[SOLVED] What can I upgrade my i5-2500k to?

[jm88]

I built my computer about 10 years ago with the thought of being able to upgrade it rather than buy a new one every 3 or 4 years. I think I definitely got my money's worth out of it and over the years have upgraded the memory, added an SSD, and even upgraded the video card recently. I have had no issues other than having to replace one of the fans once and it was fun to build. I don't do any gaming and so it has always been fine for normal office type of stuff, web browsing, etc, but photo and video editing lags a little, and seems to do it more over time especially whenever I update the editing software. Since everything else is up to date, I assume the CPU may be the bottleneck here. It is an i5-2500k @ 3.30GHz from about 10 years ago. My motherboard is an ASUS P8P67 PRO. Is this as simple as just getting a new CPU, or will the motherboard need to be replaced as well?

 

[rgd1101]

P8P67 PRO - Support

www.asus.com

support up to 3770k with that motherboard.

depend on what budget and improvement are you looking for

 

[SamirD]

Awesome to hear your build is still running strong. I still have a i5 and i7 system from that era doing the same.

You do have a nice upgrade path if you want to upgrade to a 3770k and play with a bit of overclocking:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...l-i7-2600K-vs-Intel-i5-2500K/2vs881vs868vs804

I've regularly read about 4Ghz on the 2600k, so I can only assume a 3.7-3.8Ghz OC on the 3770k would be just as easy. And this would push you just behind entry level modern era single thread performance, which is amazing for an older setup.

If you decide to go full blown for an upgrade, then yes, mb, cpu, and ram will all need to change. But the single thread performance without an oc will be higher than almost any oc on your current platform. And because of that fact, it does present the most value for the dollar, even when requiring more dollars.

So it's really about how much time and money you want to spend. If you want a quick and fairly cheap upgrade that you can feel, get an i7 and oc it--done. If you can spend a bit and want a better value for the money, albeit a huge time sink from reinstalling, reconfiguring, and basically re-building your system from scratch, get a net mb, cpu, ram combo and swap it out.

Either way you go, you'll win.

 

[jm88]

Ahhh ok I see. Those ones you mention are pretty old so maybe it is not worth it. Well I guess I was just thinking a cheap fix for a $200-$300 for a CPU but if I get a newer generation CPU and motherboard and RAM, do you think that could be around $500 or less? And is this going to solve any lag i have with anything photo or video related? I guess all my other stuff would be fine then (drives, GPU, power supply, case) right? Would I be able to use Windows still or will it make me buy a new one when it detects a new MB?

 

[SamirD]

Ahhh ok I see. Those ones you mention are pretty old so maybe it is not worth it. Well I guess I was just thinking a cheap fix for a $200-$300 for a CPU but if I get a newer generation CPU and motherboard and RAM, do you think that could be around $500 or less? And is this going to solve any lag i have with anything photo or video related? I guess all my other stuff would be fine then (drives, GPU, power supply, case) right? Would I be able to use Windows still or will it make me buy a new one when it detects a new MB?

Actually, them being old is what makes them worth it--ie, makes them cheaper than new. To give you some idea of what you can get with some patience, I got my 3770k used for well under $100.

If your budget is $200-$300, you can get into newer components if you're willing to get someone else's parts used from their upgrade, or a mix of new and old parts. Just be sure what you're getting will truly be faster as there are some newer components that will basically put you in almost the same place as a 3770k, but for more money.

It depends on where the lag is coming from on photo/video work. Typically this work is gpu and memory heavy, which will swap to disk if you don't have enough. I wouldn't even attempt photo/video work with less than 32GB of memory. 16GB is basically the minimum now for a good windows experience if you have any browsers open, so you'll need more if you plan to have a single browser open and photo/video work.

All your other components would be fine unless they also could use upgrading. Generally the only thing in this area is storage from a hard drive to ssd, but honestly I've found that if you have enough memory, windows caches stuff so well that once you're in windows, the difference between a hard drive and ssd is not that big anymore. It also depends on your storage setup--a local array of sas drives with caching will be almost on par with the cheaper ssds for burst reads/writes.

If you do swap the motherboard there is a way to reactivate windows, but that's not an area I'm familiar with. But it is documented well online so some searches should lead you to how to do that.

 

[USAFRet]

If you do swap the motherboard there is a way to reactivate windows, but that's not an area I'm familiar with. But it is documented well online so some searches should lead you to how to do that.

For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

 

[madchemist83]

I think it's time for upgrade again. I myself had 2500k at 4.8 ghz. Upgraded to new Ryzen - night and day.

 

[jm88]

Actually, the lag just seems to be from scrolling through the 30,000 pictures I have and in loading them. Using different organizers like Photoshop Elements or ACDsee where it catalogs and organizes and tags the photos, there is a lot of lag opening the program and when I try to search for photos and scroll. I have been using these programs for years and as my catalog gets larger, everything is slowing down more. I do have 16 GB of memory now.

Actually, them being old is what makes them worth it--ie, makes them cheaper than new. To give you some idea of what you can get with some patience, I got my 3770k used for well under $100.

If your budget is $200-$300, you can get into newer components if you're willing to get someone else's parts used from their upgrade, or a mix of new and old parts. Just be sure what you're getting will truly be faster as there are some newer components that will basically put you in almost the same place as a 3770k, but for more money.

It depends on where the lag is coming from on photo/video work. Typically this work is gpu and memory heavy, which will swap to disk if you don't have enough. I wouldn't even attempt photo/video work with less than 32GB of memory. 16GB is basically the minimum now for a good windows experience if you have any browsers open, so you'll need more if you plan to have a single browser open and photo/video work.

All your other components would be fine unless they also could use upgrading. Generally the only thing in this area is storage from a hard drive to ssd, but honestly I've found that if you have enough memory, windows caches stuff so well that once you're in windows, the difference between a hard drive and ssd is not that big anymore. It also depends on your storage setup--a local array of sas drives with caching will be almost on par with the cheaper ssds for burst reads/writes.

If you do swap the motherboard there is a way to reactivate windows, but that's not an area I'm familiar with. But it is documented well online so some searches should lead you to how to do that.

 

[SamirD]

Actually, the lag just seems to be from scrolling through the 30,000 pictures I have and in loading them. Using different organizers like Photoshop Elements or ACDsee where it catalogs and organizes and tags the photos, there is a lot of lag opening the program and when I try to search for photos and scroll. I have been using these programs for years and as my catalog gets larger, everything is slowing down more. I do have 16 GB of memory now.

This is probably more of function of the hard drive then as each one of those has to be read when you open up those catalogs from disk. An ssd will actually be the solution to your problem.

 

[jm88]

This is probably more of function of the hard drive then as each one of those has to be read when you open up those catalogs from disk. An ssd will actually be the solution to your problem.

I wonder if storing the main catalog file on the SSD but keeping the photos on the HD would help? I will mess around with it and see what happens. Thanks.

 

[SamirD]

I wonder if storing the main catalog file on the SSD but keeping the photos on the HD would help? I will mess around with it and see what happens. Thanks.

It depends on which one is being read when you're having sluggishness. My instincts are that it's both--the catalog for indexing and then the actual image for thumbnailing, but there is probably some cacheing going on as well. One thing is certain through--you're io bound to storage, not having an issue with no enough ram. Unless it is running out of ram or swapping during this process--then it could be both storage and ram. 😱