[SOLVED] Upgrading My old i7 920 Gaming PC

[gradavakein]

Hi all,

I got my old gaming pc...(7-10 years old) i'd like to try to update a bit. Here is what I got...

HAF 935 Coolmaster full tower
ASUS P6T mother board...not v2 or deluxe..plain P6T
Intel Core i7 920 processor (something about "C" edition that makes it better for OCing, cant remember) 2.6 Ghz Stock speed
ATI Radeon 5970 Black Edition GPU
4 GB DDR3 hyperx XMP ram 1333 I believe...this is the part I'm thinking of updating
Watercooled CPU 240 MM Radiator
I got one SSD drive for OS and main games...and a 10,000rpm Velicoraptor HD with about 320 GB of space for storage

Now..i just bought my kid a new PC..... 2070 something GPU... 16GB of DDR4 ram.....don't remember the processor it is intel 3.0 or 3.2...etc....$1700 USD.

So, my budget is limited to upgrading what I got (old PC) if its worth it. I can spend anything reasonable....up to $500.

I think if I Max out the RAM at what ever is the MAX AMOUNT of the MAX SPEED supported, I should be good.

What I cant figure out is what the best RAM is.

I believe that from the 6 RAM slots of the MoBo I havae to pair it in groups of 3.

So I think I can go 3sticks at 4GB each and remove the old sticks. that would give me 12 GB. OF course I can also go 24GB...but I think i don't need the 24GB.

Any recommendation on the MAX RAM SPEED and MAX RAM sticks???

What brand? Link to new egg or amazon?

I appreciate any help I can get.

Thanks

 

[Barty1884]

Honestly, as a "gaming" system your $500 would be better spent building new vs upgrading the old system

You could up to 8gb ram & add a newer GPU but, even then, I'd still opt for a new build.

Example:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($164.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($64.68 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Kingston - A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte - Radeon RX 570 4 GB Gaming 4G Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg Business)
Case: Corsair - Carbide SPEC-04 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case ($35.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $500.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-26 01:16 EST-0500

 

[gradavakein]

WOW. Thank you for the advice. Should have asked here before I bought my kids PC...….live and learn. Thank you again.

 

[tennis2]

Barty did a good job sticking within your budget with good picks at good prices, but I'm not crazy about the Kingston A400. Can you stretch another $50 for a HP EX920 512GB SSD? (sucks, this drive was $75 2 days ago)

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

barty's build is where its at imo sans ssd,





but as a fellow x58 user, perhaps try out a xeon like a x5670 for $20. X58 is triple channel ram so 3 sticks provides better performance over 1 or 2 but used ddr3 ram is pretty cheap and ram speeds dont impact intel as much as amd, if u get a better gpu like a 570, u can just transfer it over when need be.



But I'm biased since I have a x58, xeon e5660 and a gtx 1060

 

[Barty1884]

The SSD is very much a budget unit, yes - I was just trying to stick to the budget.

The OP has an SSD currently but, given their secondary is 320GB, I'm assuming it's small/old.... The Kingston drive should still be a step up.