Upgrade Help for Legion

[JoshuaAndrewN]

If this kind of post isn't allowed here, please let me know and I'll delete it.

A little backstory regarding my computer build. I'm currently using a computer I built at Cata launch (so November 2010?) and the only thing I've upgraded is the GPU, which I did just this week. The problem is I saw no noticeable improvement after upgrading the GPU.

Current specs are as follows (I'm sure some of this isn't needed but I'm new to this so I don't know what's pertinent):

Processor: Intel Core i5 CPU 760 at 2.80GHz

RAM: 4 GB

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (upgraded from Radeon HD 6870)

OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home

Motherboard: ASUS P7P55D-E

I feel like that GPU wasn't an upgrade? idk. All I know is I still lag out during, say, invasions with my settings at 3. And when I say lag I mean complete lock ups that don't go away for maybe 1 or 2 minutes. I've looked into replacing my mobo & CPU and adding an SSD and more RAM. Is that needed? I know my build is almost 6 years old now but it doesn't seem like a setup that can't handle WoW. If necessary I can list what I was considering for further upgrades if it matters. Any input is appreciated. Thanks!

[Fascinate]

Even tho you got an older system, those lock ups shouldnt really be occurring. Have you checked task manager during those lock ups? I would say do an invasion and check memory usage. Don't get me wrong you are due for an upgrade, but there is a small chance another 4gb stick of ram could possibly help with those lockups.....or even a failing HDD.

[JoshuaAndrewN]

Even tho you got an older system, those lock ups shouldnt really be occurring. Have you checked task manager during those lock ups? I would say do an invasion and check memory usage. Don't get me wrong you are due for an upgrade, but there is a small chance another 4gb stick of ram could possibly help with those lockups.....or even a failing HDD.

Thanks I'll do that.

Edit: So with Task Manager open (forgive me I'm not sure what's important to notice here), even while just flying around my Memory sits at 87% and Disk sits at 99%. Those seem high, yea?

[hellhamster]

Thanks I'll do that.

Edit: So with Task Manager open (forgive me I'm not sure what's important to notice here), even while just flying around my Memory sits at 87% and Disk sits at 99%. Those seem high, yea?

3 usual culprits for that:

1. CPU overheating and throttling, bottlenecking and wrecking your chances at normal fps. Check your temperatures with hwmonitor or motherboard bios, if your cpu is sitting at 80 degrees Celsius or higher during load times (or around that number), you have a problem. Solution: your cpu thermal paste probably melted in those 6 years and you need to reapply it. It''s really easy, it's like spreading butter on a sandwich, and a tube costs like 10 bucks tops. Plus, you kinda need to do it every x years. If your temperatures are still high after that, get a new cpu cooler for like 30 bucks. However, if it's come to that, it's time for a new cpu/mobo/ram.

2. RAM may not be enough. Honestly 4 gigs is a kinda low number for WoW, you should get 8. Get a second 4 gig ram stick that is equal to your current one for like 20 bucks and dual channel them.

3. HDD failure. If it's not one of the 2 causes above, it's probably this.


I'm thinking it's #2.

[Fascinate]

To me its HDD failure, or the start of it. No reason disk usage should be that high just playing a game, you didnt have anything downloading did you?

Google seagate seatools for windows and do a drive test, i cant remember what the western digital one is called sorry.

[Thunderball]

4GB RAM is not enough for Windows 10. Also, older HDD have to be reformated to work properly with Windows 10.

[JoshuaAndrewN]

3 usual culprits for that:

1. CPU overheating and throttling, bottlenecking and wrecking your chances at normal fps. Check your temperatures with hwmonitor or motherboard bios, if your cpu is sitting at 80 degrees Celsius or higher during load times (or around that number), you have a problem. Solution: your cpu thermal paste probably melted in those 6 years and you need to reapply it. It''s really easy, it's like spreading butter on a sandwich, and a tube costs like 10 bucks tops. Plus, you kinda need to do it every x years. If your temperatures are still high after that, get a new cpu cooler for like 30 bucks. However, if it's come to that, it's time for a new cpu/mobo/ram.

2. RAM may not be enough. Honestly 4 gigs is a kinda low number for WoW, you should get 8. Get a second 4 gig ram stick that is equal to your current one for like 20 bucks and dual channel them.

