Ultimate PC hardware upgrade

 speccy.jpg   50.77KB   1 downloads

Hi everyone,

Here comes the time to upgrade my own PC build that I used to make 10-15 years ago. I am trying to squeeze an ultimate upgrade possible as I think parts for that should be cheap by now. So, here are the specs of it.

Thank you in advance to everyone for any contribution.

Edited by 0C_, 25 June 2025 - 03:59 AM.

What are you upgrading to?  Do you mean you want to upgrade to Windows 11, or simply upgrade your existing hardware to make the computer faster but keep Windows 10?

Are you aware that W10 is now unsupported by Microsoft and updates will end soon. By paying you can extend updates to W10 for a year or so, but W10 has been given the death sentence eventually. 

Windows 11 Requirements : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/windows-11-requirements

DDR 3 Ram is not Eligible nor Compatible. DDR 4  and above. : 

i-7 6700 not eligible though it can handle it but is not Supported : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors

ASUS Z170M-E D3 - If was Supported would have BIOS and Driver Updates for Win11 and a pull down to change from 10 to 11 on the Support Page :

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/z170me_d3/helpdesk_download/

AMD R9 Fury has been Retired : https://community.amd.com/t5/pc-drivers-software/older-devices-windows-11-support/td-p/512482

You need a new System

The Case is good.

Edited by Pkshadow, 25 June 2025 - 11:27 AM.

What are you upgrading to?  Do you mean you want to upgrade to Windows 11, or simply upgrade your existing hardware to make the computer faster but keep Windows 10?

Are you aware that W10 is now unsupported by Microsoft and updates will end soon. By paying you can extend updates to W10 for a year or so, but W10 has been given the death sentence eventually. 

Windows 11 Requirements : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/windows-11-requirements

 

DDR 3 Ram is not Eligible nor Compatible. DDR 4  and above. : 

 

i-7 6700 not eligible though it can handle it but is not Supported : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-11-supported-intel-processors

 

ASUS Z170M-E D3 - If was Supported would have BIOS and Driver Updates for Win11 and a pull down to change from 10 to 11 on the Support Page :

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/z170me_d3/helpdesk_download/

 

AMD R9 Fury has been Retired : https://community.amd.com/t5/pc-drivers-software/older-devices-windows-11-support/td-p/512482

 

You need a new System

The Case is good.

Thank you ranchhand_ and Pkshadow,

Well, now you and Pkshadow made me think what am I really need to be upgrading my PC to ("You need a new System The Case is good"). Due to Pkshadow mention about W11 requirementsI, I think I will need just to upgrade my hardware to make it fast as possible on my W10. With intentions to jump eventually with this upgraded build onto the Linux (which I do not know how to operate just yet, but always wanted to learn). Otherwise I will need to build an almost new PC from scratch, as the processor "i-7 6700 not eligible though it can handle it but is not Supported", memory kits will have to be upgraded too "DDR 3 Ram is not Eligible nor Compatible", "AMD R9 Fury has been Retired" and the motherboard seems to be not supported anymore. What may be left are only: PC case, PSU (maybe...), HDD and SSD. 

Sometime in the future it will be my new project: to make a new W11 PC build. I will be studying thoroughly on how to. But for now may I also ask a few questions related to W11 as I am always curious to learn right away if Istumbled upon something new and interesting? While reading W11 requirements, I could not find there anywhere that DDR3 is not supported. It only says it will have to be "4 gigabytes (GB) or greater". Where can I get a detailed information of W11 requirements?

All in all I think I just need to add another set of 16GB dual-channel. If that's the case, please advise on what to choose.

If you think it can be tweaked with better upgrading then just adding 2 modules of memory, please advice me on that matter.

I appreciate your knowledge guys.

Edited by 0C_, 27 June 2025 - 07:48 AM.

There's a lot of information out there, I will throw in a couple of suggestions:

> First, to test if your system meets requirements run Health Test:  https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp

> Microsoft's requirements:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifications

> More information:  https://www.minitool.com/news/check-if-pc-can-run-windows-11.html

> The mainboard must have TPM 2.0 or higher module on the board, that negates most older systems. There are CPU requirements and others. Also, the partitioning requirement is different from Widnows 10, but if you purchase the retail version of W11 (which you will have to do since you can't upgrade if your box doesn't have the proper requirements) W11 will set that up for you on installation. 

Edited by ranchhand_, 27 June 2025 - 07:26 AM.

There's a lot of information out there, I will throw in a couple of suggestions:

> First, to test if your system meets requirements run Health Test:  https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp

> Microsoft's requirements:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifications

> More information:  https://www.minitool.com/news/check-if-pc-can-run-windows-11.html

> The mainboard must have TPM 2.0 or higher module on the board, that negates most older systems. There are CPU requirements and others. Also, the partitioning requirement is different from Widnows 10, but if you purchase the retail version of W11 (which you will have to do since you can't upgrade if your box doesn't have the proper requirements) W11 will set that up for you on installation. 

Well,

like I said I am not going to be upgrading this PC to W11. For that, I will be making another PC build sometime in the future. In relation to W11 I was only curious where does it say that DDR3 is not eligible or compatible. I could not find that information anywhere by going to Microsof's requirements link that you and Pkshadow shared, but it doesn't really matter now.

