Upgrading my all purpose desktop.

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manny1222

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Mar 11, 2012
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I have an all purpose pc that I'd like update.
Current specs - i3 2100 || Biostar H61 mobo || 2x4gb 1333 || HR02 Macho || CX430 || HD6450 || 2 X WD Green 1Tb in Raid1|| HAF 912.
The desktop has been used for usual Internet stuff, with my kids playing kids webpage based games (kizi.com I think). I just found out that my son (11) has a steam account (plays at his mom's). Besides I'm going to be using this PC for more if I'm hired into the job I'm trying for (citric client, excel, PowerPoint, project etc). This PC is also going to close enough to my gaming pc that I could probably use it as a streaming pc to allow better performance on my gaming Rig (used mainly for iracing) and also use it to work on videos for YouTube.

My plan was to get an i5 2400 or 2500 (non K), a gtx 660ti and a 250gb ssd for boot (all used). The system is currently hooked up to a 720p TV, though i plan to use two 1920x1200 monitors (from my gaming pc) on it once i start using it for work. After watching some YouTube videos, I became interested in the Xeon E5-2670 which is going used for about the same price. It also has about the same clock speed with twice the number of cores plus hyperthreading. The only caveat is that the X79 motherboards are pricey and hard to find.

What do you guys suggest? I wouldn't mind spending additional for the motherboard if it's justified/justifiable. I'm looking to make some purchases (initial, maybe). Should I "Xeon" my rig and finish my upgrade in a bit (over time on next paycheck), or stick with Sandy?
 
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As someone struggling to find an X79 board for a similar reason, I would probably just stick with getting an i5, or maybe even look for a i7-2600 (if they are supported in that board?). You will struggle to find a good used X79 board for less than $225, I know I am.
 
Yeah, stick with the mainstream platform. Sandy Bridge-E sucked compared to the previous x58 platform, and the cheap 6-core of Ivy Bridge-E came too late to sell many motherboards. IT really wasn't as popular as Haswell-E has been :D

I'm still using my Core i5 2500k for playing today's games! It's only 20% behind a Core i6 6600k in games, which is still plenty capable. A Core i5 upgrade would give you a viable Steam gaming platform for the next few years.
 
Thanks guys.
I'm giving up on finding an X79 motherboard for a reasonable price. I'm going to stick with Sandy Bridge. I do like britjh22's idea of the i7-2600. I don't necessarily need the overclocking, but I wouldn't mind the additional threads.
I decided to first of all switch to an SSD to speed things up. I picked up a 240gb Sandisk SSD Plus to move windows 10 into it. In the process I realized one of my Raid1 disks was dead (who knows for how long). Oh well.
My next order of business is a GPU. Trying to decided between a gtx 660ti and a gtx 670, depending on what deal I find on a used one. I will upgrade my CPU last (next paycheck). I just realized my dual core i3-2100 has hyperthreading, so there's no rush for now. This also makes the 2400 or 2500 less of an upgrade, and the 2600 more the direction I should go.
 
An i5 2400 or 2500 is a big upgrade for an i3 2100. Most applications and games don't utilize hyper threading that well anyway. So the 2 extra physical cores is a big, big addition. However, I still think you should find an i7 to upgrade to.

What kind of GPU budget do you have? I wouldn't go that far back on a used GPU. Get a 7xx or 9xx series GPU.
 
Skillz said:
An i5 2400 or 2500 is a big upgrade for an i3 2100. Most applications and games don't utilize hyper threading that well anyway. So the 2 extra physical cores is a big, big addition. However, I still think you should find an i7 to upgrade to.

What kind of GPU budget do you have? I wouldn't go that far back on a used GPU. Get a 7xx or 9xx series GPU.
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I already bought a GTX 670 FTW. Because of the mobo and cpu, I went with a powerful gpu from that generation. I mean, the mobo only has PCIe 2.0.

Thanks for the word on the i7. I was looking for the validation.
 
PCIe 2.0 isn't a problem, limitation or bottleneck with newer GPUs for future references. Just so you know. I run a 980 Ti on probably the same motherboard with a 2400. No issues or bottle necks. Although it originally had a Pentium G860 in it and that was indeed a limitation for a vanilla GTX 980. Upgraded it to a 2400 and all was well. Recently upgraded to the 980 Ti Hybrid for noise purposes + 4K resolution and it's running like a champ.

With that being said. If you can't find an i7 within' your budget a 2400, 2500 or 2500k is still a worthy upgrade for you.
 
Yeah, PCIE 2.0 isn't going to be a meaningful bottleneck on that system. I don't know what you are or were trying to spend on a GPU, but I just recently picked up a 2GB GTX 760 for ~$105. I feel like 7xx and 9xx series for Nvidia and 7000 series and more recent are the ways to go for cheap but good GPUs, prior to that and you start to lose a lot of VRAM, even on the higher end.
 
I got the evga gtx 670 ftw for $110 used on the forum. It's got 2gb of ram which should hopefully be enough and is about how much memory you would get with the 960 and same as the 760 you got.
I'm going to start looking for a cpu next time I get paid.
Thanks
 
manny1222 said:
I got the evga gtx 670 ftw for $110 used on the forum. It's got 2gb of ram which should hopefully be enough and is about how much memory you would get with the 960 and same as the 760 you got.
I'm going to start looking for a cpu next time I get paid.
Thanks
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Are you planning on upgrading the PSU as well? The CX430 is a budget PSU and PSUs in general do degrade in output capability over time. Even if the CX430 was brand new, that GTX 670 would still overly stress it if not push it to its upper limits.
 
Dangman said:
Are you planning on upgrading the PSU as well? The CX430 is a budget PSU and PSUs in general do degrade in output capability over time. Even if the CX430 was brand new, that GTX 670 would still overly stress it if not push it to its upper limits.
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Sorry I never say this question. I ended up using a CX700M I had laying around as a spare for my gaming rig.
 
manny1222 said:
Sorry I never say this question. I ended up using a CX700M I had laying around as a spare for my gaming rig.
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Assuming that's a typo (there's no such thing as a CX700M), your CX750M isn't that great either as shown in the HardOCP review of it (the CX750 and CX750M are the same PSU internal wise):
Corsair CX750 - Corsair CX750 750W Power Supply Review

Best case scenario, your CX750 is a 550W PSU under real world conditions.
 
Wouldn't 550w be enough for the gtx 670 and a non-K i7-2600? Other than that, there's an ssd, an hdd, an optical drive, and 4 case fans (2x 200mm, 1x 120mm, and 1x 140mm with cpu cooler).
 
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