PC upgrade suggestions - need some advice

[james73]

Hello all.

A few months ago I started the long process of upgrading my ancient PC. When I say
ancient, I really mean it - the cpu is an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ and the motherboard
is an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe with 2Gb PC3200 RAM, and a ATI Radeon X1950 Pro GPU.


I bought a 120Gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD drive and two 2Tb Western Digital HDDs.
In order to use the WD drives as per my longer-term plan, I had to buy a cheap PCI
RAID card, so they are in RAID1 - the ASUS board only has two SATA connectors.
I also had to buy two SATA-IDE convertors to use my two DVD-R drives. So, my
current hard drive configuration is as follows:

Samsung EVO SSD
C: - 60Gb Win7
D: - 60Gb WinXP
------------
2 x WD 2Tb HDD in RAID1 (VIA VT6421A PCI card)
E: - 650Gb "Data"
F: - 250Gb "Programs"
G: - 1Tb "Games"
------------
Y: - DVD-R
Z: - DVD-R


My case is a 12-year old Chieftec Tower case, which I've recently changed from
beige to black. It has 6 case fans, 3 front and 3 back.


Very recently, I've just managed to get a new graphics card for a great price, it's a
Radeon Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor-X 3GB GDDR5. So, I'm looking for advice on which
CPU, mobo and RAM to buy. Ideally, I'm looking for value for money, "bang for buck"
as it were.


Currently I'm thinking of:

CPU - AMD FX-8350
Mobo - ASUS M5A97 EVO R2.0
RAM - 16Gb (but I dont know which type to get)
CPU cooler - ??? (no idea here, but the stock cooler looks a bit basic to me)


Requirements:

• The mobo must have at least one old PCI slot for my current soundcard. I'm a
  bit of a hi-fi nut and my current Creative sound card produces very good results
  when I record directly from my vinyl set-up to the PC, and I'm a pupil of the school
  of "if it aint broke, dont fix it..."
• Whilst I'm not an up-to-date gamer, I still want the PC to handle recent games
  without any major hassles. My current monitors max. resolution is 1280x1024 and I'm
  not planning to upgrade it anytime soon, so bear that in mind.
• I do a lot of photo, video and sound editing, so that's why I'm looking at 16Gb of
  RAM. I also want to do more Virtual PC work, so the more RAM the better.
• Despite the name of this forum, I'm not really into overclocking components,
  especially the CPU.

Can anyone give a few pointers on the choices I've suggested above?

Also, will my current RAID1 configuration transfer ok to a new mobo or am I looking at
major headaches on the horizon? The PCI SATA card I'm using just now is a VIA VT6421A
chipset and is working perfectly, but I've never moved RAID drives over from one controller
to another. Obviously, the VIA VT6421A PCI card will be sold when it's no longer needed.



Thanks in advance
James H

 

[james73]

Do you have a budget in mind?

Well, I suppose the components I've listed hint at the sort of budget I have in
mind. But, I'm open to suggestions if you think it would be better if I pushed the
boat out a bit further? I also dont mind buying a motherboard, for example, and
then waiting until next pay day to buy a CPU, etc. As I said, I already have a new
graphics card, and it's sitting in it's big shiny box looking at me as if it's someone
elses christmas present!

I'm not a "fan boy" of any particular brand of CPU for example, but it just seems to
me that AMDs top CPUs are offering a wee bit better value for money for someone
like me with the requirements I have.



James H

 

[james73]

Thanks for that, Idleman.

The 8350 is'nt worth the extra over the 8320.

Really? Why not?

You will need to check the clearance in your case to see if the cooler will fit.

It's an old case, but it's a damn big case. I'll check this out. I used to hate fans that were all multi-coloured
as they seemed to be poorly manufactured. Things seemed to have changed for the better.



James H

 

[james73]

Thanks for all the replies.

Whilst I think Idlemans suggestion of the Gigabyte 970A-UD3P AMD 970 Mobo vs my
own initial choice of the ASUS M5A97 EVO R2.0 Mobo has given me something to think
about, I forgot to ask about a new PSU.


Bear in mind it'll need to power:

5 x 80mm case fans
1 x 120mm case fan
1 x AMD CPU (assume AMD FX-8350)
1 x Mobo (assume Gigabyte 970A-UD3P)
2 x SATA DVD-R drives
2 x SATA3 2000Gb Western Digital HDDs
1 x SATA3 120Gb SSD Drive
1 x Radeon Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor-X 3GB GDDR5 Graphics card



Thanks in advance - again...
James H

 

[james73]

Just to update this thread (for anyone who cares)...

