Is my PC worth upgrading?

[danielcse]

Hey guys.

I have a custom built PC bought back in 2010 or 2011. I have upgraded it a bit since then, but it's finally starting to get a kind of old and slow. That's why I'm thinking about upgrading it in some way. But I'm not really sure which parts are worth changing (and which parts I should buy instead). Perhaps you guys could help me with this?

 

Current specs

• ASUS M4A87TD/USB3, Socket-AM3 motherboard

• AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition CPU, 3.4 GHz

• 12 GB RAM

• Chieftec Smart Series 550W PSU

• MSI GeForce GTX 465 1GB PhysX CUDA

• Some Samsung 256GB SSD (for Widows)

• Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB (secondary drive)

• Windows 10

 

Yeah, it's not the worlds most awesome setup, but it works for the most part.

 

What I want

I do not really play any games anymore, but I use my PC for different kinds of work. Some web development, some Photoshop usage, but mainly video editing. I edit 1080p footage in Premiere Pro and After effects.

 

I'm thinking about upgrading my CPU and/or my graphics card. But I on't know if it's worth the money or if I can find any components that work with my motherboard. Also, I don't want to spend a lot of money, at least not more than $500.

 

I'll take all the help I can get. Thank you.

[Arcanekitten]

It's Definitely old but If you're not gaming I guess it can go through.

The mobo has no upgrade path but the cpu is good enough for what your doing but a i5 or i7 would definitely make it a lot smoother.

A new gpu wouldn't change much as you are not gaming but if you render with gpu acceleration it does help in render times.

 

You got a SSD with enough storage (HDD) and 12GB ram is plenty too.

 

Soo If you upgrade your cpu it would help a lot and gpu could help and also since its that old and the I7 skylake igpu would even beat it.  

[m0k]

10 minutes ago, danielcse said:

Hey guys.

I have a custom built PC bought back in 2010 or 2011. I have upgraded it a bit since then, but it's finally starting to get a kind of old and slow. That's why I'm thinking about upgrading it in some way. But I'm not really sure which parts are worth changing (and which parts I should buy instead). Perhaps you guys could help me with this?

 

Current specs

• ASUS M4A87TD/USB3, Socket-AM3 motherboard

• AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition CPU, 3.4 GHz

• 12 GB RAM

• Chieftec Smart Series 550W PSU

• MSI GeForce GTX 465 1GB PhysX CUDA

• Some Samsung 256GB SSD (for Widows)

• Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB (secondary drive)

• Windows 10

 

Yeah, it's not the worlds most awesome setup, but it works for the most part.

 

What I want

I do not really play any games anymore, but I use my PC for different kinds of work. Some web development, some Photoshop usage, but mainly video editing. I edit 1080p footage in Premiere Pro and After effects.

 

I'm thinking about upgrading my CPU and/or my graphics card. But I on't know if it's worth the money or if I can find any components that work with my motherboard. Also, I don't want to spend a lot of money, at least not more than $500.

 

I'll take all the help I can get. Thank you.

for starters, overclock that CPU

1080p video editing is difficult even on my phenom x6, its just a weak cpu for the task

good news is that for $500 you can upgrade to an i7 on the 1150 socket and still keep your ddr3 ram and other components, although i would strongly recommend upgrading the PSU to a better model
 

[Streetguru]

11 minutes ago, danielcse said:

 

i7 6700 + solid budget board

also probably get a new PSU
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xVkD4D/seasonic-power-supply-ssr450rm
 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/cPjhD3
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/cPjhD3/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($294.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B150M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($56.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $417.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-04 11:59 EDT-0400

[SeanAngelo]

11 minutes ago, danielcse said:

Hey guys.

I have a custom built PC bought back in 2010 or 2011. I have upgraded it a bit since then, but it's finally starting to get a kind of old and slow. That's why I'm thinking about upgrading it in some way. But I'm not really sure which parts are worth changing (and which parts I should buy instead). Perhaps you guys could help me with this?

 

Current specs

• ASUS M4A87TD/USB3, Socket-AM3 motherboard

• AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition CPU, 3.4 GHz

• 12 GB RAM

• Chieftec Smart Series 550W PSU

• MSI GeForce GTX 465 1GB PhysX CUDA

• Some Samsung 256GB SSD (for Widows)

• Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB (secondary drive)

• Windows 10

 

Yeah, it's not the worlds most awesome setup, but it works for the most part.

 

What I want

I do not really play any games anymore, but I use my PC for different kinds of work. Some web development, some Photoshop usage, but mainly video editing. I edit 1080p footage in Premiere Pro and After effects.

 

I'm thinking about upgrading my CPU and/or my graphics card. But I on't know if it's worth the money or if I can find any components that work with my motherboard. Also, I don't want to spend a lot of money, at least not more than $500.

 

I'll take all the help I can get. Thank you.

 

1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

i7 6700 + solid budget board

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/cPjhD3
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/cPjhD3/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($294.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B150M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($56.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $417.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-04 11:59 EDT-0400

consider that as an upgrade ^

[danielcse]

23 hours ago, mok said:

for starters, overclock that CPU

1080p video editing is difficult even on my phenom x6, its just a weak cpu for the task

good news is that for $500 you can upgrade to an i7 on the 1150 socket and still keep your ddr3 ram and other components, although i would strongly recommend upgrading the PSU to a better model
 

Thank you for you replay (and everyone else's replies too).

 

I've been thinking about overclocking the CPU, but honestly I don't know how to do it. Is there a good universal guide to read, or do I have to find a guide for this specific CPU? Or is it "simply" trial and error?

[Streetguru]

23 minutes ago, danielcse said:

Thank you for you replay (and everyone else's replies too).

 

I've been thinking about overclocking the CPU, but honestly I don't know how to do it. Is there a good universal guide to read, or do I have to find a guide for this specific CPU? Or is it "simply" trial and error?

Depending on what you're doing you might just need a new CPU, but if you can hit 4.5ghz ish it'll help in some games
 

 

[m0k]

1 hour ago, danielcse said:

Thank you for you replay (and everyone else's replies too).

 

I've been thinking about overclocking the CPU, but honestly I don't know how to do it. Is there a good universal guide to read, or do I have to find a guide for this specific CPU? Or is it "simply" trial and error?

1. first of all i would not recommend overclocking on a stock cpu cooler, you should get an aftermarket cooler for cheap

2. on my Gigabyte motherboard all I did was increase the CPU ratio, all the voltages were set to AUTO, and I went from 3.2ghz stock to 3.6-3.7ghz stable (I would consider my overclock a very mild one)

for a better/moderate overclock you would have to change other settings as well: