Upgrade Computer or build a new one? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Upgrade Computer or build a new one?

Baggsy

Baggsy

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I have a computer that's at least five years old now.

i7 870@2.93GHz quad core
AMD Bios
ASUS P7H55-MPRO motherboard
8 Gig Ram 4 x DIMM, 1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
1 TB WD UDMA 133 Hard Drive
MSI GeForce 465 Video Card using PCI Express x16 2.0

Windows experience is 5.9 because of hard drive. 7.5 otherwise.

I could replace the memory with up to 16 Gig, and replace the hard drive with something SATA 300.

Is it worth trying to upgrade, or better to start over with a more modern motherboard, and work from there, keeping this as a backup?
 
Helps to know what you're using it for. Also Windows gets slow over time and you'd see huge gains in performance with a simple clean install.

With that said, I'd upgrade RAM and buy an SSD for the operating system and programs partition. And get a new GPU if you're gaming.
 
What is the main use for this computer?

General use ( web surfing, email etc )
Gaming
Video/audio editing

If it is just a general use computer RAM & SSD and a fresh install will go along way !!
 
I'd like to be able to play games. I play league of legends occasionally. Four windows on some of the less intense multiplayer online games. Minor editing. General use. Monitor can go higher resolution that the computer at the moment.

For a fresh install, what is the process? I have the old Windows 7 disk around somewhere. By GPU, you mean Graphics card? Have the standards changed for the interface?
 
Clean install means formatting the partition (wiping it clean) and doing a fresh install of windows.

This is why its good to have multiple partitions or physical drives so you can keep your data separate from the OS.
 
@baggsy I think you should get a new pc and give that one to me ?
Man, I am so behind with this stuff. 8gb is bad? I want to UPGRADE to that! Lol


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Defragment your hd periodically & if you surf alot of porn you probably have alot of spyware/adware. Remove those
 
How did it perform when it was newish for what you want to do with it? If it was fine, a fresh install should carry you for a while longer. Otherwise, can you upgrade the components with the MB you have?
 
Likely that the CPU, RAM and motherboard will need to be upgraded as a package. New RAM and new CPU specs won't fit that motherboard, and new motherboards won't handle those older spec CPUs and RAM.

Graphics card and hard drive can be upgraded independently, however a graphics card update is going to be bottlenecked by the older CPU.

I'd take the advice to install a fast SSD and reinstall Windows (or, in the case of a new drive, simply install). If you find yourself wanting after that, you can still upgrade the rest and continue using the new SSD as it is.
 
A fast SSD will breathe new life into it since loading times will really drop.. Upgrading memory to 16GB will cost same as new DDR4 memory though, something to think about if you decide to go with a new system.

You could sell this on Kijiji and put toward new system, depending on what you want to spend. My buddy just upgraded his system based around the Intel I5-6600K processor, with a Samsung SSD I don't think he paid much over $1K.
 
Id upgrade to an SSD to put your OS and LoL (on top of your 1TB) and keep the 1TB for basic storage.
Get a new GPU
You dont REALLY need more RAM ...especially for LoL but can't hurt and you'll be set for a while.
 
Windows Experience Index (which is not worth very much as a benchmark) caps all HDDs at 5.9, FYI. Only SSDs break the cap (or persistent RAM drives, I guess)

Easiest thing to upgrade is the video card. It was a little underpowered when it was new, and that was six years ago. Next tier is CPU & motherboard... might make a small difference. It's definitely not worth trying to upgrade just the CPU as you're close to as fast as it gets for LGA 1156 already. Replacing the motherboard probably also means replacing the HDD, as not many motherboards come with PATA ports theses days. From there you're less than $200 from a totally new computer.

TLDR; Upgrade the video card only, or replace it all
 
O.k. New 500 gig ss drive is installed. Windows 7 is currently installing to it. I can always move this drive to a new machine later. 16 gig of ram is $80. If I go the memory expansion route, and it's compatible, and I can figure out how to get it to you, you can have it Joe. The motherboard does have SATA, not sure what PATA is.

Edit: just looked it up. Apparently, I jumped from IDE right through to SATA.
 
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PATA = Parallel ATA, which is called IDE by a lot of people
 
Did you partition the new drive? If not do it soon and have teh C for the OS and D for all your saved stuff. You can also clone teh fresh install to another smaller drive as a backup or recovery. Saves having to do a fresh install every time. You can also clone it every month or so as you go too.
 
Riceburner said:
Did you partition the new drive? If not do it soon and have teh C for the OS and D for all your saved stuff. You can also clone teh fresh install to another smaller drive as a backup or recovery. Saves having to do a fresh install every time. You can also clone it every month or so as you go too.
Click to expand...
ok to do that I have to make sure that the partition is aligned. Should I start over or partition it on the fly?
 
You should be able to partition afterwards with a partition manager. A few free ones out there. Can't remember which I've used for W7 though.
 
Thanks @Baggsy. Very kind of you.

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Riceburner said:
You should be able to partition afterwards with a partition manager. A few free ones out there. Can't remember which I've used for W7 though.
Click to expand...

diskpart

Not sure if Baggsy would be able to use the program though; tons of ppl can't stand CLI software.

Btw, if you (Baggsy) have no idea how to OC your CPU (which I assume you don't because you listed an AMD bios when using an ASUS intel based motherboard?), trash the whole system and buy a prebuilt.

Otherwise, OC your CPU and it'll last a few more years. My i7 920 is @ 3.8ghz and runs everything on max settings. Doom and Witcher 3 are the two graphically intensive games that are still only bottle-necked by GPUs. Slapping a Geforce 1070 in there will fix everything though unless you're running at 4k resolutions (which I assume anyone doing that knows what they're doing).
 
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I hesitate to mention it, for lots of reasons, but for recent versions of Windows there is also diskmgmt.msc (Disk Management MMC snap-in). No commands needed. Partition alignment is not possible with the GUI snap-in, it is possible with diskpart but you really have to know what you're doing. You can also use Macrium Reflect instead, which is GUI and will do the math for you if you tell it to align a partition you're creating/moving.

Also, dropping $600 on a GPU might be a little overkill for OP.
 
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