The PC hardware thread (24 Viewers)

[Marty]

So I'm pondering about upgrading my old work horse which has quite a few years on its neck:

* Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3Ghz (Overclocked to 3.6Ghz)
* 2 GB RAM
* Graphics card ATI Radeon HD 2400
* Motherboard Gigabyte G33M-DS2R
* 750 GB SATA-2

It's not that slow, it runs 1080p fine and everything. But it's a bit slow for the day to day work I do. I don't do gaming on PC. My budget is pretty limited too.

I'm thinking of perhaps upgrading to a Intel Z77 mobo with an Intel Core i5-3570K. New RAM too obviously. Probably won't bother with GPU.

What are you guys using? Any recommendations?

 

Buy on AliExpress.com

[Raz]

I know you said no gaming, but still, GPU is the most single important thing on the PC

 

[Marty]

Here we go

 

[Raz]

Here we go

Nah, I was joking. Though it's nice to have it for the days when you are hungover and really have no intention of doing anything that day

 

[Marty]

Nah, I was joking. Though it's nice to have it for the days when you are hungover and really have no intention of doing anything that day

Yeah I guess. But then I usually just turn on the Xbox. I've just never been a big PC gamer. Probably because I've always had shitty graphic cards

 

[Marty]

Where are all the geeks helping me out?

*looks at Ali

 

[Raz]

Yeah I guess. But then I usually just turn on the Xbox. I've just never been a big PC gamer. Probably because I've always had shitty graphic cards

Hehe, me too, until las week, brought myself Radeon HD 7950, don't think of any games a played since that used it fully, but just having it is enough for my happiness

 

[Marty]

Hehe, me too, until las week, brought myself Radeon HD 7950, don't think of any games a played since that used it fully, but just having it is enough for my happiness

Nice Isn't that noisy as hell though?

 

[enzo]

Well, I would definitely upgrade the memory to 8 GB. You will feel the difference when multitasking and it's no huge investment. Maybe you could throw in a SSD as a system disk.

 

[CaesarCod]

SSD's are great but still quite expensive aren't they? (I haven't looked much at PC hardware since I got my mac a few years ago...)

8GB is ram is good though and RAM is generally cheap.

 

[Martin]

I hate hardware. No hardware can run my flawless software as well as it should.

 

[Raz]

Nice Isn't that noisy as hell though?

I have the gygabyte wf3 version. It's a stock overcloacked version with three super fans So far nothing out of the ordinary and on the reviews in the internet it's on of the quiter ones too.

 

[Marty]

Well, I would definitely upgrade the memory to 8 GB. You will feel the difference when multitasking and it's no huge investment. Maybe you could throw in a SSD as a system disk.

Yeah will go for 8GB RAM, pretty cheap. Love the performance of SSD, got one for my laptop about a month ago. But they're pretty damn expensive.

Could of course get a small SSD for the OS and programs and store the rest on the SATA.

 

[Raz]

But does the SSD actualy make that big of a difference considering the price to storage ratio? It makes your windows load faster, but in a day to day experience is it that big of a difference?

 

[Marty]

But does the SSD actualy make that big of a difference considering the price to storage ratio? It makes your windows load faster, but in a day to day experience is it that big of a difference?

Huge difference IMO. Best upgrade I've done in years. Everything's faster due to the quick access time and read/write performance.

The only issue as you say is the price. I moved out my old 250 gb harddrive to an external USB and got a Samsung 120 GB SSD for about 100€.

 

[enzo]

SSD's are great but still quite expensive aren't they? (I haven't looked much at PC hardware since I got my mac a few years ago...)

8GB is ram is good though and RAM is generally cheap.

SSDs indeed are still expensive. For desktop systems you can really only afford them as a system disk and store the data one a separate hard disk. However, SSDs bring a performance boost to your notebook even when scaled to a lower frequency. They definitely can extend the lifespan and usability of an older laptop.

 

[Marty]

SSDs indeed are still expensive. For desktop systems you can really only afford them as a system disk and store the data one a separate hard disk. However, SSDs bring a performance boost to your notebook even when scaled to a lower frequency. They definitely can extend the lifespan and usability of an older laptop.

Yeah was about to throw out my 3 year old laptop. Feels like a completely new machine with the SSD

SSD for OS and SATA for other data is the way to go I think.

 

[enzo]

Yeah was about to throw out my 3 year old laptop. Feels like a completely new machine with the SSD

SSD for OS and SATA for other data is the way to go I think.

I have that combo in my windows box. Works like a charme. Consider, that the SSD will still be worth a few bucks, when you finally upgrade/replace your system.

 

[Wings]

I'm thinking of perhaps upgrading to a Intel Z77 mobo with an Intel Core i5-3570K. New RAM too obviously. Probably won't bother with GPU.

What are you guys using? Any recommendations?

You can't go wrong with Asus Sabertooth Z77 motherboard unless you need Thunderbolt, dual NIC's or WLAN.

 

[Marty]

You can't go wrong with Asus Sabertooth Z77 unless you need Thunderbolt, dual NIC's or WLAN.

Shiiiiit that was one expensive mobo. Was thinking max 1000 SEK

i5-3570K a good CPU though, eh?