(How) would you upgrade my PC?

I bought a desktop PC years ago – round about 2013. It was decent mid level, i5 processor, 16gb of RAM and a Radeon 5500 graphics card. It’s done me alright, I’ve added a 1tb ssd but apart from that not changed anything.

It’s now getting a bit creaky – I use Photoshop and Lightroom (and occasionally edit some video), I’m learning Blender and very occasionally play games (I’m after playing Beyond a Steel Sky at some point, but otherwise mostly older stuff is fine, I have tons on my Epic and Steam accounts).

Is it worth upgrading? Not sure what the motherboard is off the top of my head, but am I likely to be able to whack in a more modern processor and graphics card? Maybe faster RAM? And if so what should I be looking at?

Don’t want to spend a ton (if it comes to that I’d sooner invest in a decent laptop) so bargain recommendations much appreciated.

It was decent mid level, i5 processor

A 2013 i5 processor will not be any kind of match for a 2020 i5 processor – for video and photo work I think I’d be upgrading that.

something built in 2013 will be on DDR3, and a very different socket so if you wanted to upgrade the CPU you’ll need a new motherboard too. Don’t bother getting faster ram, only more if you’re finding you’re at 14+GB usage regularly. A new motherboard and current gen CPU will also mean DDR4 RAM so your current stuff won’t fit.

How much does photoshop/lightroom use your GPU? If a alot, you’ll probably see decent results upgrading that. If it’s your CPU, then upgrade that along with the RAM. Both will be pretty big performance boosts from what you have.

If you dont have an SSD I would put one of them in. Thats generally the most bang for buck you can get.

Got a decent fast SSD in there, I added that about a year ago. It’s the only modern thing in there.

GPU is quite important, not so much for Photoshop but definitely for Blender.

I’d sooner not upgrade everything (mobo + cpu + ram + GPU I’ll be looking at what, around £450 to get half decent kit. I’d sooner invest that in a good laptop (which would be a lot more convenient in our space strapped house).

Cheers all, you’ve helped me answer my own question.

Just that for a GPU nowadays tbh, the new RTX3070 is £450 on it’s own…

Digital camo vinyl wrap would look mint.

am I likely to be able to whack in a more modern processor and graphics card?

You need to find out what your current motherboard is and see what it is compatible with. A lot of the upgrade websites have compatibility checkers.

Most likely, you will be better to upgrade motherboard if you want to upgrade CPU, starting with looking at AMD versus Intel performance/value for money. There are a lot of websites for system builders (mostly gamers, but also more general purpose users) that look at the best component mixes for different price points. Thing is, it’s not just about the CPU, it’s about the performance bottleneck for the purpose you’re using it for. For gaming, it might be better to go for a cheaper CPU and more expensive graphics card, etc. I used to build my own systems 15 years or so back, but even a 10 year old system with SSD and 16 GB RAM handles my work without stress so I’m completely out of touch with current standards.

Yeah, I had a look on a couple of sites and GPUs seemed to start around £150 (but I doubt would be much cop).

Seems a lot to play one game (I can struggle by with Blender really).

I’m on a 3rd gen i5 3570k with no GPU, does me fine for normal PC use – I’ll be buying a PS5 when they release, PC GPU prices are ridiculous now.

What sort of SSD have you got? An Nvme SSD could be a lot quicker than an SATA SSD. Though needs a compatible motherboard, with M2 slot.

It’s SATA, but at the higher end of SATA. My motherboard definitely won’t take NVMe, I checked before I bought it.

I’d probably look for a s/h Nvidia 1060, hopefully available for under £100. That said it probably won’t help much with your PC performance, you are at the stage you need to replace the m/b, RAM and GPU to make it worthwhile but then you’re looking at £300-500 easily

I can’t believe the price of 1080Ti cards on Gumtree, £300-500?! Wonder if they sell for that, as looking to replace mine with a 3080…

Back up all your data / settings and do a fresh install of Windows. Its amazing how many performance issues are caused by bloated Windows installs / cluttered registry / junk files left over from updates.

I did a fresh install of Windows when I got the SSD. It did make a difference, but not to how fast the live view renders in Blender!

I guess I could go for a s/h 1060 as mentioned above, then possibly add an i7 which would give me a bit more grunt too.

A brief bit of research shows blender is significantly quicker when utilising a half decent GPU compared to something like a desktop i7 with integrated graphics, so if you do go for a laptop, you’ll have to get something with a decent GPU and even then you may realise laptop GPUs are heavily hobbled by heat limitations.

