[Need Advice]Simple & Inexpensive Upgrade For An Old Build

[CCPD]

For most, the build may seems obsolete, but it runs all games I play well and I want to make some simple upgrades. I need new Wi-Fi Antenna to be able to take advantage of my Gig1 Fibre Broadband. I was also considering upgrading RAM. CPU and Graphics Card maybe, but I think a brand new system maybe better off if I'll got that far. Would appreciate advice of someone who knows system's limitations and what parts would work best to provide the best upgrade. Any additional advice would be appreciated.

Case: Corsair CC600TM; 265 mm; 592 mm; 507 mm; Black; 1x 200 mm; 200 mm (CC600TM)
Power Supply: Corsair TX850M Enthusiast Series TX 850W ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Bronze PSU
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Motherboard (Socket 1155, ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, HDMI, Bluetooth Module)
CPU: Intel Core i7 2700K @ 3.50GHz Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
RAM: Corsair CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz CL9 XMP Performance Desktop Memory Kit Black
Graphics Card: Asus GeForce Strix GTX 1060 (6GB) Graphics Card PCI Express 3.0 DisplayPort/HDMI/DVI-D
Internal Solid State Drive: OCZ AGT3-25SAT3-120G Agility 3 120GB SATA III 2.5 inch SSD and 7452GB Seagate ST8000AS0002-1NA17Z (SATA)
Wi-Fi Antenna: TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 N900 Dual Band Wireless PCI Express Adapter with Three Antennas
Cooling: Corsair CWCH80 Hydro Series H80 High Performance CPU Cooler
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit

Games I Mainly Play: GTAV Enhanced, Vermintide II

Thank you for your time!

 

[Tetras]

Would appreciate advice of someone who knows system's limitations and what parts would work best to provide the best upgrade.

CPU

It supports 3rd gen, so a 3770K would work and possibly the Xeon equivalents (if they're cheaper), though the CPU support list doesn't mention them. This is a small incremental upgrade though, so it wouldn't (for example) turn an unplayable game playable, but could provide a small overall increase in framerates. There are videos on YouTube with these CPUs in modern games, that would give you an idea what it is capable of.

RAM

Depends on the game and how you use the PC. For the most part, 16GB is still enough, but I think for general "quality of life" this is a good upgrade if you're not planning on changing PC any time soon.

You can check configurators for your motherboard, which can help identifying suitable parts.

Memory for a ASUS - P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Motherboard - Kingston Technology

Kingston has compatible memory for ASUS - P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Motherboard

www.kingston.com

For best compatibility, you may want to update the BIOS, though I suppose you could just try it out and only update if you have a problem.

Graphics Card

Graphics Card: Asus GeForce Strix GTX 1060 (6GB) Graphics Card PCI Express 3.0 DisplayPort/HDMI/DVI-D

These are still pretty good for older games, but if you were to upgrade, I'd suggest a 6600 or 6650 XT. They're around twice as fast and usually work quite well with older CPUs due to AMD's lower driver overhead.

I would avoid paying too much for any of the above, because otherwise you should just buy something like this (CPU cooler in the CPU box):

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i3-12100F 3.30GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AS-IN) = £73.99
• 1 x MSI PRO H610M-E DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03383) = £59.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AJ-TG) = £55.99

Total: £189.97 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

I need new Wi-Fi Antenna to be able to take advantage of my Gig1 Fibre Broadband.

The lane sharing on this board is a little complicated, but I think you can use a PCI-E card.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x ASUS PCE-AX58BT Dual-Band Wireless AX3000 (WiFi 6) Bluetooth 5.0 PCI-E Adapter (SKU: NW-11A-AS) = £58.99

Total: £62.99 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

 

[CCPD]

Thank you very much for such speedy reply. I'll hold off on processor and motherboard but will most likely get the RAM. Also is there alternative for WiFi Antenna, where it actually attached to the card? Thanks!

 

[5abr3]

Thank you very much for such speedy reply. I'll hold off on processor and motherboard but will most likely get the RAM. Also is there alternative for WiFi Antenna, where it actually attached to the card? Thanks!

Will your case be between the antenna on the back of the PC and the router and are yoi far away from said router?

When we moved and I was initially running wifi I had to turn the case so the backn of it was facing the router to get anything even close to a stable connection (doesn't help it is in the furthest part of the house from the router).


The antennas look like they unscrew from the base station based on the pictures; so you are likely tp be able to attach them to the card instead of the stand.

 

[Gav_881]

For the WIFI i would consider getting a powerline set if you can make that work in your location, tends to be a better experience than WIFI.

I'd also do ctrl alt del and open task manager, play your games and then tab out and look at the history, if anything is very close to 100% then this is where I would start. when i built my current PC around covid times 16Gb of ram was plenty, recently added another 16 as in game i was hitting 100% and having stutters from page file. It now peaks at 16.2Gb but the stutters are gone for £30

 

[Subliminal Aura]

@Tetras Would it be better to spend just a little more and go for a board that supports DDR5

Should give better performance and we skip being lumbered with old DDR4 memory / Easier for future upgrades

 

[Tetras]

@Tetras Would it be better to spend just a little more and go for a board that supports DDR5

Should give better performance and we skip being lumbered with old DDR4 memory / Easier for future upgrades

At this point, for most gaming builds I think it is a good idea, but the OP seems happy enough with the performance and wants something cheap, so in this case the basic mobo/DDR4 combo is alright. It'll still be a decent step forward.

If there was flexibility in how much to spend (& relative to this build), I'd probably go for a 12400F first (£100) because it'll have better legs than the i3, then the 12600K (£150) or a 13400F and then the DDR5. Beyond that, a switch to AM5 and a 7500F/7600, which would require DDR5 anyhow.

 

[Subliminal Aura]

Yup for me if OP can raise the budget ever so slightly they'll get a system that will offer more future upgrade options

Staying with older gens will limit upgrades and worse limit resale value

 

[Bagnaj97]

Thank you very much for such speedy reply. I'll hold off on processor and motherboard but will most likely get the RAM. Also is there alternative for WiFi Antenna, where it actually attached to the card? Thanks!

There's a good reason not to hold off on the processor and motherboard and that's that you're still on Windows 10 - it goes end of life in October and will no longer receive any security updates.
Officially your current CPU (or any CPU that'll fit your existing motherboard) isn't supported on Windows 11. There are unofficial workarounds to bypass the restrictions and install Windows 11, but given the age of your system it's probably worth looking at something newer anyway.

Your case is fine to re-use.
Your GPU can be re-used if you're happy with the performance.
The power supply is presumably as old as the rest of the kit so it's getting on a bit, but is a decent unit and should be ok to re-use.
There's no harm connecting your existing drives, but an m.2 NVMe drive is *far* faster and a 256GB one is £16 elsewhere or 512GB on OCUK from £26 https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...pcie-3.0-solid-state-drive-sto-tmg-02680.html and I'd strongly recommend adding one as your boot/OS drive.

You may find a motherboard with integrated wifi is cheaper than one without and a separate adapter. For example https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...700-ddr4-micro-atx-motherboard-mb-6kg-as.html works out cheaper than the motherboard+wifi adapter previously listed by @Tetras