I just need help to upgrade the hardware on this PC to make it run fast as possible on my W10 system. Please, if you have any suggestions I appresiate it.

Edited by 0C_, 27 June 2025 - 08:39 AM.

Why would you buy anything for the system,?  Windows 10 End of Life October 14th 2025.         It will make a good Linux system.    Games not to sure about for the R9 on Linux.

Suggest ask in te Linux Forum about moving forward with the System.    If the PSU is 10yrs old or more it is questionable.

EDIT : Can pay for 1yr of Security Updates for Win10 - $30.00 with no Win 10 fixes.     No idea yet as to how that works, guess will hear soon enough.

For what you would spend you could get a medium System with Win11.

Edited by Pkshadow, 27 June 2025 - 09:01 AM.

Why would you buy anything for the system,?  Windows 10 End of Life October 14th 2025.         It will make a good Linux system.    Games not to sure about for the R9 on Linux.

Suggest ask in te Linux Forum about moving forward with the System.    If the PSU is 10yrs old or more it is questionable.

 

EDIT : Can pay for 1yr of Security Updates for Win10 - $30.00 with no Win 10 fixes.     No idea yet as to how that works, guess will hear soon enough.

 

For what you would spend you could get a medium System with Win11.

Due to the situation I am in, it would be very reasonable to invest in another dual-channel RAM modules if it will make it faster and/or maybe tweak it some other way not known to me yet since I am not located on the U.S.A. continent at this moment and I do not know when it will be possible again. I got stuck where I am and life is totally different here then in US. So, decisions I have to make are different by contrast then where you are in U.S. That's why...

Edited by 0C_, 27 June 2025 - 09:25 AM.

@OC....yup, you are right. You were asking for upgrade to your present system. So many posters now are asking about how to upgrade their systems to W11 I went into auto-answer. Sorry about that.

Just a cursory review of your system indicates that about the only thing you can do is add another 16gig RAM, hopefully with the same specs as is present now. Honestly, I doubt that will make any difference in performance. I doubt that your mainboard has a PCIe slot, but you can check it out. I'm afraid, other than that, overclocking the CPU is about the only thing you can do, but I strongly recommend you don't attempt it with that older setup, it may end up crashing the system with unfortunate consequences. 

A computer's speed depends on the cooperation of several components all working together, and trying to patch in new technology on older technology just doesn't work. 

Just a cursory review of your system indicates that about the only thing you can do is add another 16gig RAM, hopefully with the same specs as is present now.

That is my thinking too. It's hard to find exact same specs that my modules are, as I am planning to buy used ones. How close the specs of another dual channel RAM modules has to be to function and cooperate with other hardware and the whole system properly?

I doubt that your mainboard has a PCIe slot, but you can check it out. I'm afraid

 It has 3 PCIe slots
 

overclocking the CPU is about the only thing you can do, but I strongly recommend you don't attempt it with that older setup, it may end up crashing the system with unfortunate consequences.

I agree with you on this.
 

A computer's speed depends on the cooperation of several components all working together, and trying to patch in new technology on older technology just doesn't work.

That is why I created this topic as I do not want upgraded hardware to conflict with everything else, but to work in harmony.

Edited by 0C_, 27 June 2025 - 11:25 AM.

Well, whatever RAM you choose, try to find one faster than your present sticks; the overall speed will default down to your present memory, but that's ok because there will not be a bottleneck to slow the system. If you get RAM sticks that are slower than your present ones, then the RAM speed will default to the lower speed which will create a bottleneck and slow the system..

Well, whatever RAM you choose, try to find one faster than your present sticks; the overall speed will default down to your present memory, but that's ok because there will not be a bottleneck to slow the system. If you get RAM sticks that are slower than your present ones, then the RAM speed will default to the lower speed which will create a bottleneck and slow the system..

By "faster" do you mean MHz frequency? So, looking at the RAM memory that my PC has, then it is the slowest possible on the market, since it only runs with 800MHz. Am I correct?

Edited by 0C_, 27 June 2025 - 01:28 PM.

Well, I understand that my questions are so dumb. I will just educate myself on RAM thru youtube. I will post later  on what I come with, just to see if my choice is reasonable.

Thank you

Edited by 0C_, 27 June 2025 - 01:05 PM.

 

Well, whatever RAM you choose, try to find one faster than your present sticks; the overall speed will default down to your present memory, but that's ok because there will not be a bottleneck to slow the system. If you get RAM sticks that are slower than your present ones, then the RAM speed will default to the lower speed which will create a bottleneck and slow the system..

By "faster" do you mean MHz frequency or GB volume and does it have to be QVL too?

 

So, by looking at the RAM memory that my PC has I realize it is the slowest possible on the market, since it only runs with 800MHz.

Wait a minute... According to the part number: "CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10" it suppose to have 1600MHz, but "speccy" shows 800MHz (see screenshot) on the very 1st post of this thread. How to understand this?

Edited by 0C_, 27 June 2025 - 02:49 PM.

Wait a minute... According to the part number: "CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10" it suppose to have 1600MHz, but "speccy" shows 800MHz (see screenshot) on the very 1st post of this thread. How to understand this?

 

Dual channel = two Xs 800MHz which means that according to Speccy your RAM is working at two Xs 802MHz which equates to 1604MHz..