[SOLVED] Old 2011 PC upgrade

[Skontrodude]

Hi everyone, I need some advice about upgrading an old 2011 PC, that's now been running flawlessly for almost 9 years!!

What I bought back in 2011 was:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K (with stock Intel cooler and no overclock)
MB: Asus P8Z68-V PRO
GPU: https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/EAH69702DI2S2GD5/
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2x4GB 1600 CL8

Last year it started freezing often so I bought a basic SSD drive (I had an HDD) and that solved everything.

THIS IS NOT MY MAIN PC, I have another recent PC with modern hardware, this one's used mainly by my daughter or myself for soft gaming...
It's actually still running pretty good but both the CPU and the GPU are running hot and the fans spin like crazy (yesterday I have throughly cleaned everything and it's already much better). Especially the graphics card has always been noisy and running hot.

Anyway, I was thinking about buying a second-hand GTX 970 or 980 (prices go from €. 130 to 170) and a better CPU cooler (around €. 35) to (maybe) try some luck with slight overclock (I never did any so I'd rather try something here than on my new PC...). The case is a CM HAF 912 so card length is not an issue.

Do you think this might be a good choice?

Will a newer-generation card work better than the above mentioned GTXs (within the same price range)?

Shall I consider adding more RAM (considering that finding the exact model seems impossible)?

Thanks in advance.
Nick

 

[King_V]

The HD 6970 was a beast in its day, but it's hot, loud, and power-hungry. Age will probably make it worse - I'm not sure if there was an easy way to clean out that enclosed blower-style cooler on the GPU. Officially rated at 250W, I've read some comments here and there that suggest it might draw as much as 300W, though that seems a little implausible.

I'd be surprised if your CPU is still having cooling problems, though.

What is your monitor's resolution and refresh rate? Does it have FreeSync, GSync, or neither?

What country are you buying in? There are (I'm looking at de.pcpartpicker.com for Germany, though there will be different offers depending on which country you're in) new cards that perform better than your existing one, that can be had for € 170 or less, and with much less power consumption and heat production.

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=476,439,450,392,391&sort=price

 

[GarrettL]

I recently upgraded the wife's 2500 to a 3770 (used from eBay) and SSD's and 16GB of ram, huge difference.

I'd suggest getting the fastest cpu your motherboard will support and an updated gpu. It'll do fine for a few more years.

 

[King_V]

I recently upgraded the wife's 2500 to a 3770 (used from eBay) and SSD's and 16GB of ram, huge difference.

I'd suggest getting the fastest cpu your motherboard will support and an updated gpu. It'll do fine for a few more years.

The downside to getting the fastest CPU of that era is that the CPUs of that era on the used market are generally overpriced - sellers want to squeeze as much as they can out for someone who isn't looking to upgrade the entire platform.

A relatively inexpensive GPU upgrade, though, will make a difference in gaming, but also drastically cut heat and power consumption.

 

[GarrettL]

Yeah, but he's trying to upgrade the existing system on a budget, not build a new one.

 

[Skontrodude]

Hey, thank you both for your help!

@King_V I am from Italy and my monitor is 1080P without Free or GSync. The GTX 1060 seems too expensive (above €200 for the 3GB version) while the RX 580 can be found at around 170, for example this:
https://www.murripatrizia.it/scheda...t-3840-x-2160-pixels-pci-express-x16-2-0.html

Will the RX 580 perform better with my system than a used GTX 980 for the same price?

@GarrettL I can get a used 3770 for around €60 from Ebay, is it a good price?

As for the RAM, can I add 2 more 4GB modules even if they're not exactly the same model? Or it's better to maybe buy 2x 8GB?

Finally, any suggestions for the CPU cooler (for either the 2500 or 3770)?

 

[GarrettL]

Memory should be bought together in kits, not mixed.

Pricing is something you'll have to decide.

The cooler that come with the 2500 is the same used for the 3770 from what I could find. I used the cooler that was on the 2500 without any problems.

 

[King_V]

Offhand, and I don't know the European used CPU market, €60 sounds pretty good, I think. Or maybe I just think so because US sellers are ridiculous with the used i7 CPUs.

As for the RX 580, that's a pretty good price, compared to what I'm seeing at it.pcpartpicker.com, and the Sapphire Pulse has a very good cooler.

However, if you can find a GTX 1650 Super, it performs only a hair less on average, and consumes less power. Your existing HD 6970 is rated at 250W TDP, the RX 580 at about 185W TDP, and the 1650 Super at 100W TDP.

Searching with these parameters:
https://it.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=476,391&sort=price

I found this one at €168.36, which I think is worth considering:
https://it.pcpartpicker.com/product...-4-gb-compact-video-card-n165s1-04d6-1720va29

Other shops that aren't picked up by PCPartPicker might have better deals - for example, when I searched for the 580, I didn't see the results for murripatriza come up.

The GTX 980 performs roughly in the same ballpark as the RX 580 or GTX 1650 Super, maybe slightly more. I'm not sure if there would be much of a noticable difference overall between the three of them. I'd be more comfortable with a new card with a full warranty, than going used for the same price, with, in the best case scenario, less than a 10% performance edge (I think some games the 980 will do better, some games it will do worse)

 

[Skontrodude]

Ok, thanks guys, I think I have a better idea now, I'll go with either the 1050 super or a RX 580, power consumption is not a big issue so I'll check a few reviews mainly for performance and noise.

I don't konw what's the issue with my CPU but the stock fan is often spinning fast and the temp gets above 60° without any particular task... Anyway I'll buy the used 3770, test it and later decide about the cooler.

Thanks again!

 

[King_V]

Ok, thanks guys, I think I have a better idea now, I'll go with either the 1050 super or a RX 580, power consumption is not a big issue so I'll check a few reviews mainly for performance and noise.

Erm, just to be clear, 1650 Super. The 1050 and 1050Ti exist, but they perform around what the HD 6970 does.

As for power consumption, while in and of itself it may not be of concern, higher power consumption does contribute more heat to the inside of your PC case, which, given the odd CPU cooling issues you're having, MIGHT be a contributing factor. I'll admit that's a bit of guesswork on my part, though.

 

[Skontrodude]

Erm, just to be clear, 1650 Super. The 1050 and 1050Ti exist, but they perform around what the HD 6970 does.

As for power consumption, while in and of itself it may not be of concern, higher power consumption does contribute more heat to the inside of your PC case, which, given the odd CPU cooling issues you're having, MIGHT be a contributing factor. I'll admit that's a bit of guesswork on my part, though.

Yeah, I was referring to the 1650 Super but I wrote 1050!

You may be right about the heat, I didn't look at it that way...

Under 200€ we have these options, what do you thihk?
https://www.amazon.it/MSI-Scheda-gr...ds=gtx+1650+super&qid=1584637887&s=pc&sr=1-17

https://www.amazon.it/Zotac-GeForce...&sr=1-1&swrs=3ED256825605EE38D4110909B156D7E7

I can find better prices in other websites but when you add shipping costs it's almost the same so I'd choose Amazon.

Thanks again.

 

[King_V]

I couldn't be absolutely sure, but my instinct tells me that the Zotac, with its dual fan solution (and heavier weight), might be more effective at cooling.

I don't know if the extra weight is because of the fans/plastic, though, or more metal in the cooler.

Just eyeballing it, it seems to me like the Zotac would be better. It might be hard to find, but if you can find any reviews of these specific models that address cooling effectiveness and noise levels, that would be what I'd make my decision on.

 

[Skontrodude]

🆒