i5 3570k upgrade advice?

[kriskringle]

I built this pc a few years ago but now at age 70 (a declining acuity) and a fractured spine I'm ready to take it to the shop for a good cleaning, a new fan, and a USB3 fix (never installed right). So, since it's going in anyway, I wonder if there's some cheap sensible bigger upgrade I should do. Mainly I'm thinking CPU (why I'm posting here) but it could be other things - MOBO, SSD, GFX, even OS.

I'm not a gamer or video editor, just simple web stuff, DLNA my media, some burning, this box never seems stressed. And this old build has been rock solid, no problems except now a stuck fan.

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i5 3570K @ 3.40GHz
Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 802MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P8Z77-V LX (LGA1155)
Graphics
HP V242h (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4000 (ASUStek Computer Inc)
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 6670 (XFX Pine Group)
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
931GB Western Digital WDC WD1001FAES-22W7A0 (SATA)
298GB Seagate ST3320620AS (SATA) 99 °F
298GB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex USB Device (USB (SATA))
Optical Drives
ASUS DRW-24B1ST c
Audio
AMD High Definition Audio Device

 

[krumme]

Yep. If you dont have an ssd (cant tell by specs) as bootdrive now is the time eg an samsung 850 evo 250GB. Thats really nice.
Cpu is fine.
Perhaps a new bigger and higher res screen? Then a new gfx with hdmi 2.0 like a fanless xfx 460 might do the trick.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

OP, what problems are you having with USB3? I have a few ASUS Z77 motherboards in various systems (LX, Pro, etc.) and never had an issue with USB3 so far.
That said, since you are not pegging the CPU all that much, the best upgrade for you would be an SSD.

 

[daxzy]

If you're not a gamer or video editor, I'd just buy a SSD upgrade and reinstall Windows on it. Looks like you have 2 spinning disks (1TB + 300GB + external 300GB). Some suggestions:

1. 250 or 500GB SSD and re-install Windows on it. Arguable whether you'd want to upgrade to Windows 10 (it is better, but there is a learning curve; I'd recommend if you'd be willing to take a week or two to learn), but its there and free if you have the Windows 7 key.
2. Unless you're storage starved, you can get rid of the 2x 300GB drives.
3. If you don't game, you can probably get rid of the Radeon 6670.

 

[EXCellR8]

PNY CS1311 SSD is a good product and it's under $100 at local retailers for the 240GB model... could just grab a new fan and usb card too if you wanted.

I still have a 3570k in one of my spares, and it's absolutely fine for general purpose use

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I still have a 3570k in one of my spares, and it's absolutely fine for general purpose use

I have one OCed to 4.6GHz in a spare gaming rig and it's perfectly adequate for gaming too!

 

[kriskringle]

Wow thanks for all the quick help! There's so much that I'm glad this forum's Replies stick on the same page, unlike some. So far it's a new SSD (no, don't have one) with a clean new install of a Win OS over this crusty old one. As for Win10 I do have an educational installer disc as I do for my Win7. But I've been reluctant to go with 10 even on a brand new box, I'm a bit OCD about privacy.

It seems the CPU and mobo are fine with everyone here. And I'm happy with my newish 24" 1920 HP display.

250GB Samsung vs PNY, any big diff? or just go by the $'o'the'day? I see the Samsung for c$90 and the PNY for c$65. This is all in a COOLER MASTER HAF 912 case. I do know the smaller internal Seagate is a leftover from my even older box and has just a few old programs, i.e. expendable with a little work. The 1TB WD is the working end of my setup, Win7, programs, and media. Then my newest drive, the 300GB Goflex is my external, for backing up installers, my OS backup image, and other important info. That expendable internal 300GB could be the slot for the SSD if needed. If I buy the SSD and clear out that expendable drive, I guess I can confidently take it to the local shop SSD in hand.

As for the Radeon 6670, I've never been able to tell what is the actual active gfx here, that or the Intel 4000 on the mobo (which btw already has HDMI onboard). Is there some utility to tell me? If I stick with this vanilla 24" 1920 is there any reason to upgrade the gfx card?

As for the USB3, that was the only thing I had a friend assemble, all the USB, with his small nimble fingers. The USB3 ports on the case are on the rear, hard for me to access, nothing ever plugged in and so never tested, they may be fine. I've never even bought a USB3 device. A little test at the shop will tell.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

The 6670 is plenty fine even for somewhat casual gaming (assuming it's the GDDR5 version and not the gimped DDR3 one), so there would be no utility in upgrading it.
All my non-gaming rigs use GDDR5 5670s (6670 is the same thing rebadged), and they're fine driving 3x 1920 monitors.

