[SOLVED] Future proofing upgrade

[d239919]

Dear Community,

I built my first computer about 3 years ago and I am thinking about what could I upgrade.

CPU: i5-6500 @ 3.2 GHz
Motherboard: ASRock H170
GPU: GTX 1050 Ti
RAM: 1x 16GB DDR4 @ 2133 MHz
Storage: SATA SSD 250GB + HDD 2TB

Is there anything wrong with my build or what would you recommend to upgrade first? I was thinking about upgrading memory to a higher frequency and getting two sticks in order to benefit from dual channel architecture. At the time I was building my computer, memory was quite expensive and I just went with something reasonable for the price and I thought I might add another stick in the future, but I did not at the end. And maybe in a year or so, I could upgrade both motherboard and CPU or just upgrade the GPU which would be probably worth more. Do you think if I were to upgrade the GPU, it would be capable of running VR? And would it be worth upgrading to an NVMe SSD if I went with a motherboard that has an M.2 slot? Simply said, I would like to slowly upgrade my computer and make it future proof. All suggestions are welcomed. Thank you in advance.

 

[Vic 40]

When talking about motherboard upgrades are you better of with upgrading to the latest platform available.

Getting dualchannel ram might well give a boost in performance ,but current motherboard seems to only support 2133mhz so if it is worth the money spending is something different. Maybe if you can sell your current stick and get a used set would it be a good decision price/performance wise.

Don't think an nvme drive is going to significantly boost speeds that it is worth upgrading to on this older socket. Again would do that if going for a whole new platform whether that would be AMD or Intel.

If not getting performance enough could you first upgrade gpu i think,the cpu will still do even when getting a better gpu. Or if you could get a used I7 would that because of multithreading be an upgrade in latest games ,together with that gpu upgrade.

 

[Archaic59]

Your motherboard limits you to 7th gen. 3 year old CPU's so there's no future proofing it. Not much point in upgrading the rest of it at this point. Dual channel memory is always better than single channel. No sense in buying memory now. When you get a new board you'll need new faster memory anyways. You won't notice any big difference moving from the sata SSD you have now to an NVME. These are things to keep in mind for a new build. IMO it's better to buy and build all at once. Remember warranty starts when you buy something so never buy a part and hold it for a future build unless it's a short amount of time. You may be better off running what you have for now and save for a new complete build. You could upgrade the GPU and move it to a new build but that's all I'd do.

 

[d239919]

When talking about motherboard upgrades are you better of with upgrading to the latest platform available.

Getting dualchannel ram might well give a boost in performance, but current motherboard seems to only support 2133 MHz RAM.

Your motherboard limits you to 7th gen. 3 year old CPU's so there's no future proofing it. Not much point in upgrading the rest of it at this point.

IMO it's better to buy and build all at once. Remember warranty starts when you buy something so never buy a part and hold it for a future build unless it's a short amount of time. You may be better off running what you have for now and save for a new complete build. You could upgrade the GPU and move it to a new build but that's all I'd do.

Yeah, my motherboard is the limiting factor when it comes to upgrades. I am waiting for what Intel has to offer in the upcoming year and so far, I do not have a reason to upgrade because I do not feel the need for extra performance. Nowadays, I do not play games as much, but upgrading the GPU would make more sense as it could allow me to run VR. Well, I hope my i5 would be enough, at least that is what Newegg recommends. And when it comes to RAM, I will probably look for used dual channel sticks, but what frequency should I be looking at? I know that there is not much point of going above 2133 MHz which is what my motherboard supports, but I could probably use it when I come to upgrade the rest of the components.

And btw, what do you do with used parts? For example, would anyone still be willing to buy that i5 which is three generations old? I would probably want to sell it as a combo with the motherboard. And if not, I would just give it to a friend or someone. Well, SSDs are fairly affordable and then you would just need a case and a power supply if you have not got a computer from which you could reuse those components. And in case you want to use it for gaming then you would need a decent GPU.

 

[Vic 40]

You could get some 3000/3200 ram and just let it run spd speed (2133mhz) if you can find it for a good price. This could you easily use in a future system which would benefit from these speeds.

As you will look for ram,might there be someone that can use that i5 for instance. Putting it on a site won't hurt and maybe win you back some money. You can always look how well your i5 will do with VR and decide on basis of that whether you would upgrade or have enough cpu power.