Computer Upgrade (bought it in 2013)

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cronos87

Commendable
Dec 22, 2016
12
0
1,510
Hi guys,

I bought almost 4 years ago my current computer:

MidiTower ATX cooler Master mod. Elite 330 with frontal USB, black.
ASROCK Z68 Extreme4 Gen3
CORE i7-2700K 3,50GHz LGA1155 BOX
HD 500 GB SEAGATE SATA3
Memory DDR3 4 GB 1333 MHZ KINGSTON (X2)
Geforce GTX560 1GB GDDR5 Pci exp
ATX LC-Power 600W LC6600 Super silent V2.2
Microsoft WINDOWS 7 home premium SP1 32 bit

How can I improve this set?

I use my computer for some 3d modelling (revit architecture, rhinoceros), 2d drawings (Autocad) indesign and some work in photoshop(not super advanced stuff).
I would like also to play the latest videogames (The witcher 3 for example, but I dont aim to play with ultra graphic settings and really high FPS)

One thing that I would like to have is a SSD to improve the speed but let's see what you have in mind!

ah, le'ts say that the budget is around 550 USD.

thanks for your help and your time!

Cheers,
 
Solution
DSzymborski
I'd strongly urge a PSU change even if you kept the hardware as-is; that's low-end junk and shouldn't really be in any PC to begin with. Luckily, it hasn't fried anything, though subtler long-term damage is a real possibility. This is the priority problem, one that already exists.

As for upgrades, while there are better CPUs now, there's no compelling reason to upgrade the CPU if you're currently happy with its performance. It's still an excellent CPU and you'll get faster performance from a 7700k or a Ryzen, but it's not *that* much faster unless you're running those type of workstation applications 40 hours a week for a job, where time literally is money. The CPU overclocks well if you need some extra oomph, as was suggested...
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jaslion

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Dec 17, 2012
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A gtx 1060 or rx 580 a new decent psu and a random 240gb ssd. Also why do you have win 7 32 bit it limits your ram to 3.85 gb so you are missing out on a lot of your ram.
 
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T

tsnor

Splendid
Nov 20, 2008
3,702
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24,965
SSD improves boot time and might possibly improve time to load the datafiles for rendering. Fairly easy install. Samsung is considered a price/performance/stability leader, Consider Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III $170 at amazon. It's as large as your current drive, so you can just clone your current drive to the SSD. (plug both in, use free cloning SW from either seagate or samsung, tell the software to 'clone' that makes an exact copy. The the bios to use the new SSD. Keep the old drive as a backup or format it down and use as a data drive -- both drives can be in your PC. You will need a SATA cable, $7. Likely your PC has a free PCIE power cable.

Next upgrade would be video. $250 GTX 1060 w/6 GB (not 3 GB because you all run aps on the card)
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-560-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1060-6GB/3155vs3639
Staying with nvidia because rendering SW is more apt to use nvidia for acceleration (cuda support as well as opencl).

Final upgrade is CPU+MB+Memory. You have to do these as a set, that why I'd do this after the GPU upgrade.

The $550 budget doesn't let you upgrade cpu+mb+ video after you do the ssd and gpu. If you do not currently overclock your 2700K I'd be tempted to give the 2700K a push toward 4Ghz at reasonable voltage. Plenty of guides. Stock cooler will limit you, but you can still likey get a stable 20% from it. Do clean the dust out of the heat sink before you start and watch temps during a long video render.
 
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J

jaslion

Splendid
Dec 17, 2012
6,425
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22,160


Do note that his current psu is junk tier and dangerous and will not be able to use anything that requires more power and an overlcok will most likely trip the psu and make it fail.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
C

cronos87

Commendable
Dec 22, 2016
12
0
1,510
Hi guys,

I bought almost 4 years ago my current computer:

MidiTower ATX cooler Master mod. Elite 330 with frontal USB, black.
ASROCK Z68 Extreme4 Gen3
CORE i7-2700K 3,50GHz LGA1155 BOX
HD 500 GB SEAGATE SATA3
Memory DDR3 4 GB 1333 MHZ KINGSTON (X2)
Geforce GTX560 1GB GDDR5 Pci exp
ATX LC-Power 600W LC6600 Super silent V2.2
Microsoft WINDOWS 7 home premium SP1 32 bit

How can I improve this set?

I use my computer for some 3d modelling (revit architecture, rhinoceros), 2d drawings (Autocad) indesign and some work in photoshop(not super advanced stuff).
I would like also to play the latest videogames (The witcher 3 for example, but I dont aim to play with ultra graphic settings and really high FPS)

One thing that I would like to have is a SSD to improve the speed but let's see what you have in mind!

ah, le'ts say that the budget is around 550 USD.

thanks for your help and your time!

