Looking to Upgrade entire system, tips or advice

Blitz_

Commendable
Jun 28, 2017
36
0
1,540
Hey guys,

About to start selecting parts for my 1st ever build.

My current system (see below) is starting to fail me and truth be told I cba to troubleshoot it any more.

I have decided to upgrade seeing as my front case headers don't work, the motherboard is outdated, the processor is all but [broken] and all in all it struggles to run even DOTA at 60fps.

Take a look at the parts of the old system and my upgrade ideas and let me know what you think.

Current Build ([redacted] POS)
Mobo: Asus p5n-d LGA 775 ([I don't] know what chipset)
CPU: Core 2 Quad q9550 (not o/ced, sits at 2.8ghz)
PSU: unbranded 550w (probably overkill)
GPU: MSI GTX1050 2GB OC (recently bought as part of troubleshooting)
RAM: 7Gb Kingston Value
2 Mech HD's: 1 500gb + 1 250GB

Upcoming Build (this will be getting upgraded month on month - parts not in brackets will be bought in a week and all other upgrades will be mentioned in Brackets)

Mobo - Asus B150 PRO GAMING/AURA LGA 1151 (No future upgrade idea's)
CPU - Pentium G4400 (will be upgrading to i3 6100 within 2 month and then i7 as soon as I can afford it)
PSU - Unbranded 500W (new, won't be using the old PSU as I suspect it is starting to fail)
GPU - Will be transferring the 1050 over (will upgrade to 970 when funds allow)
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB ddr4
Storage: 2 Mech Hd's will get transfered, (upgrade to m.2 SSD within 2 month)

The idea of this build is simply to get some decent parts, with an upgrade path.

Finding an upgrade path for AMD seemed a lot harder (Not overly fond of AMD - and Ryzen 3 isn't out yet or I'd go for it)

I'm ideally looking to play Games such as: Doom (2016 ver), Overwatch, Dishonored 2 etc.
Understandably until i have some of the higher upgrade (i3 etc) in there, this may be a tall order but hopefully it sets me on the path to be able to upgrade at minimal cost.

Any advice would be great.

Moderator warning: watch the language, final warning.
 
Solution
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£63.47 @ BT Shop)
Motherboard: MSI - B250M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£64.97 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£59.30 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman - T2 Plus MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£23.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA - 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.93 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £250.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-24 13:00 BST+0100

Kind of your only option that makes any...

Supahos

Expert
Ambassador
Save your money up till you can get better stuff.


As a minimum I'd get a g4560 CPU/b250 motherboard 8gb ram, 1050/1050ti and a BETTER PSU than some unbranded price of junk. You can get a quality 550ish watt PSU for under $40 usually no reason to risk your whole rig for a couple of bucks (Corsair cx550m/seasonic 520/620 Evo) usually one of the 3 is below $40
 
First off, rewrite the post and delete the swearing, it's not big, it's not clever and in most Forums it'll get you an instant ban.

I can understand your anger, but you're choosing the most expensive possible way to go about this.
Please tell us:
EXACTLY how much can you drop on upgrades at this time?
Where do you live?


 

Blitz_

Commendable
Jun 28, 2017
36
0
1,540
Ok, could you explain the major difference between both the b150 chipset and the b250 chipset to warrant the change?
as for CPU - that cpu has all of .2 of a ghz more than the G4400 with the same 3mb cache, so i fail to see the need when I plan on upgrading to the i3 within a month. The reason I'm not going straight for the i3 is because PC Parts Picker states I'd probably need to upgrade the Mobo Bios for it to take the i3 6100, so I would need a cpu that would work in the mobo to do this. Unless there is something I'm not taking into account.

As for the PSU, mate i've used an unbranded CPU for years, in a system originally built by the company "ChillBlast" before it was given to me as a leaving present, and had 0 issues from this, yes I will upgrade eventually but for the moment I'm likely to go with the Ace Black PSU (it's not unbranded it's just not well knows as far as I can tell)

 
1. G4400/G4560, I would just get the G4560, skip the I3-6100 entirely why? G4560 is hyper threading the G4400 doesn't and the I3-6100 is not a real upgrade would the money to do it, save funds and hop to an I5 then I7 later

2. B250 motherboard permit you not only to use 6th gen but al so 7th gen CPu's, so your path can go from G4560 -> i5-6500-> i7-7700 later (great upgrade path for the money) note some of the cheaper B250 do have a limitation when it comes to ram such as the GA-B250-DS3H states * To support 2400 MHz or XMP memory, you must install a 7th generation processor. so be aware of this before buying ram

3. Unless you get the 970 for 100-120$ I would upgrade directly to a 1060 6gb (about 250$) that way you will not have to save more to get the power you need.

