[Konsonum]

I currently have a Dell Inspiron 530 and its default build that it came it. I would like to know what I could do to ensure that I would be able to smoothly play games such as Civilization IV, Europa Universalis III, and Sims 3; simply, I want to be able to play these games at the best quality and the most smooth gameplay. I wish to only spend at most $100 to do this, however. Any help?

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Hi there, sorry for the delay. Can you please confirm if this is your computer:
http://www.pcworld.c..._530.html#specs

If so, then 3 things stand out that could do with an upgrade to help with game framerates. 1) CPU 2) Graphics 3) PSU (important and depends on 1 and 2)

Let me know and I'll see what we can cobble in there for you.

Regards,

Troy

[Troy]

Hi there, sorry for the delay. Can you please confirm if this is your computer:
http://www.pcworld.c..._530.html#specs

If so, then 3 things stand out that could do with an upgrade to help with game framerates. 1) CPU 2) Graphics 3) PSU (important and depends on 1 and 2)

Let me know and I'll see what we can cobble in there for you.

Regards,

Troy

[Konsonum]

Yes, that's it.

[Troy]

Well I am not sure what CPUs the desktop supports, you will need to find out from Dell. However using the exact specs of the current one, the best one in that range is the Pentium Dual-Core E2220 (http://processorfind...spx?sSpec=SLA8W). If you can find it and replace it, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work. But this would be last I guess.

Other than that I can't find any information on the Dell PSU included, I wonder if anyone else knows if they use proprietary connections still? Or are they a thing of the past? Hopefully somebody else can chime in here.

Lastly the graphics card, I've just been having an in-depth look here, that included graphics card is a very poor performer. You could upgrade to something like the ATI HD 4350 and it should give you a huge performance increase without doing anything else. In fact I would try it first. It is still a budget card, so it doesn't draw much power, yet comparatively it should be much better than your integrated card.