[SOLVED] $150 GPU and SSD desktop upgrade or buy new PC?

nxn

Jan 30, 2021
6
0
10
Not sure if I can upgrade my CyberPC desktop system with new GPU and SSD or whether it would be better to buy a new value gaming PC?
I am thinking a 1TB SATA III SSD for $100 will this work with my motherboard?
Also a $50 2GB GPU for basic gaming that should bump the frame rate in Trainz TRS19 from single digits to about 50 which would be enough. WIll my power supply support this?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
My system Speccy:

CI11Ipy.png


Approximate Purchase Date: 2015

Budget Range: $200 for GPU and SSD upgrade, more if buying new best value gaming desktop

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Playing Trainz (TRS19), watching movies

Are you buying a monitor: No



Parts to Upgrade: SSD (1TB?) and GPU

Do you need to buy OS:
Yes if new motherboard, but not planning on that
Please note that if you're using an OEM license of Windows, you will need a new one when buying a new motherboard.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: ebay

Location:
San Jose, CA

Parts Preferences: no preference

Overclocking:No

SLI or Crossfire:
?? don't know what this is

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Trainz TRS19 railroad simulator

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:
Slow TRS19 frame rate and slow system due to 100% waiting for HDD
 
Solution
A 500w psu may or may not be able to deliver such power. It depends on the quality of the unit.
But, it should be fine for any graphics card that does not need aux 6 pin power.

On heat, likely, a good cleaning with canned air will do the job.

In the event that the cooler is loose, here is my canned text on how to mount the intel stock cooler:
----------------how to mount the stock Intel cooler--------------

The stock Intel cooler can be tricky to install.
A poor installation will result in higher cpu temperatures.
If properly mounted, you should expect temperatures at idle to be 10-15c. over ambient.

To mount the Intel stock cooler properly, place the motherboard on top of the foam or cardboard backing that was packed with the...
This is a tough one.

Yours is a bit old to be putting in new parts.
But, the requirements for that game are not huge.

Yes, an SSD and minimal GPU would probably meet your needs.

A Crucial MX500, 1TB is about $100
Leaving the rest for whatever GPU GPU fits in that $100.
 
I am thinking a 1TB SATA III SSD for $100 will this work with my motherboard?
Also a $50 2GB GPU for basic gaming that should bump the frame rate in Trainz TRS19 from single digits to about 50 which would be enough. WIll my power supply support this?
Your system is overheating. Get a better cpu cooler first.
With $200 budget you can't build a new system.

What PSU do you currently have? You'd have to open up your pc and take a photo of label on PSU.
Anyway for $50 budget on GPU your choices are very limited. I wouldn't suggest for getting anything less than GT 1030. That is at least $70 card.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AlexTheFern
Thanks everyone for the advice - I will get a (better?) CPU cooler - don't even know if my system has one. I guess I need to open the case and figure out what kind of socket my CPU has and if there's a working cooler already or not and how much space there is. Will open the case in daylight tomorrow and get a photo of the power supply label and of the CPU.
Would a cheap CPU cooler like eBay: New Intel CPU Cooler Fan Heatsink E97379 I3 I5 I7 Socket LGA 1150 1151 1156 be sufficient?
When you say upgrading would make it unbalanced do you mean performance-wise?
When I bought this system the i7 CPU was quite fast and it still gets 6000 odd cpumark rating and street price is around $237 so not quite throw away yet. Also the 16GB RAM is good (100+ chrome tabs open).
Thanks
Dave
 
It may not need a new CPU cooler.
Just a clean and reapplication of the existing thermal paste.

As far as "unbalanced"? Don't worry about that.
There's not a lot you can do within $150-$200.

New SSD and a GT 1030 should work just fine. It will feel like a whole new PC (within its limits, of course)
 
I would also suggest checking the temperature of your CPU on a different software such as HWMonitor. I heard that Speccy can sometimes display incorrect CPU temperatures. Just to make sure.

As for the upgrade. Would you mind posting what would be your budget for a completely new build? The reason I am asking this is that you could potentially just buy a GPU and SSD update, which will help a lot. And if you find that the performance is unsatisfactory, simply buy out the rest of the components as if you were building a brand new PC. The only issue I see with this route depends on the budget you would set for a brand new PC.
 
I would say get a used 4/570 or 4/580 but I don't know want your psu is and its probably cheaper if its a prebuilt. try and find a 4 gig 1050 ti for a decent price used, a 1650 will probably be out of your budget with the market the way it is right now.
 
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=15&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1 get one of these and a smaller ssd for your favorite games/programs and windows imo, like a 240/256 gb one will cost around 30 dollars us. https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-240gb/p/N82E16820009004?Item=N82E16820009004 or stretch a little and go 10 or 20 over 200 for a 1050 ti 4 gb and a 500 gig SSD. and if your power supply sucks try to pick a 1050 ti out that doesn't need a 6 pin power cable, it seems the cheapest ones that are dell oem don't need one and should be good enough.
 
https://www.amazon.com/DEEPCOOL-GAM...eywords=LGA+1155+cooler&qid=1612079710&sr=8-8

https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-240gb/p/N82E16820009004?Item=N82E16820009004



https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=gtx+1050+ti&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=15&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1


160 dollars for cheapest 4 gb 1050ti
25 dollars for deepcool air cooler thats massively better than any stock cooler
30 dollars for a 240 gb ssd for windows and frequently used games and programs

215 dollars for a much better system for general use and gaming(ssd and gpu), and a cooler cpu. and maybe you can even get a small oc who knows.

you could see if applying thermal paste drops cpu temp and skip the cooler and only spend 190ish

I would go with at least a 1050 ti 4g or a 1050 4gb, you will need the 4 gigs of vram and extra horsepower unless you want to upgrade again in 6 months or play 720p low 30 fps. spending more on a better gpu instead of a large capacity ssd and a super cheap gt 1030 or whatever will make a lot more sense if you play games a lot, it doesn't matter if you load games faster if they run like crap or dont run at all.
 