What is the spec of your current CPU, GPU, memory , motherboard and power supply? I swear the AMD 5500 series was only released in 2019. A used top end processor and modern new GPU might be a worthwhile upgrade.

I’ll power it on tonight and check the specs (currently working). I think the GPU is maybe a 5570, it’s definitely an old card and wasn’t that high end when it was new.

Look in Task Manager. What’s maxing out?

The I3-9100F is pretty good/cheap but you do need a graphics card with it.

The I3-9100F is pretty good/cheap but you do need a graphics card with it.

And a new motherboard, and 16gb of DDR4 ram…

This is the issue with upgrading older pc’s, you can just put in a new cpu as nothing is compatible.

And if he’s upgrading for photoshop/blender stuff I’d want a hyperthreaded i5 minimum.

Yeah, but the OP was considering buying a new pc anyway. You can get an i3-9100F pc with a decent GPU off ebay for ~£450.

For what it’s worth OP, my old potato (non-K I5-2500 with a DDR5 GT 1030 and 8GB could still run most newer things on ‘low’). I’ve just got a refurbed I3-6100 SFF ‘business’ PC to use for games and emulation (PS2, Gamecube, some more basic XB360 stuff’ll run too) – I stuck the GT 1030 in there and now it’ll run new pc stuff better than the I5 could. If you’re not multitasking it seems* to be more about the clock speed than core count.

* I am not an IT bod, I just like to spod about with games.

£100 b450 tomahawk mobo, £80 for 16 gb 3200mhz DDR4 ram, £220 for a 3600XT processor don’t bother about GPU just yet.

only a fool would buy anything intel at the moment. an I3-9100F is pish.

As a budget build, and for blender, don’t even consider Intel. AMD has better processors & cheaper motherboards making them much better value.

With regards to nvme, I’ve yet to see them make an appreciable difference over SATA in general tasks including lightroom so wouldn’t bother there.

New AMD laptops put in some good performance on productivity tools so are an option but if it Blender significantly benefits from gfx acceleration as mentioned above, your momey will be better spent on the upgrade.

Blender (and games, though that’s not a main point) will definitely benefit from a decent GPU. Time to do some research I reckon, see what’s likely to give me the best bang for my buck.

Don’t bother with a laptop. Computer components doing work need bigger cooling systems than laptops can contain. Just get the best gaming system in your budget from somewhere like 3B Systems, or your equivalent local supplier. OS on an SSD and media stuff on a separate drive.

I guess I could go for a s/h 1060 as mentioned above, then possibly add an i7 which would give me a bit more grunt too.

I’d maybe do something like this, assuming your on an i3 or i5 processor, drop in a second hand i7 from the same series. Just be aware that that system will then be pretty much maxxed out for that platform, theres no further upgrade path.

Also bear in mind the i7 run hotter and consume a bit more power, so you may need to fit an after market CPU cooler, a standard intel cooler from an i3 or i5 might struggle to keep it under control, something like this:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cooler-master-hyper-212-evo-cpu-cooler-hs-035-
But check it has the correct bracket for your CPU socket, for example:

Socket Compatibility: 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1151 / 1200 / 1366 / 2011 / 2066 cm.html

This is a good card, similar to the nvidia 1060 6gb in performance, a second hand one should be cheap enough: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-256-Bit-Memory-Express-Graphics/dp/B071Y7XJXN/ref=pd_lpo_107_t_1/258-2576655-2760460?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B071Y7XJXN&pd_rd_r=89b3a85f-e5a3-48ab-b732-edb0085a8448&pd_rd_w=h0O3X&pd_rd_wg=uv1eh&pf_rd_p=7b8e3b03-1439-4489-abd4-4a138cf4eca6&pf_rd_r=F8R4ZCGB0M9K6M5V0SBR&psc=1&refRID=F8R4ZCGB0M9K6M5V0SBR

From benchmark sites it looks like just putting in something like a 1060 or the Radeon mentioned above will give me a pretty noticeable boost in performance without having to go crazy. Then if I feel like I need MOOOOOAAAR then there’s an option of adding a compatible i7 which should give a bit more oomph, without spending a vast amount. Beyond that it’s investing in (most of) a new system.

