Suggestions for upgrading a 10 year old desktop PC

[dacuriousvinci]

I am planning on upgrading my PC of 10 years. My current configuration is:

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 @2.93GHz
Motherboard - MSI P43T-C51
RAM - 2GB Kingston DDR2 800MHz
HDD - WD Blue 750GB
GPU - MSI HD6570
PSU - Cooler Master B500 (500W)
Case - Zebronics (don't remember the model name). It's an Indian company.

From the previous built I plan on using the following components:

The HDD, since it is working fine. S.M.A.R.T. also says that the HDD is okay. Although I plan to pair it with a SSD.
The PSU- just bought last year.
Display - LG 19" 1366x768. Old but still working fine.
GPU - HD6570. Since, I don't game on my home computer anymore. Although I plan to upgrade it to a Nvidia 1050ti or 1060 in the future. Or some other card.
Mouse - A mouse from Razer forgot the model name.

So i will be buying the following parts:
CPU, Motherboard, RAM, SSD, keyboard and a Cabinet

The following points were kept in mind while I chose my components:

The PC will be used mostly for web browsing, consumption of media, MS Office,etc. Or in short typical home usage by my parents.

In addition to that, it will also be used occasionally for video and audio editing with software like lightworks and audacity.

I will also be using it to run softwares like CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, ArcGIS, and some other academic softwares like MATLAB,etc.

As for gaming I don't get much time for that anymore. But in future I plan to be back at it.
But the above mentioned uses are higher up the priority list.

The budget for this upgrade is Rs. 40000 or 550$ (approx.), and since I will be buying this stuffs from India the dollar prices might not be the exact conversions. For example, Ryzen 3 1300x shows a price of 124.99$ in amazon .com. But it is available in a retail shop near me for around 85$. So feel free to suggest me parts and I will check their prices in my currency.

The motherboard has to support RGB lighting and it has to be a ATX format one because I plan to upgrade this machine in the future with more RAM. (I know RGB does not increase any functionality. But I feel a little bit of RGB does look cool. So there is that.... ).

Also considering the various BIOS issues (although it is apparently now sorted) with Ryzen and also with Intel chips I prefer to have a motherboard with a feature similar to DualBios of Gigabyte. Just for my peace of mind nothing else.

The case should have good ventilation with support for front, rear and top fans because the ventilation in my room is not great. It should have a tempered glass side panel. Preferably, dust filters too. And if possible external 5.25" drive bays ( 1 is enough). RGB fan support is a bonus.

I plan to buy this system in the next couple of months.

I made the following selection:
CPU- i3 8100
Mobo - Gigabyte H370 Aorus Gaming 3 Wifi
RAM - HyperX Fury Black 8 GB CL15 DIMM DDR4 2400
SSD - Samsung 250GB 860EVO (SATA 3 not M.2)
Cabinet - Zebronics Matrix (found in India. Not sure about it's availability outside India though)
https://zebronics.com/products/premium-gaming/matrix


I want the following suggestions from all of you:

How to make this build better performing and also achieve the best cost to performance ratio? Simply, suggestions on what changes that can be made to this build to get the most bang for my buck.


If I go with Ryzen 3 1300x and a comparable B450 motherboard i save up around Rs.7000 or around 100$ which I can invest in a good cooler for the processor. How much performance will I be sacrificing if I do that?

I also want to upgrade this PC in the future with a capable enough GPU and ample RAM for VR.

 

[USAFRet]

So i will be buying the following parts:
CPU, Motherboard, RAM, SSD, keyboard and a Cabinet

That's a whole new system, not simply an "upgrade".

And if your current PSU is "10 years old" you want to get a new one of those as well.

 

[dacuriousvinci]

@USAFRet ya you are technically right. Actually very excited about building a PC for myself again. So forgive my use of wrong term.
I bought the PSU last year. It is not even a year old.

Carrying on from what you said. How you feel will my existing machine respond if I replace the cpu with a core 2 quad and add another 2 or 4gb of ram along with a ssd. A proper upgrade rather than a new build. Will it perform well enough for the uses the mentioned?

 

[USAFRet]

@USAFRet ya you are technically right. Actually very excited about building a PC for myself again. So forgive my use of wrong term.
I bought the PSU last year. It is not even a year old.

Carrying on from what you said. How you feel will my existing machine respond if I replace the cpu with a core 2 quad and add another 2 or 4gb of ram along with a ssd. A proper upgrade rather than a new build. Will it perform well enough for the uses the mentioned?

------------------
In addition to that, it will also be used occasionally for video and audio editing with software like lightworks and audacity.

I will also be using it to run softwares like CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, ArcGIS, and some other academic softwares like MATLAB,etc.
------------------

It would still struggle with those applications.
And 'adding RAM' is always a crapshoot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails.
Adding an SSD would be about the only thing I'd try with that setup.

 

[Peter Martin]

lol

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZbptNQ

Trust me you want this

 

[failboat]

the 8100 is the best at that price range and it's better than the APU's. so the next best thing is jumping up to the 8400 which is a lot better, but it's priced higher than it should be right now due to the intel shortages.

 

[dacuriousvinci]

@USAFRet ya you are technically right. Actually very excited about building a PC for myself again. So forgive my use of wrong term.
I bought the PSU last year. It is not even a year old.

Carrying on from what you said. How you feel will my existing machine respond if I replace the cpu with a core 2 quad and add another 2 or 4gb of ram along with a ssd. A proper upgrade rather than a new build. Will it perform well enough for the uses the mentioned?

------------------
In addition to that, it will also be used occasionally for video and audio editing with software like lightworks and audacity.

I will also be using it to run softwares like CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, ArcGIS, and some other academic softwares like MATLAB,etc.
------------------

It would still struggle with those applications.
And 'adding RAM' is always a crapshoot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails.
Adding an SSD would be about the only thing I'd try with that setup.

Ya i agree with what you are saying about the RAM. It's a hit or miss. I recently tried running lightworks on this and it crashed. So better to go the new build way then?

 

[dacuriousvinci]

lol

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZbptNQ

Trust me you want this

Oh Trust me!! I want this too!!
But it is way out of budget. What would you suggest within the budget I mentioned.

 

[dacuriousvinci]

the 8100 is the best at that price range and it's better than the APU's. so the next best thing is jumping up to the 8400 which is a lot better, but it's priced higher than it should be right now due to the intel shortages.

Ya the price difference between the i3 8100 and i5 8400 is very steep. Almost double. Any suggestions about the Ryzen alternatives?
Or any chance of prices getting better if I wait a month or two?

 

[failboat]

the 8100 is the best at that price range and it's better than the APU's. so the next best thing is jumping up to the 8400 which is a lot better, but it's priced higher than it should be right now due to the intel shortages.

Ya the price difference between the i3 8100 and i5 8400 is very steep. Almost double. Any suggestions about the Ryzen alternatives?
Or any chance of prices getting better if I wait a month or two?

If anything it might get worse with the shortages. I'm not sure if there are November sales in your region or not. It could be worth waiting for. It's not worth it to go Ryzen and buy a gpu if you don't need it. If a stronger gpu can help the ryzen 2600 is very good.