Do you feel there is a reasonable upgrade path for my current system

[geepondy63]

I have gotten a lot out of my AMD system but fear I've gone as about as far as I can go. This is what I have which represents many upgrades thru the past 6 or 7 years.

AMD Phenom II X945 on Gigabyte AM2 (not even plus) MB
8 Gig DDR2 mem
Nividia GEforce 9600 GT video card
256 gig Intel SSD as primary, 3 Gig regular HD as secondary
Antec 430W Earthwatts PS in an Antec case.
2 DVD writers
Win 7 home

I'm happy with general performance still and gaming isn't a high priority anymore but when doing video and photo editing (converting raw images, etc), there are times when I wouldn't mind more speed but I'd want a big jump or it's not worth it. Do you see some sort of upgrade path or would I have to start all over? If I have to pay $1K, it's not going to happen. I now see Dell and other I5-6400 systems for sometimes $500-600 with sufficient memory but no special video cards or SSD.. Wondered if worth getting one of those if finding a good deal and just adding in my existing SSD and video card? Wish they came with i5-6600's though. It seems like it would be worth the $40 or so of price increase over 6400 Am sure my video card is long in the tooth by now as well.

Basically I won $500 in a work contest which is why I'm visiting this option. If something could be feasibly done around that price I think I would bite. Appreciate any thoughts, been out of the PC building game for a long time.

 

[LTC8K6]

Which board do you have? There are probably much faster chips that can drop in there that may hold you for another year or so.

 

[geepondy63]

No I don't think so. The board is a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H which as mention is just an AM2 board, not even an AM2 plus. I originally had an Athlon dual core CPU and supposedly by even adding the Phenom II CPU which was designed for an AM2+ chipset, there is some function that is not working, the type of which escapes me now, but was told it wasn't a big deal. Wonder though, could I do a MB/CPU mem upgrade and keep everything else?

Which board do you have? There are probably much faster chips that can drop in there that may hold you for another year or so.

 

[LTC8K6]

Phenom 2 X4 945 is at least AM2+.

The board will take AM3 chips, according to Gigabyte.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2579#

(Note) If you install an AMD AM3/AM2+ CPU on AM2 motherboard, the system bus speed will downgrade from HT3.0(5200 MT/s) to HT1.0 (2000 MT/s); however, the frequency of AM2+ CPU will not be impacted.

It looks like you can only get a small speed bump though, to 3.3Ghz.

 

[LTC8K6]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2389797

There is a nice $500 build there.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Here's my first crack at a $700.00 gaming build using high quality, brand name components. I left out the SSD since you already have one.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WRYnZL

 

[pitz]

2nd 3Tb hard drive at the very least for RAID-1 mirroring of that other drive.

Other than that, short of moving to mostly newer hardware, there's nothing else you can really do, IMHO.

 

[geepondy63]

Can I replace just MB, CPU and mem? Could upgrade video card and if necessary power supply later? Has the newer mb power connection scheme changed any in the past six years so I could no longer use my current power supply?

 

[Ken g6]

I'd get a new power supply if possible. If you can reuse the case this looks interesting: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qPqcWZ

 

[geepondy63]

Thanks for the link. But would I gain much choosing a 500W supply over the 430W I currently have or as I asked above is the mb power inputs different obsolescing older power supplies?? I do have to say I will run win 7 forever before I would choose 8.1. Maybe win 10.

I'd get a new power supply if possible. If you can reuse the case this looks interesting: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qPqcWZ

 

[3chordcharlie]

Thanks for the link. But would I gain much choosing a 500W supply over the 430W I currently have or as I asked above is the mb power inputs different obsolescing older power supplies?? I do have to say I will run win 7 forever before I would choose 8.1. Maybe win 10.

With a third-party start menu added, windows 8.1 is just like windows 7, except it seems a little faster and definitely has 3 more years of mainstream support.

 

[geepondy63]

But if going with a new OS, wouldn't one be better off to go with win 10 over win 8 even if win 8 can be doctored to resemble win 7?

With a third-party start menu added, windows 8.1 is just like windows 7, except it seems a little faster and definitely has 3 more years of mainstream support.

 

[3chordcharlie]

But if going with a new OS, wouldn't one be better off to go with win 10 over win 8 even if win 8 can be doctored to resemble win 7?

There are some questions around windows 10 still at least for me. Most likely in 6-12 months windows 10 will be the obvious choice.

 

[Ken g6]

At this point you can pick any OS from Win7 up - whichever is cheapest - and upgrade to Win10 for free. That will change in July.