[SOLVED] Any point in upgrading my pc?

butray

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Sep 9, 2015
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Hello! I was thinking about getting an SSD, but my motherboard is pretty old. My question is, should I invest something like 200-300euro in my current pc, or save up to get a new one (budget would be something like 700-800 euro). I am in no hurry.

Approximate Purchase Date: this year or early next year
Budget Range: 200- 300 euro (before shipping) for upgrade or 700-800 euro (before shipping) for a new one.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming - surfing - watching movies - other

Are you buying a monitor: No at the moment, might consider a new one latter



Parts to Upgrade:
processor: i5-4460 3.20Ghz
GPU: GTX 960
RAM: 8G (2 x 4G)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 (MS-7817)
Power supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G+, 80 Plus Gold
Hard drive: wdc wd10ezex 1tb

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: don't know

Location: Europe, Bulgaria

Parts Preferences: no

Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: L 223V5 resolution 1920 x 1080
Additional Comments: I mostly play Paradox games (EU4, Stellaris, Imperator), Football manager, 7 days to die, Total War, Battlefield series, Civilization, Factorio, WoW

Why Are You Upgrading: The games I am playing run somewhat slow, I was thinking about getting SSD, but now I wonder if I can upgrade my pc in a meaningful way with a budget of around 300euro.
 
Solution
Thanks for the help. I guess amazon.de or amazon.co.uk is fine.
Most retailers in my country don't have English versions of their websites unfortunately but here are a few:
https://ardes.bg/komponenti/tvardi-diskove/ssd-solid-state-drive
I would get something like this then. I know its 1TB double what you asked for but its not that much more expensive to get the 1TB drive over the 500/512gb drives. This will last you a long time, has 1gb of Dram cache, and a ton of security features.
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/h3tQzy/crucial-mx500-1tb-25-solid-state-drive-ct1000mx500ssd1

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
You could get a CPU, motherboard and ram combo with that upgrade money(300 Euros) but then you might need to replace the PSU if it's as old as the processor, circa 2013...? Forget about discrete GPU's since you won't get much even if you spent 1,000 Euro's. You're going to need an SSD as well ;)
 
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Hello! I was thinking about getting an SSD, but my motherboard is pretty old. My question is, should I invest something like 200-300euro in my current pc, or save up to get a new one (budget would be something like 700-800 euro). I am in no hurry.

Approximate Purchase Date: this year or early next year
Budget Range: 200- 300 euro (before shipping) for upgrade or 700-800 euro (before shipping) for a new one.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming - surfing - watching movies - other

Are you buying a monitor: No at the moment, might consider a new one latter



Parts to Upgrade:
processor: i5-4460 3.20Ghz
GPU: GTX 960
RAM: 8G (2 x 4G)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 (MS-7817)
Power supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G+, 80 Plus Gold
Hard drive: wdc wd10ezex 1tb

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: don't know

Location: Europe, Bulgaria

Parts Preferences: no

Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: L 223V5 resolution 1920 x 1080
Additional Comments: I mostly play Paradox games (EU4, Stellaris, Imperator), Football manager, 7 days to die, Total War, Battlefield series, Civilization, Factorio, WoW

Why Are You Upgrading: The games I am playing run somewhat slow, I was thinking about getting SSD, but now I wonder if I can upgrade my pc in a meaningful way with a budget of around 300euro.
I personally retire computers with CPUs that are older than 6 years or so. I would keep the computer for other lighter work, or maybe sell it / give it to a family member or a friend. I would plan to do a complete rebuild next year if you can stand using it for another year. In the mean time you can get an SSD for storage on this computer and then bring it into the next build, but I would not invest any more into that computer unless you really want to.
 

punkncat

Champion
Ambassador
You will feel like a much newer machine adding an SSD and installing your OS to it. It will be much more responsive, load, and start faster. Even inexpensive SSD are typically 4x+ faster than a HDD. Even with a machine of 4th gen it will be completely worthwhile from a desktop performance perspective.

Keep in mind that adding an SSD will likely not impact gaming performance at all, aside from the aforementioned load times and possibly some improvement if you are running into page file .
 

ginthegit

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Nov 15, 2012
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Hello! I was thinking about getting an SSD, but my motherboard is pretty old. My question is, should I invest something like 200-300euro in my current pc, or save up to get a new one (budget would be something like 700-800 euro). I am in no hurry.

