Upgrading my old gaming PC from 2009

[Vassilis Tsipopoulos]

I am currently using a Desktop PC I bought in 2009 and as you can imagine it is in dire need of upgrading. I am not sure if it's worth it or if I should just buy a new one instead. Ideally I wouldn't want to spend more than 600-700€ on it. My current hardware is:

Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P6T DELUXE V2 (LGA1366)
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
RAM: 6.00GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 534MHz
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (2GB)
HDD: WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 (1TB SATA II)
PSU: Corsair TX750W

What do you think would be the best way to go about it? Clearly the CPU is outdated which I guess is the reason it is becoming slow. Is it worth it?

 

[Filip Georgievski]

2 more GB RAM, and a newer 380x, 390, 970GTX and you are good to go.
OC your CPU to 3.3 - 3.5 and it will run all new titles like a new I5.

 

[wolar]

^ + Maybe add an ssd while you are at it , the i7 is outdated but not worth the price to performance gain to go to 6700/4790.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

OC your CPU to 3.3 - 3.5 and it will run all new titles like a new I5.

Not quite but I agree there are legs left in the i7 920 and spending $500 on a new CPU, RAM and motherboard probably isn't worth while just yet.

Completely agree with overclocking, adding some more RAM (tbh I'd ditch that old tri-channel set and buy a dual channel 16GB set) and upgrading the GPU 4870 is a massive massive bottleneck even to that 7 year old 920 and anything from 280x/GTX 960 and upwards will breath new gaming life into that awesome 1st gen CPU, I miss mine! and an SSD OS drive, do these things and it will honestly feel like a new PC

 

[dorsetknob]

If your confident of overclocking then overclock it will overclock quite well if you have adaquate cooling
As regards to Ram
Some one told you to put in 2 Extra sticks of Ram or 2 gb ( yes thats you Filip Georgievski )
what They dont realize its a 1366 motherboard capable of triple channel (which you should be running in )so with 4 or 5 sticks of ram it wont run as triple channel.
you would be better served to get 3 sticks ( of 4 gig ) to (12 gig total ) to maintain your triple ram config
flog the old ram on ebay to recover some cost
Upgrade your graphics card to the best you can afford

 

[NdMk2o1o]

If your confident of overclocking then overclock it will overclock quite well if you have adaquate cooling
As regards to Ram
Some one told you to put in 2 Extra sticks of Ram ( yes thats you Filip Georgievski )
what They dont realize its a 1366 motherboard capable of triple channel (which you should be running in )so with 5 sticks of ram wont run as triple channel.
you would be better served to get 3 sticks ( of 4 gig ) to (12 gig total ) to maintain your triple ram config
flog the old ram on ebay to recover some cost
Upgrade your graphics card to the best you can afford

He said add 2GB more not 2 sticks to give him 8GB minimum, personally as I said I'd get a new 16GB kit as it will still beat out that old kit in dual channel.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

RAM: 6.00GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 534MHz

You may want to start in BIOS and enable XMP for your memory. What is the P/N of the RAM that you have?

 

[Vassilis Tsipopoulos]

P/N you mean part number I assume? If so it's CM3X2G1600C8

 

[thebluebumblebee]

You're running DDR3-1600 RAM at DDR3-1066 speeds. Not a huge deal, but it will help.

 

[horik]

You can get an 8GB or 16GB dual channel memory kit+SSD+GPU of your choice and you are set for a few more years.

 

[HD64G]

A good SSD of 500GB, 390 for GPU and 3X4 or 2X8 GB RAM with a nice cooler to allow some oc will be more than enough imo as most of the previous posters already wrote.

 

[lonewolf]

I'm still running a if 920 overclocked and it plays games just fine. Upgrade your storage to an ssd and upgrade your video card you will be fine. The upgrade to the ssd was the biggest speed increase I have done to the system.

 

[monim1]

You can solve your problem by upgrading. You need to adjust more 2GB ram.

 

[Tomgang]

Edit: dam ditten se this thread is already this old.

Overclock the CPU to 3,6-4 GHz and get a new cpu cooler if you are using the stock cooler now. If you stil need more CPU power consider to get a I7 970/980/990X or a xeon chip. they have 6 cores and just as nice oc potential.
Get some more memory like 12 GB. Remember this old platform runs triple channel. So for bedst performence run with 3 og 6 memory sticks.
Get a new GPU like a GTX 970 or GTX 980.
Get a nice big SSD for your OS and most used games.
Reformate your os install if its old cause that over time can cause the pc to slow down by it self. Get windows 10 it runs great on even this old hardware.

You are now good to go. Enjoy your upgrade and faster, much more responsive pc.

Dont belive me. take a look a my own machine when. Just look what a difference i score i got by going from GTX 660 TI in sli to GTX 970 in sli and believe me when i say i could also feel a defference in games as well.

For 24/7 use i run my own cpu at 4 GHz and two GTX 970 i SLI = a very desent gamming pc even today.

GTX 660 Ti sli score and CPU at 4,15 GHz

When i running bench the cpu enjoying the life at 4,3 GHz like here

 

[peche]

well is not that wise to just trown away that hardware, games are GPU bassed, so that unit is still capable to handle a decent gaming, adding an SSD and so more ram is going to be a decent solution and is confirmed that you will get a boost,
my advice:

• 128GB SSD for OS and every day programs,
• GTX970
• 12GB ram DDR3 @ triple Channel,

if possible a fresh installation of windows to start over with new OS and all the upgrades, if possible windows 10x64!

@Vassilis Tsipopoulos Please fill your system specs to see more about your Cooler and case, those 700e could be greatly used, also tell us where are you from, for giving links and hot deals for saving some bucks and get the more and best possible!

Regards,