3. HDD failure. If it's not one of the 2 causes above, it's probably this.


I'm thinking it's #2.

That's easy enough to check/fix. I'll give hwmonitor a look and see if I need to get more thermal paste. My concern with getting more RAM now is that my motherboard supports DDR3 and if I find I need/want to upgrade my motherboard I'll have to get DDR4 RAM and my money will have been wasted on the DDR3. I'll check temp before I do anything else though. Thanks!

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To me its HDD failure, or the start of it. No reason disk usage should be that high just playing a game, you didnt have anything downloading did you?

Google seagate seatools for windows and do a drive test, i cant remember what the western digital one is called sorry.

Nope. I had FireFox open but I wasn't downloading anything. I'll check out the Seagate seatools and do that test. One question, if I were to simply purchase an SSD and move the game there would that help or would that just be a Band-Aid as it doesn't actually fix my HDD?

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4GB RAM is not enough for Windows 10. Also, older HDD have to be reformated to work properly with Windows 10.

This I did realize. Would you happen to have a link to instructions for reformatting my HDD? (I suppose I could also Google it but I trust people here) Thanks!

[Lathais]

This I did realize. Would you happen to have a link to instructions for reformatting my HDD? (I suppose I could also Google it but I trust people here) Thanks!

A fresh Windows install will do a format during the installation. Almost the first thing really. When you are choosing which drive to install it to you can delete/create partitions and format them.

[JoshuaAndrewN]

A fresh Windows install will do a format during the installation. Almost the first thing really. When you are choosing which drive to install it to you can delete/create partitions and format them.

Sounds good, thanks. So then if I end up deciding to go the route of new everything (SSD, CPU, Mobo, etc) this step wouldn't be necessary, correct? I could essentially transfer everything from my current HDD to the new SSD? I'm assuming that's a pretty straight forward process.

[Thunderball]

A fresh Windows install will do a format during the installation. Almost the first thing really. When you are choosing which drive to install it to you can delete/create partitions and format them.

QFT. GPT formatting will achieve the best results with Windows 10 but the drive wont be compatible with previous versions.

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Sounds good, thanks. So then if I end up deciding to go the route of new everything (SSD, CPU, Mobo, etc) this step wouldn't be necessary, correct? I could essentially transfer everything from my current HDD to the new SSD? I'm assuming that's a pretty straight forward process.

If you're changing hardware you have to reinstall everything anyway. No easy transfering though.

[Lathais]

Sounds good, thanks. So then if I end up deciding to go the route of new everything (SSD, CPU, Mobo, etc) this step wouldn't be necessary, correct? I could essentially transfer everything from my current HDD to the new SSD? I'm assuming that's a pretty straight forward process.

Generally best to just to a clean install on new hardware, not transfer everything. Though, if you do a fresh install on the SSD, yeah, you could just transfer over files and game saves and whatnot. Transferring a windows install is not easy and does not always work. Even when it does work, problems tend to pop up later that could have been avoided with a fresh install.

[JoshuaAndrewN]

QFT. GPT formatting will achieve the best results with Windows 10 but the drive wont be compatible with previous versions.

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If you're changing hardware you have to reinstall everything anyway. No easy transfering though.

Sounds good. Thank you.

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Generally best to just to a clean install on new hardware, not transfer everything. Though, if you do a fresh install on the SSD, yeah, you could just transfer over files and game saves and whatnot. Transferring a windows install is not easy and does not always work. Even when it does work, problems tend to pop up later that could have been avoided with a fresh install.

That makes sense. I think I'm leaning towards the whole new everything route anyway. More cost now but it'll ensure I'm good for a while. And I can't complain about 6 years without any hardware issues. Thanks for your help!

Edit to add one more question: I've not done a fresh install like this before. What information regarding my current OS do I need to get it installed on the new SSD? Or do I need to buy a new Windows 10? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

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3 usual culprits for that:

1. CPU overheating and throttling, bottlenecking and wrecking your chances at normal fps. Check your temperatures with hwmonitor or motherboard bios, if your cpu is sitting at 80 degrees Celsius or higher during load times (or around that number), you have a problem. Solution: your cpu thermal paste probably melted in those 6 years and you need to reapply it. It''s really easy, it's like spreading butter on a sandwich, and a tube costs like 10 bucks tops. Plus, you kinda need to do it every x years. If your temperatures are still high after that, get a new cpu cooler for like 30 bucks. However, if it's come to that, it's time for a new cpu/mobo/ram.

