[SOLVED] OLD PC UPGRADE/ KEEP SOME PARTS/ BUY NEW ONE?

[Pierre Reynaud]

Hi Guys,

I need your help, unfortunately I bought a PC from CyberPower PC about 4 years ago, and I didn't really do some research and just went for it.

And now my PC has been struggling to keep up with new games, it can play with no problem games like Civ 6 but when it comes to games like Planetside 2 or PUBG, it starts to struggle at very low settings.

I don't know much about PC components but I think I know the basics, I wanted to upgrade to some really good graphics ( but I just learnt that my motherboard is limiting me to very few options, and so far I can't seem to be able to find something that will be worth the investment if it will only last me one more year.

I'm willing to spend up to £1750 if this will last me 5+ years, I'm planning to upgrade my pc every 6 months maybe.

I was hoping maybe to keep some parts of my PC so I can invest more in parts that will benefit me in the future.

Maybe the cooling system, the case, the SSD drive and the fans ?

I can maybe try to sell the components separably.

Here are the stats of my current PC:

BLUETOOTH: None
CAPTURECARD: None
CAS: NZXT Phantom 410 Mid Tower Gaming Case w/ front USB 3.0 (White colour)
CASUPGRADE: NONE
CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+/-R/+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE. (BLACK Colour)
CD2: NONE
COOL: NONE
CPU: INTEL(R) Core™ i5-4690K Quad Core 3.50 GHz 6MB Cache LGA1150 + HD Graphics * Extreme OC *
CS_FAN: Default Case Fan
DONGLES: NONE
EXPAN: NONE
FA_HDD: None
FAN: Corsair Hydro Series H55 Quiet Liquid Cooling system w/ 120mm Radiator (Corsair CPU Water Cooling * Extreme OC *)
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK Colour)
HD_M2PCIE: None
HD_M2SPCIE: None
HDD: 2TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64M Cache 7200rpm Hard Drive (Single Hard Drive)
HDD2: NONE
SDD: Crucial MX300 1 TB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive with 9.5 mm Adapter - Grey/Blue
MB_SRT_Z87: None
MEMORY: 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3/1866mhz Dual Channel Memory (HyperX Fury White w/Heat Spreader)
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte Z97-HD3 INTEL Z97 Chipset, ATX Mainboard w/ 4 RAM slots, 7.1 HD Audio, HDMI, GbLAN, USB 3.0, SATA-III, 1x Gen2 PCIe x16, 1x Gen2 PCIe x4, 2x PCIe x 1 & 2x PCI
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT -- As standard on all PCs
OS: Windows 10 Home (64-bit Edition)
OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
POWERSUPPLY: 450 Watts Power Supplies (Corsair VS Series 450watt Gaming Power Supply)
RUSH: NONE
SERVERUNIT: NONE
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: NONE
TEMP: NONE
TVRC: NONE
USB1: NONE
VIDEO: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card (Single Card)
WNC: NONE
XWNA: NONE

This cost me at about £1000.

 

[Flayed]

Sell the old rig and build a new one.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£289.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49 CFM CPU Cooler (£26.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY ATX AM4 Motherboard (£284.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory (£149.99 @ Corsair UK)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£189.98 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card (£671.63 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (£65.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£80.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1759.51
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-25 22:01 GMT+0000

 

[Pierre Reynaud]

Sell the old rig and build a new one.
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£289.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49 CFM CPU Cooler (£26.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY ATX AM4 Motherboard (£284.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory (£149.99 @ Corsair UK)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£189.98 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card (£671.63 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case (£65.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£80.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1759.51
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-25 22:01 GMT+0000

Thanks for your help, do you know the best place where I could sell my old computer? How much do you think it's worth?


Is it worth keeping my old SSD 1TB ? and save £190 .

Can I not do the same for the CPU cooler ? I have a water cooling (Corsair Hydro Series H55 Quiet Liquid Cooling system w/ 120mm Radiator (Corsair CPU Water Cooling * Extreme OC *) )

Thank you Flayed.

 

[geofelt]

Likely, your gaming issues are more related to the graphics card than the processor.
A i5-4690K is still a strong processor.
You have the motherboard and cooler that will allow you to overclock and gain some 30% better performance.
I might try that and see how you do.
If you see little benefit, then your graphics card is the issue.
Another way to test is to
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

If you mostly play multiplayer games with many participants, then your 4 threads is likely to be what is limiting you.

If you want a new build, you can try to sell your pc as a complete unit to a local buyer.
If you sell the whole thing on ebay, shipping costs will eat you up.
A pc will often fetch more if it is disassembled and the parts sold individually.
That is because it is unlikely that a buyer will want exactly the same pc.
Find your parts in used condition on ebay.
Then filter on completed auctions,
In green you will see what the part actually sold for.

As to parts to keep:

SSD is a good keeper.
Corsair VS is no good, poor quality, and 450w is not sufficient.

A H55 aio with a 120mm fan is not a good keeper to my mind.
It is no more effective than a air cooler with a 120mm fan.

DDR3 ram is useless, any modern setup will use DDR4.

If gpu is your issue, there is no sense in keeping a GTX960.
If you love the case, keep it.
Otherwise, buy a case you love.

 

[Pierre Reynaud]

Likely, your gaming issues are more related to the graphics card than the processor.
A i5-4690K is still a strong processor.
You have the motherboard and cooler that will allow you to overclock and gain some 30% better performance.
I might try that and see how you do.
If you see little benefit, then your graphics card is the issue.
Another way to test is to
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

If you mostly play multiplayer games with many participants, then your 4 threads is likely to be what is limiting you.

