Would you upgrade a 4 years old system?

[Itayush]

Bought my computer about 4 years ago, when I knew very little about computer components(I am by far not an expert now, but I know much more this days).

Specs:
Intel i5 3470
R9 280x Toxic

8GB RAM

B75M-D2V(Not sure about this one)

FSP Raiders 550 Silver(T6, I know it's terrible)

I've been thinking about upgrading my computer, but it's so old that I am afraid that it will either won't be worth, or other things might damage my new components.

Anyway, I've been thinking about upgrading to another 8GB RAM, changing my GPU to RX 480 and getting a new and better PSU.
Once again, considering those parts are probably already most of the cost of a new computer, I might just better off leaving this one on the side and completely buying a new one.
Suggestions?
Thanks and have a great evening!

[themctipers]

Ram -> GPU -> possibly 3770 (don't get k, no z77 motherboard. Don't get z77/3770k, buy new system at that point)

 

ivy is still great  

[ProjectBox153]

That would be fine, and those parts (and some of the old ones) can be carried over to a new system in the future. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, themctipers said:

Ram -> GPU -> possibly 3770k 

 

ivy is still great  

I'd say GPU first. 8gb is enough

[BloodyWaters]

It's noon where I am!

 

I have a 6 year old system with an upgraded graphics card. Still games VERY well. You should definitely upgrade the GPU and PSU. But the CPU and RAM should be fine (I guess you could upgrade the RAM if you wanted to.)

[themctipers]

Just now, Abyss Gaming said:

I'd say GPU first. 8gb is enough

I'd say get more ram first, it'll help with multitasking. 

[Guest]

Just now, themctipers said:

I'd say get more ram first, it'll help with multitasking. 

Meh its up to the OP, I only have 8gb and I can do anything perfectly fine, but if he wants to multitask alot then the ram first.

[themctipers]

Just now, Abyss Gaming said:

Meh its up to the OP, I only have 8gb and I can do anything perfectly fine, but if he wants to multitask alot then the ram first.

Meanwhile I idle at 12gb usage  

[manikyath]

it's a matter of upgrading what is limiting your experience. if the gpu no longer satisfies, get a new one, if the cpu cant keep up, upgrade, if the power supply is a FireStarterPower chuck it out the window, etc.

[Itayush]

3 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Ram -> GPU -> possibly 3770 (don't get k, no z77 motherboard. Don't get z77/3770k, buy new system at that point)

 

ivy is still great  

 

2 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

That would be fine, and those parts (and some of the old ones) can be carried over to a new system in the future. 

 

1 minute ago, Abyss Gaming said:

I'd say GPU first. 8gb is enough

 

1 minute ago, BloodyWaters said:

It's noon where I am!

 

I have a 6 year old system with an upgraded graphics card. Still games VERY well. You should definitely upgrade the GPU and PSU. But the CPU and RAM should be fine (I guess you could upgrade the RAM if you wanted to.)

Yeah, I've been thinking about upgrading the GPU and PSU first. Upgrading RAM is not as "expensive" so I might just upgrade that when I am at it.
My concerns are, that the MOBO might bottleneck(somehow? idk) or damage other components(because it's old O_o).

[Guest]

Just now, themctipers said:

Meanwhile I idle at 12gb usage  

WTF do you have on your PC

[Guest]

Just now, Itayush said:

 

 

 

Yeah, I've been thinking about upgrading the GPU and PSU first. Upgrading RAM is not as "expensive" so I might just upgrade that when I am at it.
My concerns are, that the MOBO might bottleneck(somehow? idk) or damage other components(because it's old O_o).

Mobo will be fine, barely any speed reduction if its pcie 2

[themctipers]

1 minute ago, Itayush said:

 

 

 

Yeah, I've been thinking about upgrading the GPU and PSU first. Upgrading RAM is not as "expensive" so I might just upgrade that when I am at it.
My concerns are, that the MOBO might bottleneck(somehow? idk) or damage other components(because it's old O_o).

Motherboard is fine

1 minute ago, Abyss Gaming said:

WTF do you have on your PC

Google Chrome. 

[Itayush]

9 minutes ago, manikyath said:

it's a matter of upgrading what is limiting your experience. if the gpu no longer satisfies, get a new one, if the cpu cant keep up, upgrade, if the power supply is a FireStarterPower chuck it out the window, etc.

 

8 minutes ago, Abyss Gaming said:

Mobo will be fine, barely any speed reduction if its pcie 2

 

7 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Motherboard is fine

Google Chrome. 

Well I may or may not have broken one one of my GPU heatsink fans, which makes cooling a little problematic
Either way I hate this card. Take a lot of power and super expensive(not that it matters to me now) for absolute no performance value.
So I've been thinking to upgrade to RX 480 MSI/XFX, since I've seen a lot of recommendations on them and they are not too expensive for me.
RAM - When I think about it again,  I will need to buy completely new (16GB) ones since (I heard) different RAM's sticks may have issues working together.
The PSU is horrible (and old) and I will definitely have to replace it if I wanna make sure that it won't suddently burn my components, or my house.

Also, in worst case - I could always eventually buy a new Case, MOBO and CPU and make it a whole new computer. Right? (It's not like using those new parts combined with old parts gonna have negative affect on them..)

