Help needed

[damadama]

I'm planning to ask you guys how to go about upgrading my Windows 10 Pro desktop. But to do that I presume that I need to tell you what my configuration is. Where do I look to find out what my components are and what information is needed? I assume that I don't have to dismantle the PC and check each item.

 

[CMetaphor]

What do you want to upgrade? Speed? Capacity? Let us know.

A nice lightweight program you can download to get all your system specs easily is called "Speccy". Free, standalone so doesn't need to be installed.

 

[damadama]

Sorry it's a bit vague, I was planning to be more specific once I had a system spec. list.

 

[damadama]

I've attached a scren shot of my specs.

This PC is used for general internet browsing but mainly photo editing with Lightroom, Photoshop and Photolab. I would like to speed up these processes and would like suggestions for doing this within a reasonable budget. I plan to progressivly replace the SATA drives with SSD and hope to upgrade my current Asus 27" generic monitor. Should I be looking at more/faster RAM and/or upgrading the CPU? Would a faster graphics card with onboard RAM help? I'd like to avoid replacing the motherboard if possible.

I'm hoping for a list of incremental steps with suggestions for brand/model of components.

It is probably obvious from the above that I am a beginer in this field so please be gentle and my wallet. I have no probem with buying used wherever possible.

 

[Bond007]

Anyone familiar with using those apps? Can they all use a gpu?

if so, I would recommend (if you want to keep cost as low as possible) getting a graphics card to accelerate everything ALOT. Otherwise, grab A used i7 4770/4790.

if your budget is more open ended you could do a full rebuild, but the cost will rise a lot.

Can you confirm your budget a bit more?

 

[damadama]

These apps can use a GPU, there is an option in each to select that. Total budget is between $600 & $1000 but I would like to buy item by item due to pension limitations. Is the i7 4770/4790 a cpu and what woould I expect to pay for a used one? Is there a good source for used parts in Canada, I'm in BC.

 

[Bond007]

Sorry, are you able to tell us / take a picture of the power supply you have? You would have to take the side panel off to figure that one out. We will need to know in order to determine if you can use a graphics card with it or not.

 

[Bond007]

Hmmm. I just looked into photoshop a bit. From what I saw, some effects require a graphics card, but nothing really high end is “required”. Something like a gtx 1060 6gb would suffice, however, I thought graphics cards had a bigger impact than they do. It is very much a core dependant program. If you really want a solid improvement I think you will need a new CPU, motherboard and ram.

 

[gingerbee]

Ya, I was thinking about a zen+ ryzen build if the power supply and pc cases can take them in my experience photo editing apps really use more CPU power but a GPU can help. all that being said a 2600 is a great step up with a b450 motherboard and 32gb of ddr4@2666 would be a huge upgrade.

But like others have said if you can take a pic of the case and power supply so we know what they can handle or if you will need new/used parts to replace those

 

[damadama]

Yeah, I saw the dust as well, don't give me a hard time please. I promise I will clean it all out in daylight tomorrow.