upgrade options?

[clippo]

Hi Folks

I'm considering upgrading my PC and after some advice

I've currently got a Chillblast Fusion Emperor with following stats:

i5 6500 3.6GHz
16GB DDR4 RAM
Zotac GTX970 4GB
250GB SSD
1TB HDD
ASUS H110M-A motherboard
Aerocool 500W 80+ Power Supply

I use it for image editing, video work, games and web research mainly. I've also got a Rift CV1 that I use to play stuff like Project Cars, Elite Dangerous etc. It's pretty good but clearly getting a bit long in the tooth... also one of the USB ports on the front broke recently and I've had to disconnect all 3... which means I can't play my games for the time being (not enough USB 3.0 sockets particularly). I've disconnected this bank of sockets but I'm not sure how to replace them as they seem inaccessible.

Also I'm finding that I'm constantly out of space and it seems like everything is installed on my SSD drive. I've tried to get the Oculus stuff onto the HDD but it doesn't seem to want to work. I've got quite a few Adobe programs on the machine too.

Other than that it's fine... and I'm wondering, is it worth me trying to repair, upgrade and keep this machine, or repair it and sell it and buy something new.

I'm really wanting to start playing MS Flight Simulator and improve performance of games already mentioned... so I'm thinking more drive space and a better graphics card for a start. I realise these may be hard to acquire at the moment though? Also, would I need to upgrade my CPU, power supply etc to see any real gains? I'm pretty sure that this makes it pretty close in expense to just buying a new machine.

Any ideas how much mine may be worth once repaired? (ballpark even?).

I'm fully intending to upgrade my VR headset too... maybe to a Reverb G2.

 

[tommills]

My personal choice in your situation and in the current pc market conditions I would hold onto your system for now. I would just focus on getting a better gpu and another ssd or hdd if you need storage. Intel and amd will have big changes next year and the roll out of ddr5 ram is coming.

If you do sell your parts:

I5 6500 is worth £50-£60
16GB DDR4 RAM you keep
Zotac GTX970 4GB £80-100
250GB SSD you would keep
1TB HDD keep
ASUS H110M-A motherboard £20-£30
Aerocool 500W 80+ Power Supply £20

Total price for selling you would expect around £200

I would try and get new gpu and sell the gtx 970 for £80-100. Save some cash for next year and get a new system

 

[EsaT]

No upgrade can make that anything remotely modern.
And that PSU was low end cheapo in he first place and is now used up cheapo.

 

[Tetras]

From what you described with the USB ports, it sounds like it's actually the case that's broken, not the motherboard?

You could buy a new case, PSU and SSD and something like a 3060 Ti (if you can find one for a reasonable price) and then if you're not happy with performance replace the CPU and motherboard, having already had the experience of messing around with the hardware (if you haven't already done so).

 

[turbot1984]

Hi Folks

I'm considering upgrading my PC and after some advice

I've currently got a Chillblast Fusion Emperor with following stats:

i5 6500 3.6GHz
16GB DDR4 RAM
Zotac GTX970 4GB
250GB SSD
1TB HDD
ASUS H110M-A motherboard
Aerocool 500W 80+ Power Supply

I use it for image editing, video work, games and web research mainly. I've also got a Rift CV1 that I use to play stuff like Project Cars, Elite Dangerous etc. It's pretty good but clearly getting a bit long in the tooth... also one of the USB ports on the front broke recently and I've had to disconnect all 3... which means I can't play my games for the time being (not enough USB 3.0 sockets particularly). I've disconnected this bank of sockets but I'm not sure how to replace them as they seem inaccessible.

Also I'm finding that I'm constantly out of space and it seems like everything is installed on my SSD drive. I've tried to get the Oculus stuff onto the HDD but it doesn't seem to want to work. I've got quite a few Adobe programs on the machine too.

Other than that it's fine... and I'm wondering, is it worth me trying to repair, upgrade and keep this machine, or repair it and sell it and buy something new.

I'm really wanting to start playing MS Flight Simulator and improve performance of games already mentioned... so I'm thinking more drive space and a better graphics card for a start. I realise these may be hard to acquire at the moment though? Also, would I need to upgrade my CPU, power supply etc to see any real gains? I'm pretty sure that this makes it pretty close in expense to just buying a new machine.

Any ideas how much mine may be worth once repaired? (ballpark even?).

I'm fully intending to upgrade my VR headset too... maybe to a Reverb G2.

Tough call for MS Flight Sim ... a secondhand i7 7700k and 8GB 1070/80 would help, but ideally 6/8 core cpu which means binning your cpu/mobo.

 

[dfour]

This is what I would consider upgrading yours to (without knowing how much you have to spend obviously)

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x BitFenix Nova Mesh TG SE A-RGB Midi-Tower, Tempered Glass - Black= £52.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B560 Torpedo (Socket LGA 1200) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £129.95
• 1 x Intel Core i5-11400F 2.60GHz (Rocket Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail= £149.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM750 750W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020195-UK)= £99.95
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Dual LHR 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £599.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey= £124.99

Total: £1,260.15 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​

32 gig of ram as you said you do video editing and want to play MS flight sim.
I went intel to save money vs AMD as the i5 11400 is definatly the value champ at the moment. If you have more money it would be:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x BitFenix Nova Mesh TG SE A-RGB Midi-Tower, Tempered Glass - Black= £52.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM750 750W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020195-UK)= £99.95
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Dual LHR 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £599.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £119.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £382.99
• 1 x Patriot Viper Steel 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS432G360C8K)= £149.99
• 1 x Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm= £29.99

Total: £1,538.18 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​

 

[clippo]

thanks dfour - appreciate the time you spent putting those together! Will have a good look at that now.

 

[KeanuIsLife]

I'm impressed you can play those games in vr with a 970! That above system seems like a good upgrade for a reasonable price (in this market) and would be a huge upgrade for vr! I would also recommend a Quest 2 as an upgrade to the cv1, it's a big upgrade worth doing.