Computer upgrade - worth it?

arciere

It's been a while since I looked at computer parts so I'm sure there are people more up-to-date than me on this.
I currently have a desktop computer that pretty much works as my home server. It's on 24/7 and it's used for home automation (running on a VM), CCTV, WiFi controller and the occasional X-Plane flight (for which the computer was originally intended), and the BOINC program that I need to shut down occasionally to avoid overstressing the CPU.
It's not super-powerful, but it was one of the best options I could get a few years back. It's got an Intel i5-7600K CPU, 16GB RAM and a GeForce GTX1060 6GB graphics card.
My question is, has it become old? I'm sure it's more than enough for home automation and CCTV (although BlueIris does like to use CPU quite a lot), but I'm not sure if I can simply add more RAM (if the mainboard supports it) and for example start X-Plane without having to close the other software already running.
Would a faster CPU make much of a difference?

Neil_Jones

Does it do everything you want in a reasonable time?

The i5-7600k was released in the first quarter of 2017, so its three years old.  Technically everything in computing is "old" as soon as you buy it.

You may want to monitor the memory usage in Task Manager to see whether its worth investing in extra memory, because its pointless if the system isn't going to use it.  You rarely notice CPU upgrades these days, for gaming purposes its more about the graphics card.

arciere

Thanks, the RAM usage at the moment is around 60% (of 16GB), with the "essential" software running, so that would leave around 7GB for X-Plane, which is why I normally shut down one or two programs before running it.
Cpu wise, it's around 50%, with the CCTV software taking pretty much all of it.
What the computer does, in the background (CCTV, home automation, etc.), doesn't need to do it fast and quick, as long as it does it. My real concern is that, when I need to use it for other stuff (i.e. gaming most of the time), I need to shut down this and that to have better performance.
I have had a look at the recommended specs for X-Plane, and I am considering upgrading from the GTX 1060 to the 1070.