Thread: Upgrading PC

  1. #1

    Upgrading PC

    Hey all,

    With tax time coming around I plan on upgrading both mine and my partner's PCs.

    I currently have:
    • CPU: Core i5-2500K @ 4.0Ghz
    • RAM - 8gb of some random DDR3
    • Mobo: ASRock Extreme3 Gen3
    • PSU: Gold 750W Corsair (can't remember the model)
    • GPU: MSI GTX 970

    My partner needs a new video card, her current one is a Radeon R9 270 but it's artifacting like crazy now on just normal web browsing. I was thinking about getting her a GTX 970 but after seeing the new AMD cards come out I'm a bit conflicted.

    For my PC I was mostly looking at upgrading the CPU/Mobo/RAM side of things since they are all 5 - 6 years out of date.

    I was planning on going with:

    The store I linked to are a local company that do their pricing very well compared to most others around here (Newcastle, Australia).

    Mainly I was wondering if anyone else has used that case and what they thought of it as well as advice on motherboard choice.

    Thanks!
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  2. #2
    CPU isnt really out of date, you wouldnt notice much difference in performance with a new one. After reading a bunch of benchmarks, id pass on the rx480 for now at least. There is a 1060 coming out in july it appears.

    TLDR, your system is fine wait for 1060 for your girls rig.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Fascinate View Post
    CPU isnt really out of date, you wouldnt notice much difference in performance with a new one. After reading a bunch of benchmarks, id pass on the rx480 for now at least. There is a 1060 coming out in july it appears.

    TLDR, your system is fine wait for 1060 for your girls rig.
    The 480 has some problems with the reference design, but I'm betting the third party boards will solve these issues. It's benching on par with the 970 and it's quite a bit cheaper. Probably less of a wait for the third party 480s to hit market than the 1060s. That's what I would get her.

    As for the OPs system, yeah, no need to upgrade anything really. No real noticeable difference will be seen upgrading that CPU.

  4. #4
    Processor performance jump isnt really too big between 2500k and 6500k - sub 10% in single core performance and up to 20% in certain niche applications. Also notice that all Intel processors after 2xxx series (Sandy Bridge) have weaker polymer thermointerface between the crystal and the metal cover which directly affects overclocking. My 2600k runs on 4.6k stable (launches at 5.1k) and is 60C at most but for latest processors those might not be always possible with conventional air cooling. The most noticable performance gain would be DDR4 memory - up to 15-20% in certain situation but I think for gaming PC you would get a jump simply by getting extra 8GB RAM.

    Rx 480 is only really worth picking if 1) you are going to overclock it 2) non-reference editions solve it's problems (reference designs dont overclock that much) 3) price is what is currently advertised 4) bonus - Rx 480 advantage is getting bigger on higher resolutions, especially for 8 GB version (which is I think the only one anyone should be looking into).
    Last edited by Thunderball; 2016-07-01 at 02:33 PM.

  5. #5
    is that 4ghz on the stock cooler? unless you have a right lemon your 2500k should be able to crank that up quite a bit with a custom cooler!

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by the boar View Post
    is that 4ghz on the stock cooler? unless you have a right lemon your 2500k should be able to crank that up quite a bit with a custom cooler!
    Sorry it's taken me so long to reply.

    I have a CoolerMaster EVO 212 cooling it. I've found that if I go too much higher it's not super stable but I might not be doing the OC right.

    Main reason I was thinking of doing the upgrade is that I've found my PC has been slowing down a lot lately on just random things such as browsing or w/e. Thought my PC was nearing the end of it's life but if not I might stick to what I've got.

    So the there isn't much of a jump from DDR3 to DDR4? I think my current ram is only 1066MHz or something low like that. My motherboard hasn't got Windows 10 drivers at all so I had issues with certain things at first.

    After double checking prices between the 480 and GTX 970, the 970 was only $10 more here.

    Thanks!
    3DS Friend Code: 2165 - 5428 - 1895

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Mega Gengar View Post
    I have a CoolerMaster EVO 212 cooling it. I've found that if I go too much higher it's not super stable but I might not be doing the OC right.

    So the there isn't much of a jump from DDR3 to DDR4? I think my current ram is only 1066MHz or something low like that. My motherboard hasn't got Windows 10 drivers at all so I had issues with certain things at first.

    After double checking prices between the 480 and GTX 970, the 970 was only $10 more here.
    that cooler should do a fine enough job, what voltage are you currently at for 4ghz?

    i am not super knowledgeable on ram speeds so i will let someone else comment on whether it is worth grabbing faster ram!
    if you are already running windows 10, then i guess you are doing okay now? no big troubles?

    i'd wait and see how the custom cooler 480s come out, they might have some good overclocking potential!

