Recommended Posts

your fine as is for now but upgrading will help with future upgrades and also new computers have better energy saving compared to older ones

But for you id say a i5 3450 ivy bridge 8gigs of ddr3 ram and a 560ti graphics card would just be fine for ya and z77 motherboard

your fine as is for now but upgrading will help with future upgrades and also new computers have better energy saving compared to older ones

But for you id say a i5 3450 ivy bridge 8gigs of ddr3 ram and a 560ti graphics card would just be fine for ya and z77 motherboard

What? :D

He just said he's not doing anything gaming related - so why on earth would he need a single one of the components you just mentioned? That's complete overkill and a waste of money if you're not going to do anything taxing on your machine.

What? :D

He just said he's not doing anything gaming related - so why on earth would he need a single one of the components you just mentioned? That's complete overkill and a waste of money if you're not going to do anything taxing on your machine.

It future proofs a pc for years to come :)

What? :D

He just said he's not doing anything gaming related - so why on earth would he need a single one of the components you just mentioned? That's complete overkill and a waste of money if you're not going to do anything taxing on your machine.

He might happen to start using his machine for Maya, 3DS Max, Photoshop (Large files) or any other Adobe product. It's a good thing to have a powerful machine if you want to try something new, but your current machine is limiting your creativity.

But if you're not going to be going close to those programs, then don't bother with upgrading the whole machine. If it feels slow then think about some minor upgrades like attaching a SSD drive or a hybrid XT- momentus drive, and you'll notice a performance increase in boot-up times and program opening times. Also adding more ram might become useful as it's cheap to-do-so, but 4GB sounds just about right, if you're not doing anything: overkill.

He might happen to start using his machine for Maya, 3DS Max, Photoshop (Large files) or any other Adobe product. It's a good thing to have a powerful machine if you want to try something new, but your current machine is limiting your creativity.

But if you're not going to be going close to those programs, then don't bother with upgrading the whole machine. If it feels slow then think about some minor upgrades like attaching a SSD drive or a hybrid XT- momentus drive, and you'll notice a performance increase in boot-up times and program opening times. Also adding more ram might become useful as it's cheap to-do-so, but 4GB sounds just about right, if you're not doing anything: overkill.

pretty good sugestion on momentus, didnt know it existed! ill be picking that up.

what about the photoshop? i just do 2d photo/video editing for now. you have something in mind for upgrading that?

pretty good sugestion on momentus, didnt know it existed! ill be picking that up.

what about the photoshop? i just do 2d photo/video editing for now. you have something in mind for upgrading that?

Photoshop is mostly CPU/Ram + GPU (if you use CS5+), so if you're working with huge files, upgrading your ram to 8GB might be ideal. If you're video editing I strongly suggest you upgrade your CPU and RAM, I can't suggest anything right now because it depends on your budget, you might have to replace your motherboard.

The Q6600 you have can do every task a modern CPU can do. Just slower.

In my opinion you don't need a new computer, especially if you don't already have a task in mind that you need more performance in.

that sums it up.

and since the OP has at least 4GB of RAM your general system performance should be good and that CPU is not bad especially since it's quad core.

i suspect you will probably be good on that system for a while yet and worst case upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB as i can safely assume 8GB of RAM will buy you at least 3-4 years simply because in terms of RAM i doubt most uses will come close to using 8GB of RAM anytime soon especially for most general use and gaming (i know the OP did not mention gaming at all)

so basically... if your trying to maximize performance gained to $$$ spent i would definitely hold off on upgrading so when you do upgrade you will get a big spike in performance like i just did recently going from a 6 year old setup (CPU was a AMD Athlon X2 3600+ dual core) to a i3-2120 CPU with 8GB of RAM which that CPU AT LEAST tripled my performance and maybe as high as 5times area especially on the x264.exe encoding of SD video from a 720p HD source. but that upgrade only set me back $230 total cost which was a big spike in performance without killing your wallet. so my current setup should buy me 'at least' 2-3 years and probably 4+ especially since i can always upgrade my CPU to a i5 or i7 quad core ivy bridge and in a year or two i could upgrade my graphics card etc.

My advice would be to hold off unless you are hitting a wall on your current machine that can be justified by an upgrade today.

Windows 8 will run well on your current machine so it won't kill your upgrade benefits gained, but it is enough of a reason to wait. One this is for sure, there are some major new advancements in Windows 8 that will be helped by new hardware that is going to be released after it hits RTM. For instance, the really fast boot time feature will most likely be enhanced by newer motherboards arriving with better EFI implementations to make the most of this feature. For this reason I would recommend you wait unless the need is pressing...

