Upgrade or replace desktop?

[Liaa Nova]

Hi all,

I've recently noticed my 6 year old desktop computer seems to be having some minor issues: my avatar is often jagged around the edges, i'm freezing/crashing more etc. On top of that, i've just got interested in Photography, and want to be able to use Ultra graphics and all of the right settings, without freezing up!

I guess I was hoping that some of you may have some advice about whether it'd be better to just replace the pc, or to maybe upgrade the graphics card/PSU/RAM please?

So, I don't know if this is needed, but this is how my graphics look now, so as you can see, there's a lot more I could be doing!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156302514@N08/40719650551/in/photostream/

As, I say, my pc is 6 years old. It has the following:

CPU: AMD FX(tm)-4100 Quad-Core Processor             (3616.45 MHz)
Memory: 4095 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit (Build 16299)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCIe/SSE2

4 GB? of RAM

(I *think* the Motherboard might be: Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2, if it matters? I don't know the PSU but could have a look later on)

I use High graphics usually, with 600 draw distance (no idea what it should be), but as i'm really wanting to do more and to learn more with the photography, I want to be able to use all I can! (Not 'pro' just for my fun)

If anyone could let me know if I should just replace the entire thing, or if it would make more sense to upgrade parts, i'd be grateful!

Sorry this is soooo long, I do have communication difficulties and ramble a lot . . I hope it also makes some sense to someone!

Oh and I mostly would just want to either voice on Skype while hanging out in sl, OR to take photos in sl and maybe just type on Skype; if not chatting on voice I like to have You Tube on, and maybe do photos at the same time. I just login on one viewer, so that wouldn't be an issue, but mostly worry that stores would try to sell me what I don't even need!

If you read this far, thanks, and for any helpful replies!

Edited March 15, 2018 by Liana Wildmist

[angeoco]

The processor sounds fine, but 4GB of memory is really small for a 64-bit machine. Boosting that to 8 or 16 GB would make SL more stable and faster. The graphics card is quite old; if you can find at least a GTX960 with lots of memory I'm sure it would make a big difference. If you upgrade the graphics card you will most likely draw more power, so check what power rating is recommended by the card's manufacturer and you may need to replace the PSU; a 500W unit would probably be enough.

[Lillith Hapmouche]

First, turn down that draw distance to something reasonable like 120m or less. 600m is about 3 Sims in size ... Way too much for your limited memory. 

If you can avoid it, stay away from graphic card purchases for as long as you can. The prices have simply been insane lately and will remain that way for unforeseen time.

[Liaa Nova]

5 hours ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

First, turn down that draw distance to something reasonable like 120m or less. 600m is about 3 Sims in size ... Way too much for your limited memory. 

If you can avoid it, stay away from graphic card purchases for as long as you can. The prices have simply been insane lately and will remain that way for unforeseen time.

Thanks! Yes, 3 sims of camming is too much even for me, I never knew how it should be set, so I have now turned it down x

[Liaa Nova]

The PSU is currently: Xigmatek 500w

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Meh. That's low end at best and more likely crapware.

I would not trust it with newer hardware which - while they hardly draw more power - have different and quickly switching power states. Old and low quality power supplies are not likely to cope with such.

Anyway, how's the performance with lowered draw distance?

[Liaa Nova]

1 hour ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

Meh. That's low end at best and more likely crapware.

I would not trust it with newer hardware which - while they hardly draw more power - have different and quickly switching power states. Old and low quality power supplies are not likely to cope with such.

Anyway, how's the performance with lowered draw distance?

I just logged in, so am still making myself decent, but will let you know! Hopefully even doing that helps a bit. So, better maybe to just replace it? I think 6 years is long enough without a new pc! The trouble is, I then have to work out what I want/need, but at least anything will be better than this & this does ok!

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Wait another month till April, when we'll see new and very nicely looking CPUs ... well, the CPUs themselves aren't really looking anything different than others, but their stats are promising... 

Fully built machine in one piece or willing to do the assembly on your own / done by a local resource? 
If it's the latter, you could definitely start looking for a SSD as new main drive, which will give the whole system a boost, and scout the second hand market for matching RAM. Plus a new powersupply.

[Liaa Nova]

1 hour ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

Wait another month till April, when we'll see new and very nicely looking CPUs ... well, the CPUs themselves aren't really looking anything different than others, but their stats are promising... 

Fully built machine in one piece or willing to do the assembly on your own / done by a local resource? 
If it's the latter, you could definitely start looking for a SSD as new main drive, which will give the whole system a boost, and scout the second hand market for matching RAM. Plus a new powersupply.

The graphics is making some difference, tho I didn't yet go anywhere busy, but it's showed me 600 was a little overkill lol

I usually use a place where you pick what you want in it from their lists, and they build it, i'd definitely not be up for building it myself, only the shopping part & playing with it part!

I don't have an SSD drive on this, that I know of, and have barely touched the storage as I save nothing at all, but is that different to the HD? I know a 1TB hard drive would never ever get even close to filled with me lol this has over half left all these years later (I don't need anything too err idk 'good', just to login & do photos, so anything that helps with that i'd get, but if to run lots of windows etc no)

I will definitely be looking at the end of April, so will have to look out for that! Thanks for all the help it's appreciated

[cykarushb]

You could go either way depending on how much money you want to spend and what else you do.

Upgrading to an FX 8350, adding another 4gb of ram and replacing the 550ti with a newer card like a 1050ti or actually a GTX 760 goes for about the same price, would be a really nice upgrade for that system and it would only cost you maybe 120$ for a brand new 8350 (you might need the beefier stock cooler), 4gb of DDR3 is maybe 20 bucks (make sure to match speeds, 1333/1600mhz), and a 760 would be about 120$ on ebay used/sometimes new old stock, or a 1050ti being 140-160$. Of course there are a lot of other options that pair well with a FX 8350 out there such as a 750ti, 770, 780 or 950/960 at various price points.

So lets say 300$ to upgrade if you potentially include something like an SSD or maybe need a PSU upgrade (you shouldnt, the 550ti already requires a 6 pin which will be needed to power a 760 but a 1050ti is lower wattage).

Moving to an entire new platform, such as AM4 you can still save your case/psu/drives or whatever. You'll need the new CPU, motherboard and DDR4 memory.

Id suggest a Ryzen 3 1200 or 2200g which are both a bit over 100$ on average. Any AM4 motherboard will do, the cheapest A320 boards are 40-50$ while some nice mid tier B350 boards are about 60-70$. A 2200g is an APU and will be beneficial if you dont want to use dedicated graphics for a while, the integrated Vega 8 graphics will perform a bit over your 550ti but doing this gives you more time to save up money for a nicer video card. I wouldnt buy a 10 series card right now because of inflated GPU prices, but something like ar GTX 970/980 can be found for cheap used and perform drastically better than the other above mentioned options.

8gb of DDR4 will however be 60-80$ because DDR4 is stupidly expensive.

So youre looking at a 300$ upgrade, and that will be a dead end for the Am3+ platform, or about 300$ to move to a new platform WITHOUT a gpu, adding in a 760 or higher end GPU will add another 120$+ to that. The benefit of the new platform is that you have another stretch to upgrade in the future, on AM4 you could go from the relatively entry level R3 1200 or 2200g to an R5 1600x, or even R7 1800x if you wanted. Upgrade the ram to 16gb, replace a 760 with a 1080ti. Do that another stretch of years from now when those parts are cheap past gen components.