Is it possible to upgrade my old PC?

Jineus · Jan 14, 2016

I want to upgrade my old PC. I first built it in November of 2010. I'm afraid I might have to just build a new one altogether, but it would be awesome if I can just upgrade it to save some money.

I plan to upgrade my PC around March or May (spring break or summer break).

Here are the components:

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

GPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102909

RAM (I have two of these 8GB total):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231276

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131631

Storage:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

I don't know what components can fit into the case/motherboard that I have.
I know that I should change my CPU and GPU
I know that I should add an SSD
What else should I change and keep?

Thank you guys!

Dulith1118 · Jan 14, 2016

whats ur budget???

PeppermintFangs · Jan 14, 2016

The case is a no brainer, I'd definitely keep that to save some money. You could technically keep the storage, but I'd be surprised if you aren't experiencing significantly slower performance using a five year old HDD. As for the motherboard, it has an AM3 socket (Which AM3+ CPUs are backwards compatible with) and two PCI 2.0 x16 slots, so I don't see why you couldn't keep it too.

I have some recommendations, but first, what kind of things do you want to achieve on this computer? Are you primarily going to be gaming, editing, or rendering? And do you have a budget?

Jineus · Jan 14, 2016

Dulith1118 :

PeppermintFangs :

Thanks for the quick reply!

I just need it to play games and maybe stream every now and then. Games such as Rainbow Six Siege, CSGO, Starcraft 2. But at the same time, as newer games come out, I want to be able to play those too.

My budget is ~$600-700, but as long as the components can do what I need it to do, it can be a bit lower or higher.

joex444 · Jan 14, 2016

As for the motherboard, it has an AM3 socket and two PCI 2.0 slots, so I don't see why you couldn't keep it too.

The AMD CPUs, quite frankly, don't compete with Intel at the $150+ range. I would argue since the board doesn't have PCIe 3.0 and is an AM3 socket which doesn't offer any CPU truly worth getting over the Phenom II X4 965 that the board and CPU is useless as part of an upgraded build.

Cheapest upgrades: An SSD. The board has SATA-III, so it can handle the full bandwidth just fine.

Less cheap: An SSD + GPU. The CPU should handle a bit more than a 6870, but it will bottleneck high end cards.

A full upgrade: New CPU, Motherboard, GPU, RAM, and an SSD. Why RAM? They have DDR3-1333, which hinders performance and given how cheap RAM is there's not much reason not to just replace it. Basically just keep the PSU, case, and HDD (which is now just for storage).

Going the full upgrade route would result in also gaining a spare motherboard, CPU, RAM, and GPU. If later on they want to get a case, PSU, and a drive they could build a second machine for some purpose (other room, NAS server, cheap build for a friend/relative/child).

At $600-$700, I'd be tempted to lay a budget out that includes a $250 GPU, $70 for SSD. That allocates $320 of it, leaving $280-$380 for RAM, CPU, and board. If we look at RAM, 8GB would be about $40 so that could leave $240-$340 for the CPU and board. If we figure about $100 for the board, this puts us in the $140-$240 range for CPUs. That sounds like a Core i5-4460 + H97 board could do the trick, and come in closer to the $600 than the $700. At that point one could think about switching the 8GB out for 16GB, at the cost of pushing towards the $700 target.

Also worth pointing out, the case can handle ATX or MicroATX boards which is like 90% of what you'll find in H97/Z97/H170/Z170.

Jineus · Jan 14, 2016

joex444 :

As for the motherboard, it has an AM3 socket and two PCI 2.0 slots, so I don't see why you couldn't keep it too.

The AMD CPUs, quite frankly, don't compete with Intel at the $150+ range. I would argue since the board doesn't have PCIe 3.0 and is an AM3 socket which doesn't offer any CPU truly worth getting over the Phenom II X4 965 that the board and CPU is useless as part of an upgraded build.

Cheapest upgrades: An SSD. The board has SATA-III, so it can handle the full bandwidth just fine.

Less cheap: An SSD + GPU. The CPU should handle a bit more than a 6870, but it will bottleneck high end cards.

A full upgrade: New CPU, Motherboard, GPU, RAM, and an SSD. Why RAM? They have DDR3-1333, which hinders performance and given how cheap RAM is there's not much reason not to just replace it. Basically just keep the PSU, case, and HDD (which is now just for storage).

Going the full upgrade route would result in also gaining a spare motherboard, CPU, RAM, and GPU. If later on they want to get a case, PSU, and a drive they could build a second machine for some purpose (other room, NAS server, cheap build for a friend/relative/child).

At $600-$700, I'd be tempted to lay a budget out that includes a $250 GPU, $70 for SSD. That allocates $320 of it, leaving $280-$380 for RAM, CPU, and board. If we look at RAM, 8GB would be about $40 so that could leave $240-$340 for the CPU and board. If we figure about $100 for the board, this puts us in the $140-$240 range for CPUs. That sounds like a Core i5-4460 + H97 board could do the trick, and come in closer to the $600 than the $700. At that point one could think about switching the 8GB out for 16GB, at the cost of pushing towards the $700 target.

Also worth pointing out, the case can handle ATX or MicroATX boards which is like 90% of what you'll find in H97/Z97/H170/Z170.

Thank you for your answer!

I think I'll go with the full upgrade route. Is the 16GB of RAM worth it? I don't know how much RAM I need for gaming. I have 8GB on my other Computer. Should I upgrade that to 16GB?

Oh and will my Power Supply handle the new CPU and GPU?

PeppermintFangs · Jan 14, 2016

joex444 :

Sure, Intel CPUs have better per core performance, and admittedly are better all around. However, their price per performance ratios are appalling compared to AMD. If he had replied that he was looking to render and edit, I too would've recommend Intel. However, he is only looking to game, and a more expensive Intel CPU will not perform any better (FPS wise) in any of today's triple A titles.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvLRZxRL8N8"][/video]

Additionally, PCI 2.0 slots are not any less capable of performing than PCI 3.0.

PCI Express Backwards Compatibilityhttp://www.tomshardware.com/forum/344877-33-will-express-card-work-slot

If he wants to save money, and he will only be gaming, he does not need a new motherboard, or an Intel upgrade.

PeppermintFangs · Jan 14, 2016

Jineus :

You will not use more than 8GB of RAM in any of today's Triple A titles. I've hardly surpass 6GB of usage while playing BF4, Metro 2033, or The Witcher 3.

Also, if you only plan on gaming in the foreseeable future, I don't see why you couldn't allocate more funds to supply you with a better GPU rather than focusing on a better CPU.

You'd only have to spend about $140 for a decent FX CPU (8320). That leaves you with $420 (out of a $700 budget), if you bought a new motherboard. Minus a $70 SSD, you'd have $350 to spend on your graphics card. With that, I'd recommend purchasing a GTX 970, which currently goes for about $340 on Amazon.

You would notice a huge performance increase gaming wise versus the Intel build, as $250 is simply not enough for a high end graphics card.

Jineus · Jan 14, 2016

PeppermintFangs :

Jineus :

You will not use more than 8GB of RAM in any of today's Triple A titles. I've hardly surpass 6GB of usage while playing BF4, Metro 2033, or The Witcher 3.

Also, if you only plan on gaming in the foreseeable future, I don't see why you couldn't allocate more funds to supply you with a better GPU rather than focusing on a better CPU.

You'd only have to spend about $140 for a decent FX CPU (8320). That leaves you with $420 (out of a $700 budget), if you bought a new motherboard. Minus a $70 SSD, you'd have $350 to spend on your graphics card. With that, I'd recommend purchasing a GTX 970, which currently goes for about $340 on Amazon.

You would notice a huge performance increase gaming wise versus the Intel build, as $250 is simply not enough for a high end graphics card.

Awesome! Thank you so much!

PeppermintFangs · Jan 14, 2016

No problem, glad I could help! Let me know if you have any more questions...

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