Component suggestions for x58 upgrade

[airjocky2]

Hi all,

Looking for suggestions on components to upgrade a system I built in 2008. I'm looking to max out ram, install new hard drives (preferably solid state), install new GPU, install new optical disk drive and install windows 10. I probably won't overclock but I might want to in the future. I'm also looking to make it compatible with oculus rift.

Here are current specs:

Evga X58 3 way sli mobo
Evga gtx 295
Velociraptor 250mb hardrive
Western digital 500mb hard drive
3 sticks of 2gb corsair dominator ddr3 1600
Samsung 22x dvd +/- R Sata DVD burner
Corsair 1000w power supply
Windows vista ultimate

Some questions I have are:

1. Any suggestions on solid state drives for my rig? Looking for something backwards compatible with sata II and two drives each 1 terabyte. Am I wasting my time shooting for speed with solid state in sata II? Should I just get some 7200rpm drives to save money or are solid states still way better on this rig even though they'd be sata II?

2. Any advice on ram to max this thing out?

3. What's a preffered optical drive nowadays? Blueray with write capability?

4. What's a good GPU for this? I was thinking evga 1080. Is there anything I can do with my old gtx 295? I hear it's pointless to use it as a separate physx card

5. Does it really matter which version of windows 10 I use?

6. I guess I also need to install a USB 3.0 card too right?

Thanks for any advice

 

[skit75]

Hate to say it but you might just want to move to new hardware and I say that as a fellow x58'r. You are approaching the ten year mark on the electrolytic capacitors. There has been enough incremental CPU upgrades to actually feel a difference.

1. New motherboard with NvMe controller

2. x58 maxes out @ 24GB/tri channel controller = 6x4GB DIMMS of DDR3 1600MHz

3. no opinion here

4. put it in the museum, the 295 runs too hot for your next rig and the 1080 can do it all anyway.

5. Nope, not really

6. new motherboard

 

[Corwin65]

Start a new build. Nothing really for you to carry over except maybe your optical drive.

 

[airjocky2]

I was trying to avoid a new build and just make this one as good as I could for the time being by just sprucing up ram, storage, OS, and GPU.

 

[1LiquidPC]

Still a viable PC you have now. I have an X58 system with similar spec running today. I7 980X, ASUS P6T Deluxe Velociraptor HDD and Samsung 830 SSD OS drive, and GTX 295 with 12GB of Corsair DDR3 1600. My question for you is what CPU you have? If you doubled your RAM(using 2 6gb kits myself in X58) should be fine. I'd also go for an SSD. All the SATA 6G SSDs should work fine in your 3G supported board. Lose some performance, but still better than HDD. I'd recommend 850 EVO Samsung drives or something similar. My Pioneer BDR-2209 in current system works great for me for optical drive. USB 3.0card should be fine as plenty of PCI-E lanes. However, no PCI-E 3.0 support, so some performance will be lost for GPU. GTX 295 is sadly pretty useless these days. Not really a Physx option. If you consider OCing your CPU, I'd think a GTX 1070 is a solid choice. I think a 1080 would be held back, possibly more from lack of PCI-E 3.0. With all this said, what is your budget? If to high with your part choices, even a GTX 1060 or RX480 should be a nice upgrade.

 

[airjocky2]

Based on some of this advice I've decided I'm just gonna do an incremental upgrade.

1. Flashing EVGA x58 e758 bios to latest (haven't done in about 5 years)
2. Installing windows 10 home 64bit OEM
3. Putting in Corsair Vengence 3x4gb DDR3 1600
4. Installing Samsung Evo 1TB ssd with SATA II cables. Might add another later
5. Might get EVGA 1060 at some point.
6. Install a USB 3.0 front plate.

Does this all sound reasonable and get me started on the right track to a VR ready system?

 

[1LiquidPC]

What CPU do you have? Plan to OC? If your ok here, I'd think you would be ok for VR. However, Oculus at least, is picky with USB 3.0 chipsets.