Upgrade of Desktop PC

[boreboor]

Dear gurus here,

I've got a 6-year old rig that I bought from Aftershock back in 2016:

Chassis Options and Paint : Glossy White (NZXT S340)
SKYLAKE Desktop Motherboard : ASUS H170M PLUS (No SLi Support)
SKYLAKE DESKTOP CPU : Intel Core i5-6500 3.20GHz Processor
Thermal Compound : IC Diamond Thermal Compound CPU (Free Lifetime
Thermal Compound Re-pasting)
CPU Cooling System (Desktop) : Standard Stock Fan Cooling (CPU)
GRAPHICS CARD (DESKTOP) : ZOTAC NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX1070 8GB
GDDR5 (It died end of last year and now replaced with a 1650 card)
Random Access Memory (RAM) (Desktop) : 8GB DDR4 2133Mhz (8GB x 1)
M.2 SSD BAY (PCIE 2X/4X) (Desktop) : None
Solid State Drive (Desktop) : 250GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD (540 Read, 520
Write speeds)
First Hard Drive (Desktop) : TOSHIBA 1TB 3.5 INCH HDD (Buffer Size 32MB)
Chassis Fans : Standard Chassis Fans
Wireless Lan (Desktop) : ASUS PCE-AC56 Dual-band Wireless-AC1300

I noticed it being a bit unstable at times - sometimes it just gets stuck when booting up, but other than that it's running ok.

I'm wondering if there's any recommendation if I want to beef it up to be able to have better gaming performance?

Thanks!

 

[ahbard]

Get another 8gb ram . These days 8gb ram is not enough especially if you want to play the latest game.

 

[NightRaven49]

other than the ram upgrade suggested above, u could consider getting a nvme ssd and putting ur os on it. now high quality nvmes on amazon like samsung's 970 series are as cheap as theyre gonna get, 500gb for $90 or 1tb for $150, if get the 1tb can 1 time good one replace both ur current drives and get faster speeds too.

for gaming experience, can also consider gpu upgrade. 1650 is not a great card (even for 1080p gaming imo), and gpu prices are now dropping. though to what degree will depend on ur budget.

 

[LIN_JOEL]

Amazon now 970 Evo 2TB SGD $288 and SN850 2TB $354.
Quite surprise that Gen 4 SN850 selling at this price now...

 

[boreboor]

Yeah I’m looking at GPU upgrade, hopefully an RTX. But I understand that means I need to upgrade my PSU as well, am I right?

 

[boreboor]

Is my current motherboard able to accommodate the above upgrades as well?

 

[NightRaven49]

Yeah I’m looking at GPU upgrade, hopefully an RTX. But I understand that means I need to upgrade my PSU as well, am I right?

depends on which model. 3070 and below u could probably get away with a good quality 600w psu or lower, anything above recommended to get 650-750w, if not more. amd gpus are also fairly power efficient, so u could get more performance for the same power and not need to change psu, plus they are generally slightly cheaper. also bear in mind i5 6500 is not a very strong cpu nowadays and can be a bottleneck for high refresh rate gaming. what resolution are u targeting?

Is my current motherboard able to accommodate the above upgrades as well?

yes.

 

[jianrong]

Amazon now 970 Evo 2TB SGD $288 and SN850 2TB $354.
Quite surprise that Gen 4 SN850 selling at this price now...

But Amazon is new one with local warranty? Not second hand? Or fake one.

 

[LIN_JOEL]

Ships from and sold by Amazon US is not local warranty.
Used set they will indicate.

Local 5 years warranty set now should be around SGD$5xx to $7xx

 

[boreboor]

depends on which model. 3070 and below u could probably get away with a good quality 600w psu or lower, anything above recommended to get 650-750w, if not more. amd gpus are also fairly power efficient, so u could get more performance for the same power and not need to change psu, plus they are generally slightly cheaper. also bear in mind i5 6500 is not a very strong cpu nowadays and can be a bottleneck for high refresh rate gaming. what resolution are u targeting?

yes.

1080p good enough for me.

 

[86technie]

Dear gurus here,

I've got a 6-year old rig that I bought from Aftershock back in 2016:

Chassis Options and Paint : Glossy White (NZXT S340)
SKYLAKE Desktop Motherboard : ASUS H170M PLUS (No SLi Support)
SKYLAKE DESKTOP CPU : Intel Core i5-6500 3.20GHz Processor
Thermal Compound : IC Diamond Thermal Compound CPU (Free Lifetime
Thermal Compound Re-pasting)
CPU Cooling System (Desktop) : Standard Stock Fan Cooling (CPU)
GRAPHICS CARD (DESKTOP) : ZOTAC NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX1070 8GB
GDDR5 (It died end of last year and now replaced with a 1650 card)
Random Access Memory (RAM) (Desktop) : 8GB DDR4 2133Mhz (8GB x 1)
M.2 SSD BAY (PCIE 2X/4X) (Desktop) : None
Solid State Drive (Desktop) : 250GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD (540 Read, 520
Write speeds)
First Hard Drive (Desktop) : TOSHIBA 1TB 3.5 INCH HDD (Buffer Size 32MB)
Chassis Fans : Standard Chassis Fans
Wireless Lan (Desktop) : ASUS PCE-AC56 Dual-band Wireless-AC1300

I noticed it being a bit unstable at times - sometimes it just gets stuck when booting up, but other than that it's running ok.