After a lot of humming and hawing I decided to go down the Intel road rather than the
AMD Socket AM3+ - I've read a lot of people, especially on this forum, point out that it's
a dead end of a product line. That put enough doubt in my head for me to jump ship, as
it were.

I've managed to get an i5-4670 and an Asus Z97-A for significantly less that they're being
sold on OC.

I've identified the Raijintek Themis CPU cooler and the Corsair CX 750W PSU as my
next purchases in the next few days. I've seen the PSU cheaper elsewhere but OC seem to
be just about the only place selling the Raijintek CPU coolers. Worth an email to OC to see
if they'll match the cheaper price?


That only leaves RAM. I originally wanted 16Gb but I might drop that down to 8Gb for the
moment as that would save me £60-70 in the short term. Any suggestions for a good match
for this motherboard?


So, that's almost all new parts bought. Along with my 1xSSD boot drive, 2x2Tb data storage
SATA3 drives, my Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty soundcard (which is staying
firmly in place) and the Radeon Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor-X 3GB GDDR5 GPU I bought already, I
reckon it's looking like a decent modern PC. Certainly more modern than my current AMD Athlon
XP3200+ based computer!


Any thoughts/hints & tips on the parts I've purchased?



YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £163.99
1 x Asus Z97-A Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 750W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020015-UK) £65.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm £19.99
Total : £366.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[james73]

Should have got a 4670K. You can't overclock the one you have and you wasted money on a Z97 board when a H81/B85 board would have done the job at £60 cheaper.

1. I'm not planning to overclock.

2. I got the Z97 board for £80, not OC's price of £107. I needed two old PCI slots on whichever
board I chose. Also, previous experience with Asus boards tipped the balance that way.

 

[james73]

Also the CX750 isn't a great PSU. Get either the EVGA G2/SuperFlower series, the CX series don't really have great internals compared to the slightly more expensive SuperFlower made units

Something like the Golden Green 550/650W or the NZXT Hale 550W would be excellent

Do you think a 550W PSU would be enough for all the components I have? Remember, I've got 6 case fans to power as well as all the parts.

 

[james73]

Just to close this off, I finally got my RAM and the system is now built.

- Asus Z97-A mobo
- Intel Core i5-4670 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor
- Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler
- TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Radeon Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor-X 3GB GDDR5 GPU
- SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" PSU

- Chieftec Dragon Full Tower Case
- Microsoft USB Comfort Mouse 4500
- Microsoft PS/2 keyboard

Drives
Samsung EVO SSD
C: - 60Gb Win7
D: - 60Gb Win??
------------
2 x WD 2Tb HDD in RAID1
E: - 650Gb "Data"
F: - 250Gb "Programs"
G: - 1Tb "Games"
------------
Y: - DVD-R
Z: - DVD-R


I got the TeamGroup Elite RAM for £80 new, so that was another saving, and
so I pushed the boat out a bit and went for the 650W PSU. After an embarrassing
noob mistake earlier (see the Motherboards section...) everything is up and running
and it's an amazing difference from what I was using just yesterday. I've just
put the side back on the case and the CPU is now sitting at 25-27°C with the
Raijintek Cooler fan only spinning at around 550RPM. My old faithful AMD Athlon
would be sitting at around 40°C (stock cooler) on a mild night like this.

Yet to test the CPU and GPU of course, but that'll happen soon. I did have the
idea of putting the 64bit version of XP on my D: partition (for one thing, I've
never used it) but it seems like a right rigmarole with the Z97 chipset so I might
just settle for a light install of Win7.

And to answer a question I asked at the start - setting up the RAID1 configuration
wiped out all data on my two WD drives. Bit of a ****er that, but transfering the
data back onto this rig is somewhat quicker than backing it up on the old one.


Thanks to all who offered advice. See you in another 10 years.

 

[james73]

Thanks to all who offered advice. See you in another 10 years.

Not quite 10 years, but not that far off either....


Looking for some more good advice.

Parts I will be replacing

- Asus Z97-A Motherboard
- Intel Core i5-4670 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor
- Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler
- TeamGroup Elite Black 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz
- SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" PSU
- Boot drive - Crucial MX500 1TB SATA SSD (will likely keep this as a backup drive)

Parts I will be keeping for now

- Radeon RX5700 GPU
- Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Soundcard
- Data drives - 2 off Crucial BX500 2TB SATA SSD in RAID1
- Chieftec Dragon Full Tower Case (with 6 case fans)



In terms of a new CPU I've decided I'm going to buy either a i5-13600K or a i7-13700K (I'll decide in due course) so my options will be dictated by this decision.



CPU cooler - I need an air cooler for the 13600K/13700K as there's nowhere to fit a water cooler unit in my case despite it's large size. It has no top vents either, so air cooling only.