Cheers,


A gtx 1060 or rx 580 a new decent psu and a random 240gb ssd. Also why do you have win 7 32 bit it limits your ram to 3.85 gb so you are missing out on a lot of your ram.
Click to expand...

In reality I think that I have a 64bit cause I just checked in dxdiag and it look like I have a 64 bit.

Can you be more specific on the PSU? The reason of a new PSU is because the additional SSD and the Graphic card? Isn't it?
Could you please propose a model?


SSD improves boot time and might possibly improve time to load the datafiles for rendering. Fairly easy install. Samsung is considered a price/performance/stability leader, Consider Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III $170 at amazon. It's as large as your current drive, so you can just clone your current drive to the SSD. (plug both in, use free cloning SW from either seagate or samsung, tell the software to 'clone' that makes an exact copy. The the bios to use the new SSD. Keep the old drive as a backup or format it down and use as a data drive -- both drives can be in your PC. You will need a SATA cable, $7. Likely your PC has a free PCIE power cable.

Next upgrade would be video. $250 GTX 1060 w/6 GB (not 3 GB because you all run aps on the card)
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-560-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1060-6GB/3155vs3639
Staying with nvidia because rendering SW is more apt to use nvidia for acceleration (cuda support as well as opencl).

Final upgrade is CPU+MB+Memory. You have to do these as a set, that why I'd do this after the GPU upgrade.

The $550 budget doesn't let you upgrade cpu+mb+ video after you do the ssd and gpu. If you do not currently overclock your 2700K I'd be tempted to give the 2700K a push toward 4Ghz at reasonable voltage. Plenty of guides. Stock cooler will limit you, but you can still likey get a stable 20% from it. Do clean the dust out of the heat sink before you start and watch temps during a long video render.
Click to expand...

sounds good the option of a new SSD and clone the current one in the SSD (even though I am not sure about this process, do you think I can do it by myself? I am not really expert on computer .... )

I didnt understand why you suggest 6 GB instead of 3 for the graphic card, could you please explain it?

so basically I can upgrade the graphic card first ( lets say buy and install a GTX 1060 w/6 GB) and then later change the CPU, motyher board and memory? Is it correct?

Which model do you recommend me for the CPU, motherboard and memory?

(the memory that I have are so bad?!)

Thank you!








 
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J

jaslion

Splendid
Dec 17, 2012
6,425
0
22,160


 
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C

cronos87

Commendable
Dec 22, 2016
12
0
1,510


Thanks for your explanation !

What did u mean with the last sentence " Give it an oc and you're even better of." ?
 
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J

jaslion

Splendid
Dec 17, 2012
6,425
0
22,160


An overclock will give you a nice boost in cpu intensive games like bf1 and will allow you to keep using this cpu for years to come without a problem.
 
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DSzymborski

DSzymborski

Curmudgeon Pursuivant
Moderator
Nov 19, 2010
20,886
5,113
106,640
I'd strongly urge a PSU change even if you kept the hardware as-is; that's low-end junk and shouldn't really be in any PC to begin with. Luckily, it hasn't fried anything, though subtler long-term damage is a real possibility. This is the priority problem, one that already exists.

As for upgrades, while there are better CPUs now, there's no compelling reason to upgrade the CPU if you're currently happy with its performance. It's still an excellent CPU and you'll get faster performance from a 7700k or a Ryzen, but it's not *that* much faster unless you're running those type of workstation applications 40 hours a week for a job, where time literally is money. The CPU overclocks well if you need some extra oomph, as was suggested above.

The most obvious place to upgrade is the GPU. You can get a 1070 if you want to guarantee top 1080p performance for a while or 1440p. If you don't need it to be quite as long-term, 1060 6 GB and RX 580 are excellent GPUs, the former if you play a lot of exising games, the latter if you're more worried about upcoming games (either will be fine in either case, the differences are subtle).

After the priority change of the PC and then the GPU, swapping out your RAM to a 2x8 set will be beneficial for your productivity. While you can add 2x4 with as close to the specs of RAM instead of buying a 2x8 kit, RAM can be a bit obnoxious, occasionally even when you add the exact same model manufactured at a different time. Unless the budget is absolutely crucial, I recommend getting a 2x8 kit instead, of at least 1600. Mixing can be a little like being at an event with the person you're currently with and an ex.
 
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