Old School PC veteran needs some help with upgrade

[coomarlin]

Yeah, I'm old school. Started building PC's back in the 90's with 133mhz pentiums and Windows '95. However, about 10 years ago my love for PC's took a nose dive and I lost all interest. I upgraded my PC one last time in 2008!!! I just looked at my newegg order history and see that I purchased a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600 Brisbane, Foxconn A7-GM motherboard, 4GB of ram and a mini ATX case. So as you can see the PC is as old as dirt. I've managed to get along with this setup because I do 99% of my tech tasks through my smartphone now.

Recently I purchased a 3D Printer and began trying to design some things. Guess what? Yeah this old PC sucks for using 123D Design and Cura. So now it's time to sink as little money into a PC upgrade as I can in order to get passable performance. I thought about getting a laptop but I think I'll just get a quick upgrade.

Back then I used to be pretty knowledgeable about chipsets, processors, graphics cards, etc. But now I don't recognize anything. I'm not a gamer and I don't need a blazer. Just something that will upgrade that lowly PC I now have and make it more usable for my needs.

Any suggestions? I used to purchase from newegg all the time. Is that still the place to buy from? Barebones combo deals?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

pcpartpicker.com - it lets you plan your build, filters for parts compatibility, and finds the best price. Which is not always newegg, although they're around and still pretty awesome.

Based on what you're saying you want to do, I'd say take a good look at the AMD Ryzen 5 hex-core for a CPU. Reputable motherboard manufacturers are basically the same as they were in 2008. (AsRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI sometimes, and then everybody else).

Everything else is also basically the same, (once you handle compatibility checks) except CPUs use pin arrays instead of sockets, so installation is a bit more delicate. Also, HSFs are almost never clip-on anymore.

Get an SSD.

p.s. - I have an older i5, and it zips through CURA slicing just fine. I use FreeCAD and haven't had any performance complaints. Any modern quad/hex core should kick some kiester.

 

[coomarlin]

pcpartpicker.com - it lets you plan your build, filters for parts compatibility, and finds the best price. Which is not always newegg, although they're around and still pretty awesome.

Based on what you're saying you want to do, I'd say take a good look at the AMD Ryzen 5 hex-core for a CPU. Reputable motherboard manufacturers are basically the same as they were in 2008. (AsRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI sometimes, and then everybody else).

Everything else is also basically the same, (once you handle compatibility checks) except CPUs use pin arrays instead of sockets, so installation is a bit more delicate. Also, HSFs are almost never clip-on anymore.

Get an SSD.

p.s. - I have an older i5, and it zips through CURA slicing just fine. I use FreeCAD and haven't had any performance complaints. Any modern quad/hex core should kick some kiester.

I really appreciate the help. That site is really cool. Had no idea it even existed. My work PC is an i5-4440 @ 3.10 ghz and it seems plenty fast to me. But I don't use it for 3D Printing tasks. I'll look at those Ryzen processors. I assumed CPU's still used sockets! haha. So CPU's don't typically come with a cooling system now? That is something I'll need to purchase separately?

Actually in all honestly CURA is passable on my system. It's the 3D design part thats slow as Moses and super low frame rate.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

So CPU's don't typically come with a cooling system now? That is something I'll need to purchase separately?

Depends on the CPU.

"Premium" ones that are sold at retail, Intel/AMD are assuming you will overclock and get an aftermarket cooler, and throw theirs in the trash, so why bother?

Midrange models (Non-K or non-X) usually have a CPU cooler included. (An i5-7400 includes one, an i5-7600K does not. A Ryzen 5 1600 includes one, a 1600X does not. Etc.)

If you've gone 9 years on your last system build, I suspect a not-super-high-end CPU with a bundled cooler will do fine for you. And save you the money/hassle of getting an aftermarket cooler too.

 

[sm625]

Well it doesnt sound like you need much power. 123D is single thread limited. So you'll want to get a i3-7100 or a pentium G4620. For the absolute best performance (at a reasonable price), get the 7350K and a cheap cooler and overclock it to 4.8GHz.

 

[vailr]

The case would also need to be upgraded, in order to have front USB 3.0 ports.
Such as:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147166

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The case would also need to be upgraded, in order to have front USB 3.0 ports.
Such as:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147166

But not prerequisite to filling desire and need for front-panel USB3. You can get the 19-pin to 2-port cable with a 3.5" frame for about $25 -- maybe less. You then only need a 5.25" or 3.5" front-panel bay available to install it. My cases are all nearly 10 years old in the history of case designs, but they all have F-P USB3 and eSATA.