Windows 8 will RTM around July and we'll start to see some hardware that may make slight changes to our builds worth doing. Time will tell in this arena...

Personally if I were you, I would avoid upgrading due to these reasons:

Haswell - with new socket

DDR4 - new slots and new RAMS

SATA 3.1 (not major but still improvement)

PCI-Express v3 - more mainstream

So I suggest hold with your this PC which is not quite bad at all for little longer..

If you want to upgrade too much..

Go for stuff which will work with newer setup also like

Newer 80 Plus PSU

Newer Chassis etc

SSD...

Personally if I were you, I would avoid upgrading due to these reasons:

Haswell - with new socket

DDR4 - new slots and new RAMS

SATA 3.1 (not major but still improvement)

PCI-Express v3 - more mainstream

So I suggest hold with your this PC which is not quite bad at all for little longer..

If you want to upgrade too much..

Go for stuff which will work with newer setup also like

Newer 80 Plus PSU

Newer Chassis etc

SSD...

You're joking, right? :D

Ivy Bridge has only just been released. If you continually wait for the new sockets, you'll never upgrade anything.

DDR4 - Speed of RAM makes an absolute minute impact on performance - and same as above.

SATA 3.1 - considering even SSDs can't max out SATA 2 connections - and get nowhere near maxing out the bandwidth on SATA3, there is no improvement in performance with today's tech coming from SATA 3.1

The same can be said for PCI-E 3. Whatever "more mainstream" means.

You're joking, right? :D

Ivy Bridge has only just been released. If you continually wait for the new sockets, you'll never upgrade anything.

DDR4 - Speed of RAM makes an absolute minute impact on performance - and same as above.

SATA 3.1 - considering even SSDs can't max out SATA 2 connections - and get nowhere near maxing out the bandwidth on SATA3, there is no improvement in performance with today's tech coming from SATA 3.1

The same can be said for PCI-E 3. Whatever "more mainstream" means.

What joking??

He needs advice... no one has heap of bank balance...

Current Quad Core is enough for him, I does not want form him that he waste his money without thinking and in future does not have any upgrade path...

Going with Ivy Bridge will put him on hold unlike for Haswell..

Also Haswell is not far, next year in Q2...

DDR4 is not about just speed, it has some more improved stuff...

Run OCZ Vertex 4 or 3 on SATA 2 and come to me with same question.... that on how much speed they are running and how big difference is between SATA2 and SATA3 with same OCZ Vertex 3 or 4.

LOL!! More mainstream is said that let more GPU series come on it.... Current 28 nm wave is not mature (price point of view)... I will prefer second wave to get GPU...

that sums it up.

and since the OP has at least 4GB of RAM your general system performance should be good and that CPU is not bad especially since it's quad core.

i suspect you will probably be good on that system for a while yet and worst case upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB as i can safely assume 8GB of RAM will buy you at least 3-4 years simply because in terms of RAM i doubt most uses will come close to using 8GB of RAM anytime soon especially for most general use and gaming (i know the OP did not mention gaming at all)

so basically... if your trying to maximize performance gained to $$$ spent i would definitely hold off on upgrading so when you do upgrade you will get a big spike in performance like i just did recently going from a 6 year old setup (CPU was a AMD Athlon X2 3600+ dual core) to a i3-2120 CPU with 8GB of RAM which that CPU AT LEAST tripled my performance and maybe as high as 5times area especially on the x264.exe encoding of SD video from a 720p HD source. but that upgrade only set me back $230 total cost which was a big spike in performance without killing your wallet. so my current setup should buy me 'at least' 2-3 years and probably 4+ especially since i can always upgrade my CPU to a i5 or i7 quad core ivy bridge and in a year or two i could upgrade my graphics card etc.

Dead nuts, right on!!

What joking??

He needs advice... no one has heap of bank balance...

Current Quad Core is enough for him, I does not want form him that he waste his money without thinking and in future does not have any upgrade path...

Going with Ivy Bridge will put him on hold unlike for Haswell..

Also Haswell is not far, next year in Q2...

DDR4 is not about just speed, it has some more improved stuff...

Run OCZ Vertex 4 or 3 on SATA 2 and come to me with same question.... that on how much speed they are running and how big difference is between SATA2 and SATA3 with same OCZ Vertex 3 or 4.

LOL!! More mainstream is said that let more GPU series come on it.... Current 28 nm wave is not mature (price point of view)... I will prefer second wave to get GPU...

Try posting that again when you can make it understandable. From what I can pick out of it, none of them are reasons not to upgrade whenever he wants to upgrade.