For the SSD, I would honestly get whatever is cheapest, Chinese / unbranded blue-light specials aside.

 

[krumme]

If you stick with screen your gfx is perfectly fine.

As for ssd brand all new is plenty fast and no difference here. Samsung is a bit more toyota like than the others and its a proven entity. Thats all. But whatever is at hand will do fine.

As for trying gfx you can plug in different hdmi inputs at back and see if you can tell a difference. Or alternatively just right click on the desktop in win and see if its amd or intel that is shown in the shortcut menu.

 

[kriskringle]

not the gimped DDR3 one), so there would be no utility in upgrading it.

I'm sorry to report it is the DDR3 one, bought in Feb 2013 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150542

As for the SSD, I'm not one to buy premium, I wouldn't buy a Samsung TV when I could get equal or better ~function~ from a not-so-glorified make. So maybe the mentioned PNY or the other brands over at the sellers.

 

[kriskringle]

As for trying gfx you can plug in different hdmi inputs at back and see if you can tell a difference. Or alternatively just right click on the desktop in win and see if its amd or intel that is shown in the shortcut menu.

I see nothing in the right context menu to tell what the gfx is, thanks tho. I recall my HDMI is ported off the mobo, not the gfx. But now I'm going ethernet to the LR HT setup. So the hdmi wire is disco'd, no easy testing scenario. Deductively, I built the box in '08 with HDMI out to the HT set out in the LR, and didn't get this XFX installed til '12.

 

[daxzy]

I see nothing in the right context menu to tell what the gfx is, thanks tho. I recall my HDMI is ported off the mobo, not the gfx. But now I'm going ethernet to the LR HT setup. So the hdmi wire is disco'd, no easy testing scenario. Deductively, I built the box in '08 with HDMI out to the HT set out in the LR, and didn't get this XFX installed til '12.

If you have HDMI plugged into the motherboard, your GFX is literally doing nothing. Thus, if you don't game, you should just remove it. It's just another component that adds unnecessary complexity due to increased power usage and dust.

250GB Samsung vs PNY, any big diff? or just go by the $'o'the'day? I see the Samsung for c$90 and the PNY for c$65. This is all in a COOLER MASTER HAF 912 case. I do know the smaller internal Seagate is a leftover from my even older box and has just a few old programs, i.e. expendable with a little work. The 1TB WD is the working end of my setup, Win7, programs, and media. Then my newest drive, the 300GB Goflex is my external, for backing up installers, my OS backup image, and other important info. That expendable internal 300GB could be the slot for the SSD if needed. If I buy the SSD and clear out that expendable drive, I guess I can confidently take it to the local shop SSD in hand.

Depends on what Samsung SSD, they literally have dozens of SKU's, some good some bad. Check the Anandtech SSD buying guide for Holiday 2016:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9799/best-ssds

For Value/Mainstream, they recommend Crucial MX300, Samsung EVO 850, Mushkin Reactor. MX300 is quite a bit cheaper than the EVO 850, and it's doubtful people would notice a difference in day to day activities.

Also, a perk of Windows 10 is that it has built in restore (similar to Android/iOS), so you don't need an OS image. Generally, you would put the OS/Most used Apps (e.g. Office) on the SSD. Media and not so used apps on a spinning disk. I figure 250GB would be enough for most people, 500GB for people with oversized apps (e.g. a lot of games nowadays are 30+ GB each).

As for the USB3, that was the only thing I had a friend assemble, all the USB, with his small nimble fingers. The USB3 ports on the case are on the rear, hard for me to access, nothing ever plugged in and so never tested, they may be fine. I've never even bought a USB3 device. A little test at the shop will tell.

I'm guessing your case doesn't have a USB3 header (your motherboard does), so you have the use the rear slots.

 

[kriskringle]

Thanks again, daxzy. The HDMI cable's been unplugged for a couple of years.

I'm about to look at your best SSDs link.

Windows 10, yes I do want to install it soon. This shop visit might be the time. But I can't just hand them my license, maybe I'll make a disc copy with no license written on it, then license the OS when back home. Think that would work? As for space, I have a bloated Win7 and a ton of programs on it and still have 80gb free out of a 238gb partition. Games, I know what you mean, my only game uses a 19gb folder on that C, EA Sports, and designed so long ago that it "likes" to live on C.

