[SOLVED] Tips on upgrading an old PC

[Ferfolho]

Cutting to the chase, i got an old PC, and i'm planning on upgrading it over time. I need tips on what should i upgrade first, and if the final setup will be enough.
Specs:
Asus H61M-A motherboard
i3-2100
GTX 650
Single stick of 8gb RAM (ddr3)
350w PSU
HD Western Digital 500gb SATA 7200
No SSD
What i'm planning to do is: (in that order)
Change the PSU to a Gamemax 650w 80 plus bronze
Change the CPU to a i5-2500k
Change the GPU to an RX 560 4gb or a GTX 1050 3gb or a GTX 1030 2gb
Change the RAM to a 16gb ddr4 stick
Get an SSD (Didn't look up any model in specific yet)
Not sure if i should change the HD, motherboard or buy more coolers (not gonna OC).
It's obviously a budget setup, not made for running recent games on ultra settings or anything alike. If it runs games like RE 7 or Apex Legends in medium to low settings, that's already absolutely enough.
I'm quite dumb when it comes to PC parts, so sorry if i'm terribly mistaken about something. That's why i'm posting this here in the first place. What do you all think?

 

[Lafong]

Is there an over-riding reason you chose the i5-2500K?

It was a good horse in its day.

But it was introduced 11 years ago.

You can certainly build a budget PC with parts no older than 2 or 3 years.

What led you to the Gamemax power supply?

If you want 16 GB RAM, the standard advice would be to buy two 8 GB sticks in a matched pair "kit".

Crucial MX500 is a decent all-around choice for an SSD. Available in several different capacities.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Change the PSU to a Gamemax 650w 80 plus bronze

Pass on gamemax. Get something better.

Change the RAM to a 16gb ddr4 stick

DDR4 is not compatible with your system.
Get DDR3 dual channel kit.

 

[punkncat]

IMO if you were going to spend to upgrade that machine, and on the assumption that is an "aftermarket/standard" build, not an OEM.

I would probably consider:
2x8gb of DDR3 1600
i7 3770
Samsung 8xx series have been at really attractive pricing as of late.
The two higher end choices like the 560/1050...I would check around and attempt to find a 570/580 or the 1050ti, maybe a 1060. I would personally rather have a 580 that any of the others but GPU prices....


As to your PSU, I will get burned at the stake for saying it. Find your GPU first such that you know what you need and then would recommend utilizing the available budget model from a reputable manufacturer. That is, unless you have plans to use this PSU for an upgrade within the next year-ish..in which having a good quality model would be great to pass along for the new build. With a system of this age there is simply no point in buying some high tier PSU. Don't select the "start a fire" version either, but something B tier should be well suited and priced for a system of this age and performance.

edit- you may be able to find something like an old office Dell/HP (etc) that already has the 3770 and RAM you need for a decent budget price. Where are you located?

 

[Paperdoc]

Re: your RAM, get a matched pair of DDR3 modules (2 x 8GB = 16BG), as Lafong and SkyNetRising said above. A matched pair in two sockets allows Dual-Channel mode of use, which is faster than a single RAM module. Your max RAM is 16 GB, and it needs to be DDR3, not 4.

For storage, you will find an SSD noticeably faster than any rotating-disk mechanical HDD. If you go that route, get one that mounts like a common SATA hard drive, NOT one that fits a special mobo SSD socket called M.2 - your mobo does not have that. SSD's are much faster than HDD's, to the point that most can get close to the max data transfer rate of 3 Gb/s, which is the older SATA II specs. Few can exceed that, even if they claim to be rated as SATA III (6 Gb/s max) devices. Your mobo does NOT have any SATA III ports - it has four SATA II ports. So do not pay extra for an SSD with a SATA III rating, although such a unit WILL work on your mobo. I'd suggest a SATA-style SSD unit of 1 TB if you can afford it and install your OS on that as your boot drive. Then keep your old HDD as the second data drive.

To use this much RAM plus a video card with substantial memory you must run a 64-bit version of Windows. You MAY be doing this already - have not told us your OS. If this means changing your OS, go to Win 10 64-bit. A fresh install of this OS on a new SSD will work very well. IF you already are using 64-bit Win10, you may be able to clone the older HDD's contents onto a new SSD, allowing it to use the entire space of the new SSD and not just 500 GB. That's easier than a fresh install, BUT going the full fresh route gives you a cleaner OS that is probably faster with no old software junk getting in the way.