I'm wondering if there's any recommendation if I want to beef it up to be able to have better gaming performance?

Thanks!

1) ASUS H170M PLUS (Update BIOS if you haven't update before.)
https://www.asus.com/sg/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/PRIME/H170M-PLUS/HelpDesk_BIOS/
2) Dust and reapply thermal paste for the CPU heatsink.
3) Get two sticks of DDR4, DDR4 2133 RAM is no long sold in shops so get DDR4-2666 and
it will downclock to DDR4 2133.
4) Change the power supply the PSU but depend what graphic card you are intending to get.
Either Seasonic or Corsair as if I am not wrong this PC should be using FSP power supply.
5) Do a clean install of Windows (PS not reset)

Windows sometimes get stuck could be Windows or hard disk issue but if running on SSD than
it should be a Windows issue so try a clean install see how it goes.
Graphic card prices are very high so depend what game you play, GTX1650 isn't a very strong gaming
but for cheap brand new GPU this is the only affordable model to buy which I understand.

 

[CYBob5]

Ships from and sold by Amazon US is not local warranty.
Used set they will indicate.

Local 5 years warranty set now should be around SGD$5xx to $7xx

I beleive WD, Seagate honor international warranty when you register the product so any issue can contact them they should refer you to our local service center. Don't think Sammy does though. Although i recently saw lowest price of S$372 for 980 Pro 2TB sold by Amazon SG.

 

[boreboor]

Thanks for all the prompt and good advice! Very helpful for me to target my upgrades!

 

[NightRaven49]

1080p good enough for me.

if looking for brand new current gen, theres the 6500xt and 3050 for 1080p gaming, but 6500xt is not a good match for older pcie3 systems like urs. all current gen cards are capable of solid 1080p gaming, but anything faster and ur cpu will likely max out before the gpu does, leaving performance on the table and thus paying more for an objectively faster card without basically building a whole new pc may not net u better experience. so if u can snag a 3050 under 450, it would be a decent deal and should perform roughly similarly to ur 1070 (before it died).

 

[gld998]

depends on which model. 3070 and below u could probably get away with a good quality 600w psu or lower, anything above recommended to get 650-750w, if not more. amd gpus are also fairly power efficient, so u could get more performance for the same power and not need to change psu, plus they are generally slightly cheaper. also bear in mind i5 6500 is not a very strong cpu nowadays and can be a bottleneck for high refresh rate gaming. what resolution are u targeting?

yes.

His i5 6500 will bottleneck his 3070,3060 or 6700xt .

 

[boreboor]

His i5 6500 will bottleneck his 3070,3060 or 6700xt .

Means I’ll also have to look at changing my processor?

 

[NightRaven49]

Means I’ll also have to look at changing my processor?

if u are looking to upgrade to more powerful gpus like those mentioned but want to stay at lower resolutions like 1080p. if u get a 1440p or even 4k monitor, cpu is less of a worry.

 

[gld998]

I’ll also have to look at changing my processor

Always build your system around Monitor resolution.
1080p is fine for i5 6500.. just dont buy above your needs
its ok to buy 6600xt or rtx3050 not the higher end cards unless u want upgrade monitor to 2k/4K...
Budget small gtx1650 Super also ok, just need to adjust expectation.
Just Google how tweak.
CPU Bottleneck is very obvious when cpu 80% - 100% but GPU usage is 1%-30%

oh ya, just upgrade your ram to 16gb (2x8gb) and run dou channel. it makes alot of difference in gaming. 2133Mhz 8gb is around 20 to 30sgd in caraohell.

 

[86technie]

Means I’ll also have to look at changing my processor?

If you ask my honest opinion depend how much you want to spend.
If you don't want to spend too much including changing the processor.
Get another RAM to increase performance, for RTX3050 which most are recommending.

I have not seen a RTX3050 under $500, most shops retail near $6XX.
RX6500XT is a terrible card and I will avoid if possible especially for older system without PCIE 4.0.
A stronger graphic card than GTX1650 will be a second hand GTX1070 around $400 or
GTX1060 6GB around $300.

That would be a much better option for you since graphic card are overpriced.
Even the GTX 1660 Ti also retails around $600 so for brand new GPU really have to spend a lot.

 

[boreboor]

Thanks! Learnt a lot of new things today - never really thought about how processor and monitor resolution affect the performance.