4. I would get 16GB of DDR4 ram, 6GB is getting pretty baseline, windows 10 runs on 4gb and many games now require 16gb to play them properly.


 
The G4560 has Hyperthreading and runs very close to an i3 in terms of overall performance, getting one of those will allow you to skip the i3 phase of the build entirely, especially if you drop in a half decent CPU cooler and do9 a little work to overclock it.

We'll ALWAYS advise posters to use good quality parts, particularly the PSU, as it's the foundation of a solid, reliable system, but the choice of parts will, of course be down to the builder.

TBH B150 'boards will accept the current CPUs with a BIOS update, and many will ship with an updated BIOS anyway so if you're aiming at a Kaby Lake part later there's really little reason to opt for the more expensive B250 'board.
 

Vic 40

Titan
Ambassador
The B250 chipset will for sure support that G4560 cpu without needing a bios update (although by now maybe that the B150 boards that sell migth have a bios that supports it) and with that cpu is there little reason to upgrade to the i3 6100.

We're very cautious when it comes to unbranded psu's since the psu can take a whole system down and to the dumpster.Like said is a decent quality psu often not that much more expensive.
 

Blitz_

Commendable
Jun 28, 2017
36
0
1,540
instant bans on a computer forum for swearing?! you smegging kidding? it's 2017 and people swear, i don't think it's big or clever, but seriously this is a forum that should be dominated by adults, who by definition should be able to handle a few swear words without instantly getting triggered, it's not like i'm swearing AT anyone and I swear a lot when discussing computers. But hey, whatever, someone edited the post on my behalf.

To answer your questions, I have about £250 to get myself into a position where I have a good upgrade path, the less it costs in one lump the better.

But I need a new MOBO as lga 775 isn't applicable any more
Because of this I will need a new CPU (I WILL be upgrading this again in the future, just want something that will run DOTA for the moment so I can continue where I am right now.
Sadly new MOBO means new RAM, I opted to go straight for a nice set, because the prices aren't too far from the Value side anyway.
and where do I live? not sure how that changes anything, but UK (Newcastle to be exact)
 

Vic 40

Titan
Ambassador

Blitz_

Commendable
Jun 28, 2017
36
0
1,540
Ok to anyone suggesting part who didn't read my original post.

I NEED A CASE AND PSU AS WELL.

So £250 parts lists that only include Mem, mobo and CPU aren't of use to me right now, also with that in mind, i would genuinely rather spend £120 on a mobo rather than the RAM right now, everything plugs into it so would rather not scrimp there.
 

Supahos

Expert
Ambassador
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£63.47 @ BT Shop)
Motherboard: MSI - B250M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£64.97 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£59.30 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman - T2 Plus MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£23.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA - 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.93 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £250.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-24 13:00 BST+0100

Kind of your only option that makes any sense then
 
Solution

Blitz_

Commendable
Jun 28, 2017
36
0
1,540




Yeah.....I'm not looking to have my cake and eat it pal. I'm looking to buy parts that will give me a decent upgrade path for the future, while maintaining the performance I have at the moment or slightly improving it.

So, I will look for the CPU mentioned as it sounds like a good buy, however my only 2 stipulations being.

I wan't to be able to play DOTA (it's all I play atm) and it has to have a decent upgrade path.

I don't expect the world and I already have the GPU and storage.

 

Blitz_

Commendable
Jun 28, 2017
36
0
1,540


Cheers man, I'll take a look.

I knew it was possible, it's just a case (no pun intended) of scrimping in some area's but not in others.
 

Blitz_

Commendable
Jun 28, 2017
36
0
1,540


trust me, those minimums are bull excrement (no swearing in forums)

This is what started the problem, I had 2 9600GT'S Sli'd together, with Q9550 Core 2 quad at 3ghz (i'd oc'd at the time)

I got dips in fps and general micro stutters, until i got my 1050 and even now, on lowest settings but decent res. I get 30/40fps max during gameplay. it's not worth dropping the resolution since it takes the quality through the floor and begins to look like something from the 16bit gen.

Sorry, the reason this was so annoying, was because they updated the minimum to that, it used to work fine.
 

Blitz_

Commendable
Jun 28, 2017
36
0
1,540
Ok see what you guys think of this, slight change from what was suggested, mainly because if I can avoid the full £250 that would be better and I don't want a mini or micro mobo.

Since I don't plan on any major gaming (bar dota) until I upgrade even more I should only need enough ram to run the os etc and will pay the big bucks for top end Ram when I can.

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/k4y9m8
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/k4y9m8/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£63.47 @ BT Shop)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B250-PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£79.96 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£34.79 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix - Neos Black ATX Mid Tower Case (£30.54 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX - XT 400W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £243.75