Help with upgrade

tanjianx

tanjianx

tanjianx

Associate
Joined
24 Feb 2024
Posts
14
Location
UK
Hi all,

New here and hoping for some help/ideas.

My PC is now 6 years old and starting to show its age.

I’m also experiencing a lot of random full system crashes. Mainly related to graphics card crashes.

I’m aware that I’ve not ever changed the liquid in my cooling loop and it’s starting to look dodgy. This could be a contributing factor.

I’m also aware that there’s not modern support for SLI…

Based on my system specs below, would I be better upgrading my graphics card to refresh my system or should I just start again with a brand new build?

I.e. is it just my graphics that’s out of date or is the whole rest of system getting tired?

Thanks!

Case
BE QUIET! DARK BASE PRO 900 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Custom Liquid Cooling Kit
Liquid Series High Kit - EK
Tubing
Clear Hardline Acrylic Tubing (Black Fittings)
Graphics Card Cooling
GPU Water Block - For Two Identical Graphics Cards!
Coolant Colour
Mayhems Pastel UV White
LED Lighting
2 x 50cm UV LED Strip
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Six Core (3.7GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG MAXIMUS X HERO: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
Graphics Card
11GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2100MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Braided Power Supply Cables
CORSAIR Premium Individually Sleeved PSU Cable Kit Pro - White/Black
Thermal Paste
EK-TIM ECTOTHERM THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
 
The whole system is getting on, but a 8700K near 5 Ghz can still play pretty much everything.

If you went for e.g. a 4070 Ti Super, you could just carry it over to the new CPU/motherboard, as and when you need it.
 
Tetras said:
The whole system is getting on, but a 8700K near 5 Ghz can still play pretty much everything.

If you went for e.g. a 4070 Ti Super, you could just carry it over to the new CPU/motherboard, as and when you need it.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. I kind of suspected as much….

The problem I have is the cost of adding a graphics card is not just limited to the card.

I have a full custom liquid cooling loop and that would have to be reworked I believe to incorporate a new card.

And I’m not talented enough to do that myself!

Probably better getting a new system and seeing what I can recoup from selling the old one…
 
tanjianx said:
Probably better getting a new system and seeing what I can recoup from selling the old one…
Click to expand...
It is not a bad time to do it, you could keep the storage, case and the PSU. Not worth keeping the memory (especially if your current system is unstable), but technically you could if you went 12th-14th gen.
 
mickyflinn said:
Are you sure it's graphics card that causing the crash As it could be an unstable Overclock ?
Click to expand...
No if I’m being honest I have no idea what is causing the crashes.

I’m not hugely PC literate TBH.

I looked up the most common error code and it seemed to be related to the graphics card.

How would I find out?
 
tanjianx said:
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Six Core (3.7GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Click to expand...

That's an unfortunate CPU. The thing is that 8th gen is the cusp of Rebar support. Some motherboards will support it with a BIOS update and others will not. Rebar is the in thing for new GPUs.

But your 1080 Tis are still decent cards.

The first thing I'd do is flush the loop. You'll need distilled water. You may find that the cold plates of your CPU and GPUs need cleaning - use a toothbrush.
 
tanjianx said:
No if I’m being honest I have no idea what is causing the crashes.

I’m not hugely PC literate TBH.

I looked up the most common error code and it seemed to be related to the graphics card.

How would I find out?
Click to expand...
Set the pc the default in the bios and see if crashes occur but there may be a few things you have to set also.

There should be an Overclock profile saved in the bios on the motherboard but if your unsure best to leave it.

Another thing is to check Temps and could also download and run memtest.
 
Quartz said:
That's an unfortunate CPU. The thing is that 8th gen is the cusp of Rebar support. Some motherboards will support it with a BIOS update and others will not. Rebar is the in thing for new GPUs.

But your 1080 Tis are still decent cards.

The first thing I'd do is flush the loop. You'll need distilled water. You may find that the cold plates of your CPU and GPUs need cleaning - use a toothbrush.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice.

I wish I had that sort of technical know how to do all that!

In hindsight buying a closed loop cooling system was beyond my capability of maintaining.
 
mickyflinn said:
Set the pc the default in the bios and see if crashes occur but there may be a few things you have to set also.

There should be an Overclock profile saved in the bios on the motherboard but if your unsure best to leave it.

Another thing is to check Temps and could also download and run memtest.
Click to expand...
Ok that’s some good advice.

Thanks.
 
tanjianx said:
I wish I had that sort of technical know how to do all that!
Click to expand...

It's the sort of thing a PC shop should be able to do for you quite quickly and inexpensively. And they'll have gallons of distilled water to hand. You should have them repaste the GPU and CPU waterblocks too: at 6 years old the thermal paste will likely be needing a refresh too.

Another item due for replacement is the CMOS battery (they generally last 5 years) but see below.

mickyflinn said:
Set the pc the default in the bios and see if crashes occur but there may be a few things you have to set also.
Click to expand...

Before doing this, save the current settings if possible. Dialling in an overclock can take a lot of time so you want to save yourself that trouble.
 
tanjianx said:
It’s a big hunk o’ junk in 2024!
Click to expand...
If it is fully functional, it isn't. The crypto boom made GPU performance improvements very slow (and very expensive), especially since the 1080 Ti has been such a good long-term buy and it was only with 12th gen onwards that Intel made significant improvements to their gaming performance.

A single 1080 Ti is equivalent to a 660x0 XT or 3060 (still capable of playing pretty much any game at 1080p), so if the SLI actually works it would have strong performance against modern cards.

The i7-8700K is dated and gets eaten for breakfast by a 14700K or 7800X3D, BUT at nearly 5 Ghz it is plenty competitive with 9th-11th gen and Ryzen 2000/3000, so you need a very demanding game, or a high-end graphics card to show it up.
 
Tetras said:
If it is fully functional, it isn't. The crypto boom made GPU performance improvements very slow (and very expensive), especially since the 1080 Ti has been such a good long-term buy and it was only with 12th gen onwards that Intel made significant improvements to their gaming performance.

A single 1080 Ti is equivalent to a 660x0 XT or 3060 (still capable of playing pretty much any game at 1080p), so if the SLI actually works it would have strong performance against modern cards.

The i7-8700K is dated and gets eaten for breakfast by a 14700K or 7800X3D, BUT at nearly 5 Ghz it is plenty competitive with 9th-11th gen and Ryzen 2000/3000, so you need a very demanding game, or a high-end graphics card to show it up.
Click to expand...
Hmmm maybe worth getting someone competent to look at it.
 
tanjianx said:
Hmmm maybe worth getting someone competent to look at it.
Click to expand...

Yes. It will take a professional perhaps an hour to service your PC. This is something they will have done many times before. Absent them discovering something major, of course.
 
Quartz said:
Yes. It will take a professional perhaps an hour to service your PC. This is something they will have done many times before. Absent them discovering something major, of course.
Click to expand...
Thanks again for your comments.

Going to try a full service before anything else.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom