2 year old build. what should i upgrade?

[Goofy Goof]

I built my PC a couple years ago first one i ever did.

Specs:

Windows 7 64 bit
AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
MSI 870-G45 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD
CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
EVGA 512-P3-1240-LR GeForce GT 240 512MB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready

I just bought mass effect 1 and it runs fine so i don't have a problem with games.
but i do alot of 3ds max, blender, photshop and after effects. What should i upgrade to give me a little boost in those programs? especially 3ds max cuz it lags a little when rendering

Also since its been a while when buying RAM what should i lok for so it is compatible with MOBO just the pin size?
what about for the video card?

 

[nekulturny]

I would upgrade the CPU to a Phenom II x6 1090Thuban. Video editing are CPU intensive, so this is where the extra cores will help you out. They're getting hard to find as I think AMD discontinuted em. I checked the usual suspects (Newegg, Tigerdirect and MicroCenter) neither of em have any. So good luck. I hear that Bulldozers can be made to work with AM3 boards, however I wont advise it as I have not attempted myself.

You could stand some more RAM. You want to check the voltage and RAM timing, ideally you want to get exactly what you already have. Your board supports up to 4 x 4GB DDR3 1.5volt.

The video card will be showing its age a little bit, but you don't really need a powerful video card to do video editing. I know, that sounds thilly.

Check out Ebay see if you can find a 1090T from a reputable seller, I checked, I found a few. They're a black edition, and you can overclock them modestly and get a nice little umph out of em.

 

[Goofy Goof]

I would upgrade the CPU to a Phenom II x6 1090Thuban. Video editing are CPU intensive, so this is where the extra cores will help you out. They're getting hard to find as I think AMD discontinuted em. I checked the usual suspects (Newegg, Tigerdirect and MicroCenter) neither of em have any. So good luck. I hear that Bulldozers can be made to work with AM3 boards, however I wont advise it as I have not attempted myself.

You could stand some more RAM. You want to check the voltage and RAM timing, ideally you want to get exactly what you already have. Your board supports up to 4 x 4GB DDR3 1.5volt.

The video card will be showing its age a little bit, but you don't really need a powerful video card to do video editing. I know, that sounds thilly.

Check out Ebay see if you can find a 1090T from a reputable seller, I checked, I found a few. They're a black edition, and you can overclock them modestly and get a nice little umph out of em.

so this cpu ryt ?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106012
its compatible with my mobo?

 

[nekulturny]

That is a 1045T, its locked, so it can't be overclocked.. This is the one I was trying to find you.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103849

Yes the 1045 is compatible, but the 1090 is the superior option. Even if you're not planning to overclock.

 

[Goofy Goof]

That is a 1045T, its locked, so it can't be overclocked.. This is the one I was trying to find you.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103849

Yes the 1045 is compatible, but the 1090 is the superior option. Even if you're not planning to overclock.

yea i was looking at that one a while ago but kept seeing out of stock

one more question for RAM i have to look for thats its compatible with motherboard in

pin
speed
and ram timing (where can i find what timing my board supports?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130290

thats all?

 

[nekulturny]

All DDR3 is 240pin. You might run into ECC ram shopping online, however you'll notice they're substantially more expensive. You want non-ECC RAM (ECC RAM is for things like Servers) Timing on RAM is not something I understand that much I'll admit. But your board should support anything, its a matter of it matching the RAM you already have (unless you want to replace it completely with 4 new 4GB sticks- Thats probably the route I would go). That information should be on the back of the RAM chips themselves. It will look something like this 7-7-7-21.

 

[nekulturny]

https://www.insight.com/search/ppp.web?fromSearch=true&fromIB=&materialId=HDT90ZFBGRBOX

You might be in luck, I found this off AMD's website. These CPUs are getting really rare, and its the best option you have without going with a different motherboard, so get one while you can.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

I would definitely go 8 gb of ram. You can do CPU, I actually work in a corporate environment in the IT dept, a friend who does web design has a system with a Phenom II x4 840 but he has 8 gb of ram, works with PhotoShop and dreamweaver a bit, and said what made a big difference for him was an ssd. Right now you can get a 60 gb OCZ at microcenter for around 60 bucks. A CPU upgrade would be great, but I'm tempted to say with more ram and an ssd you should at least see faster loading times. I know my friend from work said that when he got his ssd, pictures in PhotoShop just pop up. Also I would consider a video card soon, the gt 240 is only about as powerful as a 9600gt, and I imagine will show its age before too long.