Hardware bottleneck - what to upgrade?

[rob.peden]

Hi guys, trying to figure out the best hardware upgrade(s) to give my old PC a bit of a boost. I suspect the processor may be starting to be the bottleneck, but I'd be very grateful for any opinions. I've got a newer graphics card from a friend I was going to install (palit gtx 770 2GB) which might help. Basically it's running fine, but struggling with some games.

Specs are:
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q
Processor - Intel Core2 Quad Q660 @ 2.40GHz
RAM: 4.00GB (Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz)
Graphics: nVidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB
System: 64bit Windows 10 installed on a Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SSD

Thanks all!

 

[camieabz]

Short of going up to a Core 2 extreme (QX9770), you've pretty much hit the CPU limit. For the price of that CPU (2nd hand), you might be better off spending the money on another 2 x 2GB DDR2.

If you can get it, I would look for 2 x 4GB 1066, but again, you're probably looking at 2nd hand RAM. If you do get it, you would be doubling your RAM, and taking the RAM speed up by a third.

However, the RAM support list does not list any 1066 RAM in a kit of 4, so if you decide to double your ram with 4 sticks, I would suggest you stick to DDR2 800 RAM.

 

[CooLWoLF]

The price/performance gains for trying to upgrade your old system will not be worth it, and likely a complete waste of money (unless you can get a C2Q cpu and more DDR2 ram dirt cheap).

Your best bet is to upgrade to a budget Ryzen system. That will leave lots of room for upgrade later.

 

[Camy252]

I'd get a Mac if i was you.

 

[melaxrinos]

Buy a new computer

 

[rob.peden]

Thanks very much for this - I'll see what I can find on the RAM front. Is the CPU likely to be the main limiting factor in the system speed/ability to run programs? If I can't get hold of a QX9770 is a Core 2 extreme QX9650 3.0GHz likely to do much better than my current processor?

Short of going up to a Core 2 extreme (QX9770), you've pretty much hit the CPU limit. For the price of that CPU (2nd hand), you might be better off spending the money on another 2 x 2GB DDR2.

If you can get it, I would look for 2 x 4GB 1066, but again, you're probably looking at 2nd hand RAM. If you do get it, you would be doubling your RAM, and taking the RAM speed up by a third.

However, the RAM support list does not list any 1066 RAM in a kit of 4, so if you decide to double your ram with 4 sticks, I would suggest you stick to DDR2 800 RAM.