Can I use my old SSds in a new pc?

Red Mancunian

Red Mancunian

Red Mancunian

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Hi all, this is very preliminary but I want to replace my 7 year old pc which is used for gaming, Photoshop/Lightroom and internet browsing, details below -



CPU - Intel i5-6500 3.2Ghz

GPU Asus Nvidia GTX1060 6GB Strix

MOBO – Asus Z-170K

Memory – 2 x 8 gigs of Crucial Ballistic DDR4 PC4-21300

PSU – EVGA Supernova gold 550W

Case – Corsair Carbide 100R Mid Tower ATX.

Storage – Samsung 2.5” 850 EVO 250GB SATA 3 - for Win 10

Crucial MX500 1TB SATA 3 For everything else.

Monitor – Dell S2716DG 27” 2560 x 1440 144 Hz, Nvidia G-Sync





Budget for the new build is £1500 -£1700 UK, its early doors yet but I’ve started to source parts etc, so far I’ve only decided on the following:-

CPU Intel I5 13600k

GPU RTX 3060 TI - No brand yet as budget depends on the answer to questions below.

Case - use my Mid tower ATX,?

cpu fan, and PSU not decide on yet

MOBO – Probably a MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk – I need WiFi

Memory – maybe 2 x 16mb of DDR5 Corsair Vengeance.

Storage – Hoping to use my 2 SSDs if poss.

OS - Windows 11 home

Monitor – using existing one.



So two questions:-

1. Will the 2 SSDs, and the case be ok or should I upgrade ?,(Im not a fan of cases with the fans expelling air out of the top)

2. If I get a 3 fan RTX 3060 TI do I need an additional cooler for it?



Other info – not interested in overclocking or rgb lights and fans.

All answers appreciated thanks.

PS if there’s big spaces betwwen my lines of text then Libra Office is playing up again!
 
You'll want to buy a new M.2 NVME SSD with PCIE 4 as your main drive, I'd say get a 1TB and call it a day.

SSDs - PCIe 4.0 NVMe Drives at Overclockers UK

Gen 4 M.2 NVMe drives offer the fastest read and write speeds and utilise the compact M.2 form factor. Here at Overclockers UK, we stock a wide range of M.2 drives from all the leading manufacturers including Samsung, WD, Gigabyte, Corsair, Patriot and Team group.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

If you want to connect your old drives and use them as storage you can, it'll work. I'd argue it's not worth it.

You don't need additional coolers for gpus, the one it comes with is fine.

Edit: don't re-use the case, get a new mesh one with good airflow.
 
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You can move your SSD’s over to the new PC. You don’t need an extra cooler for the GPU. If the SSD has Windows installed and you don’t want to re-install, it will probably work but would need to be re-activated and is not advised, a fresh install would be better but I have done it in the past to save time.
Also:
MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk looks to be a DDR4 MOBO, make sure you get the correct RAM, some MOBO's are DDR4 and some are DDR5.
 
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Don't keep your 7 year budget case get something woth better airflow to allow your components to breathe, Plus it will feel new.

You could sell your old system complete if you leave a 256gb drive in or keep ir as a back up.
 
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throwaway4372 said:
You'll want to buy a new M.2 NVME SSD with PCIE 4 as your main drive, I'd say get a 1TB and call it a day.

SSDs - PCIe 4.0 NVMe Drives at Overclockers UK

Gen 4 M.2 NVMe drives offer the fastest read and write speeds and utilise the compact M.2 form factor. Here at Overclockers UK, we stock a wide range of M.2 drives from all the leading manufacturers including Samsung, WD, Gigabyte, Corsair, Patriot and Team group.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk

If you want to connect your old drives and use them as storage you can, it'll work. I'd argue it's not worth it.

You don't need additional coolers for gpus, the one it comes with is fine.

Edit: don't re-use the case, get a new mesh one with good airflow.
Click to expand...
Why wouldn't it be worth it? It's free to use the old SSD's and there will be very minimal differences in game loading times compared to a new NVMe SSD. If there's a limited budget then it could be used on other components that make a bigger difference.
 
Eddie99 said:
Why wouldn't it be worth it? It's free to use the old SSD's and there will be very minimal differences in game loading times compared to a new NVMe SSD. If there's a limited budget then it could be used on other components that make a bigger difference.
Click to expand...
because the extra space likely isn't needed once a 1tb gen4 nvme drive has been purchased.
 
throwaway4372 said:
because the extra space likely isn't needed once a 1tb gen4 nvme drive has been purchased.
Click to expand...

1tb is easily filled, I'd say. Plus plugging in the old SSDs saves copying everything off them onto the new drive.

IMO, gen4 NVME isn't worth the cost vs 3.0 either. Although theoretical performance is much improved, real world performance barely moves.
 
First thoughts - for £1500-1700 you can imo just buy an entire new machine without touching the old one....which you could use as a back up or turn into a nas or something. You'd have driver issues etc to contend with if you move sata drives so you'd be installing from scratch anyway imo.

As to the argument over nvme.. personally I would grab one, while direct storage for fast game loading isn't really widely available yet it is going to be at some point and this does need nvme drives.... In fact I have 2 in my rig, one for OS/Programs/Games and the other as a scratch disk.

However I wouldn't say sata ssd's are dead in the water, I'd say they're overpriced. I personally move my 'user folders' and documents etc onto my sata ssd's for easy reinstall etc (in a 2 drive mirrored storage spaces to be precise), in the past I've used sata ssd's as scratch disks.

So in the case of the OP, this is how I'd personally setup the system, bearing in mind they mention photoshop/lightroom as well as gaming:
NVME Drive (I'd pick 2TB because I'd say 1TB is a little small, but 1TB is 'ok' if budget considerations) for C:\ drive - £115
2 Sata SSD - 1TB - 'documents' (mirrored storage spaces for redundancy) - £130 range for the pair... sata is overpriced compared with nvme sadly
NVME/Sata SSD - 1TB as a scratch disk for photoshop/lightroom, it can also be a fall back games drive if more important - £65 range

Even with spending £300 give or take on storage you still end up with £1200-1400 for the rest of the build which is a fairly healthy budget for the rest of the machine imo

Ideal world - you'd also have external drive for backing up important data but you probably already have one of those... we all follow good backup practices of course lol
 
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