Advice on Upgrading PC

[SIMMSY25]

Hey everyone.

A few years back i upgraded my hp Pavilion 500-570na with a new case, motherboard and graphics card, the current set up is as follows:

Below are the current specs....
- I7 4790s 3.2GHz 8mb cache
- 12 GB DDR3 RAM
- HP 500w PSU
- MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard
- EVGA 1050 TI 4GB GPU
- SanDisc 2TB Hard Drive

So unfortunately i cannot afford to buy a brand new 2K pc as im a special needs classroom assistant, but want a PC that is capable of running games such as the new call of duty or Assetto corsa on my VR on decent quality.
The main problem now is i cant even run Mine craft on the lowest setting without my entire computer crashing and having to be restarted manually and when the games do run, they're horrible quality as the texture take around 2 minutes to load. My friend said that my GPU may be bottle necking my CPU but I've no clue how to check that.

On other forums I've been told just to get a new rig but don't know what a good affordable rig is, please help.

many thanks. Jamie (SIMMSY25)

 

[zSCHIZOz]

The reason your PC may be crashing could be a number of things. To check if your 1050Ti is alright download FurMark and stress test it. If you crash a few times then that might be your answer. Your hard drive might also be on the decline as I see you have an old fashioned mechanical.

BTW, how many sticks of RAM are in your PC? I see that you have posted you have 12GB. Its best to either fill the RAM slots or use two in dual channel, no other option is optimal.

If you play at 1080p and don't mind not having the greatest visual settings I'd say keep the 1050ti for now until you save for more money. MW and AC run pretty well without a beefy card. Not sure about VR. For VR you most likely will want a better card. nVidia's GTX 1600's are probably the best one for you if you play at 1080p.

 

[SIMMSY25]

i use 2x 8gb RAM and am currently playing games on a lot less than 1080p haha ill stress test the gpu now, thank you!

 

[Oussebon]

restarted manually and when the games do run, they're horrible quality as the texture take around 2 minutes to load. My friend said that my GPU may be bottle necking my CPU but I've no clue how to check that.

It's not a bottleneck.

1) that combination is fairly well balanced anyway

2) Bottleneck don't give you crashes

Crashes are a sign something is wrong - and the answer very often is not to buy new hardware. It can be a software/driver/OS issue, or it could be something like thermals.

Monitor your system's idle temperatures - CPU and GPU - with something like Realtemp or HWinfo or MSI Afterburner. And monitor them under load e.g, while running a game, and especially when getting a crash. What are the temperatures?

When is the last time you cleaned the inside of your PC, using compressed air to blow dust out of heatsinks and fans?

And just to check, the monitor is definitely plugged into the graphics card's video outputs and not the motherboard's video outputs?

Aside from that, One of the best routes to figuring out if you have a hardware issue or not is to perform a clean reinstall of Windows. Which is also free, and something you'd need to do if buying a new PC or performing major upgrades to your existing one, so is worth looking at before spending any $/£. Can explain further but would suggest checking temps first.

 

[Zoid]

On other forums I've been told just to get a new rig but don't know what a good affordable rig is, please help.

Absolutely do not do this. This is really bad advice and does not take into account the most glaring issue here which is that you can't even play minecraft without crashing. Your computer isn't bad, and although the GTX 1050 Ti isn't a powerhouse, it absolutely should be able to deliver reasonable 1080p performance.

Follow the advice @Oussebon gave to start with. We want to make sure this isn't a software or OS issue or some other non-hardware related gremlin.

In addition to monitoring your temps, use task manager to monitor your utilization. The fact that you say textures take minutes to load makes me wonder how healthy your HDD is, and we want to make sure your RAM is ok as well. If you are seeing your HDD pegged at 100% most of the time in task manager then that will give us a clue.

 

[SIMMSY25]

Thank you so much everyone for the advice, i found out the crashing was caused by hard drive failure, since then it has been replaced and an SSD added but the pc is going to my younger brother and im going to save up for a better performance one

 

[zSCHIZOz]

Cool dude! Make sure to comeback and post a pic of your setup or if you have any problems we'll help you out the best we can.

 

[SIMMSY25]

will do when i get one may take a while with this COVID-19 unfortunately

 

[zSCHIZOz]

will do when i get one may take a while with this COVID-19 unfortunately

No worries ole chum. Takes like 2+ weeks for anything on Amazon right now. Its ridiculous lol.

 

[SIMMSY25]

Hope your keeping safe and healthy through all this crap mate!

 

[SIMMSY25]

Cool dude! Make sure to comeback and post a pic of your setup or if you have any problems we'll help you out the best we can.

Hey! ive now got the new pc and monitor! all thats left is to rebuild the desk to improve the cablemanagment, but here a look at it so far...

https://imgur.com/a/EPmlFIC

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/EPmlFIC

 

[Oussebon]

Looks great!

What's the new monitor and the PC spec?

 

[SIMMSY25]

The PC Specs are:
- NZXT 510i Case
- NZXT Kraken x63
- MSI 2070 Super 8GB
- ASrock B365 Pro4 Motherboard
- Corsair Vengance RGB Pro 16GB RAM
- Be Quiet 600W PSU
- 2tb HHD
- 1tb SSD

Monitor specs:
MSI Optix AG32CV 31.5inch curved monitor
- 165Hz
- 1080P
- "1ms" response time

then the rest of the set up it just thing like the logitech mouse, oculus rifts, a racing sim, etc. Still not complete yet but finally getting there after 6 years

 

[zSCHIZOz]

Very nice! Keep us posted!

 

[SIMMSY25]

The set up is 100% complete now!

https://imgur.com/a/m9ttpXX

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/m9ttpXX

 

[Oussebon]

Beautiful! Very clean, lovely colours.

The only question remaining is whether there is a sinful nest of cable vipers under the table

 

[SIMMSY25]

Beautiful! Very clean, lovely colours.

The only question remaining is whether there is a sinful nest of cable vipers under the table

thankfully not hahaha, ive made the desk with 2 cabinets underneath and all of the cables are folded and sorted behind said cabinets so you have to take everything apart to see the wires. Only visable wires are behind the PC connected to it and the monitor, but both have the cable management tubes going to both