Help with upgrade

Devious

Hi guys,

Not sure if this is a waste of time, however, I am looking at giving my old Dell XPS 630i a bit of a boost. Im not ready to go for a new build until next year some time so until then, I want to see what I can get for a small budget of, say €200 to give my current PC a bit of a boost. Specs are (running Windows 10 btw):

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16GHz
Wolfdale 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 399MHz (6-6-6-18)
Motherboard
Dell Inc 0PP150 (Socket 775)
Graphics
512MB ATI Radeon HD 3870 (Dell)
Storage
2 x 298GB Seagate ST332062 0AS SCSI Disk Device (SATA)

Any advice? Or is it just a waste of time?

Its almost more of chance to get some experience with messing around with computer parts as its not something iv done before.

MarkAnthony

It really depends what you want to boost.

General desktop use, get an SSD and you can carry it over to the new build. If you want a boost in gaming try and pick up a cheap (€50 or so - 6870 or the like) GPU. You'll have to be a bit careful the power supply in the machine can take it.

You might find someone practically giving away 4GB of DDR2, you also could probably find a better CPU and maybe a mainboard for very little as well, may be first generation i5. The trouble is will it be compatible with any proprietary stuff Dell have done - dunno I'm afraid.

TerrorFirmer

I wouldn't really bother unless it's for web browsing and general use - an SSD in that case as above would be of benefit.

All other purposes it's too old, and spending more would be a waste - the whole PC itself is only worth about €80-100.

Devious

Thanks guys, yea I figured it was probably a waste of time, will do for web browsing for now.

MarkAnthony

Devious wrote: »

Thanks guys, yea I figured it was probably a waste of time, will do for web browsing for now.

The only thing I would say is give you want to have a play you could get a Core2Quad (€20ish), maybe some more ram, a very cheap GPU, you've essentially done all the elements of building a new machine.

If you get a new case and PSU you will have done ALL the elements of building a new machine and the case and PSU are normally bought from a UK retailer due to shipping issues, where as gubbings (internals) are bought from German retailers due to savings.

You would then have you shiny new case and PSU ready for the new gubbings when you get around to it and if something goes tits up (which it is very, very unlikely too) you've not borked anything expensive.

Devious

MarkAnthony wrote: »

The only thing I would say is give you want to have a play you could get a Core2Quad (€20ish), maybe some more ram, a very cheap GPU, you've essentially done all the elements of building a new machine.

If you get a new case and PSU you will have done ALL the elements of building a new machine and the case and PSU are normally bought from a UK retailer due to shipping issues, where as gubbings (internals) are bought from German retailers due to savings.

You would then have you shiny new case and PSU ready for the new gubbings when you get around to it and if something goes tits up (which it is very, very unlikely too) you've not borked anything expensive.

Ok thanks for the advice, really appreciate it. Taking your suggestions into consideration, I had a quick look on Amazon and this is what im now thinking of:

Intel Q6600 Core2 Quad 2.4GHz Processor - Retail 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache, Quad Core - £29

8GB (42X 2GB DDR2) 800MHz PC2-6300 PC2-6400 DDR2 800 (240 PIN) DIMM Desktop Memory - £44

Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7870 FleX 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (PCI Express 3.0, HDMI, DVI-I, DVI-D, Display Port, 256-Bit) - £70

Do you think those parts would be compatable with the motherboard and would there be much of a performance boost with all of them thrown in? Total cost is only £145 or around €180

Digital Solitude

I'd swap the RAM upgrade for an SSD, at least when you get your new machine the SSD can be carried. Into it'll make a bigger difference in most cases than another 4gb RAM

MarkAnthony

Devious wrote: »

Ok thanks for the advice, really appreciate it. Taking your suggestions into consideration, I had a quick look on Amazon and this is what im now thinking of:

Intel Q6600 Core2 Quad 2.4GHz Processor - Retail 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache, Quad Core - £29

8GB (42X 2GB DDR2) 800MHz PC2-6300 PC2-6400 DDR2 800 (240 PIN) DIMM Desktop Memory - £44

Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7870 FleX 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (PCI Express 3.0, HDMI, DVI-I, DVI-D, Display Port, 256-Bit) - £70

Do you think those parts would be compatable with the motherboard and would there be much of a performance boost with all of them thrown in? Total cost is only £145 or around €180

I'm not 100% sure what performance is going to be like as I don;t know how much of a bottleneck the CPU will be to the GPU. A 7870 for £70 though seems pretty sweet. Personally I'd be looking to pick all that stuff up secondhand and for about €100, then spend €100 or so on an SSD. I cant overstate what a drag mechanical hardrives are on system performance.

TerrorFirmer

A Q6600 would be a titanic bottleneck to a HD7870. I can't stress enough that it would be a waste; for modern gaming to any extent, there is no feasible way to update that machine.

You could technically get something like a QX9650, which would get through most modern titles with a decent GPU at basic levels, but the effort and money required would be so much better spent on a newer machine, even a second hand one.

Intel Q6600 Core2 Quad 2.4GHz Processor - Retail 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache, Quad Core - £29 - Same price as a second hand 2nd gen i3 for socket 1155 which is infinitely better for modern games.

8GB (42X 2GB DDR2) 800MHz PC2-6300 PC2-6400 DDR2 800 (240 PIN) DIMM Desktop Memory - £44 - incredibly expensive and more so than even 8GB of DDR3 or DDR4 which outperform it by a serious margin (not compatiable with your motherboard)

Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7870 FleX 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (PCI Express 3.0, HDMI, DVI-I, DVI-D, Display Port, 256-Bit) - £70 - Almost €100, and would be bottlenecked massively by a Q6600, in some games, would barely pass about 25% usage.

ED E

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

A Q6600 would be a titanic bottleneck to a HD7870

Not if its overclocked.

*typed from just such a system*

TerrorFirmer

Sorry, completely disagree. A overclocked Q6600 cannot keep up with a 7870 in tons of games no matter what speed it's at. Last time I used a Q6600 at 3.2Ghz I was getting 25-30fps in Battlefield Hardline online. At stock speed I was getting something like 17fps.

Sure some games will work OK if you cherry pick titles that get by but the majority of new releases would be massively bottlenecked even if overclocked, and forget about stock speeds (which in this case he would be limited to).

Sure they'll run but it doesn't mean it's not bottlenecking badly. The 7870 can hold a steady 60fps in games like GTA V, Fallout 4, Battlefield 4, The Witcher 3, etc. A Q6600 cannot or even close.

ED E

NB: Not suggesting he do it, I'm dropping 775

Think picking a BF title is cherrypicking TBH, BF games have always been disproportionately heavy. Havent benched this in a while, sec.

Devious

Guys, really appreciate all the comments, I suppose I should clarify, regarding the games I'm not looking for something that can play all the modern stuff, I have a steam library of over 100 games and most of them are 3-4 years old at the minimum, I basically hadn't played anything on it in over two years and went back to it recently, installed windows 10 and now find most of the games are struggling, hence I'm only looking at a very modest upgrade to just be able to play these old games again.

MarkAnthony

It's simple return on investment. If you can get some cheap secondhand components it's worth doing pretty much for the craic. The only thing I'd buy new personally would be an SSD.

You really should be able to upgrade that machine for peanuts which makes it completely worth doing.

ED E

Just for reference:


Metro: Equally limited
Civ5: Pointless to bench
Stalker: Nerfed by single core perf
COH2: Id call that GPU limited
Blood Dragon: Could be better on Core3 but GPU still busy
Infinite: See, bueno!

Devious if you were on a non Dell board and using DDR3 you could get a really nice upgrade for pennies but starting from where you are its time to move up a platform.