Computer is outdated, what should I upgrade

gomcse2002 wrote: ↑ I am not a gamer but surf online all the time. My current PC config is as follows, should I upgrade some hardware to make my machine faster ?

HDD: Samsung 840 EVO 256 GB SSD
CPU : i7 920 @ 2.67 Ghz
RAM: 12Gb RAM (PC3010600)
OS: WIndows 7 64 bits SP1
Motherboard: P6T Deluxe Rev 1.xx

Cheers,

Vincent

you feel it is slow? shouldn't be slow for that system

It is not worth upgrading that machine. There really isn't anything to upgrade. You have a decent amount of RAM and you already have an SSD.

If it is not sufficient for you needs, it is time to upgrade the motherboard and CPU

Thanks for your prompt reply. But the catch is if I go to get a new MB and CPU, I need to get DDR4 ram as well. Also the latest Intel CPU will not support Windows 7.

Gee wrote: ↑ It is not worth upgrading that machine. There really isn't anything to upgrade. You have a decent amount of RAM and you already have an SSD.

If it is not sufficient for you needs, it is time to upgrade the motherboard and CPU

No, you shouldnt upgrade anything.

gomcse2002 wrote: ↑ Thanks for your prompt reply. But the catch is if I go to get a new MB and CPU, I need to get DDR4 ram as well. Also the latest Intel CPU will not support Windows 7.

Sounds like you answered your own question: upgrade nothing

gomcse2002 wrote: ↑ Thanks for your prompt reply. But the catch is if I go to get a new MB and CPU, I need to get DDR4 ram as well. Also the latest Intel CPU will not support Windows 7.

And ddr4 ram prices are just ridiculous at the moment

Are you in the Vancouver area? If so I have a motherboard, RAM, and CPU combo that will double your processing speed.

gomcse2002 wrote: ↑ Thanks for your prompt reply. But the catch is if I go to get a new MB and CPU, I need to get DDR4 ram as well. Also the latest Intel CPU will not support Windows 7.

What problem are you having with your current setup?

You can find a used Haswell or Ivy Bridge for cheap and it will use DDR3

gomcse2002 wrote: ↑ Thanks for your prompt reply. But the catch is if I go to get a new MB and CPU, I need to get DDR4 ram as well. Also the latest Intel CPU will not support Windows 7.

Its not that the latest Intel CPU will not support Windows 7, all they did was (Microsoft) prevent you from downloading important Windows updates, this is done via a blocked registry check. If you buy gen 7 or gen 8 Intel (Kabylake/Coffelake) thats where they stopped. But a lot of motherboard manufacturers still offer driver support for Windows 7 on the Z270 and Z370 chipsets. Just pick a good brand, like for example Gigabyte still offers W7 driver support on their newer boards. Check the website manufacture before you buy a board.

Then if you want to return Windows 7 updates you can download this little script this user wrote to bypass that Microsoft crap and Windows 7 goes back to normally searching and downloading updates since it's supported until 2020.

Article here:
Custom patch bypasses update block for Windows 7, 8.1 PCs with newest-generation processors
https://www.neowin.net/news/custom-patc ... processors

Patch here:
https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc

Disables the "Unsupported Hardware" message in Windows Update, and allows you to continue installing updates on Windows 7 and 8.1 systems with Intel Kaby Lake, AMD Ryzen, or other unsupported processors.

I have a Gigabyte AOURS Gaming 5 Z370 Motherboard with an i7-8700 (latest from Intel) Coffee lake and I dual-boot W10/W7 because I have some issues with some software. I used the patch and it downloads Windows 7 updates no problem. I checked I have the latest updates, and I'm even Meltdown/Spectre protected on the W7 side, and everything works (all my USB's, even the USB 3.1 type-C port) because Gigabyte offers W7 drivers, so I'm fine here. No yellow exclamations in device manager. Everything works, no BSOD's nothing. My W7 works fine.

Or if you don't want to go through all that, just get 6th gen Intel (Skylake) i7-6700 or i7-6700k and a Z170/Z270 motherboard and install Windows 7 normally without doing any tricks. It's the last CPU to officially support Windows 7. I recently upgraded my Skylake i5-6600k to Coffelake i7-8700 and had Windows 7 running on it as well no problem.

2 options you have, or do nothing like everyone else said and leave your system as is. Up to you. But those are your only options if you want to go to Windows 7, otherwise no point in upgrading anything if you don't game. Not worth it. Only thing is a graphics card if you experience stuttering while watching movies, etc.

I would have upgraded the OS on that one to Windows 10 (when it was free to do so) and left everything else as is.

BTW, I have said to people that if they want a basic new general office use desktop in 2018, a good performance target for a purchase at the lower mid end is a PassMark score of ballpark 5000. i7-920 gets 4935.

gomcse2002 wrote: ↑ I am not a gamer but surf online all the time. My current PC config is as follows, should I upgrade some hardware to make my machine faster ?

