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Upgrades on an old PC

kzte
By kzte
in New Builds and Planning
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I'm going to be receiving an old computer from a friend of mine who's upgrading his entire system. I'm not buying my full system until late this year, so I'll be using this one as a temporary PC for light gaming/uni work/light video editing until I get my machine. I'm fairly knowledgeable when it comes to computer hardware, although I just wanted to get a second opinion from you guys.

 

The system has the following specs..

 

Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 (2.93GHz)

Asus P5VDC-MX

4GB DDR2 RAM

Nvidia GeForce 9600GT

500W PSU

 

Straight out I'll need to buy a hard drive for it. Going to get a 120GB Samsung 840 EVO and maybe a 1TB WD Blue, which I can easily drop straight into my new PC after I'm done with this one.

 

Also after a new graphics card. I'm looking at a 7770 or a GTX550ti.

 

What would you guys do?

Mid-2013 11" MacBook Air — Intel Core i5 @ 1.3GHz — 8GB RAM.

BitFenix Prodigy ITX — Intel Core i5 4570 — MSI H87I — 8GB RAM — Gigabyte Windforce R9 280X — Samsung 840 EVO 120GB, Seagate Barracuda 1TB — XFX TS650.

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Ssd + 750 Ti.

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

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Get a 750Ti.

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I wouldn't even spend money to upgrade that system. The motherboard will be bottlenecking any modern GPU. Any newer GPU won't be able to perform at its best with that motherboard.

 

 

This is your motherboard correct?

 

ASUS P5VDC-MX (Click the link for the full specs of the motherboard)

 

 

I would just stick with the 9600GT for now, there really isn't any reason to upgrade anything in that system. Even if you install an SSD in that system, the SSD will not be as fast as it should be, since the motherboard doesn't have Sata3. The motherboard is the main bottleneck in that system.

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I wouldn't even spend money to upgrade that system. The motherboard will be bottlenecking any modern GPU. Any newer GPU won't be able to perform at its best with that motherboard.

 

 

This is your motherboard correct?

 

ASUS P5VDC-MX (Click the link for the full specs of the motherboard)

 

 

I would just stick with the 9600GT for now, there really isn't any reason to upgrade anything in that system. Even if you install an SSD in that system, the SSD will not be as fast as it should be, since the motherboard doesn't have Sata3. The motherboard is the main bottleneck in that system.

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Don't upgrade anything that you don't plan to put into your future system.

 

At least the hard drive is locked in for now. SSD maybe not so much.

 

I'll probably wait on the graphics card, unless I can find a cheap one on eBay to get me through for a couple of months.

Mid-2013 11" MacBook Air — Intel Core i5 @ 1.3GHz — 8GB RAM.

BitFenix Prodigy ITX — Intel Core i5 4570 — MSI H87I — 8GB RAM — Gigabyte Windforce R9 280X — Samsung 840 EVO 120GB, Seagate Barracuda 1TB — XFX TS650.

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At least the hard drive is locked in for now. SSD maybe not so much.

 

I'll probably wait on the graphics card, unless I can find a cheap one on eBay to get me through for a couple of months.

It should be the other way around. A ssd makes the bigger difference than every other part upgrade combined for bringing life into an old system. 

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

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