2. RAM may not be enough. Honestly 4 gigs is a kinda low number for WoW, you should get 8. Get a second 4 gig ram stick that is equal to your current one for like 20 bucks and dual channel them.

3. HDD failure. If it's not one of the 2 causes above, it's probably this.


I'm thinking it's #2.

So I downloaded and ran hwmonitor and watched it while doing an Invasion. Admittedly it had way less players than usual and I didn't experience complete lock ups but I was laggy. CPU temperatures were between 45 and 55 degrees with a max of 75. GPU temperatures were between 55 and 65 with a max of 81. Mobo temperatures were similar to CPU but with maxes of 146 (CPUTIN) and 115 (AUXTIN). So...temperature not the issue?

[Evildeffy]

QFT. GPT formatting will achieve the best results with Windows 10 but the drive wont be compatible with previous versions.

Just a correction... GPT booting and storage is fully supported since Windows Vista and up as well as the Itanium 64-Bit Windows XP version.
So any Windows version from Vista and up would access and work with the drive for a standard consumer.

If you're changing hardware you have to reinstall everything anyway. No easy transfering though.

Incorrect ... with a paid software package or a lot of advanced manual software editing you can do so as well.
Though it will always remain the best option for a fresh reinstall due to leftover files.

One such programme is called Paragon Hard Disk Manager.

[JoshuaAndrewN]

Another question, if I'm not planning on overclocking is it necessary to purchase a separate HSF or will whatever comes with the CPU be sufficient? I know it's only saving me like $30 but every little bit helps.

Edit to add what I'm considering purchasing, just to ensure that it's a smart choice.

GPU: GeForce GTX 960 2GB (what I currently have)
CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 (Skylake)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A SLI Plus
RAM: 8G DDR4
SSD: PNY CS221 240GB Pro Gaming 2.5" SATA III MLC

That's all I need to upgrade I think. Oh...one question regarding the SSD. I'm currently using 231 GB of my 1TB HDD. Do I need more than that 240 GB SSD I've listed? I'm confused as to why HDD's are like $50 for 1 TB and SSD's are $70 for 240 GB.

[Thunderball]

Incorrect ... with a paid software package or a lot of advanced manual software editing you can do so as well.
Though it will always remain the best option for a fresh reinstall due to leftover files.

One such programme is called Paragon Hard Disk Manager.

Unfortunately doesnt come through without problems most of the time.

[Evildeffy]

Unfortunately doesnt come through without problems most of the time.

Actually I will disagree with that statement as I've done a lot of these types of switches.

Many people in small companies use a PC that is ancient for a specific set of hardware that needs to be controlled by a PC's LPT port or RS232 port.
The computer then breaks down but 99% of the time the HDD is fine and after making a clone before doing anything I proceed to use Paragon HDM.

I've successfully switched over about 20 of such PCs this year alone (doesn't sound like many but this is in general a rather rare situation).
Going from AMD to Intel and Intel to AMD, the program does not care...

In the last 4 years I'm using this only 1 PC refused to switch about in total with an Intel 965 chipset.
So whilst yes it can fail ... by no means is it "with problems" most of the time.

It simply requires all drivers to be reinstalled like a fresh install but it does work.

The last one I switched it used a Parallel key to control a metal cutting machine and it had Windows XP along with an AMD XP 1800+ CPU,
The PC needed replacing as the entire PC went up in smoke due to a power spike (PSU, Mobo, CPU) and it needed to be low power and as cheap as possible.
So I replaced it with a cheap 2nd hand AMD build with integrated graphics and a 64GB SSD instead of the 40GB IDE HDD and 0 issues, everything worked immediately.
(After Paragon of course, it would not boot prior and that's also going from BIOS IDE mode to AHCI!)

These programmes were originally developed for servers as a "Bare metal restore" option and was later brought to standard consumer level as well.