Upgrading a 4 Year Old Gaming PC

[stellvia]

Why? So your benchmark shows 2000 instead of 500?

You don't like things loading faster? Okay.jpg

[TyrianFC]

Stellvia, please spare the poor OP your terrible advice.

Does he seem like the sort of guy who would conform to a 'standard gpu cycle of 2 year' upgrade pattern, with his 4year old terribad pc from yester-year and still wanting to keep some of the toaster components? thoughtso.jpg

[stellvia]

He asked for a build to play right now. Not 6+ months from now. *shrug*

And you're being pretty condescending to him for a system that was just fine for 4 years ago. What "toaster" parts is he holding on to if he's replacing the CPU/Mobo/RAM/GPU and getting an SSD? RAM speed is a very small part of system performance, so even if he were to get like a 4790K and keep the current RAM, it wouldn't affect much. And then he could always spring for some 2133 or 2400 a few months down the road even.

I was conflating this thread with another one, so I'd say if we're going based on what was recommended here earlier, the more pressing concern is recommending him the i5-6500 CPU. Having to upgrade your motherboard when you buy a new CPU pretty much go hand-in-hand, so buying a Skylake vs. Haswell board is immaterial as long as the CPU and Memory function properly. What really matters is the actual performance.

On that note: There is almost zero performance difference atm between DDR3 and DDR4 modules, and it's not likely he would only swap out ram years down the road when it matters so little. So either spring for the 4790K or the 6600K. Both are about the same performance, with the edge of about 5-10% due to the 4790K having the hefty 4.4ghz turbo. 6500 is considerably weaker in single-threaded which is what most games still are (even ones that claim multi, it's usually a very small amount of work done on the other thread) and even growing into the future if games do go fully multi-threaded ... 6500 is much weaker at that with no HT etc.

And if he got the 4790k he could even offset the cost difference of the CPU by holding onto the ram for awhile longer, with the option to grab a pair of DDR3-2400 or such at a future date.

Which would give us:
----------------------
Core i7 4790K ($300)(Or $290 for Non-K)
Z97 Mobo ~$80 (Or get H97 if Non-K and leaving stock and save a few $)
SSD and PSU are fine as previously advised to buy ($120)
R9 390 also good ($275)
CPU Cooler recommended as well ($25-50)

Leaves him about $700 on the dot, with considerations for the better ram later. He doesn't need a new case. Certainly not a $30 one. He would have to spend closer to $100 to get something worth switching to as far as build quality and airflow is concerned. (Case + the extra fans required)

[Ghâzh]

You don't like things loading faster? Okay.jpg

Sure. When 2 second loading screen loads in 1 second instead I'm totally blown away.

You just don't fit M.2 SSD in a budget build.

[Artorius]

There's little point at buying Haswell now if he's going to buy a new mobo anyway... Only some 4690K super great deals at the US, and those are probably just due to black friday.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B150 PC Mate ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($70.55 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($71.40 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($27.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $629.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-29 15:15 EST-0500

[Kagthul]

wasting money in a budget build on an SSD when there are still (massive) actual performance gains being left on the table = dumb as hell.

[godgunner]

not to go off topic but why isnt the OS included in any of the current recommendations?
not sure how easy it would be to get microsoft to release a upgraded license for windows 10.

[stellvia]

Because he already has a Windows PC, so the majority of people just migrate their serial over to the new system?

[Deleted]

He asked for a build to play right now. Not 6+ months from now. *shrug*

Which would give us:
----------------------
Core i7 4790K ($300)(Or $290 for Non-K)
Z97 Mobo ~$80 (Or get H97 if Non-K and leaving stock and save a few $)
SSD and PSU are fine as previously advised to buy ($120)
R9 390 also good ($275)
CPU Cooler recommended as well ($25-50)

Leaves him about $700 on the dot, with considerations for the better ram later. He doesn't need a new case. Certainly not a $30 one. He would have to spend closer to $100 to get something worth switching to as far as build quality and airflow is concerned. (Case + the extra fans required)

Agreed with this, forget SSD if it pushes you over the border. Without OC i7 4790 provides best performance (At least in Fallout 4). With OC to 4Ghz+ skylake i5 is likely to have similar performance.

Choice is ultimately yours:
1. 4790 for similar price or less than skylake i5 and more out of box performance
2. 4790K as above but with possibility of further pushing performance by overclocking(need mobo and good cooling as well) - more expensive than 1.
3. i5 skylake - new tech *shrug*, more expensive, needs new ram as well, inferrior performance
4. i5/i7 K skylake - as above in 3. tech, more expensive, if overclocked will reach same or better performance as in points 1 and 2

[RuneDK]

Another option

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($215.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($94.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($86.95 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($52.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $734.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-09 02:59 EST-0500

Honestly this and just spend the little extra to get a 390x or 970 and you'll be future proofed for a long time.

[Kagthul]

Because he already has a Windows PC, so the majority of people just migrate their serial over to the new system?

You cant always do that. In fact, with Win 10, its harder than ever.

[stellvia]

You cant always do that. In fact, with Win 10, its harder than ever.

G2A.com has Win7 for $47.50 and that can be upgraded to 10 for free after being authorized. Once the key is updated you can do Win10 fresh installs from there on out.

[Kagthul]

G2A.com has Win7 for $47.50 and that can be upgraded to 10 for free after being authorized. Once the key is updated you can do Win10 fresh installs from there on out.

The free upgrade ties itself to your hardware. Do you ever bother to learn anything?

[RuneDK]

My issue with that upgrade...what happens if I buy different graphics card...or completely redo my system...am I SOL?

[Artorius]

My issue with that upgrade...what happens if I buy different graphics card...or completely redo my system...am I SOL?

You shouldn't have any problems as long as the motherboard is the same. If you change the motherboard then you'll have to call MS and maybe they'll transfer it.

[stellvia]

It's entirely dependent on what type of license you have. If you are looking to re-use a Windows license that came with a store-bought PC like a Dell or Acer, you're likely SoL as those are OEM licenses. G2A has both the OEM and the regular license for the same price, so make sure you get the regular retail license and you won't have any issues transferring it. Worst-case you trigger the need to call their automated authentication phone service, but that usually only comes into play after making more than 3 hardware changes.

The free Windows 10 upgrade uses the same license terms as your original license, so if that was Retail then it will transfer, if it was OEM then it won't.

[Cellice]

Totally left field suggestion here.

Grab an Intel Core i7-2600 for $100-$150 on Ebay. Add a GTX 950 or GTX 960. Keep all your other parts. Maybe toss in a small SSD for $60-80 to increase speed. This will be enough power to hold you over for a year or two. Then you can buy into next big upgrade generation.