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Time to upgrade
Been a while since I upgraded my system, and I believe it's finally time! (Well, I'll probably wait for near christmas, maybe there will be some better deals).
My current system is:
CPU: i5 4670k - 3.40 GHz
Memory: 2x4GB DDR3
GPU: R9 290
Motherboard: MSI z97 g55 sli
PSU: 650W
HDD: 1TB Sata 3
The GPU is the latest part I got (2015), while the Motherboard, CPU, and RAM are one year prior (2014). The rest are like 8+ years old now. I have a bit of money to "spare" (Should be saving them for school but I'll need my pc for programming on unity and such so it needs to handle them), and so I was thinking on upgrading the rest to be on par with today gaming standards. I might check for a GPU later on, depending on the amount of money required (Thanks bitcoin miners...).
So far what I got are:
RAM: HyperX Fury 2x8GB DDR3 1866 MHz - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00J8E910Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
PSU: EVGA 650W GQ - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017ROH8A6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
SSD: SanDisk PLUS 240GB - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01F9G43WU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
HDD: WD BLUE 1TB - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0088PUEPK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
As you can see, i'll be trying an SSD for the first time. I was contemplating between 120 and 240, but the difference in price isn't that outstanding for the added commodity. Since I already own a 1TB HDD I thought to either use both or scrap the old and in the newer one. The HDD works, but it got hit by lightning like 8 years ago.... plus it's getting older now. I have room for multiple HDDs tough so I'll probably use both.
The CPU shouldn't bottleneck the system if I do said upgrades right? Same goes for the motherboard.
(I'll be also switching to windows 10 from windows 8, mainly for the new metro game heh)
To conclude; Good/Bad? Anything I should change?
Thanks for the help! I'll check the replies in the morning/later as it's 12:30 am as I'm creating this thread.
My current system is:
CPU: i5 4670k - 3.40 GHz
Memory: 2x4GB DDR3
GPU: R9 290
Motherboard: MSI z97 g55 sli
PSU: 650W
HDD: 1TB Sata 3
The GPU is the latest part I got (2015), while the Motherboard, CPU, and RAM are one year prior (2014). The rest are like 8+ years old now. I have a bit of money to "spare" (Should be saving them for school but I'll need my pc for programming on unity and such so it needs to handle them), and so I was thinking on upgrading the rest to be on par with today gaming standards. I might check for a GPU later on, depending on the amount of money required (Thanks bitcoin miners...).
So far what I got are:
RAM: HyperX Fury 2x8GB DDR3 1866 MHz - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00J8E910Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
PSU: EVGA 650W GQ - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017ROH8A6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
SSD: SanDisk PLUS 240GB - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01F9G43WU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
HDD: WD BLUE 1TB - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0088PUEPK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
As you can see, i'll be trying an SSD for the first time. I was contemplating between 120 and 240, but the difference in price isn't that outstanding for the added commodity. Since I already own a 1TB HDD I thought to either use both or scrap the old and in the newer one. The HDD works, but it got hit by lightning like 8 years ago.... plus it's getting older now. I have room for multiple HDDs tough so I'll probably use both.
The CPU shouldn't bottleneck the system if I do said upgrades right? Same goes for the motherboard.
(I'll be also switching to windows 10 from windows 8, mainly for the new metro game heh)
To conclude; Good/Bad? Anything I should change?
Thanks for the help! I'll check the replies in the morning/later as it's 12:30 am as I'm creating this thread.
Comments
Even if you do upgrade, your motherboard has four memory slots. Presumably you could add two more 4 GB modules and get to 16 GB that way, rather than either mismatching the channels (which hurts bandwidth) or removing your old memory entirely. And if you think you genuinely need more than 16 GB, I'd really like to know why.
Getting an SSD strikes me as most of the point of this upgrade. Replacing an eight year old hard drive is also a good idea, as by now it's living on borrowed time and should not be relied upon. If you continue to use the old hard drive, make sure it's only for things where it wouldn't be terribly bothersome if it abruptly died and the data was unrecoverable.
I'd suggest keeping your old HDD and getting 500GB SSD.
