Old Gaming Rig, Upgrade or Retire?

John0101

Hi
Having recently gotten the urge to get back into PC gaming after many years away, I dug out my old rig and blew the cobwebs off of it. It fired up and seems to be working ok.
I'm curious as to how it would stack up against a modern mid range gaming rig.
Quick spec from memory:
Rampage Extreme motherboard
Q9650 cpu
6gig ddr3(origionally 8 but 1 died)
1kw psu
2x 4870x2(yeah 4 gpu's, overkill at the time but the 2nd one was basically given to me)

Bear in mind the lot is pushing on 7/8 years old now

So, I want to play modern games at decent(high) settings, and would be tempted to get an Oculus Rift also in the near future.

I dont want to spend big money but could go to €400-€500 and maybe a little more if needed.

So should I bother trying to breathe new life into it or go down the line of some kind of mobo cpu package deal and gpu?

Thanks

Digital Solitude

Have you tested the machine to see how it runs relatively new games?

John0101

Well no, I haven't. What can I run on it to find out? I've been away from all this so long now I forgotten it all.
I just assumed that with the age of it it wouldnt be able to run a modern fancy game to full effect.
Also could it run a Oculus Rift ok?

Digital Solitude

You could try this and see how far behind the min or recommended specs you are for a few games.

Test the type of games you will be playing on it.

If you've an ATX case you could pick up an i5 and 970, with a motherboard for less than 600

John0101

Ok thanks, I'll try that later when I get home

John0101

Ok, according to that site, on newer games I just meet the minimum for about half and only meet the recommended on a couple.
In most cases its the gpu and for a few its gpu and cpu.

jayo26

John0101 wrote: »

Ok, according to that site, on newer games I just meet the minimum for about half and only meet the recommended on a couple.
In most cases its the gpu and for a few its gpu and cpu.

The CPU can be a bit misleading on that site Imo most of the minimum requirements state just a dual core intel cpu which is what you have but been realistic the core 2 duo is a bit out of date and it would be a bottleneck in a modern game with a modern gpu.

John0101

yeah, just when you mention that I checked again, Assassins Creed Unity for example:


Minimum: Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz or AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz
You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz

They say my cpu doesn't meet the minimum yet it performs better than the Phenom II according to cpuboss, though it is a good bit behind the FX 8350.
I dunno.

jayo26

John0101 wrote: »

yeah, just when you mention that I checked again, Assassins Creed Unity for example:


Minimum: Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz or AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz
You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz

They say my cpu doesn't meet the minimum yet it performs better than the Phenom II according to cpuboss, though it is a good bit behind the FX 8350.
I dunno.

That rig would of been a beast a few year ago I say mate. Why don't you try install a few games on it see how it goes, might not be any harm to do a fresh install of windows.

TerrorFirmer

It's very outdated, some of the latest games might run acceptably, a lot would choke.

4870x2 in Crossfire would have some raw grunt, but it doesn't support DX11 and by modern standards would be grossly inefficient.

You could get away with adding something like an R9 280 for under 200 euro and some games - like Alien Isolation, Shadow of Mordor - would run quite well at 1080p on the rest of the hardware.

Certain games like Battlefield 4 online, Assassins Creed Unity, would demand a newer CPU, while others like Far Cry 3/4 will run acceptably, but will be limited by the processor.

Unity is a crap port on that note, how you can make an old X4 940 and an 8350 at simultaneous minimum makes zero sense.

It really just depends on what games you're looking to play.

Overall, by far the best option is to sell that machine as it is for about 300, if that makes your overall budget about 800, you'll get a great new PC for that money.

John0101

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

It's very outdated, some of the latest games might run acceptably, a lot would choke.

Fair enough, that settles that if thats my best case scenario at the mo I can forget about future games 2 or 3 years down the road.

I'll not sell the whole lot as I will use the case and other bits again.

So starting off I have:
Antec 1200 case
Coolermaster 1000w PSU
6Gb Crucial Ballistix ram
G15 keyboard
G5 mouse
NZXT Sentry fan controller
1TB hardrive
LG Blueray drive
22" widescreen monitor
Windows 7
The memory can be upgraded later.

I need CPU, GPU and motherboard.Something solid for the next few years gaming.

I also want the option to OC

Im in no rush and can wait a bit to save up the extra €€€.

Any suggestions are appreciated guys.
Thanks

Digital Solitude

Item|Price
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel / AMD|€€ 31
ASRock Z97 Extreme3, LGA 1150, ATX|€€ 111
Intel Core i5-4690K Box, LGA1150|€€ 244
Crucial 256GB SSD MX100 2.5 "(7mm)|€€ 93
MSI Gaming R9 290 4G with MANTLE and Gaming Evolved client, 4GB DDR5|€€ 296
Shipping|€11.99
Total|€790

Alternatively you could get a GTX 970 Graphics card, but there's been a serious price hike recently and the upgrade isn't worth €85 IMO.