Right, I’m off to trawl benchmarks again…

@flyingmonkeycorps – if you can find out what socket your motherboard is on I might have a spare i5 hanging around you can have ? (Edit – It might not be better than what you’ve got actually; but it was the top i5 at the time 😉 – fwiw I upgraded mine to a Xeon for about £30; which was a noticeable difference and dropped in a spare 1050 I got. Decent enough for a lot of stuff 🙂

Just had another thought if you upgrade teh graphics card – check what power inputs it has and that your existing power supply is powerful enough and has the correct cable configuration to power the new card.

if you can find out what socket your motherboard is on I might have a spare i5 hanging around you can have ?

The easiest way to do this is to fire up the system info from windows and note down the processor ID, it’ll be a 4 digit number like “4570” or “4570K” this will tell us the generation of the processor.

iirc, if it’s an odd first digit it’ll be the maximum for the mobo, even means you might be able to upgrade it to the next generation (for example you may be able to go from 4xxx to 5xxx, but you won’t be able to go from 5xxx to 6xxx without changing the motherboard)

Right, I’ve done a bit of poking. Here are some specs:

CPU: i5 2500K @3.30 GHz, LGA1155
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 5750
RAM: Kingston Hyper X DDR3, 16gb (4 x 4)
Mobo: Asus P8P67
PSU: Powercool 750w

Didn’t check the SSD spec, but it’s a pretty decent 1tb one, not a budget one.

I reckon the GPU is definitely the weakest point in there.

*edit* cheers @stevehine, that would be ace if it would fit.

That’s proper ancient.

But….putting a modern GPU in will likely make it “ok” for gaming at 1080p, but only “ok” as the cpu will be a massive bottleneck.

Personally I’d be looking at a new AMD Ryzen 5 3600 cpu, b450 mobo, ddr4 ram and a 1060/1660/whatver is cheap and “good enough” GPU.

Gaming is not a massive factor (and I’ll probably be playing the older games I have stacked up in Epic / Steam anyway). I still think of Half Life 2 as being pretty cutting edge.

Spending more on a modern system would doubtless be much better, but I don’t reckon I’ll really use it enough to justify 500 quid; £100 on a new card is a bit more manageable I reckon.

Weirdly looking at benchmarks my i5-2500 seems to come out better than 3rd gen i5s, and not much worse than i7s. So I’ll probably just stick with that for now.

I just upgraded my AMD Phenom 955 based PC which although was running Win10 just fine, I thought it was due an upgrade (10years old!).
Bought a Ryzen 3600X CPU, b550 m/b, 16GB DDR4 3200 mem. This cost me £460 from amazon.
I got an NVidia GeForce GTX 760 a few days later off gumtree for £50.

Running very well. Although I dont really play games. I’m hoping creating GoPro vids will be a little easier when I get round to some.

The only CPU upgrade for 1155 motherboards is the 2700k, but not worth the effort/cost. This is for the 2600K not the 2500K, so your performance will be a little lower, but here is a comparison with something like a modern AMD 2700:

https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3412-intel-i7-2600k-revisit-2018-benchmarks-vs-9900k-ryzen-more

A worthwhile upgrade would be to just add something like a AMD RX 570 for ~£70 on ebay. Otherwise I’d be thinking about a fresh Ryzen build similar to Superfli.

Ahh, the iconic 2500k. What a Cpu, back in the day!

You might be able to upgrade a 3rd gen, so i5 3570k (which I’m running) or an i7 3770k, so long as your mobo firmware supports 3rd gen, but…

It’s not really worth it.

You’d honestly want to get a current gen multi core cpu and motherboard with some DDR4 to make it worthwhile.

@flyingmonkeycorps – it’ll fit alright; sadly it’s also a 2500K same as you’ve got 😀

If you’re interested; I replaced it with a Xeon E1270; but they are rare as hens teeth; and the difference probably wasn’t worth the effort 🙂

I’d upgrade the GFX card first and see how you get on; anything else needs new MB/CPU/Memory and is spendy.

I’d upgrade the GFX card first and see how you get on; anything else needs new MB/CPU/Memory and is spendy.

This is what I would do, I recently upgraded my GPU to a 2nd hand Quadro card on a similar spec PC and it makes a difference – perhaps that would tide you over for a while – if not then time to get a Mobo/CPU/RAM combo another an issue with this is convincing windows install not to un-authenticate.

Relevant video

I’d pretty much agree with the above, the leap from DDR3 to DDR4 isn’t that huge either.
The numbers are higher but it doesn’t really translate directly into more frame per second in games, or faster video rendering.

What I would say is that if you do go for a new build, ryzen do generally offer more bang per buck for your money than the current intel lineup, and they don’t switch motherboard sockets every 5 seconds either, which would require a new motherboard.