Maybe upgrade the GPU if you want to
You will gain almost nothing performance-wise by upgrading the CPU/Motherboard/RAM — unless you want to sell your current computer intact just to build an entire new one (which, don’t get me wrong, I can totally understand).
At first I was going to do as you're saying, add more ram to the existing ones. However, I read plenty of threads about why you shouldn't mix/match old ram with newer ones, even if they are the same identical type. So, that was the reason on why I was going to get two new ram slots entirely and unplug the old ones.
What about the PSU? It's also around 8+ years old. Shouldn't I search for a replacement in case it malfunctions, and potentially ruin other parts?
As to your old hard disk, if it truely is 8 years old, it is living on borrowed time. I would suggest getting a 2 TB drive as the price difference is minimal and just copying everything on the old hard disk to the new one.
As to the PSU, it really depends on if it was a quality one. The good ones rarely fail.
I agree with the other posters, just adding a SSD will give you the greatest boost.
Like I said, it's 8+ years old tough. That's what worries me.
As for the SSD I won't go higher than 240 GB. I'm fine with having steam games on a regular HDD and some particular games on the SSD. There's been very few games (MMOs) lately that have released anyway. I will consider ditching the current HDD for a 2TB one tough.
As for the ram, would you prefer adding 2 more 4GB cards or swap them for two 8 GB ones? Like I previously said, I've read plenty of topics on how adding more ram to existing ones could have some complications. It's true, the majority of the games still don't require 16 GB, but some do. I tend to play some of those games with friends.
So, regarding the PSU.... change it? yay or nay?
Thanks for the help
I had to process a 600GB text dataset this summer. Buying a 1TB SSD was a lifesaver in that situation. The new m2 drives claim to be 4x-5x faster, so I've been oggling that the past couple of months. My calculation took 2.5 days on an SSD - you'd be looking at 10-15 days on a HDD. These speed differences can become a nuisance quickly, if your programming/analyses involve tasks that are not instant.
Another thing to note is that some games pretty much "expect" to be on an SSD these days. Even games like Guild Wars 2 have pop-in issues when leaving them on a HDD. It's not unplayable, but I'd argue it influences the gameplay experience enough to think about the move to SSD as a meaningful upgrade. I've seen that in more and more games recently. Moving everything to an SSD often solves the issue.
I bought a 120GB SDD, a 500GB soon after and a 1TB this summer. The first one filled up quickly - consider some games these days are easily 60GB-80GB. 120GB is two of those games, 250GB is four.
Baking lightmaps in Unity is also a very CPU heavy process. If you do that often, upgrading to a many-core CPU can be beneficial. (Your CPU seems powerful at the moment, so it's just something to keep in mind looking ahead).
All of these are very specific examples. It's not as if you need to upgrade any of that. It's more about thinking what you want to get out of your upgrade.
I currently am gaming with a 1080 monitor, my options after searching around are: RX 570/580, GTX 1060, or if I really wanted to stretch it, GTX 1070. All cards that would be fine with a 650W power supply. I could always go for 750W if required.
As for the ram, I was always kinda confused on what's the sweet spot on MHz. I listed the 1866 MHz as it was rated well, while still being reasonably priced. After all we've got DDR4 now, but that would require a new motherboard, new components, Windows License, etc etc..... No thanks haha.
Anyway thanks for the help guys! Makes it more easy, and less frustrating picking new parts knowing other people's view on the subject.
As for the PSU, I would say it depends on your model. If it is a good one you can keep it but if it is a cheaper model replacing it makes sense. My old Corsair 950W is 8 years as well but it is both overpowered and Corsairs best model so I have no plans to replace it for a long time.
And 650W is more then enough unless you plan to pack a Titan X card into your computer.
I would keep the old harddrive in, if you don't need the space, use it to backup the rest of the computer. Old harddrives can fail but you usually get a S.m.a.r.t error a few weeks before it dies. I would no store unbackuped very important document on it though just to be sure (then again, I wouldn't have any impoortant documents without a backup).
Just slap in a SSD, 2 new similar memory sticks and maybe a harddrive and you can last another year. Then change the GFX card (or do it now if you think you need it, the 1070 card is nice).