USB3, yes as I vaguely recall we were forced to the rear ports for some reason.

 

[EXCellR8]

You can download windows 10 from Microsoft and use it for a little bit until it asks you to activate. I actually love 10 at this point, and I thought I'd keep 7 until it went the way of XP.

You could just image the Win7 install to the new SSD and then do some cleanup work. You'll definitely notice a huge improvement with overall performance.

 

[kriskringle]

You can download windows 10 from Microsoft and use it for a little bit until it asks you to activate. I actually love 10 at this point, and I thought I'd keep 7 until it went the way of XP.

Good to know.

You could just image the Win7 install to the new SSD and then do some cleanup work. You'll definitely notice a huge improvement with overall performance.

I may restore my existing Win7 image to the new SSD. I'm pretty much past my dread of 10, but I still have several installed $ programs which were Giveaways that depend on being installed on the exact Giveaway date.:beer:

 

[kriskringle]

Good to know.



I may restore my existing Win7 image to the new SSD. I'm pretty much past my dread of 10, but I still have several installed $ programs which were Giveaways that depend on being installed on the exact Giveaway date.:beer:

 

[kriskringle]

Yet another thing on the SSD question. I'm not sure about whether SATA or PCI and may not know until the box is opened up. Are there any hw utils that will give a clue about free slots?

Another bit, about quoting back in replies, is there any way to cut up the text one's replying to... other than copypaste QUOTE and /QUOTE ?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm pretty sure that P8Z77-V LX board is PCI-E 3.0-ready, because it's a Z77 and Ivy Bridge board.

There's still plenty of life left in that mobo and processor. You could find a twin memory kit and update the RAM to 16GB, or simply find a 2x8 RAM kit -- anything from DDR3-1600 to -2133. You can overclock the processor.

And -- buy that SATA SSD. If you want an LVMe PCI-E drive, that would likely also work. But you'll give up a PCI-E x8 slot.

 

[kriskringle]

update the RAM to 16GB
And -- buy that SATA SSD.

OK thanks BonzaiDuck. I'm on a very limited old man budget so for now I'm focusing on the SSD. After some homework I've come up with 4 SATA choices:

• Samsung 850 EVO 250GB for $90, a little concerned about the small size
• PNY CS1311 480GB for $120
• OCZ Trion 150 480GB for $116
• Crucial MX300 525GB for $112

Happy to hear any comments and suggestions, will likely wait a week before buying. Also, today I'll call that shop with these ideas and to see if they like to install and support something else. Finally, I'm cross-posting just this last bit to the storage forum here.

 

[JordanMihailov]

You won't get huge improvements with low investment. The CPU is good enough for your needs. As other have said. SSD is what will boost you performance substantially.

 

[Mir96TA]

I will get 128 GB SSD and cache your HDD. Very cheap solution
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB for $90 is a good choice.
I been using Intel RST for last 5 years or so with my WD 1TB black

 

[VirtualLarry]

OP, what did you end up doing? Did you go through with the upgrade yet?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I may restore my existing Win7 image to the new SSD. I'm pretty much past my dread of 10, but I still have several installed $ programs which were Giveaways that depend on being installed on the exact Giveaway date.:beer:

Make sure you use a restore utility that knows about partition alignment.

Giveaways? *squints suspiciously* what kind of giveaways? Are we talking about, like, stripper screensavers and other trojan crap? System utilities that you don't need and claim to make your computer faster but do the opposite?

If you're not paying, you're the product. *scowl*

Yet another thing on the SSD question. I'm not sure about whether SATA or PCI and may not know until the box is opened up. Are there any hw utils that will give a clue about free slots?

Regarding free slots: if you don't already know, there aren't really any utilities that will tell you - at least not in a way that is likely to make sense to you. (If that sort of device data dump made sense to you, you're a nerd who would already know what free slots you had.) Easiest/surest answer is to slide to side cover off and take a look.

A SATA SSD would be a 1:1 replacement for one of your existing hard drives.

Another bit, about quoting back in replies, is there any way to cut up the text one's replying to... other than copypaste QUOTE and /QUOTE ?

Not really.

 

[sm625]

Buy a 7700k.

Just kidding. Just get the SSD. There are several intel 160GB SSD's on the bay for around $40. I would trust that more than I would trust a brand new no name budget drive that sells for that price. You dont even need to put any media or games on the drive. Just having it as the boot drive is a huge boost.