upgrading my Sandybridge Celeron PC?

somurray · 26-02-2015 09:18PM #1

I built my first custom PC back in 2012, with no small help from various users on this subforum giving me advice.

My PC build is:

Celeron G530 2.4ghz
Gigabyte H61 motherboard
4gb ram
HD6870 1GB
WD 500gb 7200rpm data 3 HDD
Bitfenix Alpha Case

Now, booting up this fella and shutting up it down can ages, and it can be slow booting up programs at times, especially all at once.

I haven't worked our an exact budget but would one recommend to get the most bang for buck on terms of upgrading?

Ideas of mine:
1) upgrading to an SSD.
2) getting a quad core CPU. What about the AMD 860k? It's £55 on Amazon.co.UK.
3) getting an extra 4gb stick of ram.

Serephucus · 26-02-2015 09:30PM

What is this machine being used for?

Regardless of the answer above, idea 1's answer is "Abso-****ing-lutely" as always.

RAM and CPU stuff, it depends on what you're doing, though probably yes to the RAM as well. 4GB can get pretty tight with most things.

somurray · 26-02-2015 09:34PM

Serephucus wrote: »

What is this machine being used for?

Regardless of the answer above, idea 1's answer is "Abso-****ing-lutely" as always.
RAM and CPU stuff, it depends on what you're doing, though probably yes to the RAM as well. 4GB can get pretty tight with most things.

Ah, Serephucus, good to hear your helpful advice again 3 years later!

Yes, RAM prices aren't fantastic but would it matter if I bought a DDR3 (1333) 4gb stick to match my current one if they are from a different company.

My PC is primarily my main work PC, word processing, internet browsing and PC gaming. Mostly a tf2 player.

Serephucus · 26-02-2015 09:44PM

Really? Shows I'm as big a tech-head as ever then I suppose! :P

No, they're not. I remember getting 8GB for €20 a couple of years ago. Going to 8GB certainly wouldn't hurt though, and it would give you some breathing room.

From using a Pentium G3258 in my gaming rig for a while (3.something GHz dual core chip), dual cores are... kinda slow. It does fine in games, but there was a definite jump in overall snappiness even going to a hyperthreaded dual core, never mind a quad core. If it's just basic work stuff odds are you don't need that sort of power though.

SSD is an absolute must. That's the only pain-in-the-arse upgrade, as for best performance you'd want to clean install on it. Anything else can be dropped in later.

Oh, if you do decide you want a faster CPU, I have an i3... 3220, I think, lying around here somewhere that I'm not using.

somurray · 06-03-2015 03:12AM

I've found an i5 2500k going for €80. Would that be a worthy upgrade or would I be throwing good money at bad and should I just wait for any future Intel CPU?

upgrading my Sandybridge Celeron PC?

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