If you want a new build, you can try to sell your pc as a complete unit to a local buyer.
If you sell the whole thing on ebay, shipping costs will eat you up.
A pc will often fetch more if it is disassembled and the parts sold individually.
That is because it is unlikely that a buyer will want exactly the same pc.
Find your parts in used condition on ebay.
Then filter on completed auctions,
In green you will see what the part actually sold for.

As to parts to keep:

SSD is a good keeper.
Corsair VS is no good, poor quality, and 450w is not sufficient.

A H55 aio with a 120mm fan is not a good keeper to my mind.
It is no more effective than a air cooler with a 120mm fan.

DDR3 ram is useless, any modern setup will use DDR4.

If gpu is your issue, there is no sense in keeping a GTX960.
If you love the case, keep it.
Otherwise, buy a case you love.

Hi geofelt,

Yes, I agree with you, my graphic card seems to be biggest limit I have besides the DDR3 RAM.

I was planning to upgrade it but my motherboard seems to limit me the options.

I was wondering, would it be possible to keep my old CPU, keep it until it starts to struggle and then replace it with a better one? If i'm correct, any CPU can go to any Motherboard right?

Or should i sell it now while it still has some value?

When i lower the resolution I do see an increase of FPS just enough to make my games playable, so I guess it's worth keeping it and save some money.

I play both single player and multiplayer but i feel it more when playing multiplayer.

What do you mean local buyer? Do you mean something like PC world or another PC shops in the area?

Thanks for the tip ^^ really appreciate it, I don't want to damage the components not very confident on how to dismantle the components, would you recommend to look for some shop that will do this service? Or is it easy to do?

Even if it is water cooled? Or is the fan cooled with water and not the CPU?

I agree with the DDR3, it's old, i just hope the motherboard i get is compatible with the future DDR5.

I will sell the GTX 960.

I checked and the case is a bit small for the new graphic card so I might get a new one, I feel so bad selling my old case

Thanks geofelt for your expert advice, really appreciate it.

 

[geofelt]

DDR3 is not bad at all. It is comparable to DDR4 in performance. when the speeds are comparable.
Intel processors do not much depend on ram speeds for performance if you using a discrete graphics card.
Here is an older study of ddr3 ram speed scaling:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell

No, Processors Will only work with a compatible socket and chipset.
About the only stronger processor your motherboard can use would be a I7-4790K.
It sells for $150-$170 used on ebay.
The big advantage would be the added 4 threads which is good for multiplayer games.

If you are uncomfortable changing out parts, a local shop may be willing to replace your 4690K with a 4790K for a price.

Otherwise, better cpu performance will come with a replacement of not only the processor, but also the motherboard and DDR4 ram.
Intel 9th gen or ryzen 3000 series are what you want buying new.
For multiplayer, ryzen offers a better deal on high thread count processors.

CPU cooling with an AIO cooler like the H55 is really air cooling.
The difference is that the radiator on an air cooled system is attached to the cpu where in a liquid cooled system, a circulating pump is attached to the cpu and the liquid is directed to an air cooled radiator elsewhere.

Your case is plenty big enough for any motherboard or graphics card.
It is built to sell for the looks.
Where it falls short is the ability to take in cooling air from the front.(two 120mm fans)
Good cooling cases will have a 200mm fan or 2 140mm intakes

 

[Flayed]

The fractal Design case is £30 off black friday sale if you want a new case that is a very good deal.

 

[Pierre Reynaud]

DDR3 is not bad at all. It is comparable to DDR4 in performance. when the speeds are comparable.
Intel processors do not much depend on ram speeds for performance if you using a discrete graphics card.
Here is an older study of ddr3 ram speed scaling:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell

No, Processors Will only work with a compatible socket and chipset.
About the only stronger processor your motherboard can use would be a I7-4790K.
It sells for $150-$170 used on ebay.
The big advantage would be the added 4 threads which is good for multiplayer games.

If you are uncomfortable changing out parts, a local shop may be willing to replace your 4690K with a 4790K for a price.

Otherwise, better cpu performance will come with a replacement of not only the processor, but also the motherboard and DDR4 ram.
Intel 9th gen or ryzen 3000 series are what you want buying new.
For multiplayer, ryzen offers a better deal on high thread count processors.

CPU cooling with an AIO cooler like the H55 is really air cooling.
The difference is that the radiator on an air cooled system is attached to the cpu where in a liquid cooled system, a circulating pump is attached to the cpu and the liquid is directed to an air cooled radiator elsewhere.

Your case is plenty big enough for any motherboard or graphics card.
It is built to sell for the looks.
Where it falls short is the ability to take in cooling air from the front.(two 120mm fans)
Good cooling cases will have a 200mm fan or 2 140mm intakes

Thanks for the info Geofelt. I might wait after Christmas to build a new computer because of my job.

Umm that's a shame for the motherboard, a i5-4690K chip for a i7-4790K might be a good deal if it can boost me for a year max.

Yeah, i checked on the website to check the compatibility and I can't add drives or put the new cooling in.

For the future, is there a way to find the best PC build by budget size?

I might get a bonus by Feb and if i get a big one then I can probably spend more.

I don't think I will buy the parts this month so it's a shame but I won't benefit from Black Friday

Thanks for the help everyone.