[mmaatt747]

13 minutes ago, Itayush said:

Bought my computer about 4 years ago, when I knew very little about computer components(I am by far not an expert now, but I know much more this days).

Specs:
Intel i5 3470
R9 280x Toxic

8GB RAM

B75M-D2V(Not sure about this one)

FSP Raiders 550 Silver(T6, I know it's terrible)

I've been thinking about upgrading my computer, but it's so old that I am afraid that it will either won't be worth, or other things might damage my new components.

Anyway, I've been thinking about upgrading to another 8GB RAM, changing my GPU to RX 480 and getting a new and better PSU.
Once again, considering those parts are probably already most of the cost of a new computer, I might just better off leaving this one on the side and completely buying a new one.
Suggestions?
Thanks and have a great evening!

If you're seriously into multitasking or having a bunch of browser tabs open simultaneously, then go for the RAM.  If you're looking to improve more of your gaming capabilities, then go for the GPU.

 

 

4 minutes ago, themctipers said:

 

Google Chrome. 

lol that's not considered idling.  Chrome is def. not a background task especially being the resource hog that it is.  You must have a ton of tabs open too haha.

[themctipers]

2 minutes ago, mmaatt747 said:

If you're seriously into multitasking or having a bunch of browser tabs open simultaneously, then go for the RAM.  If you're looking to improve more of your gaming capabilities, then go for the GPU.

 

 

lol that's not considered idling.  Chrome is def. not a background task especially being the resource hog that it is.  You must have a ton of tabs open too haha.

Windows boots up with all of the startup programs I have -> 2gb usage 

Chrome -> 11gb or so

 

a few days of my system open -> 13gb due to various random background apps I open 

[TetraSky]

I upgraded what is a 7 year old system at this point, so yes, do upgrade a 4 year old system.

CPUs haven't advanced much in the past couple while so you really mostly need to change the GPU, get 16GB of RAM and change your PSU if it's a low quality one.

While you could upgrade the CPU, there isn't much point to it. The 3450 is still "good enough".

[Coaxialgamer]

39 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Ram -> GPU -> possibly 3770 (don't get k, no z77 motherboard. Don't get z77/3770k, buy new system at that point)

 

ivy is still great  

Imo, 8gb is still fine for most things, including gaming. Currently running 8 gb, and its plenty. 

[manikyath]

44 minutes ago, Abyss Gaming said:

WTF do you have on your PC

32GB ram -> windows gladly uses 6-8GB of that

[-iSynthesis]

46 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Meanwhile I idle at 12gb usage  

I'd like to know what you call idle because to me that means that you don't have any programs (other than native windows ones) running... 

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, -iSynthesis said:

I'd like to know what you call idle because to me that means that you don't have any programs (other than native windows ones) running... 

well, for me, "idle" is what i'd describe as "not doing my computer's main task", or "what is usually on in the background when doing a main task".

 

so in my case that includes steam, logitech G software, glasswire, rainmeter, cursevoice, discord, few chrome tabs, and maybe some other crap as well.

[Itayush]

1 hour ago, mmaatt747 said:

If you're seriously into multitasking or having a bunch of browser tabs open simultaneously, then go for the RAM.  If you're looking to improve more of your gaming capabilities, then go for the GPU.

 

 

lol that's not considered idling.  Chrome is def. not a background task especially being the resource hog that it is.  You must have a ton of tabs open too haha.

 

1 hour ago, TetraSky said:

I upgraded what is a 7 year old system at this point, so yes, do upgrade a 4 year old system.

CPUs haven't advanced much in the past couple while so you really mostly need to change the GPU, get 16GB of RAM and change your PSU if it's a low quality one.

While you could upgrade the CPU, there isn't much point to it. The 3450 is still "good enough".

Yeah, seem like the best way to go is to upgrade all three (GPU, PSU and RAM - yes I do like multitasking).
And once again - worse case, I can just buy all the other parts and make it a completely new build

[keenhydra]

What I did with my 4 year old PC was replace GPU first and then CPU and Mobo and then add some other parts to it. Topping it off with a new case.

 

So now I have all the spare parts to (re)build my old PC and a new PC. Doing this in a 6 month span really helped me save up for small spending, so it's not a 1200 dollar hole in my bank account out of nowhere.

[Itayush]

39 minutes ago, keenhydra said:

What I did with my 4 year old PC was replace GPU first and then CPU and Mobo and then add some other parts to it. Topping it off with a new case.

 

So now I have all the spare parts to (re)build my old PC and a new PC. Doing this in a 6 month span really helped me save up for small spending, so it's not a 1200 dollar hole in my bank account out of nowhere.

Yeah that's totally my plan, just wasn't sure if it's a good idea
I am really not sure if RX 480 will be enough for me, or it will only make me regret not spending on a little better one.. urgh

[keenhydra]

11 hours ago, Itayush said:

Yeah that's totally my plan, just wasn't sure if it's a good idea
I am really not sure if RX 480 will be enough for me, or it will only make me regret not spending on a little better one.. urgh

I have the XFX RX 480 8GB, and it chews trough most games at highest settings at 60fps. It also has some horse power for rendering videos or pictures in adobe. I'd say it's on par with my brother's gigabyte GTX1070 in terms of performance.

 

So overall a really decent card price to performance ratio. But honestly, If you can cough up the donuts to buy yourself a 1080 or even 1080ti by all means do it.