Upgrade time again. Advice needed.

[db73]

It's that time again. Last swapped out the guts of my machine about 4 years ago! Currently have a middle of the road Gigabyte mobo, an i5 CPU, 8GB of DDR3 RAM & what was, at the time, the best fanless GFX card I could get. The reason is I went fanless if because my main aim was to keep the machine as quiet as possible. It's main use if for music production & I game on it less & less - last game I bought was Valve's Orange box!

So, I'm not really much of a gamer. But I always come on here for advice as people have been very helpful in the past & know their stuff. I'm looking to up the ante with a more up to date, middle of the road (doesn't need to be all bells & whistles) mobo, 16GB of decent RAM to go with it, if budget can stretch an i7 & possibly a new GFX card to improve performance (in case I do fancy a game, albeit at reduced quality) over the card I have.

Thanks, people

 

[db73]

The all important question, budget?

I wasn't sure what would be realistic when I posted, being so out of touch since my last upgrade. But I've done a little research. I guess around 300-500 for mobo, RAM, gfx card or the same for mobo, ram, CPU. But as I said, this is a pretty wild guess based on previous upgrades & less about being informed by actual costs.

if your able to list your current spec in more detail as well

Good idea. I'll do this when I get home form work

 

[db73]

Current Spec (main components looking to replace);

CPU: Intel i5-4460, Haswell, Socket 1150 LGA
MOB: Gigabyte H81M-S2PH, H81
RAM: Kingston, 8GB, 1600MHz, DDR3
GPU: AMD Radeon HD6670

 

[db73]

Hi,

Compared to todays standards all of the components of your PC are middle range with the exception of your Graphics card. The 4 core i5 haswell is still a good gaming CPU and DDR3 is common place.

Does the application you use for music production utilise threads ? if so an i7 would be a nice sneaky upgrade if you can pick up a used one. e.g. i7 4770.

Do you have an SSD? - if your using HDD's your PC will feel slow, an SSD will give it a new lease of life!

GPU wise buying a GTX 1050 / 1050 Ti will handle games at 1080p.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I use an SSD. One of the best upgrades ever! Made an amazing difference to Windows start-up times. Faster launching programs as well.

I mainly use Propellerhead Reason, which uses hyper threading. So maybe it would be worth an upgrade to an i7. But it's a pricey upgrade over the i5 unless I can get a good deal / used one. Maybe I should put it on the back burner for now.

I'm thinking doubling the RAM to 16GB might be a nice upgrade. Any thoughts on this? I'll check the Gigabyte website to see what speed DDR3 my mobo can handle.