Is it really worth it to buy new hardware?

[CPUboi]

I put together a low-mid range gaming/computing/utility rig, starting from an old-ish hp workstation. So, the config is:

400w PSU (the one that came with the workstation, rated 80+ silver)

a xeon x5675 (the workstation came with a xeon w3520, but since i found the x5675 for very cheap, i swapped it out) (16 euros, included shipping)

16 gb of ddr3 1066 ram (was already included in the workstation

a gt1030 2gb wich i found a very good deal of. (50 euros)

128 gb ssd+500gb hdd (was already in the pc when i bought it)

So, if the the workstation alone cost me 130 euros i spent, in total 196 euros, and i still ended up with one extra cpu that i can always resell on ebay or something.

Now, tbh i didn't find a notable difference with a comparable rig built with more recent hardware (that costs more), and those 6c/12t at 3.06Ghz of the xeon, really are unbeatable for that price (yes, the core architecture is older and some modern algorithms are missing but that doesn't, for what i saw, made a real difference), plus the xeon (being a server cpu) has some interesting features that you cannot find on consumer hardware, like advanced power management.

Now, the real question is: is it really worth it to pay at least double for newer hardware that performs the same as older hardware at half the price? I don't think so, honestly.

I would like to hear some more opinions about that.

Also, maybe that could be an interesting topic for an LTT video.

[Levent]

Its all up to you. If all you are doing is web browsing and playing basic games, no. If you are video/photo editing, want to play latest games, or generally if your workload is being bottlenecked by your hardware then yes. 

[FRD]

It's usually not worth it, but it's up to the user. Some people always want to have the latest and greatest, but of course at a price. While others are happy with what they have for many years and don't need a upgrade, unless sometimes breaks or really is too slow. For example, newer games not being supported. I myself, I only upgraded to a new build in the end of 2020, but I always used my build from 2012 for basic tasks, video editing and casual gaming. It was fine to me, but things like the 60GB SSD and old GTX bottlenecked me. Also, there's no thing called futureproofing. It's how long you can stand out and be happy with what you have, if you're not, then it's upgrade time.

[svmlegacy]

Westmere-EP is getting really long in the tooth nowadays. You'll lack core speed, IPC, and AVX instructions. It's okay for productivity workloads, but newer platforms can be a better value. You won't get much for a W3520 on the used market.

[aDoomGuy]

Well....... we all use our machines in different ways and have different priorities based upon that. So whether or not it is worth it depends on what I just mentioned as well as how much an individual wants to spend and what that individual currently have. For me, I built a PC 13 months ago and I got the newest parts ...mostly. Was it worth it? Yes and no. Mostly yes though but I came from a FX-8350. So there's that.

 

If you are happy with what you got then it's not worth upgrading unless you have to (if you do work tasks for profit). Well these are my thoughts on this anyway.

[igormp]

As many other said: it depends.

 

In my particular case, I was pretty happy with my fx6300, but has severely bottlenecked by ram amout (had 28gb, couldn't go really past 32gb).

 

I looked into older (DDR3) workstation platforms, but I wouldn't get as much ram (~64gb). Older DDR4 platforms allowed for higher amounts of ram (512~1TB), but with slower, registered ECC, which is expensive and hard to find where I live, along with lower speeds (2133~2400mhz).

 

Older threadripper CPUs/mobos were really expensive, had no warranty and their performance is lacking when compared to a modernish CPU. In the end, I settled for a new 3700x with 64gb of ram, where I can buy another 2x32 and go for 128gb when I feel the need, but that should do for the next 4~5 years for me.

 

If an older platform manages to tick all your requirements, then it's surely a good idea, as long as it's really cheaper when compared to new stuff.

[CPUboi]

29 minutes ago, Levent said:

Its all up to you. If all you are doing is web browsing and playing basic games, no. If you are video/photo editing, want to play latest games, or generally if your workload is being bottlenecked by your hardware then yes. Some 

tbh i manage to do quite more than web browsing and basic games. For example with those 6 cores and 16 gb of ram i can run a virtual machine quite nicely, obviously with that gpu i don't expect 60 fps at 4k ultra from the latest and greatest AAA titles, but for example on overwatch at medium settings i get a stable 60/70 fps at 1080p, and if i lowered my fps expectations i could go high or even ultra. Don't forget that the gt1030 is a very low-power card, so i can overclock it quite a bit, even with the stock passive cooler; I got that gpu practically at 1050's level of performances at half the price, so not very bad uh?

[Medizinmann]

 

As always - it depends...on your use case.

 

As already stated for many very basic productivity use cases i.e. like spreadsheet and word and may be some light web browsing light gaming - it might just work fine.

But honestly - a GPU with 2GB of video memory in 2021 - really...

I would a least look into a RX 570 or something similar - but availability and pricing is horrible right now...

Well – and quick googling turns up a R20 Score of 1134 Multi Core for your Xeon with stock settings…and Sinlge Core 200...that's slow...

 

So if this machine does what you want with the speed that you want – that’s fine – and just below 200€ sounds nice....

 

It wouldn’t be fast enough for many things I want my computer to do and the GPU AFAIK doesn’t even support 4x 4k-Monitors at all - so this alone would be a big showstopper for me.

 

Best regards,

Medizinmann

[LogicalDrm]

LTT has done several videos about using older workstation/server hardware as budget gaming rig. But if you want to suggest some twist on that genre, video suggestions should go in here:

 

Overall, it all comes down to whats available, what you need to do and how much it costs. Which is why I'm running rig from 2013 + SSD upgrade.

[SAVE-12-HK]

TLDR

universal ans, it depends

[Medizinmann]

Something to add...

An interesting thing about this Xeon is – it has a lot of headroom for OC…

So if you get it to 4,4 or 4,5GHz it can still beat a i7 7700k in multi and come at least closer to it in single core performance.

…so yes this CPU might be still a good tip – when your mobo supports OC…

But I doubt a 400W PSU is strong enough to run this setup – especially with a more decent GPU.

 

BTW - Dr.Google says - games run better with it if SMT is disabled...

 

Best regards,

Medizinmann