Last edited:
I can spend a bit more on an upgrade say $300 if it's worth it.
If I were buying a new system I could spend $700-800 but I don't see that being much better than upgrading my current system - if that's wrong please explain why.
 
I think you can reasonably fix up up your pc.
a 3770K is a very competent processor.

First of all fix that 84c. temperature.
The max was 100c. which would throttle the processor.
The 75c. minimum indicates that your cpu cooler has a problem.
Likely it is the stock intel cooler like the one you linked.
But, the intel cooler fan should be spinning at 5000 rpm under those heat conditions.
A photo of the cooler would verify what you have.
A photo of the cpu space will show what kind of cooler can be installed.

With power off, nudge the cooler to see if it is loose.
If the cooler is loose, remounting can be done cheaply.

If you want a new cooler, $40-$60 is a reasonable budget.

Once the cooler issue is resolved, consider that a ssd is one of the most satisfying upgrades you can make.
How much of your 2tb hard drive is actually used?
My easy suggestion is to buy a samsung ssd of sufficient capacity and use the samsung ssd migration app to move your C drive to the ssd.
Here is a link to the app and instructions:
You can buy a 1tb samsung 860 evo or QVO for about $100.
2tb is twice that.

Your HD4000 integrated graphics is not intended for gaming.
At least not for fast action gaming.
The least graphics card that might be suitable might be a GT1030 which goes for $100 new.
Here is tom's gpu hierarchy chart:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html
It gives you a guide to relative performance.
Not knowing your power supply, assume that you can only use a card at 75w or less that does not need aux 6 pin power.
You can probably buy a GTX1050ti for $100 or so used on ebay.
 
I cleaned some dust off the case fan opening and it seems to be running 20C cooler now around 60C with max in the 90s.
You guys were right it is a stock cooler. I didn't open the case yet so I didn't check if it was loose.
Power supply is 500 Watt but I couldn't get a good photo.

1PuTAb1.png
 
I didn't clean inside the case yet as I have not opened it - tough at my age to get under the desk to disconnect all the wires :-(
I just cleaned dust off the outside of the case where the case fan is.
Photo was taken through the clear plastic side of the case.
 
I didn't clean inside the case yet as I have not opened it - tough at my age to get under the desk to disconnect all the wires :-(
I just cleaned dust off the outside of the case where the case fan is.
Photo was taken through the clear plastic side of the case.
That CPU cooler looks to be packed with dust.
Which would be the primary reason for the high temps.
 
I didn't clean inside the case yet as I have not opened it- tough at my age to get under the desk to disconnect all the wires :-(
Then do it.
Looks like it has never been opened/cleaned for all of the lifetime of the pc (some 8 years probably).
It would be normal to clean out dust at least couple times per year (depending on dust buildup).

BTW - how are you going to install new SSD and new graphics card, if you can't even open up your pc and clean out dust?
May be get some assistance, if you can't do it yourself.
 
A 500w psu may or may not be able to deliver such power. It depends on the quality of the unit.
But, it should be fine for any graphics card that does not need aux 6 pin power.

On heat, likely, a good cleaning with canned air will do the job.

In the event that the cooler is loose, here is my canned text on how to mount the intel stock cooler:
----------------how to mount the stock Intel cooler--------------

The stock Intel cooler can be tricky to install.
A poor installation will result in higher cpu temperatures.
If properly mounted, you should expect temperatures at idle to be 10-15c. over ambient.

To mount the Intel stock cooler properly, place the motherboard on top of the foam or cardboard backing that was packed with the motherboard.
The stock cooler will come with paste pre applied, it looks like three grey strips.
The 4 push pins should come in the proper position for installation, that is with the pins rotated in the opposite direction of the arrow,(clockwise)
and pulled up as far as they can go.
Take the time to play with the pushpin mechanism until you know how they work.

Orient the 4 pins so that they are exactly over the motherboard holes.
If one is out of place, you will damage the pins which are delicate.
Push down on a DIAGONAL pair of pins at the same time. Then the other pair.

When you push down on the top black pins, it expands the white plastic pins to fix the cooler in place.

If you do them one at a time, you will not get the cooler on straight.
Lastly, look at the back of the motherboard to verify that all 4 pins are equally through the motherboard, and that the cooler is on firmly.
This last step must be done, which is why the motherboard should be out of the case to do the job. Or you need a case with a opening that lets you see the pins.
It is possible to mount the cooler with the motherboard mounted in the case, but you can then never be certain that the push pins are inserted properly
unless you can verify that the pins are through the motherboard and locked.

If you should need to remove the cooler, turn the pins counter clockwise to unlock them.
You will need to clean off the old paste and reapply new if you ever take the cooler off.
Clean off old paste with alcohol and a lint free paper like a coffee filter.
Apply new paste sparingly. A small rice sized drop in the center will spread our under heat and pressure.
Too much paste is bad, it will act as an insulator.
It is hard to use too little.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Solution