$150 upgrade budget - will you help me choose?

sstilwell · Jul 19, 2017

Hey Guys,

I often find myself crawling back to this site for awesome knowledge and answers, so I figured I may as well jump right in and start a thread specific to my situation. Thanks for reading!

For some time I've been thinking I want to upgrade my PC for better all around performance. I just recently received a free Dell Precision T5500. My question is, do I spend $150 to upgrade my current gaming PC or do I spend $150 to make the T5500 capable of being a better system (I would swap over quite a few of the parts from my gaming PC).

Here's the details:

T5500
Dual CPUs, both are E5603 @ 1.6GHz - I would spend the $150 to upgrade these to dual X5680s which are 6-cores each at 3.33GHz
24GB of RAM
825 watt PSU

If I were to use the T5500 I would swap the SSD, HDD, & GPU from the gaming PC below.

Gaming PC
Cooler Master Case w/ too many fans...
AMD FX-4300 quad-core @ 3.8GHz
8GB of RAM
EVGA GTX 650 TI Boost SC w/ 2GB DDR5
450 watt PSU
SSD for OS (Win 7 64bit)
HDD for all other files
CPU cooler

If I were to use the gaming PC I would spend $150 to upgrade the GPU.

I generally use my PC for everything: moderate gaming, graphic design (Adobe CS6), multitasking, browsing, etc.

I essentially need to pick between the two basic options and go from there... how can I make best use of the $150 upgrade?

THANKS!

EDIT
I forgot to add that the 24GB of RAM on the T5500 is 6x2GB on the main mobo, and 3x4GB on the riser card. And they are operating at some random speed that I wouldn't have expected (i forgot the exact speed but it's around 630 maybe?) I would have expected to see it at 1333 or 1600 or something like that.

LORDPrometheus · Jul 19, 2017

dual X5680s will absolutely crush an fx4300 in all areas. as it is your gaming pc is very much out of date and upgrading it would be far more expensive than $150 and would require a new motherboard CPU ram and CPU cooler at minimum. the FX series has no valid upgrade path

sstilwell · Jul 19, 2017

LORDPrometheus :

I get what you're saying... however I've read that most games usually only utilize one, or a maximum of 4 cores from the CPU, which tends to suggest that the higher GHz CPU would be best for gaming. I'm considering over clocking the FX-4300 to 4.3GHz considering my system keeps it idling at a cool 10C (I have a hard time believing this is true), and it maxes at like 34C... I can likely afford to crank it up!

My one thought is... The Dual X5680s will definitely provide a massive increase in multitasking power, but will they do well with games that can only utilize a few cores when it's at 3.33GHz?

LORDPrometheus · Jul 19, 2017

sstilwell :

perhaps i was too optimistic initially i did a bit more research and realized you were using a much older xeon than i thought. as such my suggestion has changed.
Dont upgrade now.

a meaningful improvement that actually will bring your system up to more modern standards needs a new CPU new motherboard ddr4 ram a new PSU and a new GPU AND a new CPU cooler.

my recommendation is to save up a bit and buy a ryzen 3 series chip when they are released. they should run around $100 and be probably 3-5 times faster than an Fx4300. you will need a new motherboard but that shouldent run you more than $60 for a usable one. ram should aslo be about $60. a cpu cooler maybe $20.

after than you should look for a used 900 series Nvidia GPU like a 960 or 970 they are only around $100-150 and are crap at mining so usually not badly abused. a new 650 watt psu is like $40 so with all this you get around

$380 and give yourself a very solid upgrade path

sstilwell · Jul 19, 2017

LORDPrometheus :

sstilwell :

perhaps i was too optimistic initially i did a bit more research and realized you were using a much older xeon than i thought. as such my suggestion has changed.
Dont upgrade now.

a meaningful improvement that actually will bring your system up to more modern standards needs a new CPU new motherboard ddr4 ram a new PSU and a new GPU AND a new CPU cooler.

my recommendation is to save up a bit and buy a ryzen 3 series chip when they are released. they should run around $100 and be probably 3-5 times faster than an Fx4300. you will need a new motherboard but that shouldent run you more than $60 for a usable one. ram should aslo be about $60. a cpu cooler maybe $20.

after than you should look for a used 900 series Nvidia GPU like a 960 or 970 they are only around $100-150 and are crap at mining so usually not badly abused. a new 650 watt psu is like $40 so with all this you get around

$380 and give yourself a very solid upgrade path

On the one hand I do like the idea of awesome new hardware capable of outperforming my entire system, but on the other hand we're talking about spending $380 to replace a majority of my crucial components versus the original idea of only spending $150. Don't get me wrong, I love to spend my money on computer parts... but I can't yet justify spending more than about $150.

LORDPrometheus · Jul 20, 2017

sstilwell :

LORDPrometheus :

On the one hand I do like the idea of awesome new hardware capable of outperforming my entire system, but on the other hand we're talking about spending $380 to replace a majority of my crucial components versus the original idea of only spending $150. Don't get me wrong, I love to spend my money on computer parts... but I can't yet justify spending more than about $150.

That is fully understandable. in that case i think i would recommend getting an FX8350 to replace your Fx4300. that way you don't need to change anything else. While this isn't going to put you on par with more modern systems it is the only upgrade path you have on an AM3+ board really. You can find them on sale online for around $130. then if you want you can try and sell your old workstation and save up a bit for a new graphics card

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