Is my Levono upgradable?

Hello,

I wonder if it would be possible to switch from a Intel i5-4460 3.2 GHz processor to a Intel i5-4590 CPU?

I have a stationary Lenovo, and if upgrading is off the table, I'll have to sell it, because I am going to get an Oculus Rift. It has 8GB of RAM. Here is my MSINFO32. It's a Lenovo 10181 .

And with such a computer, is it possible to replace my old graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750) with a NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent? I suppose such things depend on the motherboard?

 

From what I can tell, you're talking about a Lenovo K450e desktop. As such, I've moved your thread over to the Desktop Hardware discussion forum.

 

That Lenovo has a 1150 mobo socket, so 4690 should fit it.
Naturally you can replace your GPU, though you should check your PSU first, especially if you are planning on getting a 290.
And while we're at it, why not wait for 1070? Or if you have a tighter budget a 480?

 

A i5-4690K is what you want at least..

GPU should be replaceable with AMD 290X or GTX970.. I would personally suggest getting the AMD RX480 when it comes out.. For that price of $200-250, performance increase will be unbeatable..

 

4690 and 4690K have the same clock speed, and I doubt his rig has a Z mobo, so not sure why he would need a K CPU, unless he plans to upgrade to Z97 later.

Now since 1080 was released, I wonder for how much people are unloading their 980Tis? That would be an interesting option, provided PSU is powerful enough to feed it.

 

Get the i5-4690K that will do your system better and get a MSI GTX970OC 4G they are far better and stable drivers vs AMD. Til AMD really truly fixes their driver problem I stay away from them.

 

AMD drivers have been in a much better state compared to NVIDIA ones over the last few months tbh...

 

Ah here we go again with the AMD v nVidia thing

 

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

Generally speaking, do you know what's the best CPU I can get with my motherboard? I've chekced prices for the two mentioned here, and at Amazon they cost:

$235 i5-4690K Processor 3.5 GHz LGA 1150
$224 i5-4690 Processor (6M Cache, 3.5 GHz upto 3.90 GHz)

I've checked prices at Amazon for the cards mentioned by you guys.

$890 GTX 1080 8GB
$599 GTX 1070 8GB
$599 GeForce GTX 980 Ti Super Clocked Gaming ACX 2.0 6GB
$555 R9-290X-EDFD Radeon R9 290X 4GB 512-Bit
$499 AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB
$333 GTX 970 4GB OC
$299 GTX 970 4GB
$200 AMD Radeon RX 480

The 1070 that you mention may be a good solution. I wonder, with the best CPU for my motherboard, and the 1070 graphics card, do you have any recommendations for a power supply?

 

If one says this enough then it must be true. Anything since 12.10 been dismal for AMD - why do you think AMD and ATI separated to different departments? If the GPU software was good then why breakup AMD video department to ATI? Because they are falling behind Nvidia.

 

The best would be i7 4790K. Strictly for gaming i5 4690 is more than enough. Whichever you choose, K or non-K variant of 4690, is up to you, because if not OCing (would be nice to know your exact mobo model), there's no clock speed difference between the two.

The GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 you have listed are so called Founders Edition versions. DO NOT get those! If you are planning to go with 1070, wait for OEMs to release their variants with aftermarket coolers, which will not only make those GPUs perform better, but also cost less (MSRP for aftermarket 1070s is about $400-450).
A used GTX 980Ti is a valid option. Some people should be unloading their 980Tis, so if you manage to get that for cheap, you could go for it. Though I'm not so sure how it performs in DX12 games, so that's the only thing that could potentially stop you from buying a 980Ti. Otherwise it's not worth buying brand new anymore, because the 1070 performs better and has a lower price tag.
R9 290/290X and GTX 970 are not worth getting anymore, because you have RX 480 releasing soon. That's the one card to get if you want something in $200 price range.
GTX 480... lol, how did that get on the list?!? It's an old card, don't even think about it!

For PSU, get something from Tier 2 and you'll be shiny. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
I personally use SeaSonic S12 II. It had a good price for a quality product. If you want modular version, there's M12 II.

Also, this is the time where we ask what kind of budget do you have. Have you considered making a new build? Or do you want to just upgrade your pre-existing PC?

 

I got this info on my motherboard on a cpu-z check:




It's this desktop I've got, unmodified. It says it has a LGA1150 Socket, although I am not sure what specifically that means.

From what I've read here, I suppose with my motherboard a K variant wouldn't give better performance, so I'd only be a waste of 11 dollars. (Not that I mind wasting 11 dollars, but if there's no gain...)

I will be using it only for Oculus Rift. I suppose more games will be released later, but I'll check out some of these to begin with. Half-Life 2 is one of the first I'll try. And I might get HTC Vive later, but I see it's the exact same minimum requirements for that as for Oculus.

I've decided to upgrade a pre-existing PC. I've haven't thought about budget. I plan on getting a second hand Oculus Rift and later a second hand HTC Vive, and I'd like to get my desktop up to speed for a reasonable amount. If it's possible to get it done for a three digit sum, then that's great, but if I'll have to pay a four digit sum, then that's okay as well. But I think it'd be best to try to get something that does the job, but isn't too powerful. I wouldn't want to waste. I suppose I could upgrade to a better CPU later when really powerful second hand ones are cheaper.

P.S. I did a cut-and-paste from this thread to Amazon, with "Graphics card" + "model recommended here", and a AMD became a GTX. The 480 is updated in the price list now.

 

Basically socket is a type of connection used to connect CPU to mobo. There's also a chipset, which kinda tells what you can do with CPU among other things.
So here it says that your PC has a B85, which isn't OCable (unless you use a right BIOS and CPU combination, but let's not think about this), so like you've said, $11 will go to waste. That sum doesn't sound much, but IMO, even so better put it to a better use like adding it to PSU budget or something.

Now, the reasons why you would still might consider K CPU are:
- you get an i7 4790K, which, unlike i5 4690K, comes with a higher clock speed comparing to his non-K counterpart;
- one day you get a mobo, which lets you OC.

Also, while technically 4460 is below minspecs for VR, that 4460 doesn't sound too bad. 3,2GHz and 3,4GHz on Turbo Boost should be enough, so yeah, upgrade your CPU once it becomes necessary.
This guy passed the test for CPU with 4460:


For now concentrate on GPU and a good PSU.
And looking at this picture, you could use a (semi) modular PSU:

 

Thank you for outstanding feedback, killkenny1.

I think I am going to go with your suggestion from #5, to get a second hand 980Ti. I've seen people write that they manage to fit that GPU inside the Lenovo case. But do you think heat will be a problem?

I appreciate the PSU advice. I found an Seasonic M12-II 620W for an alright price, do you think that wattage will be sufficient?

 

Well, people have it running in mITX build, so don't see why it wouldn't work in mATX. Just make sure it will fit in there, no HDD caddies in its way or something.
You're gettin a second tier PSU, so 620W should be enough.

 

Seasonic second-tier? Lol it's very good psu, even too big for this PC, but still you can expand it. I would change gpu to 980ti, and processor to used i5k like 4670k or 4690k, they should be cheap. Then after you do it, you can in coming moths change motherboard to something like MSI Z87-GD55 or Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC, and have a very good motherboard to oc this cpu.

 

^ Also confused, as Seasonic is pretty well-regarded in the PSU world. Maybe if it was a Rosewill PSU it could be called 2nd tier.

 

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

Being second tier doesn't mean being bad. It's just classification.

 

Ah, I see what you mean now.

 

But it's flawed. It doesnt include a lot of psus, so this lost is incomplete and the name is misleading.

 

If you think you have some info to help and improve that list, write about it in that topic.