- Joined
- Nov 24, 2010
- Messages
- 55
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5
- CPU
- Intel Core i5-6500
- Graphics
- Onboard HD 530
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
So my current desktop is built around a Core i3 from quite a few years ago (3.07 GHz, 256KB L2 cache, 4MB L3 cache, 533MHz bus speed). For graphics, I have some ancient GeForce 9500 GT card.
For the most part, this is OK - I live most of my day in iTerm and remote ssh sessions with a fair amount of time in Mail.app and Chrome. But when I start doing some web development work, then the browser is slowing me down, batch operations in Photoshop are getting a bit painful, and there's just a general bit of overall lag.
I'd like to reuse my case, PSU, SSD and all the other bits and pieces and just replace the mainboard, processor and RAM. I think integrated graphics, if well-supported, would be more than enough for me (zero gaming here).
What's scaring me, is that while I can find mainboards that are sub-$100, damn, processors are expensive. How far back to older stock can I go to get some kind of a deal? If I'm spending $100 on a board, probably another $60 on RAM and then at least another $100 on a processor, I'm going to want a decent speed boost. Where should I be aiming??? I was hoping for $300 for the upgrade, but that seems impossible unless I start thinking about used...
For the most part, this is OK - I live most of my day in iTerm and remote ssh sessions with a fair amount of time in Mail.app and Chrome. But when I start doing some web development work, then the browser is slowing me down, batch operations in Photoshop are getting a bit painful, and there's just a general bit of overall lag.
I'd like to reuse my case, PSU, SSD and all the other bits and pieces and just replace the mainboard, processor and RAM. I think integrated graphics, if well-supported, would be more than enough for me (zero gaming here).
What's scaring me, is that while I can find mainboards that are sub-$100, damn, processors are expensive. How far back to older stock can I go to get some kind of a deal? If I'm spending $100 on a board, probably another $60 on RAM and then at least another $100 on a processor, I'm going to want a decent speed boost. Where should I be aiming??? I was hoping for $300 for the upgrade, but that seems impossible unless I start thinking about used...