Boot drive - I want a 1TB NVMe Gen4 SSD. I know there's lots of options at similar price points here so I think I can pick one myself but always open to suggestions.

Motherboard - Socket 1700 DDR5-ready board, (obviously) must fit all the components I have and the new ones to come and have RAID on board, etc. My last two boards have been ASUS and whilst I'm not a fanboy or anything, I'd be quite happy to have another BUT other suggestions welcome.

RAM - I want DDR5, 2 x 16GB. Not sure about speeds, will depend on CPU + motherboard I assume.

PSU - My current SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" PSU has been fine the entire time I've had it, but I'm thinking it's now about 8 years old and I think replacing it during this big upgrade might be a wise move. I was thinking of a 750W or 850W unit but, again, there's so many options at this price point. I have 6 case fans so need a PSU to account for them. They're all molex connectors from memory although I do have extension leads and molex to SATA power adaptors.

Possible PCI SATA card - I have the 2 SATA SSD data drives, but I also have a DVD drive, an old 2TB HDD inside the case that I use to back up my data, a 4TB external HDD that is also connected via a SATA cable out the back of the case also for backups, and I'll probably keep my current 1TB SSD boot drive for now. The need for a PCI SATA card will depend on the motherboard chosen as I know some current boards only have 4 SATA ports whereas others have 6.


Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[james73]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've now bought the WD SN770 1TB as £70 is a good price. Of the 3 motherboards you suggested I'm veeering towards the ASRock Z790 Riptide as it has everything I need and the 8 SATA connections negate the need for a PCI SATA card.

Still needing to decide on the rest.

 

[james73]

Thanks to some suggestions by Tetras, so far I've bought:

Boot drive - WD_BLACK 1TB SN770 M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 NVMe

RAM - Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5600 (PC5-44800) C36 1.25V

PSU - Corsair RM850 850 Watt 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply


Still welcoming suggestions for the following items: (remember, the CPU will be either a i5-13600K or a i7-13700K)

Motherboard - Tetras suggested 3 mobos but the one that stuck out was the ASRock Z790 Riptide as it has 8 SATA connectors & and a PCIe-1 slot, which will take care of my
current components without the need for any additional PCI cards. I think the ASRock Z790 Riptide is a good choice, so can anyone make a case for another mobo??


CPU cooler - Tetras suggested the Scythe FUMA 2 cooler but also asked whether or not it would fit. The answer to this is, I don't really know!

Here's my current Raijintek Themis CPU Cooler sitting on top of my i5-4670 (excuse the mess of cables, I'll be tidying this up big time... )

The Raijintek Themis is (WxDxH) 127×75×155 mm. I think the Scythe FUMA 2 might fit, as long as it doesn't foul the GPU if it is placed in the PCIe slot immediately below? Some pics
online of this cooler seem to show no GPU card immediately below it. I'm a bit confused by all this and whether or not my GPU would fit on the top PCIe slot on the ASRockZ790 mobo??

Also, I need an air cooler, end of. With my current i5-4670 CPU and 6 case fans, the CPU sits around 22-27°C idle.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[james73]

Honestly you need to get a new case.... seriously I've had one of those big old chieftec cases in the past (used to hold my dual athlon mp rig) and imo that will not cope with a current gen cpu.

Thanks, but can you provide evidence of how my case (with it's 6 case fans) won't "cope with a current gen cpu" when it's managed to keep my wee i5-4670 CPU under 30°C for 98+% of the time for the last 8 years? I look forward to your response with bated breath.

We've seen posts about people with overheating 13th gen intel in modern cases let alone a case from nearly 20 years ago.

Really? Can you provide links to these disasters please? Preferably with an example that's relevant to this thread. Thanks.

 

[james73]

Ok ok, I get the hints. Christ on a bike!

So, what new case would you guys recommend? I'd like a tower/tall case and I still want to use my DVD drive. Had a quick look online and there's a Be Quiet! tower case that looks decent.


And a new case will mean I could get an AIO water cooler for the CPU rather than an air cooler.

 

[james73]

Apologies if I was a bit short with anyone. No offence intended, it's just I felt like I was under a bit of an attack over my old case, something that has served me well and that I wasn't expecting to consider replacing. All opinions all are welcome.

I've been considering new cases and Overclockers have a few by Fractal Design. There's the Fractal Design Pop XL Silent Tempered Glass Full Tower (comes with 4x120mm fans £114) and the Fractal Design Define 7 XL Full-Tower (comes with 3x140mm fans £260). Has anyone got any opinions on either of these? The Fractal Design Define 7 XL Full-Tower is tempting to me as it's far more spacious and I intend to keep my next case for quite a while. Every penny's a prisoner, as far as I'm concerned....


