Can i upgrade this old girl at all?

[Plewsy_G]

I purchased this way back in 2017, i only play Path of Exile on it and just play other games on the Xbox lol.

Its getting old now and louder i guess, just wondering if i can improve its performance just a bit or if i should just bite the bullet and order a new one. Thanks for advice in advance.

Case InWIN 303 MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-7700k (4.2GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® PRIME Z270-P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk NOT REQUIRED
M.2 SSD Drive 256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550
POWER SUPPLY Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK
Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling CoolerMaster Hyper 212X (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

 

[sck451]

What performance do you want to improve? You're limited for upgrades, honestly. You could add storage for certain and maybe you could upgrade the graphics card to something like a Radeon 6600. They're decent choices because you can carry them forwards to a new build when you decide to do it. But the CPU and motherboard are kind of long in the tooth now and I'd be disinclined to spend a lot of money on a platform that's now over six years old.

But if it's getting noisy, that may be because it needs cleaning. If there's dust buildup inside the case, it could make the fans work harder. Or if the CPU has never been repasted, that could also help. It may well not, but it could.

 

[Plewsy_G]

Thanks for the reply, yeh when i said performance i meant maybe make it run a bit less noisy. Its been a while since a gave it a good clean inside, i usually just vacuum the fans from the back.

I do have more storage in it that i added myself, its got another 1tb ssd in it somewhere. I have never repasted the CPU so i will deffo do that.

If i got the card could i just swap them over easily enough?

 

[sck451]

Thanks for the reply, yeh when i said performance i meant maybe make it run a bit less noisy. Its been a while since a gave it a good clean inside, i usually just vacuum the fans from the back.

I do have more storage in it that i added myself, its got another 1tb ssd in it somewhere. I have never repasted the CPU so i will deffo do that.

If i got the card could i just swap them over easily enough?

Sounds like a good clean would be a good start. Clean all the dust filters, maybe clean the fans from the front side in case there's any hair or something caught in them, clean out the CPU cooler fan and tower.

You would need to uninstall the previous card's drivers, remove the old card, install the new one (probably the same cables, though you might have to route some more from the PSU) and install AMD's graphics drivers. Should be pretty easy.

 

[Plewsy_G]

Right i will do all that and see if i can keep the old girl running for a bit longer, thanks very very much, appreciate the time. Let you know how it goes once ive got it all done.

 

[sck451]

Right i will do all that and see if i can keep the old girl running for a bit longer, thanks very very much, appreciate the time. Let you know how it goes once ive got it all done.

No worries. You may be able to get away with a stronger graphics card, like say the 6650 XT, but it's pushing it very fine with your power supply, sadly. If you're going to be upgrading more significantly, I wouldn't spend a lot of money on a graphics upgrade.

 

[Scott]

Get a can of compressed air, safe for PC compressed air (it's not as highly compressed) to blow out the dust from the insides. Do this before taking off the cooler to repaste etc to get the bulk out of the way then give the cooler a good dusting before re-applying it.

 

[Plewsy_G]

Well it was pretty bad, repasted the cpu, cleaned and used compressed air on most of it, put a 6650 in it, running nicely atm, not tried my game on it yet as im waitng for a new ssd. see if i get a pic up.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Well it was pretty bad, repasted the cpu, cleaned and used compressed air on most of it, put a 6650 in it, running nicely atm, not tried my game on it yet as im waitng for a new ssd. see if i get a pic up.

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That's a good clean job and very definitely required!

I'm not judging by the way, I'm awful with my desktops, I tend to leave them a couple of years before doing a clean which is far longer than it should be.

That's looking so much better though, hopefully you see some benefits.

 

[sck451]

Good work on cleaning it up – that's a massive improvement. I'm sure it will make a difference to the noise. Looking forward to hearing the next update!

(As I said above, I'm a touch anxious about that graphics card with that power supply. It may be ok, but it may be marginal for some tasks.)