Time To Upgrade, Part 2: Picking The Parts To Replace
Table of contents
- 1. Old Vs. New: Where To Spend Your Upgrade Dollars?
- 2. Scenario 1: Motherboard/CPU/RAM
- 3. Scenario 2: Graphics Upgrade
- 4. Scenario 3: SSD Upgrade
- 5. Test Systems And Benchmarks
- 6. Scenario 1 Results: Synthetic Benchmarks
- 7. Scenario 1 Results: Application Benchmarks
- 8. Scenario 1 Results: Efficiency And Power Consumption
- 9. Scenario 2 Results: PCMark Vantage
- 10. Scenario 2 Results: 3DMark Vantage
- 11. Scenario 2 Results: Games And Power Consumption
- 12. Scenario 3 Results: PCMark Vantage
- 13. Scenario 3 Results: SYSmark 2007 Results
- 14. Scenario 3 Results: Startup, Shutdown
- 15. Conclusion
After looking at whether or not it makes sense to replace a PC built back in 2007 with a more modern machine, we decided to examine three component upgrade options—graphics, storage, and the motherboard/CPU/RAM platform—separately.
We recently looked at the effects of replacing the pieces in a 2007-era mainstream PC with modern components. We took a P35 platform with a Core 2 Quad, GeForce 8-series card, and a Western Digital Raptor hard drive, and then compared it to a brand new P55-based platform with a Core i7-870, a Radeon HD 5870, and a SandForce SF-1200-based SSD.
The results proved what most people expected: the differences are significant, but it only makes sense for an enthusiast or gamer to replace the entire configuration. What if we were to look at the component upgrades individually? Today we're taking the same components and analyzing three primary upgrade routes:
- Motherboard/processor/RAM upgrade
- Graphics upgrade
- HDD/SSD upgrade
Some readers criticize this type of article, saying it’s obvious that newer hardware will outperform older components, be more efficient, and both. We can’t argue with that. Our real question is to ask how large the differences are, and whether or not an upgrade actually makes sense for you. In more and more cases, the overabundance of performance available through current-gen hardware is almost irrelevant given that mainstream applications only use a fraction of the system's potential. Users replacing an older Porsche 911 with a new model indeed get more performance and more technology, but they probably won’t take advantage of those improvements unless they visit a race track, or at least drive during off-peak traffic hours.
The same applies to PCs. Ever since dual-core CPUs arrived, we've shed most multitasking bottlenecks. Applications that take advantage of multiple processing cores have realized greater performance gains than any clock speed increase could have delivered in the past. This results in more than enough performance for mainstream users, while enthusiasts and professionals remain on the hunt for state-of-the-art hardware.
Clearly, it doesn’t make much sense to outright dump a three-year-old PC, but there are ways to optimize performance for less cost than what a complete replacement would run. We decided to break down our upgrade package from that previous article and look at the benefits each component introduces separately.
Once again, the base system is a MSI P35 Platinum with a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6700 and 4 GB of DDR2 memory along with a GeForce 8800 GTS and WD’s 150 GB Raptor drive. You’ll find the upgrade components listed on the following pages.
- MSI,
- Performance PC,
- Build Your Own,
- G.Skill,
- OCZ,
- Intel,
- Zotac,
- component ,
- upgrade ,
- ssd
- 1 / 3
- Next
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I'm not one of the readers who criticize this type of articles.. It underlines that a 3-years-old pc is not junk and that a prudent use of newest technology (SSD) can save a large amount of money to power and mainstream user.. And still, it's possible to play to the most recent games just replacing the graphic card (no one comment "You can't play crysis in full HD with this configuration", please.. ) sorry for any potential language error, I'm italian
I have a i-920 with SLI support, So what card would you suggest I upgrade to?
Being a budget minded gamer I would go with videocard first and overclock the processor as much as possible. Done in the past and will have to repeat in the future. After reading the article it looks like a SSD will be my next replacement after new videocard
Reading articles like this just makes me sad to actually buy certain hardware. PC components are the only thing on the planet that depreciate in value faster than cars.
Oh come on. You should have bought a q9400 and a gtx 460, overclocked both and voila, you have a modern gaming rig.
This article just seems kind of hollow to me.
Surprise surprise, the gamer needs a new GPU, and besides professional users there really isn't a justifiable upgrade for any other user.
I'm not impressed. What I would do is overclock the existing processor and avoid upgrading until another generation comes out. For all intents and purposes a quad core is a quad core regardless if its i7 or Core2.
Graphics I would just spend $50 and throw a second 8800 GTS in SLI. Yeah you're missing out on DX11 stuff, but I wouldn't be crying in my milk. On the other hand I would never tell someone to buy a 5870 as an "upgrade". If you're going to spend that much then you might as well build on a whole new platform.
Ram can be left alone.
Hard drive, as long as its 7200 rpm it could probably hold off for another generation or two before an upgrade. If you need more space then go for a 2 TB WD Caviar Black.
wow....people here obviously have a lot of dosh.
my 'rents are still operating on an old P4, 1gb of ram, 80gb hdd and an 8600gt(cause i wanted a basic GPU).....i wish i could upgrade my comp to what they recommend here
@Tom's you might wanna fix this
Don't forget that Tom's Hardware (like every other site of this type) sells ad space to hardware manufacturers so they don't have much incentive to tell you there is no need to upgrade or that a minimal upgrade will do just as well.
