Question Upgrade help for 1150 system; best bang for my buck.

[bigjppop]

This forum was incredibly helpful a couple of years ago in building my current system (maybe four years old now) and I was hoping to get some advice on what (if anything) I can do to upgrade what I have.

I have a ASRock Z97 Anniversary MB with an 1150 socket. It currently has the baby G3258 Intel Dual Core CPU.

GPU is AMD Radeon R7 250X (1GB card)

Primary Storage is Samsung 850 EVO 120G SSD.

Secondary Storage is WD Black 750 GB.

Ram is 8GB DDR3 (single stick) (Can't remember all the specs here but it was well regarded on this forum when I bought it)

I do have a nice aftermarket cooler as well (air cooled) that was recommended here but for the life of me can't remember which one.

Running Windows 7.

I originally planned to OC the system but life got in the way and everything stayed stock. I also planned to do more gaming but again, life got in the way.

This computer is now a more general use computer for the family but is running pretty slow these days. It's used for general web surfing/office stuff, but also a decent amount of video transcoding. I'd like to start playing some games but most of what I play is more the strategy type games, not the FPS with super high frame rates.

So, any suggestions on what I should do with this machine? Upgrade the CPU? Try one of the new SSD drives (I could use more space on that drive anyway). Another stick of RAM?

Is this machine too old to really be worth upgrading anyway?

No problem buying from Amazon, Newegg, or eBay. Located in the US.

Also, totally different question, but my WEI score on my storage dropped from 7.9 to 5.9 with that Samsung SSD and I have no idea why. Any ideas there?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[mdd1963]

Lots of folks still happily running 4790/4790K, which is the ultimate 'last stop' for your socket...(need to evaluate this carefully, as the 4790 is about $190 on Amazon, and the 4790K is priced too-high at $350-ish used, when one could get a faster CPU and MB for less....)

Another stick of RAM might indeed be helpful, as you are currently running half of your normal memory bandwidth by only running one stick vice two sticks in dual channel...

In light of needing more RAM and a faster CPU, I'd be tempted perhaps instead to simply get a B450/R5-2400G combo and 16 GB of RAM (DDR4 3200 MHz) instead of throwing more money into a DDR3 rig...

Maybe you can source a more reasonable (and known good) 4790K from someone upgrading it for an excellent price, vice the borderline robbery prices on AMazon...

 

[bigjppop]

Much appreciated. I'll do some research on the B450/R5-2400G option. I'm assuming I could probably keep my same power supply, storage drives, and GPU if I wanted but I'd need a new cooler, RAM, motherboard and CPU.

I think I'm going to search for a used 4790K and see what I can find.

If the price is right that, coupled with another 8GB stick of RAM and a new SSD would probably do me alright for another year or two. I can keep the SSD for the next machine and I'd only be out the cost of the CPU and RAM.

The Tech Train never stops!