HOWEVER, there's a WARNING in this. Depending on which version of Windows you have been using, you MAY have set up that HDD in IDE Mode, rather than AHCI Mode. To check on this, see your mobo manual on p. 2-19, and go into BIOS Setup to check which way the SATA Mode Selection is. IF the system is already set to AHCI Mode you have NO problem. But if it is in IDE Mode, there IS an issue. First point is that the SSD (IF you get one) must run in AHCI Mode. But if you do that, your HDD that is set up in the older IDE Mode may NOT be readable by a BIOS using AHCI Mode. That would make transferring all your old user files a problem. BEFORE making the upgrade you would need some way to copy EVERYTHING from the HDD onto a backup unit that you CAN read back from in the new system.

If you get a new drive (larger HDD or an SSD) and put your OS on that, AFTER you have copied all your user files from the old HDD and AFTER you have used it all for a while and are SURE you do NOT need anything off the old HDD, THEN you can wipe it clean and re-Format and Partition it for use as a data storage drive, not a boot drive. For details on that process, post back here.

 

[carocuore]

Change the PSU to a Gamemax 650w 80 plus bronze

Can't get any worse than this huh?
Once again... but just in case you don't know... 80+ is not a quality rating. It should not be used as one. Never.
That power supply -and pretty much all sold by same brand- is, to say it politely, manure. Get something better that's at least 450W and you'll be fine, a Corsair CX450 perhaps.

Your motherboard supports the i7-3700, it also supports the K variant but you can't make use of the unlocked multiplier with an H61 chipset, same goes for the 2500K. If you can get a 3700, do it.

As for the graphics card, the 1050 is the best of the bunch. The SSD as a system drive will give your build quite a boost, the performance difference is really noticeable when going from a spinning drive to an SSD.
If it's a budget build look up a SATA form factor Crucial drive, 250GB ought to be fine if you don't need loads of storage.

Change the RAM to a 16gb ddr4 stick

Oh if only it was this easy. Your motherboard isn't compatible with it. Get another stick of 8GB DDR3 instead, if you can get one that's the same brand and speed as the one you've got it'll work better and also enable dual channel transfer.

In any case, that's all I had for you today.

 

[Bob.B]

Cutting to the chase, i got an old PC, and i'm planning on upgrading it over time. I need tips on what should i upgrade first, and if the final setup will be enough.
Specs:
Asus H61M-A motherboard
i3-2100
GTX 650
Single stick of 8gb RAM (ddr3)
350w PSU
HD Western Digital 500gb SATA 7200
No SSD
What i'm planning to do is: (in that order)
Change the PSU to a Gamemax 650w 80 plus bronze
Change the CPU to a i5-2500k
Change the GPU to an RX 560 4gb or a GTX 1050 3gb or a GTX 1030 2gb
Change the RAM to a 16gb ddr4 stick
Get an SSD (Didn't look up any model in specific yet)
Not sure if i should change the HD, motherboard or buy more coolers (not gonna OC).
It's obviously a budget setup, not made for running recent games on ultra settings or anything alike. If it runs games like RE 7 or Apex Legends in medium to low settings, that's already absolutely enough.
I'm quite dumb when it comes to PC parts, so sorry if i'm terribly mistaken about something. That's why i'm posting this here in the first place. What do you all think?

If you have not already done this you might want to price out the parts and see if you really want to go there.

Gpu prices are nutty today.
Ram...2x8.
Ssd....mx500 of the size you want.
Psu...read the reviews don't get some off-the-boat thing.

Bring it in steps testing after each step.
Might be a good idea to get the proper bios and mobo drivers and testing before swapping parts.

 

[Zerk2012]

Cutting to the chase, i got an old PC, and i'm planning on upgrading it over time. I need tips on what should i upgrade first, and if the final setup will be enough.
Specs:
Asus H61M-A motherboard
i3-2100
GTX 650
Single stick of 8gb RAM (ddr3)
350w PSU
HD Western Digital 500gb SATA 7200
No SSD
What i'm planning to do is: (in that order)
Change the PSU to a Gamemax 650w 80 plus bronze
Change the CPU to a i5-2500k
Change the GPU to an RX 560 4gb or a GTX 1050 3gb or a GTX 1030 2gb
Change the RAM to a 16gb ddr4 stick
Get an SSD (Didn't look up any model in specific yet)
Not sure if i should change the HD, motherboard or buy more coolers (not gonna OC).
It's obviously a budget setup, not made for running recent games on ultra settings or anything alike. If it runs games like RE 7 or Apex Legends in medium to low settings, that's already absolutely enough.
I'm quite dumb when it comes to PC parts, so sorry if i'm terribly mistaken about something. That's why i'm posting this here in the first place. What do you all think?

Just to be honest I would not spend any money on that at all just replace it and sell it.