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by the boar View Post
    that cooler should do a fine enough job, what voltage are you currently at for 4ghz?

    i am not super knowledgeable on ram speeds so i will let someone else comment on whether it is worth grabbing faster ram!
    if you are already running windows 10, then i guess you are doing okay now? no big troubles?

    i'd wait and see how the custom cooler 480s come out, they might have some good overclocking potential!
    So I was checking out my settings, wasn't 100% sure on what I was looking for but I recorded this:

    Core voltage is set to offset mode, with the offset voltage set at +0.005V
    IGPU voltage is auto
    CPU PLL voltage was showing 1.832V but set to auto.

    Yeah it seems to work alright, but after a while my computer kind of hangs on things, like chrome with just one tab open and the System and Compressed Memory process eats up a crap load of disk usage.
    Last edited by Mega Gengar; 2016-07-02 at 04:59 AM.
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  9. #9
    Moderator chazus's Avatar
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    A few things (mostly what people already said)

    Going from the 2500K at a decent (4.2) OC to a 6600K won't net much. I have a 3570K, one generation newer, and plan to keep it for another good year or two, at least.

    Upgrading ram does nothing these days. It's just the 'thing you put in your motherboard'. You put in whatever it needs. Technically, if anything, it's been getting slower.

    Normal DDR3 usually comes in 1600 and 1866 usually, and range from timings/cas of 8-11 and 10-13 respectively... DDR4 @ 2133 goes from 14-16. Doing the 'maths'..
    The slowest DDR3 clocks in at 7.0ms, and the fastest at 5.0ms. The slowest DDR4 clocks in at 7.5ms, and the fastest at 6.6, barely faster than the slowest DDR3.

    Really, the only benefits to DDR4 is A) It has some features that nobody really sees or cares about, B) It's compatible with your new system. Speed wise it makes absolutely no difference in 98% of applications.

    As far as the GPU goes, depending on who does more GPU gaming, you might want to consider giving the 970 to your girl, and picking up the new card for yourself, be it a 1060 or 480
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  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by chazus View Post
    A few things (mostly what people already said)

    Going from the 2500K at a decent (4.2) OC to a 6600K won't net much. I have a 3570K, one generation newer, and plan to keep it for another good year or two, at least.

    Upgrading ram does nothing these days. It's just the 'thing you put in your motherboard'. You put in whatever it needs. Technically, if anything, it's been getting slower.

    Normal DDR3 usually comes in 1600 and 1866 usually, and range from timings/cas of 8-11 and 10-13 respectively... DDR4 @ 2133 goes from 14-16. Doing the 'maths'..
    The slowest DDR3 clocks in at 7.0ms, and the fastest at 5.0ms. The slowest DDR4 clocks in at 7.5ms, and the fastest at 6.6, barely faster than the slowest DDR3.

    Really, the only benefits to DDR4 is A) It has some features that nobody really sees or cares about, B) It's compatible with your new system. Speed wise it makes absolutely no difference in 98% of applications.

    As far as the GPU goes, depending on who does more GPU gaming, you might want to consider giving the 970 to your girl, and picking up the new card for yourself, be it a 1060 or 480
    Thanks for the reply .

    I found a guide for my motherboard/cpu combo and managed to OC to 4.5GHz and it seems stable, leaving Prime95 to run.

    Yeah I think I will just go to 16gb of RAM since I host minecraft lan servers a fair bit. I do the majority of the gaming so that might end up what I'll do

    With the slow downs on my system could it be that I just need to resintall Windows or could there be another issue causing it?
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  11. #11
    I do but it's only 240GB. Thinking about getting a 1TB one for all my games and such.
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  12. #12
    Deleted
    if you realy want something "new and fast", i would wait for the AMD's Zen cpu's. complete new series with new mobo's and chipsets which support usb 3.1 etc.
    aaaaaand it will be far more reasonable priced than intel..

  13. #13
    Only thing I would change is adding 8GB of RAM.
    I'd OC the CPU to 4.4-4.5 (you're probably running stock voltage if you can only hit 4.0).

    You will not get noticeable gains without shelling big bucks for stuff like 1080 and maybe an i7/ram/mobo (not much gain in games tho).
    Get stuff like second/better monitor, RAM, maybe a great cooler, and wait till next gen.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by stevenho View Post
    Only thing I would change is adding 8GB of RAM.
    I'd OC the CPU to 4.4-4.5 (you're probably running stock voltage if you can only hit 4.0).

    You will not get noticeable gains without shelling big bucks for stuff like 1080 and maybe an i7/ram/mobo (not much gain in games tho).
    Get stuff like second/better monitor, RAM, maybe a great cooler, and wait till next gen.
    I managed to get a stable 4.5 earlier, will buy another 8gb of ram and then yeah as you said wait out the new stuff
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