cards.

 

[fincoder]

I agree with others that it's hardly worth upgrading the CPU, but for the experience it might be worthwhile.
You could add a modern graphics card such as a GTX1050 that doesn't require extra power connectors, this card only requires a 300W PSU.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/geforce-gtx-1050/

I thought only motherboard changes require re-activation of Windows. In any case, re-entering the Windows 7 key will always re-activate Windows 10 (it registers a new upgrade on the current hardware).

 

[timeshifter]

You could add a modern graphics card such as a GTX1050 that doesn't require extra power connectors, this card only requires a 300W PSU.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/geforce-gtx-1050/

Thanks! Didn't realize that the 1050 didn't require a fancy power supply. We were speccing parts earlier today. I told him he'd need a drive, video card and power supply. Probably a 240GB SSD, GTX 1060 and a decent power supply. Looks like we could get there with just a new drive and new card and use the stock power supply. Cool. That'll save him around $100.

 

[fincoder]

Looks like we could get there with just a new drive and new card and use the stock power supply.

Not the GTX1060 though, that requires 400W and a 6-pin PCIe power connector. You would need to get 1050 or 1050ti.

 

[timeshifter]

Right, thanks to you pointing out that the 1050 doesn't need a big power supply I think he may go for that instead. No need to buy a new power supply.

 

[mr m]

Every mobo manufacturer publishes an approved hardware/vendor list. They recommend memory, CPU's and other hardware that meet or exceeds the mobos specs.

 

[kwest]

You are listing replacing almost everything but the motherboard. Sell the system as is for $300 to a client and build your son a new custom.

Decent motherboard is $80. So you will have $220 to go towards other parts.