Approximate Purchase Date: this year or early next year
Budget Range: 200- 300 euro (before shipping) for upgrade or 700-800 euro (before shipping) for a new one.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming - surfing - watching movies - other

Are you buying a monitor: No at the moment, might consider a new one latter



Parts to Upgrade:
processor: i5-4460 3.20Ghz
GPU: GTX 960
RAM: 8G (2 x 4G)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 (MS-7817)
Power supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G+, 80 Plus Gold
Hard drive: wdc wd10ezex 1tb

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: don't know

Location: Europe, Bulgaria

Parts Preferences: no

Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: L 223V5 resolution 1920 x 1080
Additional Comments: I mostly play Paradox games (EU4, Stellaris, Imperator), Football manager, 7 days to die, Total War, Battlefield series, Civilization, Factorio, WoW

Why Are You Upgrading: The games I am playing run somewhat slow, I was thinking about getting SSD, but now I wonder if I can upgrade my pc in a meaningful way with a budget of around 300euro.

If it aint broke! don't fix it!
 

ginthegit

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Nov 15, 2012
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Agreed. Its the tried and true ideology of many technicians in all types of fields.

I will only upgrade when I have reason to. I don't upgrade because I have money to spare or want extra performance when it is unneeded. I find it pointless to ruin a seemelessly working machine that runs all your Apps and game at perfect speed.
 
Most games are graphics limited.
Now is not a great time to try to upgrade graphics.

Try a couple of simple tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

Likely, these tests will not be conclusive.

I think if I had a bit of money to spend, I would buy a 1tb samsung 860 evo for about $100.
It will make everything you do feel much quicker.
Such a device can be easily moved to a future build.

If you think a cpu upgrade would help, $350 will buy you a i5-11400f, a B560 motherboard and a 2 x 8gb DDR4 ram kit.
 
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butray

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I personally retire computers with CPUs that are older than 6 years or so. I would keep the computer for other lighter work, or maybe sell it / give it to a family member or a friend. I would plan to do a complete rebuild next year if you can stand using it for another year. In the mean time you can get an SSD for storage on this computer and then bring it into the next build, but I would not invest any more into that computer unless you really want to.
Can you recommend me SSD for my system? Something like 500GB.
 
Can you recommend me SSD for my system? Something like 500GB.
There does not seem to be a Bulgaria option for pcpartpicker, which is what the vast majority of us use here. Where would you typically buy your PC components?

In general for SATA SSDs (ssd's that are compatible to your current computer) you will want a drive with a Dram cashe to increase performance. There are many drives without this small 1-4 gb of cashe and in sustained workloads the slow down rapidly. I personally perfer the crucial MX500 sata drives or the samsung drives. But these are generalities. I can provide a more specific recommendation based on current prices if you could provide a retailer to look up pricing.
 
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butray

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Sep 9, 2015
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There does not seem to be a Bulgaria option for pcpartpicker, which is what the vast majority of us use here. Where would you typically buy your PC components?

In general for SATA SSDs (ssd's that are compatible to your current computer) you will want a drive with a Dram cashe to increase performance. There are many drives without this small 1-4 gb of cashe and in sustained workloads the slow down rapidly. I personally perfer the crucial MX500 sata drives or the samsung drives. But these are generalities. I can provide a more specific recommendation based on current prices if you could provide a retailer to look up pricing.

Thanks for the help. I guess amazon.de or amazon.co.uk is fine.
Most retailers in my country don't have English versions of their websites unfortunately but here are a few:
https://ardes.bg/komponenti/tvardi-diskove/ssd-solid-state-drive
 

ClapTrapper

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Everyone is telling you now is not the time to upgrade your GPU-and that is right. More than right. It is the worse time in history to upgrade a graphics card.
But if you insist on upgrading anything,upgrade the HDD to a SSD. The overall useability will shock you. You may decide you can wait and save for a better value upgrade/replacement.

Now if games are your primary concern, a ssd upgrade will not solve that. But the overall usability of the system may make the wait for an upgrade a lot less painful.

I'd upgrad the HDD to a SSD, save my money and wait.
 
Thanks for the help. I guess amazon.de or amazon.co.uk is fine.
Most retailers in my country don't have English versions of their websites unfortunately but here are a few:
https://ardes.bg/komponenti/tvardi-diskove/ssd-solid-state-drive
I would get something like this then. I know its 1TB double what you asked for but its not that much more expensive to get the 1TB drive over the 500/512gb drives. This will last you a long time, has 1gb of Dram cache, and a ton of security features.
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/h3tQzy/crucial-mx500-1tb-25-solid-state-drive-ct1000mx500ssd1
 
Last edited:
Solution

butray

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Sep 9, 2015
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