Upgrade Path for 2013ish Pc?

[packolamas]

 

Specs:
AMD FX-6350 Six-Core Processor                2.81 GHz
AMD RAdeon HD 7800
GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2
8GB 1600mhzddr3
500GB Sata SSD
CX600M PSU
Two 22cwa HP 1080p 60hz monitors

I built this computer with my brother like 8 or 9 years ago. I've used it since then, but there are some games that are noticably slow, and some that wont play at all. I probably won't be playing too many games in the future, so I don't wanna spend too much on a whole new setup. Is there a cheap but sensible upgrade path for me?

Currently, I play Minecraft, Halo MCC, and Counterstrike. I plays pretty well, although it is loud. I have to leave one panel off (i vaccume a lot so dust isnt an issue), and one of my fans is also not connected (motherboard only has one fan header).Halo 2 Anniversery multiplayer chugs at some points, but I don't play it too much.

I would like to play KSP, Squad, Rust, and I would like the ability to stream older halo Games (I might be able to do that now idk). I don't really care about graphgics quality, as long as things aren't completely fried. I like 60fps, but its not super neccesary as long is it is above 45 atleast.

In a perfect world, I would like the ability to play KSP 2 (when is comes out), star citizen (if it comes out), Tarkov, and squad at high settings. Some of these may be pipe dreams and i understand that. The reason I would want to play squad on high is that there are groups that play compeditively and you need to play atleast on high so you dont have a unfair advantage.

I don't really have a budget, and mostly jsut wanna know what it would take to play these games. Thank you for any help offered. Also, I am not adverse to mining to pay for newer gpu's. My electricity is 8 cents per kwhr which i guess is on the cheaper side. Thank you!

 

[jaslion]

Honestly the only upgrade path here is complete system replacement.

 

Why? There is no good fx cpu so even the best can no longer give you 60fps in a lot of games. Your cpu is holding you back a lot here.

 

The gpu is a 7800 series so either a 7850 7870 or 7870xt and I think this is the hd 7850. So also a by now low end gpu so yeah no surprise it struggles too.

 

Really there is nothing I recommend you save here part from the ssd. I don't recommend you keep the case as it has poor airflow from what I can see. Any the the games you mentioned you want to play will never run well on this system even with the best cpu on there as well sadly fx cpu's just kinda suck.

 

Only issue with whole system replacement right now is well gpu shortages and high prices so if you can wait do so as you can get a good core for the system but no good value for any card.

[danalog]

First of all I love that PC! I would recommend something like a GTX 1060 or 1650 if you don't intend on doing much gaming. There's nothing much you can do in terms of CPU sadly, but sticking a faster SSD in there as your boot drive will give it new life. It won't be very good for gaming because of the CPU limitation, but for day to day usability should be fine for a few more years at least.

[packolamas]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Honestly the only upgrade path here is complete system replacement.

 

Why? There is no good fx cpu so even the best can no longer give you 60fps in a lot of games. Your cpu is holding you back a lot here.

 

The gpu is a 7800 series so either a 7850 7870 or 7870xt and I think this is the hd 7850. So also a by now low end gpu so yeah no surprise it struggles too.

 

Really there is nothing I recommend you save here part from the ssd. I don't recommend you keep the case as it has poor airflow from what I can see. Any the the games you mentioned you want to play will never run well on this system even with the best cpu on there as well sadly fx cpu's just kinda suck.

 

Only issue with whole system replacement right now is well gpu shortages and high prices so if you can wait do so as you can get a good core for the system but no good value for any card.

I feared that would be the case. Idk if im willing to fork up the money for a whole new system. 

[packolamas]

3 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

First of all I love that PC! I would recommend something like a GTX 1060 or 1650 if you don't intend on doing much gaming. There's nothing much you can do in terms of CPU sadly, but sticking an SSD in there as your boot drive will give it new life.

Thanks haha. I might try that if they aren't too expensive

[Alvin853]

Just now, packolamas said:

I feared that would be the case. Idk if im willing to fork up the money for a whole new system. 

