Looking to make some upgrades

[Hebert]

So i have a bit of an older computer, at the time i bought it it was pretty decent, but has been showing its age lately. I rarely seem to get over 20 fps in arma at the lowest setting. I figure its time to do some upgrading. My brother works in IT so he was going to give me a bit of a hand, and thinks i need to start with more RAM, which is going to require a new motherboard. Hes also giving me an SSD and a better graphics card, but i was wondering if anyone else had any more input on this. Looking to spend about $200-$300 upgrading enough to at least have a playable game at decent settings. Specs are as Follows.
intel i7-2600s @2.8ghz
8 gb RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6570

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[O. Thomas]

CPU is still fine, but if it's too old thermal wear might be causing some issues. For that budget if he's giving you an SSD and GPU, list which ones they are and how much use the SSD went thru. Also check to see how many RAM slots you have on your mobo, if you did 2x4GB sticks it's still ok, but drop in a minimum 16 gig kit into the other channel if one is filled (1212 is how the slots go for channels you don't want to mix the channels with the diff sizes when possible).

Goal should be 32 gigs RAM, but maybe hold off until you can get onto a DDR4 platform for your CPU to be better l8r down the line. The SSD will be a noticeable difference, but mainly for load times and not so much for FPS, RAM and GPU will be better.

[Hebert]

So as far as i know, the SSD is a new 480gb Kingston SV300S37A that hasn't been used at all. Graphics card is a ATi that has 2GB VRAM, dont know much else. at the moment i have 2x 4gb sticks of RAM, and the MOBO doesnt support more. Good to hear the CPU is still decent, pretty sure its at least 4 years old though,but never OC'd. Not sure about thermal wear and im trying to figure out where my lack of performance is coming from. Thats the main thing that has me confused since, it still seems like a half decent system.

[SGT (Ret) Padgett]

You do not need more ram, get a new gpu

[SSG (Ret) Madsen]

If your motherboard only support two ram sticks it might be time to upgrade the motherboard... Which one do you have now?

If you are in doubt the program 'Speccy' is a easy program to get the details https://www.piriform.com/speccy

[Hebert]

So regardless of the upgrades i do, a new motherboard is going to be a must. it supports 8gb ram Max and can only run one hard drive from what i can tell. I have realised through reading that the extra ram wont necessarily help with running arma in and of itself, but ive been feeling like the computer needs a bit of a facelift anyways. My main concern is that my processor wasnt up to snuff but it seems like that is good enough. Just for grins here are the specs that speccy spit out.
Summary
      Operating System
         Windows 10 Home 64-bit
      CPU
         Intel Core i7 2600S @ 2.80GHz   53 °C
         Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
      RAM
         8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
      Motherboard
         PEGATRON CORPORATION 2AC2 (CPU 1)   35 °C
      Graphics
         VS248 (1920x1080@60Hz)
         1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 6570 (Unknown)   47 °C
      Storage
         1863GB Seagate ST32000644NS (SATA)   37 °C
      Optical Drives
         DiscSoft Virtual SCSI CdRom Device
         DiscSoft Virtual SCSI CdRom Device
      Audio
         Realtek High Definition Audio

[SGT (Ret) Padgett]

ok maybe at those speeds, you need faster ram not more ram of the same speed.
Im not sure of your price point but i quickly threw together a build that you could use your old parts to complete.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2cFkqk

You don't really need a new processor but the one I put in here is much faster.

[Hebert]

All of this advice is very helpful. I would like to upgrade my pc incrementally i think, as that will fit my budget a bit more reasonably. Eventually i would like to upgrade to a newer i7, or an i5 like the one you linked to. what im wondering though is if i can buy a new motherboard that would support both my current CPU as well as a newer on once i can afford it, or is buying a new CPU going to necessitate a new motherboard? Im thinking im might just follow SGT Padgett's suggestion and get some faster RAM for now.That and a new GPU might give me some breathing room to save some money for the other upgrades.

[SSG (Ret) Donohoe]

If your budget allows it try get a 4gb GPU

[O. Thomas]

All of this advice is very helpful. I would like to upgrade my pc incrementally i think, as that will fit my budget a bit more reasonably. Eventually i would like to upgrade to a newer i7, or an i5 like the one you linked to. what im wondering though is if i can buy a new motherboard that would support both my current CPU as well as a newer on once i can afford it, or is buying a new CPU going to necessitate a new motherboard? Im thinking im might just follow SGT Padgett's suggestion and get some faster RAM for now.That and a new GPU might give me some breathing room to save some money for the other upgrades.

tl;dr nah man your situation is FUBAR

You're in the boat I'm in right now which is basically, you're fucked and the Intel route = minimum 300 for just the mobo and CPU, and that's using ebay to find some unicorn special for the CPU. Nothing that performs at our above your current CPU on the intel side is under 200-220USD right now. Also your DDR3 RAM won't work with the new pin layout of the DDR4 RAM the newer chipsets require. I.e. no, you cannot get a new mobo that will work with your current socket 1155 and then new stuff.

Also 665MHz is Double Data Rate.v3 = DDR3_1333 (technically 1330 in your case, but hey it's never exact) which is only one step down from non-OC'd DDR3 RAM IIRC, so "faster" will likely not even be feasible for you considering that Mobo appears to be some offbrand hunk of junk from who-knows-where. Depending on what you want to do budget wise, slap at least one 8 gig stick in there to get up to 12 and have some kind of buffer, and/or with the new SSD have Windows use a small chunk of it as a cache.

Longer term, find a set of DDR4 RAM you want (the advertised speed doesnt matter, it'll default to what the mobo takes), then your CPU/Mobo, and any other upgrades you want and buy it over time or save save save and splurge. Or maybe wait for AMD's Zen to come out, it likely won't be AS good as the $800+ USD Intel processors, but comparable for fractional costs.

Edit: If you can throw an extra $100 at it you can get yourself an i5 6600k + mATX Socket 1151 mobo + single 16Gb stick of RAM for $400~ with shipping from Newegg right now (Just DO NOT forget to get a CPU cooler, the newer CPUs do not come with them standard anymore)

[Hebert]

Yeah, thats kind of the same conclusion im coming to. I'm working on getting the SSD installed right now, and the new graphics card my brother has is as far im going to be able to go on this system. Looks like im just going to have to work on my saving skills lol. ive gone off of the list that SGT Padget gave with a few changes. My one question is why would you choose a gtx970 over the 1060?
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/LnnRnn

[O. Thomas]

Yeah, thats kind of the same conclusion im coming to. I'm working on getting the SSD installed right now, and the new graphics card my brother has is as far im going to be able to go on this system. Looks like im just going to have to work on my saving skills lol. ive gone off of the list that SGT Padget gave with a few changes. My one question is why would you choose a gtx970 over the 1060?
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/LnnRnn

IIRC the 970 is still better, but still much more expensive. Also do 2x 8Gb sticks instead of tons of 4 gig sticks, leave yourself room. If you want it sooner rather than later, take the parts your buddy is giving you and roll with a mATX mobo and the same RAM+CPU.

[Hebert]

God i wish i had the money right now, but im actually more broke than usuall. Hopefully within the next couple of months. Im also thinking that if i wait for the release of intels new kaby lake processors, i will either pick one of those up or stick with the skylake for a cheaper cost. Win-win if i just hold off while while i save up for a little while.

[Hebert]

So i was able to use my tax return to bite the bullet on a new rig. Im just going to move over the hard drives i already have, and the MOBO is actually a z270G. but im pretty excited about this.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/r92VHN