Upgrading Aging PC

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GMiller

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Apr 2, 2013
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I’m looking to see if there is a way to upgrade my PC. My brother built it back in 07 for me and I’ve tinkered around with it some by giving it Win 7 64bit, the 6 gb ram, and upgrading the graphics card to what it is now. I know this is a pretty old build and I should probably build myself a new one, but I try to live cheaply.

I mainly game on my 360, but I do sometimes play PC version of games. I recently played through the new Tomb Raider and it struggles with that. Basically I’m looking to get the most out of this system.

Current System

CPU – Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40 ghz
Motherboard – Asus P5B-Plus
RAM – 6 gb DDR PC2-6400 (8 gb max)
Graphics Card – GeForce GTS 250 1 gb 256-bit GDDR3 PCI express 2.0*16
Power Supply – Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W
Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit
24in ViewSonic monitor
 
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^ Agreed. If I was you I would really just save money for a new computer. The E6600 was a great CPU in its day ( I had one ) but for todays games it's outdated. The GTS 250 was also a good card ( I had a 9800GTX+ same exact GPU just a different name ) but once again it's just too outdated for the newest games. There is really nothing to be upgraded on that system that would help you much. That build might still be worth $200-$250 though if you were to sell it to put the money towards a new computer.
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Matsushima

Matsushima

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Mar 6, 2013
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You could buy a good cooler like the Hyper 212 and overclock it (be careful). Get a 7770 or a 7850 if you can afford it. Maybe upgrade the PSU. And maybe an SSD for your OS and applications. Then you will not need to build a new one for about 1-2 years.
 
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G

GMiller

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Would that give me a good increase in performance? Is upgrading the power supply a MUST for one of those cards or will mine suffice? Does PCI Express 3.0 work in 2.0?
 
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Deleted member 217926

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^ Agreed. If I was you I would really just save money for a new computer. The E6600 was a great CPU in its day ( I had one ) but for todays games it's outdated. The GTS 250 was also a good card ( I had a 9800GTX+ same exact GPU just a different name ) but once again it's just too outdated for the newest games. There is really nothing to be upgraded on that system that would help you much. That build might still be worth $200-$250 though if you were to sell it to put the money towards a new computer.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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A relatively slow Core2 chip will not keep up with newer games. Even a highly clocked Sandy or Ivy bridge dual will not cut it when a game has a quad as the minimum requirements.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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P965 chipset motherboard. Only supports first gen 65nm Q6600 and Q6700 quads at full speed. Will support the newer 45nm quads with the latest BIOS but the FSB is limited to 1066. It would cripple anything newer than a 1st gen quad.
 
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GMiller

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It's all good. I figured anyways. Anyone able to suggest a good $1000 build? I wouldn't need a mouse keyboard or monitor but I would need a new copy of windows...
 
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For $1000? Can you reuse your case? And optical drives?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/NSBg

That should be fine with your existing power supply. It gives you a 250GB SSD and an HD 7950 that comes with Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite. $1056 after $30 mail in rebates. If you reuse your existing hard drive for storage and drop the 1TB WD Black from the build it will save you another $90.
 
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GMiller

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Apr 2, 2013
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Yeah I would most likely reuse my case and DVD drive. I'll just use my existing hard drive for backup with a cheap external enclosure.

Thank you very much for all your help!

Just wondering, how long would this last me before games start making this horribly obsolete? Can I expect ultra or max settings for awhile?
 
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GMiller

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Just wondering, how long would this last me before games start making this horribly obsolete? Can I expect ultra or max settings for awhile?
 
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Deleted member 217926

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Oh it would still be good for several years. The CPU probably at least 3 or 4 the graphics card 2 to 3. That is maxing games. With that cooler you can get the i5 to 4.2-4.4Ghz pretty easily. My 2600K is just over 2 years old and still top tier for gaming CPUs.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

My GTX 460 1GB is even older. Approaching 3 years and still can max every game I have played except Metro 2033. I have not tried any of the "next gen" games yet though like Crysis 3 or the new Bioshock or Tomb Raider. I plan on upgrading graphics in the next month or so to a GTX 670/HD 7970 level card.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

You can usually get 2 good graphics upgrades out of a CPU. As long as you upgrade a bit at a time it never gets really expensive at once.
 
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GMiller

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Sorry, I'm going to keep bothering you. I've read in a couple of places that the Ivy bridge processors have problems with some motherboards because the motherboards don't have their latest bios, so they have trouble recognizing them. Will this motherboard have that issue?
 
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Deleted member 217926

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No that was only a problem with the early LGA 1155 boards designed for Sandy Bridge with B61, H61, Q67, H67, P67 and Z68 chipsets. Most of them will work with Ivy with the latest BIOS.

Boards designed for Ivy have B75, Q75, Q77, B77, B75 and Z77 chipsets. Also Ivy has been out a year now any kinks with early stuff has long been fixed.

The overclocking boards are P67, Z68, Z75 and Z77 with Z77 being the latest and the greatest.
 
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Deleted member 217926

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I have been running my 2600K at 4.5Ghz on my Gigabyte P67A -UD4 since Jan 2011. It was the first LGA 1155 enthusiast chipset and was released with the Sandy Bridge chips. It was the only way to overclock LGA 1155 until Z68.
 
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