Yes the PC is old and pretty much everything needs an upgrade, but you're not really asking for a whole lot, and you can probably do incremental upgrades:
 

The biggest improvement right away is probably a new GPU. Sadly, those are also the hardest to get right now. And you won't be able to unleash the full power of any modern GPU with that CPU/board combo, only supports PCIe gen 2, but new GPU will still work.

That FX CPU isn't a beast by any means, but it should be enough for everything you're going to use it for, and any new CPU would also require a new motherboard and new DDR4 memory, so those 3 will have to be upgraded at the same time, making it an expensive upgrade. 

The SATA SSD you have is already a good start, not the fastest you can get, but your old mainboard doesn't come with any M.2 connectors, so no SSD-upgrade before the CPU upgrade.

PSU should be fine for any major upgrade that's not high-end components.

Case and CPU-cooler could be improved a lot, but that doesn't really increase your performance and you said you're fine with the noise, maybe get a Y-splitter to connect the 2nd case fan and you'll be able to close the side panel too.

[packolamas]

5 minutes ago, Alvin853 said:

Yes the PC is old and pretty much everything needs an upgrade, but you're not really asking for a whole lot, and you can probably do incremental upgrades:
 

The biggest improvement right away is probably a new GPU. Sadly, those are also the hardest to get right now. And you won't be able to unleash the full power of any modern GPU with that CPU/board combo, only supports PCIe gen 2, but new GPU will still work.

That FX CPU isn't a beast by any means, but it should be enough for everything you're going to use it for, and any new CPU would also require a new motherboard and new DDR4 memory, so those 3 will have to be upgraded at the same time, making it an expensive upgrade. 

The SATA SSD you have is already a good start, not the fastest you can get, but your old mainboard doesn't come with any M.2 connectors, so no SSD-upgrade before the CPU upgrade.

PSU should be fine for any major upgrade that's not high-end components.

Case and CPU-cooler could be improved a lot, but that doesn't really increase your performance and you said you're fine with the noise, maybe get a Y-splitter to connect the 2nd case fan and you'll be able to close the side panel too.

What would be a smart GPU buy? Would it be possible to mine while im not gaming and pay it off? Like i said my electricity is like 8 cents per kwh

[aisle9]

So the issue with your CPU is that there literally is not an AM3+ CPU worth buying these days, even used, unless it's something like an 8350 for $40. Even then, you're going to have motherboard issues. That's a low-end board and will struggle with the power requirements of an "eight-core" 8350. A 9590 is liable to literally set the board on fire. A 6350 or the war crime that is the 8320E is about all I'd do with it, which means you're maxed.

 

So what can you do? Ideally, a Ryzen 3 3100 or 3300X, or even a 3200G although your GPU is more powerful and supports DX12 anyway. But that's a total platform switch requiring new DDR4 RAM, and 16GB of that goes for $85-100 in the US right now. I'd replace the case. There are $20 Rosewill cases on Amazon that have better airflow than that toaster oven does.

 

If you're good with used, first-gen Ryzen 7 1700s and Ryzen 5 1600s are a great value, first-gen B350 boards are cheap, and the platform has held up well for the price of entry.

 

I'd hold off on a GPU upgrade until you can get your hands on a 6GB 1060, 8GB 480 or 8GB 580 at a reasonable price. Those are adequate for everything you listed except Star Citizen, but Star Citizen won't make it out of alpha until you and I are long dead and some high school student in 2121 stumbles across the source code and decides to spend an afternoon finishing it up for funsies, just to see what we 21st century assclowns enjoyed doing with our spare time.

[Alvin853]

8 minutes ago, packolamas said:

What would be a smart GPU buy? Would it be possible to mine while im not gaming and pay it off? Like i said my electricity is like 8 cents per kwh

I don't know much about mining, but I do know that the cards, that are good for mining, also sell for much more on the used market, and in order to mine the most efficient, you'll need to use a custom bios that makes the card less suitable for gaming. You can still mine on any card, but you're not going to make enough to pay it off for a couple of years unless another big mining boom happens. 

 

Since miners like the older generations of AMD cards (480, 580 series), for gaming on a budget your best bet is probably something along the lines of a GTX 970, 1060 or 1650. 

