I've built my i5 system in 2012

[Twiki]

Before that I've built my i3 system (was Celeron at first) in 2011) on a budget because my AMD X2-3800 system was limited on memory and that was after 6 years of use. While I was using my i3 system I was putting together my i5 system piece by piece monthly. Buying good parts for durability meaning business grade like a B75 mobo and Seagate Constellation Enterprise drive. More good parts found by google searches about what y'all liked the best and reading between the lines from reviews.

Since I first pushed the start button it's been rock solid. It's 5 years already so how much life do you think I have left? Was it worth it to buy the durability stuff? I'm not hurting for more speed or power from newer stuff.

I kept my i3 system to fall back on and it's a pretty darn decent system.

 

[WeatherMan]

You could easily see another few years out of the system depending on its usage. The seagate constellation I cannot comment on without knowing how much you paid for it whether it was a worthwhile purchase, but the name does suggest it would be a more durable drive than a mainstream one.

What is the use of the system?

I am in a similar situation, my system is also 5 years old and I'm running the same generation i series.

Personally I wouldn't bother upgrading the system but instead go for a new build. With your current system you'd be a little CPU limited if you stuck a newer card into the build, whilst probably needing to change PSU due to its age, and 8GB ram is sufficient right now but won't be for too much longer as games advance. There's no use upgrading the RAM at this point as it's a DDR3 based build. All the latest generations use both a different cpu socket and DDR4 ram.

Again it comes back to what the system is used for, if you only want to play older games, use the web, email, watch movies etc, you'll easily get another few years out of it or longer, but if for anything more intensive I'd suggest replacing the system.

 

[Twiki]

I see your point. I'm not into intensive gaming but browse the net, watch video, Email, puzzle games, etc. Just minor things. My i3 system was plenty enough for me though I wanted to experience a quad core. It's probably an overbuild but I sure like it.

 

[WeatherMan]

In that case you've not got to worry about upgrading, it's still a perfectly good system for daily tasks, and will easily run Windows 10 if you ever need to upgrade due to software restrictions. With good temperatures and occasional dusting that system should easily cope well for another 2-5 years based on what you need it to do, providing the PSU and hard drive are healthy!

 

[Twiki]

Oh, I have W10 on it.

 

[Twiki]

I just realized that all the parts on my i3 system will fit the i5 box. Looks like I got years with it.

 

[beers]

Not really enough specs to tell, as before it depends what you do. You can bring 4 slot ddr3 systems up to 32GB RAM so for basic productivity there's a bunch of years in there still. That's generally the limiting factor of older systems.

 

[Twiki]

Alas, I only have two slots otherwise I'd had 12 gigs of memory.

 

[_Kyle_]

Celeron to i5? How did that feel?

 

[Twiki]

A little story. I was doing ok on my AMD X2-3800+ with 2 gig memory. I did for 6 years til I started lacking memory because of more sophisticated software. I posted about an AMD barebone I had my eye on with a price at a local shop.

A member said WTH? For that money I can build a better system using a Celeron. I told him I never liked Celeron and he said you will this time because it's 3x faster than the AMD I was looking at and it's only $50 for the G540 CPU.

I thought he's right, I've built plenty before and I'll do it again. I found the site, Passmark, and saw the comparisons. Yeah, I'll do it.

It did well. I can watch movies, stream and all that. It was plenty fast too and I added a video card later for better video. I got interested in the i3-2105 CPU because it was on sale and I got it. That was really a good CPU. I used it for a year while building the i5 system.

I have become an Intel fan.

 

[beers]

I have become an Intel fan.

Of course the Celeron would be faster, it came out like 6 years after the X2

That's literally more time than it was between the x2 3800+ (2005) and the original 1 GHz Pentium 3 (2000)

 

[Twiki]

Yeah, The Celeron is 2.5 Ghz and surprisingly a capable CPU. I still have it in the box with its HS/Fan.