Old Warhorse PC rig, what parts to upgrade? Is my MoBo salvageable?

[doucette.ryan7]

Hello, I'm looking for some assistance in upgrading my rig. It's been a while since I swapped out any parts, and I feel like my current rig has lived a good long life. It seems that either half my RAM sticks died, or the MoBo ports are dead so I'm wondering if I should swap out the MoBo regardless. I'm not too savvy with comparability of new pieces, so I would appreciate some expert advice. Please let me know if i can provide more information.

Here's the current setup:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU@3.30GHz (4 CPUs)
Memmory: 16GB showing (I actually have 32GB plugged in. 4 8GB ripjaws)
Display: AMD Radeon HD 6900
MoBo: ASRock P67 Extreme4

I want to be able to play current games, and be prepared for future games a few years out. What are my weakest links, and what new parts would you suggest that are compatible with my current MoBo?

Thanks in advance-
Ryan

 

[DSzymborski]

Hello, I'm looking for some assistance in upgrading my rig. It's been a while since I swapped out any parts, and I feel like my current rig has lived a good long life. It seems that either half my RAM sticks died, or the MoBo ports are dead so I'm wondering if I should swap out the MoBo regardless. I'm not too savvy with comparability of new pieces, so I would appreciate some expert advice. Please let me know if i can provide more information.

Here's the current setup:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU@3.30GHz (4 CPUs)
Memmory: 16GB showing (I actually have 32GB plugged in. 4 8GB ripjaws)
Display: AMD Radeon HD 6900
MoBo: ASRock P67 Extreme4

I want to be able to play current games, and be prepared for future games a few years out. What are my weakest links, and what new parts would you suggest that are compatible with my current MoBo?

Thanks in advance-
Ryan

The CPU can adequately handle newer games. There are better platforms now, but you could run a GTX 1060 without a problem and get very respectable game performance at 1080p, though not maxing out the quality settings. 16 GB is still fine, so while it'd be nice to get that working, it's not necessarily a dealbreaker.

Given the age of the platform, any motherboard upgrade should be to a newer platform, which also means a new CPU and new RAM. You'll get improvements, but you also have the option to just add a GTX 1060 and maybe finding an 2600k/2700k if you're unhappy with the output. It really depends on your budget.

I'll flip the question around on you. Apart from the rig being old and the problem with the RAM, what are you not able to do on your PC that you'd like to be doing? That's the key question for an upgrade.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I want to be able to play current games, and be prepared for future games a few years out. What are my weakest links, and what new parts would you suggest that are compatible with my current MoBo?

Weakest link obviously is gpu there. GTX 1060 would be a great upgrade.
If motherboard is failing, then you'll have to change it too. Something with intel Z77 chipset.
It's possible PSU also needs to be replaced. What is model name of your current PSU?

 

[Supermuncher85]

I had a 6950 and the GTX960 doubled my gaming FPS. The 1080ti I have no pretty much quadrouled that.


So yes GPU upgrade first, CPU cooler so you can overclock and then an SSD.

 

[doucette.ryan7]

Hello, I'm looking for some assistance in upgrading my rig. It's been a while since I swapped out any parts, and I feel like my current rig has lived a good long life. It seems that either half my RAM sticks died, or the MoBo ports are dead so I'm wondering if I should swap out the MoBo regardless. I'm not too savvy with comparability of new pieces, so I would appreciate some expert advice. Please let me know if i can provide more information.

Here's the current setup:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU@3.30GHz (4 CPUs)
Memmory: 16GB showing (I actually have 32GB plugged in. 4 8GB ripjaws)
Display: AMD Radeon HD 6900
MoBo: ASRock P67 Extreme4

I want to be able to play current games, and be prepared for future games a few years out. What are my weakest links, and what new parts would you suggest that are compatible with my current MoBo?

Thanks in advance-
Ryan

The CPU can adequately handle newer games. There are better platforms now, but you could run a GTX 1060 without a problem and get very respectable game performance at 1080p, though not maxing out the quality settings. 16 GB is still fine, so while it'd be nice to get that working, it's not necessarily a dealbreaker.

Given the age of the platform, any motherboard upgrade should be to a newer platform, which also means a new CPU and new RAM. You'll get improvements, but you also have the option to just add a GTX 1060 and maybe finding an 2600k/2700k if you're unhappy with the output. It really depends on your budget.

I'll flip the question around on you. Apart from the rig being old and the problem with the RAM, what are you not able to do on your PC that you'd like to be doing? That's the key question for an upgrade.

Thanks for replying, and for the info! To be honest, I just purchased a game called Player Unknown's Battlegrounds the other day. My gaming community is pretty active with playing this game, and it's a lot of fun but I'm experiencing severe framerate issues and stuttering. Apparently this game is optimized very poorly so I'm trying not to take it too personally. The graphics aren't even too flashy with normal settings, and I have to turn down EVERYTHING to very low and I still chop really bad... I also experience some framerate issues in a few places in my heavily modded Skyrim game with ENB. Particularly around water and fire.

 

[doucette.ryan7]

To lay out options, the GTX 1060 or 1080ti would be compatible with my current motherboard?

Or, if I wanted to spring for a new-age mobo and GPU, would I also need to upgrade my processor?

 

[SkyNetRising]

New age mobo obviously requires also new age cpu and new age ram.

Upgrade GPU first. Possibly PSU also. What's your PSU model name btw?
Then see, how this improves gaming performance and decide on cpu upgrade.