Upgrade or overclock 5 year old computer
Posted by Puzzleheaded-Key-747@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 11 comments
My daughter and I built a gaming computer 5 years ago and she is now telling me it’s not very fast and the temps are high. I am contemplating whether to upgrade processor to a 7 or 9 series, more memory, bigger m2 drives and adding an AIO cooler or try overclocking for the first time.
1st upgrade (failed) * I already tried upgrading to 32 GB memory. installed that, but had issues. I have 2 - 8GB memory installed that is ddr4- 3600 and I ordered 2 more that we’re supposed to be 3600, but the new ordered ones are ddr4 - 3200 with different timings and her system will not boot if all 4 are installed.
Her current games that she plays are;
Valorant, Marvel Rivals, Overwatch.
I used pcpartpicker to show my components.
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/wPpvn2
Overall-Tailor8949@reddit
I would run something similar to CrystalDiskInfo to check the status of the two SSD's. As others have said, get all the dust out and re-paste the CPU heat sink, depending on how adventurous you feel a re-past on the GPU might help with temps as well.
The 16GB of memory SHOULD be sufficient, especially since 32GB of DDR4-3600 (2x16BG) is around US $245 right now.
jhaluska@reddit
That's a fine machine for those games. It might be thermal thottling, so investigate that.
I wouldn't upgrade anything without figuring out what is going on first. It might just need new thermal paste on the CPU.
Organic_Ad3558@reddit
I would sell the old RAM and the new RAM that doesn’t match and buy 32 GB matching RAM kit.
Marty5020@reddit
That's a legit pretty fast computer still and should crush just about anything in 1080p. Are you sure something isn't wrong with it? If my daughter told me THAT computer is slow I'd tell her to go outside.
Suitable_Mix8553@reddit
5 years, the case fans might be a bit degraded - pop the side panel off and if temps improve a new hi-flow case or at least new fans might be in order
failmafia66@reddit
Time for a cleaning! Disassemble most major components, give it a cleaning, get all the gunk and dust out the fans and off things, clean off the filters. Wipe off all the thermal paste from CPU and cooler and repaste and reattach
If you're using the stock cooler that came w the CPU replace it with a Thermalright Phantom Spirit for like $30 and it's better than an AIO.
Then reinstall Windows.
Possibly more storage would be nice, upgrading the extra 500GB to a 2TB drive
FrequentWay@reddit
I would look at the counterpoint and see what’s going on. Pull open a resource overlay program and see what’s her cpu, GPU and ram usages are going thru.
Going to 32 GB only makes sense if her regular ram is maxing out. But if GPU is pegging 100% while the CPU is still showing 50% then it’s time for a replacement on the AMD card. Other items could be issues with storage. SSDs performance can drop as they get closer to their end of life.
kmkm2op@reddit
Specwise the system seems perfectly capable even today. If there's an issue it'll likely be misbehaving because of software or driver issues or due to stuff like the thermal paste for either the cpu or gpu drying out and not working as it used to which you can tell by monitoring the temperatures. I'd say monitor the cpu and gpu hotspot under heavy load and if it's fine then reinstall windows as it can get bogged over time especially if your daughter installs too much unnecessary crap.
Head_Exchange_5329@reddit
"Temps are high" is a meaningless statement when there's no data. High compared to what? The specs are good, I'd look into if the system is misbehaving due to driver issues or windows being a stick in the mud, and of course get all the GPU temp measurements as well as for the CPU.
BrotalityREAL@reddit
That computer is fine even still, it's almost identical to my daily gaming machine. If she's got issues with temps I'd recommend giving it a good cleaning and repasting it. Those components could easily chug out 60-120 fps at med-high graphics on most games running at 2k
SignalButterscotch73@reddit
Nothing wrong with that build, it should run those games just fine and is still viable for most recent games.