I've decided that I'll be getting a i5-13600K CPU. Probably next month once Christmas is past.


So that just leaves suggestions for a motherboard - the ASRock Z790 Riptide is the current favourite - a new case, and a CPU cooler.

A new case will allow me to consider an AIO cooler as well as an air cooler.

The Fractal Design Pop XL Silent Tempered Glass Full Tower case can fit up to 6x120 mm or 5x140 mm fans and can fit a water cooler radiator up to 280mm long when using the 2x5.25" bays.

Whereas, the Fractal Design Define 7 XL Full-Tower can fit up to 9x140mm or 11x 20mm fans and can fit a water cooler radiator up to 360mm long when using the 2x5.25" bays. (As I said before I want to keep my DVD drive AND I also have a cheapo 5.25"-wide multi-card reader thingy. This is handy as I have a few different cards that I need to copy to and from).

I think the latter case, although huge and quite pricey, would possibly be better for using an air cooler on the CPU? I could buy the Scythe FUMA 2 and add some more case fans?


Any advance on the ASRock Z790 Riptide mobo, the Scythe FUMA 2 CPU cooler and the Fractal Design Define 7 XL Full-Tower case?


Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[james73]

Ok, so far I've bought:

Boot drive - WD_BLACK 1TB SN770 M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 NVMe

RAM - Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5600 (PC5-44800) C36 1.25V

PSU - Corsair RM850 850 Watt 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Case - Fractal Design Define 7 XL Full-Tower (with 3x140mm fans included)


What I will be buying when my xmas bonus comes in (unless I get a Clark Griswold Jelly of the Month club....

):

CPU - i5-13600K

Mobo - ASRock Z790 Riptide


Still welcoming suggestions for the following items:

CPU cooler - The Scythe FUMA 2 Rev B air cooler seems a good choice here.

BUT, looking at this page linked to by a member on this forum the best airflow for the Fractal Design Define 7 XL case was determined to be as shown in the image below. Basically 7x140mm case fans.

The Scythe FUMA 2 Rev B has 2x120mm fans included, so my question is what would a good AIO 280mm alternative to the Scythe FUMA 2 Rev B be?

A 280mm AIO would have 2x120mm fans already attached, so that might negate the need for the 2x140mm upward facing case fans as shown below.

3 or 4 off x 140mm case fans - This is dependant on ^the above question.


Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[james73]

Thanks mickyflinn.

I have zero interest in looks when it comes to this sort of thing. I just want the best performance I can get.

Also, I'm actually looking at 4 x 140mm fans at the front, 3 on the front & 1 on the bottom.

 

[james73]

Update, parts bought:

Boot drive - WD_BLACK 1TB SN770 M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 NVMe
RAM - Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5600 (PC5-44800) C36 1.25V
PSU - Corsair RM850 850 Watt 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Case - Fractal Design Define 7 XL Full-Tower (with 3x140mm non-PWM fans included)
CPU cooler - Scythe FUMA 2 Rev B
Extra case fans - 1 off 140mm non-PWM (same model as provided in the case) + 3 off 140mm PWM fans


What I will be buying:

CPU - i5-13600K
Mobo - ASRock Z790 Riptide

Some bits are already here so it's just a case of waiting to put it all together with my exisiting parts.


There is one other thing I'd ask for suggestions on and that's the placement of the case fans. I've now got 4-off Fractal Dynamic X2 GP-14 (1000 RPM) fans, and 3-off Fractal Dynamic X2 GP-14 PWM (500-1700 RPM) fans.

Initially, I thought putting the PWM fans at the bottom of the case would be best in case I need to draw more cold air in via increasing the PWM fans (A), but I was forgetting about the heat generated by the GPU and CPU so maybe (B) would be better to vent the hot air out the top and rear?



Any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[james73]

Are the fans identical other than the PWM? I think I'd go with A, so that you can have a stronger intake, if necessary, since the CPU cooler, PSU and graphics card will exhaust too.

Yes. The case includes 3-off Fractal Dynamic X2 GP-14 (1000 RPM) fans, and I bought a 4th one.

I forgot about the fact the GPU exhausts out the rear of the case. This is getting more confusing by the minute!!

 

[james73]

3 green fans at the front and move the bottom red fan to go under the gpu on top of the Psu shroud.

I don't think fans will fit on that section. At least, the manual makes no mention of placing fans there. And I'll be using the bottom PCI-e slot for my soundcard so a fan there might not fit.

 

[james73]

When you say "on the PSU shroud" I'm thinking you mean the area in red?? The manual says it has to go in the lower postion than that.

I can certainly put a 140mm fan more directly underneath the GPU, as shown, which is what you were suggesting. I'll have a clearer idea when I start to put all this together.