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Upgrading a Frankenstein PC

TheCamel
By TheCamel
in New Builds and Planning
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Budget (including currency): 500 CAD

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Games(Path of exile(runs on vulkan), csgo, skyrim and other), photo editing and general browsing

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): i7-920, 0x501h Dell Mobo from the xps studio 2008, 12gb ram 1066 mhz, gtx 980, 120 gb samsung ssd, 1tb hard drive, corsair 650 watt psu. I have a 4k 60hz monitor as my main display and I game at 1440p.

Hello,  

I hope you're having a good day, I built this pc from the remains of an xps studio and some new parts but the games I play are starting to run badly on it. Id like to upgrade the motherboard, cpu and maybe some ram since i think theyre bottlenecking me very badly. Id like to know what the best upgrades I can make for around 500 CAD. I am alright with buying new or second hand. Thank you in advance. 

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3 hours ago, TheCamel said:

Budget (including currency): 500 CAD

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Games(Path of exile(runs on vulkan), csgo, skyrim and other), photo editing and general browsing

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): i7-920, 0x501h Dell Mobo from the xps studio 2008, 12gb ram 1066 mhz, gtx 980, 120 gb samsung ssd, 1tb hard drive, corsair 650 watt psu. I have a 4k 60hz monitor as my main display and I game at 1440p.

Hello,  

I hope you're having a good day, I built this pc from the remains of an xps studio and some new parts but the games I play are starting to run badly on it. Id like to upgrade the motherboard, cpu and maybe some ram since i think theyre bottlenecking me very badly. Id like to know what the best upgrades I can make for around 500 CAD. I am alright with buying new or second hand. Thank you in advance. 

did you say your running a i7-920

because i need to know what kind of motherboard you would need

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4 minutes ago, Snowy Fox said:

wait. you also want to upgrade the cpu so do you want an intel or amd cpu?

im fine with both amd or intel, I know the mobo and cpu will both have to be changed together. The funny thing is the mobo has 6 memory slots of 2 gbs each. So i know I will have to lose 4gb or switch the memory as well. 

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3 hours ago, TheCamel said:

im fine with both amd or intel, I know the mobo and cpu will both have to be changed together. The funny thing is the mobo has 6 memory slots of 2 gbs each. So i know I will have to lose 4gb or switch the memory as well. 

aww that sucks but do you need integrated graphics?

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2 minutes ago, TheCamel said:

im fine with both amd or intel, I know the mobo and cpu will both have to be changed together. The funny thing is the mobo has 6 memory slots of 2 gbs each. So i know I will have to lose 4gb or switch the memory as well. 

Your current CPU is *very* old, and an upgrade will be replacing everything but the SSD and GPU. 

Your current bang for the buck will be an AMD CPU.

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Your current CPU is *very* old, and an upgrade will be replacing everything but the SSD and GPU. 

Your current bang for the buck will be an AMD CPU.

yeah its been fine for years but its age is really showing now. I know itll have to be a mobo, cpu and ram at least. I can go over 500 but not by much. which cpu specifically though? I am not up to date on the best cost to performance anymore. 

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this is my recommendation 

PCPartPicker Part List
Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor $219.00 @ Amazon Canada
Motherboard MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard $279.99 @ Amazon Canada
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory $86.99 @ Newegg Canada
  Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts  
  Total $585.98
  Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-22 11:54 EDT-0400  

for upgrades

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Just now, TheCamel said:

yeah its been fine for years but its age is really showing now. I know itll have to be a mobo, cpu and ram at least. I can go over 500 but not by much. which cpu specifically though? I am not up to date on the best cost to performance anymore. 

Virtually everyone here is going to suggest an AMD CPU (Ryzen 5 2700 or so)

I am not an AMD fan, I use dual Xeon workstations because I am not a gamer, and the whopping two games I play run just fine on my set up.

But an MSI 450 mobo with a Ryzen 5 2700 or so will suit you got many years to come

 

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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3 hours ago, Snowy Fox said:

this is my recommendation 

PCPartPicker Part List
Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor $219.00 @ Amazon Canada
Motherboard MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard $279.99 @ Amazon Canada
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory $86.99 @ Newegg Canada
  Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts  
  Total $585.98
  Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-22 11:54 EDT-0400  

for upgrades

but if your ok with spending a bit more then replace the 2600 with a 3600

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1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Virtually everyone here is going to suggest an AMD CPU (Ryzen 5 2700 or so)

I am not an AMD fan, I use dual Xeon workstations because I am not a gamer, and the whopping two games I play run just fine on my set up.

But an MSI 450 mobo with a Ryzen 5 2700 or so will suit you got many years to come

 

Thank you for your answer!

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Just now, Snowy Fox said:

but you could replace it but the tomahawk max is the best mobo that i know 

would my old ram being upgraded be a significant performance increase or can i stick with 8gb ram from the old sticks and just upgrade the cpu and mobo for now?

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5 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Virtually everyone here is going to suggest an AMD CPU (Ryzen 5 2700 or so)

I am not an AMD fan, I use dual Xeon workstations because I am not a gamer, and the whopping two games I play run just fine on my set up.

But an MSI 450 mobo with a Ryzen 5 2700 or so will suit you got many years to come

 

would my old ram being upgraded be a significant performance increase or can i stick with 8gb ram from the old sticks and just upgrade the cpu and mobo for now?

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3 hours ago, TheCamel said:

would my old ram being upgraded be a significant performance increase or can i stick with 8gb ram from the old sticks and just upgrade the cpu and mobo for now?

you could but the thing with ryzen is that you do normally need more ram

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