Question Prebuilt Dell XPS8500 upgrade for gaming/rendering

[Ekf501]

Approximate Purchase Date: the sooner the better

Budget Range: max $1000 CDN final total

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, animating, video/sound editing, watching movies, spreadsheets, surfing the net

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: Graphics card Radeon HD 7550 to much newer and at least , the case because it’s very tight in there, likely the 460w power source, and potentially the fan and 686 AMIBIOS motherboard. The parts I’m keeping are: Intel i7.3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 4 cores, 16GB RAM unless more would make the new set up run better, 1TB SSD, 2TB HHD

Do you need to buy OS: Only if I need a new motherboard, which I’m unsure of

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: canadacomputers.ca, Bestbuy.ca, newegg.ca, and any other reputable Canadian sites recommended

Location: Laval, Quebec, Canada

Parts Preferences: no preference

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: I’ll be honest I dunno what this is

Your Monitor:1920x1080 but I might upgrade at a later date to 4k

Additional Comments: I’d like a relatively quiet computer but mostly I want to be able to run my desired programs with as little issue as possible. Programs include: Excel, Word, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, TvPaint, Firefox, Steam, Origin. Games include: Sims 4 with many mods, Final Fantasy, Life is Strange 2, Slime Rancher, Dragonball Kakarot, Demon Slayer

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I am having great difficulty playing Sims 4 and newer games like Life is Strange 2. And test rendering when animating or editing is excruciatingly slow. It’s a fantastic beast of a machine that’s already been upgraded twice to what it is now. I got her in 2009 now it’s time for her 3rd upgrade so she can last even longer.

 

[Dj0gany]

Personal opinion - use the 1000CDN for a beast of a AM4 system along with a RX 6600XT or something of the equivalent.
I understand the passion, but the system is really old and would need upgrading every year or so if you decide to keep the i7.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Yes that i7 is from about 2012-2013. In other words don’t buy that system. My wife has a similar Dell optiplex system in her home office that I intend to kick to the curb this year due to windows 10 support ending. Just need to get a case and new power supply.

But regardless, 1000 for a system of that age is a waste of money. 50 bucks is more like it but even then…

 

[Ekf501]

Personal opinion - use the 1000CDN for a beast of a AM4 system along with a RX 6600XT or something of the equivalent.
I understand the passion, but the system is really old and would need upgrading every year or so if you decide to keep the i7.

Ah, alright. I’d really rather upgrade bits and pieces of the system rather than get a whole new rig. Sure, eventually it would all end up being new parts anyway but I have a really difficult time with change. So scrap my original intent with the i7, would upgrading it extend the life like I want?

 

[Ekf501]

Yes that i7 is from about 2012-2013. In other words don’t buy that system. My wife has a similar Dell optiplex system in her home office that I intend to kick to the curb this year due to windows 10 support ending. Just need to get a case and new power supply.

But regardless, 1000 for a system of that age is a waste of money. 50 bucks is more like it but even then…

Fair enough. Let me switch gears then, if I were to scrap what I have now and use the money to build a new pc, are there any parts I have that are good enough to save and move to the new build?

 

[--SID--]

Fair enough. Let me switch gears then, if I were to scrap what I have now and use the money to build a new pc, are there any parts I have that are good enough to save and move to the new build?

The SSD. Maybe the case if the front panel and fan connectors are not proprietary.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

The SSD. Maybe the case if the front panel and fan connectors are not proprietary.

SSD, maybe hard drive for mass storage.

I would probably start looking at AMD socket AM5 and maybe a Ryzen 5 7600x to start with, probably a budget b650 board and for a cooler something like a Thermalright Peerless Assassin. For a GPU maybe shop for the RX 7700xt or 7800xt. I'm in the USA so I think your prices will be a little bit higher than here.