There's always a new socket coming out around the corner.

Sata 3.1 will have no impact on current technology, nor any technology coming in the next five years.

Try posting that again when you can make it understandable. From what I can pick out of it, none of them are reasons not to upgrade whenever he wants to upgrade.

There's always a new socket coming out around the corner.

Sata 3.1 will have no impact on current technology, nor any technology coming in the next five years.

So you recommend someone spends a lot of money upgrading to a system which will not benefit them at all, as they don't need all that power? Isn't that just a waste of money?

Try posting that again when you can make it understandable. From what I can pick out of it, none of them are reasons not to upgrade whenever he wants to upgrade.

There's always a new socket coming out around the corner.

Sata 3.1 will have no impact on current technology, nor any technology coming in the next five years.

Well Sir I am rephrasing it for you so this can pass into your mind. Well, his question is "do I need new PC", the answer is not always Yes. We should suggest him this also that how can he save money without wasting it.

Now come to current tech, if he upgrades to Ivy Bridge (top of the line 3770K), he can't upgrade it anymore, stuck to it. Only option will be add more RAM, update BIOS but it will be again reinvestment for him next of motherboard and processor and RAM might be next time if one year after he plans to upgrade.

In Haswell, which is more mature 22 nm and brings more instruction sets like AVX2 etc will be worthy choice for upgrade.

DDR bumps not meant for speed improvements only, there are some other improvements in it as well. So he will benefit from them also.

Now come to real deal breaking question from you, you said current SSD can't even saturate SATA2 bandwidth. Now just put OCZ Vertex 3 SSD in SATA2 port and then in SATA3 and see for difference for yourself. It was dump question to be honest.

As far as PCI-E 3.0 mainstream was, I wanted to say that let more GPU comes to it which can utilize it more better, holding off in upgrade will also means waiting for another 28 nm series release from Red and Green Team which will be better on maturity wise and cost wise since current 28 nm waffers are not mature (low yield) and is not cost effective at that time this issue will be resolved and he can get cheaper and better stuff. That's what mainstream point was.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I don’t get why if I bought the game on the last get I needed to pay $40 to upgrade to the new version in the first place and people who love the game and play a lot would have upgraded already so this is just PR and a chance to grab new players who forgot the game long time ago I think
    • The term "use" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that headline. "Use" can mean opening ChatGPT occasionally to ask for the definition of a word or information about a specific topic. If you frame the question around how many people use it as a daily driver in their work or personal lives, that number is a lot smaller. Those are the people who pay for AI. Nearly everyone else is happy to use it for free, but doesn't see enough value in it to pay for it.
    • No support for Windows Hello!
    • I think you meant the "ntfs3" driver, but yes there have been a lot of fixes for it in this release and previous releases, not 100% sure if the issue you mentioned is fixed though. In any case, the new "ntfs" driver in 7.1 doesn't have that issue (at least, no reports of such have come thru), but your kernel needs to explicitly enable support for the new driver first (like how CachyOS kernel has it), and you need to edit your mount points in /etc/fstab to use "ntfs" instead of the other drivers.
    • Epic Games says Unreal Engine 6 will help developers "build content faster" using AI models by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Epic Games is rolling out the latest major update to Unreal Engine 5 today, and at the same time, the company also dropped some information on the next-generation version of the product, Unreal Engine 6. This was already revealed a few weeks ago alongside the new Rocket League upgrade reveal. The company says it is combining the features of Unreal Engine and Unreal Editor for Fortnite to create this new version of its popular media creation tool. On top of creating entire games, the new engine will also focus on letting developers operate large-scale live service titles more easily, whether by shipping content into their own ecosystems or into Fortnite. The use of large language models is also mentioned here, with Epic saying it will be a core part of the engine. "We see LLMs, generative AI models, and tools like Claude and Codex playing a central role in helping you build content faster while maintaining the creative control you need," adds the company. Here is the rundown of what's new about version 6 of Unreal Engine: With all these changes to the programming model, portability upgrades, and generative AI integration, Epic says the new version of the engine will "change a lot about how games are made." The company aims to ship Unreal Engine 6 into early access in late 2027, with a full release planned for 12-18 months later. Epic Games also dropped a lengthy blog post about the new Unreal Engine 5.8 update for game developers over here. The release is focused on delivering better performance, customization, and streamlined workflows for development teams. This will be the final major update for this version of the engine before Epic switches to focus fully on Unreal Engine 6's early access launch.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      Vincian earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      Jocimo earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      suprememobiles48 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Prasann earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      502
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      162
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      86
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      67
    5. 5
      neufuse
      65
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!