HDD: Samsung 840 EVO 256 GB SSD
CPU : i7 920 @ 2.67 Ghz
RAM: 12Gb RAM (PC3010600)
OS: WIndows 7 64 bits SP1
Motherboard: P6T Deluxe Rev 1.xx

Cheers,

Vincent

Your PC has probably slowed down over time and is due for a windows reinstall. Look up how to reinstall Win 7. As far as upgrading, for "surfing the web" your machine is fine, and probably just needs some tidying up, make sure the SSD's is on a SATA controller who's setting is on AHCI mode in bios, re install windows, and you should be fine. EDIT: just realized you are on a P6T which only has SATA 3Gb/s so you may not even have AHCI mode available. Your SSD is crippled for speed on that board to about 1/2 of its max performance, just FYI.

Your CPU and RAM are more than enough for web use of any kind and should be for years to come. If you wanted to do some serious gaming, or serious work, yes, upgade. Otherwise, nah.

BTW if your bios supports it and you have a decent cooler you can squeeze 4-4.2Ghz out of those 900 series i7's for a nice speed boost. overclockers.com has some guides in the Intel CPU stickies in the CPU section of the forums. It's a good guide. Make sure you read the original i7 (bloomfield/nehalem) guide.

Another reason your PC may be slowing down is heat. If it is caked with dust inside that's bad. You need some compressed air (in a can, from staples, best buy ,etc) and blow out the heatsinks etc. Watch a youtube video on how to do this.

It's also possible that if really crappy thermal paste was used, it has dried out, which could also cause heat issues.

what's special about win 7 that people don't want to upgrade to 10?
If there are programs that have no Win10 support, I'd understand if you stay with Win 7. I never looked back after win 10, same thing I never looked back to XP after upgraded to 7. Except when I go to work. All work computers are windows 7. And for an "office" or "surfing" computer, I've always thought windows 10 is a much better one.

EugW wrote: ↑ I would have upgraded the OS on that one to Windows 10 (when it was free to do so) and left everything else as is.

BTW, I have said to people that if they want a basic new general office use desktop in 2018, a good performance target for a purchase at the lower mid end is a PassMark score of ballpark 5000. i7-920 gets 4935.

Using a 12 year old computer as general office use!!

Not for gaming but has latest browsers, KIS, Office 2013 Pro

Works fine and doubt passmark anywhere near 1000!!

I'll upgrade one day

Your machine is plenty enough for web browsing. I just sold my old laptop (AMD Turion cpu) to a person who only uses it for web browsing and youtube and he is very satisfied. If you have to upgrade for the sake of upgrading, go for Haswell, you can reuse your DDR3 and they are faster than your present setup.

@ Op: You can turn that PC into an Ivy Bridge (3rd gen/1st CPU to have 3-D transistors for $100 CAD. Buy an H61 (LGA socket 1155) mobo new from eBay for $68. Add the G1610T Celeron CPU used for $26. $8 for LGA 1155 CPU fan all on eBay. You should be able to reuse the RAM, PC case, PSU, hard drive...

You then have a PC many times more powerful than your current rig.

georvu wrote: ↑ Using a 12 year old computer as general office use!!

Not for gaming but has latest browsers, KIS, Office 2013 Pro

Works fine and doubt passmark anywhere near 1000!!

I'll upgrade one day

A 12 year old computer, if it was a fast computer 12 years ago, would still be viable today. However, even relatively fast computers from back then are not surprisingly showing their age these days even just for surfing. Furthermore, some of the chips of that era are 32-bit only. However, if we select for example, the 64-bit Core 2 Extreme X6800 dual-core from 2006, that is a chip that was quite fast for its time, at 2.9 GHz. The Core 2 Extreme X6800 gets 1880 in PassMark. That's usable, and is fine for low impact MS Office and email, but can get quite bogged down with multimedia heavy websites.

I have a 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo still in active use that scores in the 1525 range, and it slows down significantly on some websites. I had a triple-core 2.9 GHz Athlon II X3 435 which scores around 2470 and it did better than my Core 2 Duo, and I found that it was definitely usable as a basic office computer, but I just wanted more out of it since it was also somewhat sluggish on some websites. I upgraded it to a hex-core 2.8 GHz Phenom II 1055T which scores about 4980 in PassMark, and it feels much more responsive when surfing on complex websites. (The machine is otherwise identical, as the Athlon to Phenom upgrade was just a drop-in replacement.)

That's why I say if you're buying a new desktop you should probably aim for 5000+ even if just for office use if you plan on keeping it a while. I would say you can go lower than that for a laptop, but that's because laptops have more thermal constraints. My target is 3500+ for a laptop for office use.

These numbers are pretty rough, and sometimes don't compare all that well across multiple generations of CPUs, but I've nonetheless found them useful as a ballpark gauge.

A cheaper way is to overclock that cpu - it's a Sandybridge or something. Those overclock like crazy. Get a better heatsink that fits the case and overclock it to 3.2 ghz or 4ghz. I wouldn't put any more money into this system as it is dated. A heatsink for oc would be the most I would do. Might be fun too.

scan for spyware or reinstall the OS. your system shouldn't be slow for just surfing.

throw in say a sub 100 buck 1030 video card will drop cpu usage for video playback on those web pages if multi tasking and browsing.