Upgrading advice - Mobo, CPU & GPU needed

00sully

Hello again boardsies of the most helpful sub-forum of all! My current rig is old. I have been out of the loop in this arena for a while - in fact since I built this PC originally in 2010 :pac: with the help of this forum back PC is composed of:

Needs replacing:

• ASUS P7P55D-E P55 Socket-1156
• Intel Core i7 860 / 2.8 GHz
• Sapphire RADEON HD 5770

Re-use (I hope)

• Corsair VX550W - Power supply
• 4 x 4GB DDR3 RAM
• 1 x 128GB M4 SSD
• 1 x 256GB Samsung SSD
• 1 x 1TB 7200 HD
• Case: Antec Three Hundred - EU - Tower - ATX
• Monitors 1x 1080p 1x 1440p - will upgrade to a single 34" 4k at some stage

Budget ~ €600 Require new:

• Motherboard
• CPU (Intel - don't need to overclock)
• GPU
• Cooling solution? Current setup runs loud

I would like a new motherboard that is DDR3 compatible to re-use the RAM and with UEFI bios.

The primary use will be work but I have recently sold my PS4 and gotten more into PC gaming so I would like a decent graphics card in the mix. I would be happy with 1080p as will mostly be gaming via some remote display linking to my laptop with a ps4 pad. Not too concerned with max settings but would like to run the majority of games.

Am leaning towards a GTX 1050TI 4GB.

I guess primary advice I need is around Motherboard and CPU. Hopefully the PSU I still have will also suffice for running the new components?

I'll also be running a Mac Sierra install on one of the SSD's so I need to be cognisant of those requirements even though they are pretty nebulous as far as I can make out regarding motherboard and GPU but CPU needs to be Intel I think.

Thanks in advance!

TerrorFirmer

The only problem is all modern platforms are DDR4, to re-use your old DDR3 (which would be slower DDR3 if from 2010) you would need to buy an older CPU/board combo.

If 2nd hand's an option, you can get a H81M motherboard for €50 new, buy a 2nd hand i5-4440 or similar for about €100 and re-use your old ram. But given how long it's been since you've upgraded I don't think there's much point.

Best just fork out for the new build. B350 board, Ryzen 1600, and 16GB DDR4 would set you back about €450. Throw in a GTX1050Ti for €150 and you're at the €600.

The other option is that the i7-860, although old, is actually still reasonably OK for most modern games with a decent card. Even if you just replaced the HD5770 with the GTX1050Ti for now, you'd be able to run pretty much everything at 1080p high-ish settings.

If 1440P will be the gaming monitor, I would go a bit extra and get a GTX1060 6GB. The 1050Ti isn't that fast a card, but still an absolutely huge upgrade on a HD5770.

Intel have new CPU's out now as well (Coffee Lake), which are also excellent but they're more expensive than AMD Ryzen at the moment as the only motherboards available are higher-end models.

You should be able to overclock on that current board as well which will help even further. But generally speaking you will get away with just a GPU upgrade for now if you want to wait it out a little longer. Just get a GTX1060 6GB.

00sully

Thanks TerrorFirmer, I've been toying around with just getting a new card as the PC to be honest as is, gaming aside, is still perfectly suitable for other daily tasks and anything I throw at it - booting, general speed is pretty darn good for a 7 year old machine!

Will toss a coin between the 1050 and 1060 - at double the price I still leaning towards the 1050 but to make it a little more complex, even though I won't be gaming on the 1440p monitor, my laptop screen is actually QHD+ 3200x1800 but I run it scaled as it's 13"

Raises another question, is there even a decent way to stream games from a desktop PC to another device to take advantage of the GFX card? i.e. either the laptop or a phone?

Balmed Out

00sully wrote: »

Raises another question, is there even a decent way to stream games from a desktop PC to another device to take advantage of the GFX card? i.e. either the laptop or a phone?

steam link?

K.O.Kiki

00sully wrote: »

Thanks TerrorFirmer, I've been toying around with just getting a new card as the PC to be honest as is, gaming aside, is still perfectly suitable for other daily tasks and anything I throw at it - booting, general speed is pretty darn good for a 7 year old machine!

Will toss a coin between the 1050 and 1060 - at double the price I still leaning towards the 1050 but to make it a little more complex, even though I won't be gaming on the 1440p monitor, my laptop screen is actually QHD+ 3200x1800 but I run it scaled as it's 13"

Raises another question, is there even a decent way to stream games from a desktop PC to another device to take advantage of the GFX card? i.e. either the laptop or a phone?

Steam In-home streaming
http://store.steampowered.com/streaming/

I'm not sure if it can stream any higher than 1080p (haven't felt the need to try it myself tbh) but it's a free option.

re: i7-860, pair it with a GTX 1060; it makes more sense than the 1050 Ti (double the performance for 33% more).
For quiet cooling, anything with a 140mm fan is probably fine:
https://geizhals.eu/?cat=cpucooler&xf=3175_140%7E817_1150%2F1151%2F1155%2F1156

TerrorFirmer

Yes you can try streaming but Steam doesn't support higher than 1080p so it won't look great on a 1440p or higher panel. You're better off just playing on the monitor really.

With the SteamLink you can be in a totally different room and use another monitor/TV and use your keyboard/mouse or controller with the Steamlink, it's a great piece of kit for what it does.