Old system upgrade route

[pjrichardson78]

Hi guys, my parents have asked me to upgrade their current pc
a Packard Bell Ixtreme M5741.
It currently only has an i3-530 and 3gb RAM

My initial thought was to maximise the RAM (8gb max) and swap out the i3-530 for an i7-870 / 880 but then i remembered i had a spare i7-2600 from an old system.
So should I
1. Keep the existing system and just upgrade the i3-530
2.or just get a new motherboard and install the i7-2600

whichever route i go i will also be installing 8gb Ram and an ssd

 

[jay32267]

Well....passmark gives the 2600 about a 50% higher score....so if that's worth the money to you for the mb....

but also....the 880 isn't exactly a slouch and if it's for your parents.....maybe it will be fine for them.

 

[smorizio]

you have to find out if there mb can take any cpu upgrade. a lot of pre built mb dont have the vrm or the bios info for newer cpu chips. what i would do as the pc is working now is buy a new windows 10 pre built. look on dell/hp/micro center/newegg for closeout or over stock sale. pick up a new screen too. when the new pc comes in hook both up to the same router/network. turn on file sharing and move there old files from the old pc to the new one. also pick up a reg hard drive and ext case and back the files up to it. then pull the hard drive and pack it away in case your missing photos or files they need.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Depends on whether or not one upgrade is relatively cheaper than the other.

Upgrading the processor can be done (from ebay) for around $50. A new I7 processor is going to run you around between $240 and $300.
A new motherboard for your I7-2600 is going to start around $120, but changing the motherboard also means changing the Windows license (unless you're running Windows 10).

For the record, I'm still running my old Intel Core I5-760 and 8GB of RAM smooth as butter (not for gaming).

-Wolf sends

 

[pjrichardson78]

thanks for all your suggestions, i was still trying to decided between the 2 but the costs were starting to mount up as the original system only had a 250 psu which i doubt would have been enough for the i7-870 let alone the i7-2600k, then i found a complete i7-2600 system with 8gb Ram 1tb hdd and monitor for £160 on Facebook, problem solved