Recommendations and help before I commit.

[finnus]

I'm not the best with computers. I can tell the difference between a psu and a graphics card but that's about it.

Recently, my computer (after being turned on, fans spinning and all) immediately shuts down, and then continuously attempts to turn on... to infinity and beyond . Initially I thought it was my psu packing up. So i bought a cheap one to test run this. But the same problem occurred. I was told that it may be my motherboard, but I have no knowledge of these.

I've been thinking of upgrading my computer for a while now (the main use of it being a gaming pc), and was also told it may be an idea to upgrade my motherboard, cpu and ram. My cpu is in dire need of an upgrade and I was hoping to get an i-7 of some sort.

Specifications:

browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1986393
HP-Pavilion NQ880AA-ABU
(Note - I bought this back in 2009)
Additional information: I have upgraded the PSU (now Arctic 600) and the graphics card (now Nvidea GTS 450)

Questions

What is wrong with my computer?
What suggestions would those recommend for upgrading my motherboard, cpu and ram (bear in mind I'll mainly be using it for gaming)
Would an i7 be worth it?
Would an i7/new motherboard work with my graphics card? (This is probably an obvious question but I have no knowledge of processors or motherboards)
Do I really need more RAM than 4GB?
Is this doable for a virgin-tech such as myself?

Thank you for your time and patience,
Fin.

 

[PP Mguire]

Got something better to go by? I'm not really getting anything off the 'model' number you've provided.

ANyways, I can answer a few basic questions though now that I have time.

Buying a cheap PSU isn't exactly the best way to go about testing, because the cheap one can have problems or be bad out of the box. Is everything cleaned and dust free? Have you reapplied thermal paste to the CPU heatsink? Have you tried taking the GTS 450 out and just try the onboard video?

If your main concern is gaming, then you don't need an i7. An i5 would be plenty fine or even an i3 depending on your budget. Can't really recommend anything else until I know your current system specs though.

Answered first 3 already.
Yes, your GPU can work in 99% of the boards on the market today.
Probably. You can get away with it, but the recommend amount I tell people is 8GB for decent gaming and regular computing.
Yes it is. Upgrading a computer isn't as complicated as say working on cars.

 

[finnus]

Sorry, I'll paste these specs below.


Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Model HP-Pavilion NQ880AA-ABU p6013uk
Processor Intel Pentium E5200 @ 2.50 GHz
1 processor, 2 cores
Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6
Processor Codename Wolfdale
Processor Package Socket 775 LGA
L1 Instruction Cache 32 KB x 2
L1 Data Cache 32 KB x 2
L2 Cache 2048 KB
L3 Cache 0 KB
Motherboard PEGATRON CORPORATION Benicia
Northbridge Intel P35/G33/G31 A2
Southbridge Intel 82801IR (ICH9R) 02
BIOS American Megatrends Inc. 5.39
Memory 4096 MB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz


Everything was very dusty, but I've cleaned it to the best of my abilities.
I haven't even heard of thermal paste before but I'll look into it and give it a try.

I tried just the onboard video, still nothinhg.

 

[PP Mguire]

Was missing that last p601 bit at the end to get the PC up. You'll need a full on upgrade if you want to do any decent gaming which 'could' fix your problem while upgrading you at the same time. What I'm to recommend depends highly on your budget.

 

[finnus]

I have around £450 as a budget Currently, however im willing to go over; it will just require a little patience to buy everything

 

[PP Mguire]

If you want a good quality gaming PC, I suggest saving a bit more rather than buy bit by bit.

 

[finnus]

im not looking to completely revamp my pc, just enough so its working again and a little more upgraded than before