[jaslion]

15 minutes ago, Alvin853 said:

Yes the PC is old and pretty much everything needs an upgrade, but you're not really asking for a whole lot, and you can probably do incremental upgrades:
 

The biggest improvement right away is probably a new GPU. Sadly, those are also the hardest to get right now. And you won't be able to unleash the full power of any modern GPU with that CPU/board combo, only supports PCIe gen 2, but new GPU will still work.

That FX CPU isn't a beast by any means, but it should be enough for everything you're going to use it for, and any new CPU would also require a new motherboard and new DDR4 memory, so those 3 will have to be upgraded at the same time, making it an expensive upgrade. 

The SATA SSD you have is already a good start, not the fastest you can get, but your old mainboard doesn't come with any M.2 connectors, so no SSD-upgrade before the CPU upgrade.

PSU should be fine for any major upgrade that's not high-end components.

Case and CPU-cooler could be improved a lot, but that doesn't really increase your performance and you said you're fine with the noise, maybe get a Y-splitter to connect the 2nd case fan and you'll be able to close the side panel too.

The reason rust runs so bad is due to the fx 6300 absimal single core performance. So yeah upgrading the gpu can help but the cpu is going to keep this pc form doing well.

[packolamas]

1 minute ago, Alvin853 said:

I don't know much about mining, but I do know that the cards, that are good for mining, also sell for much more on the used market, and in order to mine the most efficient, you'll need to use a custom bios that makes the card less suitable for gaming. You can still mine on any card, but you're not going to make enough to pay it off for a couple of years unless another big mining boom happens. 

 

Since miners like the older generations of AMD cards (480, 580 series), for gaming on a budget your best bet is probably something along the lines of a GTX 970, 1060 or 1650. 

Thank you i rlly appreciate it!

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

So the issue with your CPU is that there literally is not an AM3+ CPU worth buying these days, even used, unless it's something like an 8350 for $40. Even then, you're going to have motherboard issues. That's a low-end board and will struggle with the power requirements of an "eight-core" 8350. A 9590 is liable to literally set the board on fire. A 6350 or the war crime that is the 8320E is about all I'd do with it, which means you're maxed.

 

So what can you do? Ideally, a Ryzen 3 3100 or 3300X, or even a 3200G although your GPU is more powerful and supports DX12 anyway. But that's a total platform switch requiring new DDR4 RAM, and 16GB of that goes for $85-100 in the US right now. I'd replace the case. There are $20 Rosewill cases on Amazon that have better airflow than that toaster oven does.

 

If you're good with used, first-gen Ryzen 7 1700s and Ryzen 5 1600s are a great value, first-gen B350 boards are cheap, and the platform has held up well for the price of entry.

 

I'd hold off on a GPU upgrade until you can get your hands on a 6GB 1060, 8GB 480 or 8GB 580 at a reasonable price. Those are adequate for everything you listed except Star Citizen, but Star Citizen won't make it out of alpha until you and I are long dead and some high school student in 2121 stumbles across the source code and decides to spend an afternoon finishing it up for funsies, just to see what we 21st century assclowns enjoyed doing with our spare time.

Thing is the 8350 has barely any better single core performance and the bit better it is is basically meaningless. A athlon 200ge is better than it even. So yeah your suggestions are pretty good here.

[YoungBlade]

1 hour ago, packolamas said:

What would be a smart GPU buy? Would it be possible to mine while im not gaming and pay it off? Like i said my electricity is like 8 cents per kwh

Banking on mining profits is risky right now, because Ethereum is moving away from mining. Given that, you probably won't earn enough to justify the cost.

 

I'll use the 1660 Super as an example. That's going for about $500. With NiceHash, it currently earns about $2-3 a day, so it would take about 7-8 months to pay it off if those earnings stay flat. But that's a big "if" considering the uncertainty of the future of Ethereum mining once the transition to proof-of-stake starts next month.

 

I don't think it's worth the risk, and apparently a lot of miners feel the same way, otherwise the cards would be out of stock at that price instead of sitting unsold.

 

And if the price tanks to $300 a month from now after the Ethereum network change, that'll really hurt, because you only earned $60-90, but the card already lost $200 in value.