- that conclusion makes me a gamer then........
- because the video card I intend to upgrade
- however, a gamer? at 30 years old????????
- come on, be serious.......
- well, nevertheless a new PC I do not intend to buy in this year.....
- later on, will see........
Here are some thoughts on this series:
1. Some sort of budget or price/performance goal should be set to measure what and when to upgrade. For example the MoBo/CPU/RAM upgrade probably cost more than building a hot new gaming system.
2. They should have linked to their article that showed about graphics cards and CPUs that showed that a high-end graphics card has more power than even the latest CPU. Not sure if I'm recalling that right but it was something like that.
3. Hopefully Part 3 will talk about the other parts of the system. Things like: When should I replace my case, power supply, etc. What add on cards or configuration changes (RAID, sound card, etc.) will give me a cost effective performance boost.
4. Maybe Tom's should start a web site for main stream users focused on incremental performance boosts. How do you keep your system up-to-date, tuned-up and when and what to upgrade to keep at the playable end of gaming. They could also point out which features aren't ready for the mainstream just yet - DirectX 11, SATA 6, etc.
5. I'm still wondering why boot time is so important. I usually press the power button and go to the bathroom. Enter my password and pour my coffee. So who cares if the system boots 30 sec. faster? For that matter who shuts their system off?
Here are some thoughts on this series:
I'm guessing you're old.
Much better article, I still wonder if they overclocked the older processor to 3ghz, how much that gap would decrease?
I must counter the SSD argument with this: How many people don't have more than 150GB of storage, even in their 3-year old computer? You compared a 3-year old 150GB HDD with a brand new 100GB SSD. I know that 150GB wouldn't even hold all the games I have downloaded off steam, much less the ones I don't have downloaded, much less anything else. My wife converted videos from VHS to DVD recently, and those old family tapes took up a few hundred GBs. My point is, I don't think too many people are still running a single 150GB Raptor if they are financially capable of buying a $300 SSD. Two Raptors in RAID 0 would probably not see much benefit from a move to SSD, and if we're talking storage capacity, how does any amount of speed counter that fact that I can get a 2TB HDD for cheaper than a 100GB SSD? I have to think capacity trumps speed for most power users and gamers.
"Yeah, Bioshock 2 loads real fast off my SSD, too bad I can't store it and Modern Warfare 2 on my drive at the same time. That 8-hour download off Steam between gaming sessions is a real kicker, but damn, the 30-seconds off the load time is really sweet".
Nope, I think its bunk to recommend SSD to the Maintstream user, and as for Gamers and Power users, they'll have to determine the trade-off between storage capacity and speed. You can't store 500GB of data on a 100GB drive, no matter how much faster things load.
you should have gotten more into details on scenario 2. What about CPU-scaling on the new dx11 cards. I am in the same position pondering a gpu-update from a 4870 on a q6600, but I don't think it will make things faster in gta4, crysis, metro.
you should have gotten more into details on scenario 2. What about CPU-scaling on the new dx11 cards. I am in the same position pondering a gpu-update from a 4870 on a q6600, but I don't think it will make things faster in gta4, crysis, metro.
I think what you have right now can stand on it's 2 feet for a few more months. When ATI (oh wait can't call it that anymore *eye roll*) comes out with the 6000 series, then I would pull the trigger and do a gpu upgrade but leave the cpu alone. Maybe 2 years-1 year ago games didn't scale well with multiple cores (so a 3.8 ghz x2 would be better than a 2.6 x 4), but nowadays "slow" quad cores are just fine for games.
Just my 2 cents.
You can't store 500GB of data on a 100GB drive, no matter how much faster things load.
In terms of performance, it also isn't like SSDs are a million miles ahead of magnetic drives anyways. Put up 2 defragged caviar blacks in Raid 0 ($160) vs a $300 SSD and you'll get pretty much identical performance in real usage at half the cost with 10x the capacity.
I read a bunch of articles before I made an upgrade to my high end system. For day to day use, I have a 64G SSD holding my OS. I put everything else on a 1TB 7200 drive. Boot up, program load and shutdown are all noticeably snappier. I have a few things besides the OS on the 64G drive. Far Cry is the one game I have on it. It loads very fast now; I did compare it to loading from the 1TB drive and loading from the SSD. It's way faster. So, for any user, a SSD would be an upgrade that would make any computer seem a lot faster in day to day use.
Articles like this do help a lot of us who have older machines. In a couple of years I will be looking at articles on how to upgrade my older machine. At this time I am perfectly happy with an X58 motherboard, 6 gig of triple channel DDR3 ram, an I7-930 and a GTX480 video card.
Well...I don't really need to read this article. When my wife dropped my desktop a couple of weeks ago I had to replace the broken video card and motherboard, and since my old mobo was only DDR2 I had to get 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3, plus I took advantage of the situation to get a new HSF so I can better overclock my Ph. II X3 720 BE. This ends up being a blessing in disguise as I was able to get an essentially new computer for under $700. The icing on the cake will be a fresh, new install of Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit...so I'm probably set for a while...