How up to date is my PC?

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Henry Hong

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Jan 9, 2014
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I honestly just want to get an overall opinion of if my computer is up to date. I've been recently been playing ArcheAge which just came out and other games like WoW and League of Legends. Most all games run fine, ArcheAge gives me a little trouble though.

My PC:
i3 540 @ 3.07GHz (4 CPUs)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB (EVGA)
4 GB of ram
(Harddrive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769)
Windows 7

I know my motherboard and CPU are decently old, but do I still need to upgrade them? (Can't currently take apart my computer, it is something like a ASUS P-something) I was thinking almost everything is about solid still, but I want to upgrade to an SSD instead of keeping my HDD. Any other suggestions?
 
Solution
Shane501
If you upgrade the motherboard you may need to reinstall the OS, I would try to identify the motherboard and then see what's out there for it.

The best upgrade would be motherboard and CPU, or CPU and RAM.
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If it has an ATX Mobo you could probably change it out.... Maybe get another stick of Ram to make it 8GB because more and more games are having issues with 4GB (Triple AAA titles, LoL & WoW will run fine) Your GPU is good maybe SLI down the road especially with the lower prices because of the release of the 900-series
 
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I'd rather try staying away from changing the motherboard and CPU for awhile due to cost, could my setup hold 2x4GB sticks and how much would an SSD help?
 
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You only want an SSD in addition to your HDD, you should upgrade your RAM to 8GB, and your CPU is getting a little bit outdated. Belarc Advisor will (should) tell you what you have inside your computer without having to open it all up.
 
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if you cant change your motherboard or cpu...then well SSD costs more higher than both of them....if your mibo has free slots of ram than yes 8 gb ram is good.................it will secure any kind of ram requirement from ram intesive programs.
 
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The RAM depends on your motherboard, but you should be able to do 16GB on most motherboards.
 
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A SSD is a nice overall performance improvement. Not so much for games, but for everything else.
If you buy one large enough to hold the contents of your hard drive it is an easy transition through cloning.
I like the free Samsung utility for that as well as the evo ssd's.

I think you will benefit from 8gb.
Go to a ram web site and access their upgrade configurator.
Enter your pc or motherboard and you will get a compatible list of 8gb(2 x 4gb) kits.
You might get by if you can simply add another 4gb.

If your windows is oem, you may have an issue with changing out your motherboard.
 
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I have a Windows 8 copy which I might as well install if I upgraded to a SSD and I'd rather just start fresh. I could easily get by with around 150GB, I really only game and always am cleaning up old files.
 
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I feel like my CPU isn't running to its full potential, or like you said its getting outdated. It used to run very smooth but now it even takes awhile to load Chrome up (not sure if that is RAM though, I'm not super tech savy). I'm currently thinking about just wiping my computer as it is right now and just re-installing everything. I don't have any valuable pictures or anything I have to keep on this computer at all. Would that be worth trying?
 
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its likely that your CPU is holding you back. that i3 540 is a dual core w/HT, not a true quad core (theres often a big difference in performance). the kind of games you focus on playing are typically more CPU bound that GPU anyway.

additionally, the older LGA 1156 CPUs, IIRC use triple channel memory controllers. so for best performance 3/6 stick of ram must be used (although the difference between dual channel and triple channel is negligible on this platform). also, upgrading ram from 4 - whatever wont necessarily cause a notable difference in gaming performance.

you could check the mobo model number to see if you could upgrade to an i7 920, im sure they can be found pretty cheaply on ebay (used). that would be a nice little performance upgrade. also, you could probably overclock that i3 540 (mobo willing) for a decent little performance boost on the cheap. either of those 2 solutions will probably require an upgraded HSF, assuming youre running the OEM hsf that came with the i3 540.
 
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ASUSTeK Computer INC. P7H55-M LX X.0x - Motherboard
It has 2 slots,
Slot 'DIMM A1' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM B1' has 2048 MB
 
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its a fact. older windows installs often become bloated with crapware, useless registry components, etc that can drag performance down. there are programs that purport to take care of these issues, but i dont go for it.
if its been a year or longer since your last reformat/OS install, go ahead and do that. it will likely speed up your load times. after that, a memory upgrade will give a bit of a boost as well (just probably not in terms of gaming fps). and SSD will only help your program/app loading times.
if you plan on keeping your current mobo for a while, the speed of the SSD is less important than on newer mobo's. mobos for that era CPU, IIRC, only supports SATA1 (150mbs) so -any- current cheap SSD is likely going to max that out.
 
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aye, 2 slots indeed. pick yourself up some cheap 1.5v DDR1333. 2x4gb to help with load times. wont support more than 8gb
 
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I don't know of any way to check when it was last reformatted, but I'm pretty sure 2009~ XD! Yea I might as well install the Windows 8 now and I'll look into an SSD and more RAM. Quick question: If I'm already using Ethernet I don't need to download any drivers before hand and store them on a USB?
 
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If you still have the cd that came with your motherboard, you can use that to get the essential lan driver to connect to the internet.
Or, you could have your drivers preloaded on a usb stick.

If your copy of windows is 32 bit, you can't access more than 4gb. windows 8 will remove that restriction.
Rebuilding on a ssd will be a very good change for you. you will be amazed at the difference.

You could do that first and then see if you think more ram might be helpful.
You only have two slots so you would need to replace the ram you now have.
Max supported is 8gb on your motherboard.

 
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It was the old family PC, but I've just upgraded the power supply and added the GPU.
 
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A computer place my dad used, not to sure. Why?
 
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Because they used their own motherboard versions and the standard CPU support lists won't work for those.
What happened to me was this, I have a foxconn G33M02 Motherboard and they have a support list on their website, but it was installed in a Dell tower and they decided to modify the board so it only supports a few CPU's. If that happens then it can be a real pain to find a compatible CPU.
 
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Ahh I see, so it might be smart just to get a motherboard and CPU. Well I want to get a SSD, more RAM, motherboard, and new CPU. I will probably only be able to get 2 of those anytime soon so what do you think the best choice would be?
 
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If you upgrade the motherboard you may need to reinstall the OS, I would try to identify the motherboard and then see what's out there for it.

The best upgrade would be motherboard and CPU, or CPU and RAM.
 
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