Upgrade or fresh build?

danhodge

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My systems a little (very) old at this point. I built it back in 2012 (thanks for the help PP), and it's still performing to a decent standard, but it's starting to show its age. Specs are as follows:

CPU: i5 2500
RAM: 8GB 1600mhz
GPU: R9 270 (added at a later date)
Storage: A 6 year old 1TB HDD and a 9+ year old 500GB HDD
PSU: Corsair CX600
Case: Antec One Midi
Mobo: Some cheap Asrock crap

My first question is, holy ****, how hasn't my HDD failed yet?
Second, my instinct is to keep the case, PSU, GPU and HDDs, and replace everything else (and get an SSD, but keep the HDDs as backup). But I get the feeling that's me being cheap. I don't really have a budget yet, i'm just trying to get my head around what needs doing first.

The PSU isn't modular, and installing the GPU killed all audio ports on my Mobo for some reason, so both of these could be argued for needing to be replaced.

Point is, it's all a little old, but as someone who doesn't follow hardware much, even i know that that's an ancient CPU at this point. And if i update that, i'm moving onto a new socket, so obviously I need a new mobo, and some ddr4 ram.

If the question isn't obvious, am I better off upgrading the entire system, just the CPU/Mobo/RAM, or some combination? Assume a low budget (let's say sub £500), i'm still a student :lol::lol:

Thanks for the help,
- Your monthly visitor :angel:
 
yup....a board, cpu, memory and an SSD will do it. Now is a very good time to get an SSD. This morning I saw a Western Digital 1tb SSD on sale at NewEgg for $120. (not sure how long that sale will last)
If I were you, I'd replace that CX600 also, even though it still working it's getting old too. If the case has USB 3.0 ports and you like then great.
 
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yup....a board, cpu, memory and an SSD will do it. Now is a very good time to get an SSD. This morning I saw a Western Digital 1tb SSD on sale at NewEgg for $120. (not sure how long that sale will last)
If I were you, I'd replace that CX600 also, even though it still working it's getting old too. If the case has USB 3.0 ports and you like then great.

Damn, I swear when I built mine it was like a pound per GB, that is cheap :confused:

I didn't think about wear and tear on the psu, yeah maybe that's for the best too :(

Question to be asked is, what games are you playing?

Everything really, I'm not bothered about maxing out new games so much, but I have games like Total War: Warhammer that struggle to maintain decent frame rates on low settings, I just want everything to be playable, and the option to grab newer games (with tuned down graphics) if i really want to :)

Might be useful to note I'll also be doing machine learning on it next semester, and I'll always be developing games on it.
 
If you have a tight budget and you don't care about used parts and just want to game then look for a local deal for i7 4790k with overclockable MB and some ddr3 rams. Also if you want to replace your graphics card, rx480/580s are going really cheap nowadays.
 
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