So I finally got a GPU - New build or upgrade?

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Hi,

I've held of upgrading because getting a GPU is difficult, but I finally got a 3080TI arrive this morning, and now puts to to wondering which option to take. Do I drop it into my existing system, or build a new one.

The complexity I have, is this was a pre-built system, and I don't know how to change the water cooling. reservoir -> CPU-> GPU-> reservoir. I guess you drain the system (not sure how), unscrew fittings from CPU/GPU, buy+cut a new pipe, put existing fixing on new pipe, connect the new pipe to CPU and reservoir. Buy and re-fill with new coolant. That should bypass the existing GPU allowing it to just slot in.

I do get some CPU spikes when doing my work (I may it 100% CPU for 6-7 seconds at a time), but I wouldn't say its holding me back per say.

Usage: Work (programming, and I do use over 16GB ram), photo editing, the odd video render to blu-ray + gaming (4 hours a week).

Current PC (From 2014) cost ~£2.5k

CPU - Intel i7-6900K
RAM - 32GB - 4x8GB DDR4 2666 Vengence
GPU - EVGA 1080GTX
MOBO - Asus ROG STRIX X99 GAMING
PSU - Corsair RM Series RM850 850W
Case - OBSIDIAN 750D FULL TOWER CASE
Monitor - 34 Asus PG348Q 100hz 3440x1440 - (also added 2x4K LG 27UL600)
Cooling - Custom loop on CPU + GPU with a 360MM radiator.

New Build (Excluding the GPU which cost £1k)

My basket at Overclockers UK:
1 x RYZEN 9 5900X TWELVE CORE 4.8GHZ (SOCKET AM4) PROCESSOR - RETAIL - Retail= £529.99
1 x MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £159.95
1 x BALLISTIX RGB 32GB(2X16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHZ DUAL CHANNEL KIT = £188.99
1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99
1 x Corsair RM Series RM850 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020196-UK)= £89.99
1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer II High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm= £99.95
1 x OBSIDIAN 750D AIRFLOW FULL TOWER CASE - BLACK = £142.99

Total: £1,317.51

I'm not set on the RAM, Mobo, or CPU cooler so happy to swap them around.

So question is do I
#1 - Just fit the GPU into the current build, and wait 2 years for DDR5 to settle down and upgrade then, taking the GPU with me.
#2 - Go for a new build now, then upgrade again in ~6 years time as usual.

The drawback of upgrading, is if I somehow knacker the water cooling, I won't have a PC to use for work, which is problematic.

Edit - Added Mobo to existing build
- Changed the ram from Patriot Viper Steel 32GB (2X16GB) to BALLISTIX RGB 32GB(2X16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHZ DUAL CHANNEL KIT
 
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Your current system will run it fairly well, might choke it slightly if your aim is low res high fps.

Your proposed system is very nice you should look at the MSI B550 gaming edge / gaming carbon they are similar to the tomahawk but have added wifi instead of two ethernet ports, carbon has more usb on the io panel
 
Your current system will run it fairly well, might choke it slightly if your aim is low res high fps.

Your proposed system is very nice you should look at the MSI B550 gaming edge / gaming carbon they are similar to the tomahawk but have added wifi instead of two ethernet ports, carbon has more usb on the io panel
Thanks for the feedback. I'm leaning more to making a new build, so that I don't mess up my current one which I use for work atm.

I find motherboards to be really confusing nowadays, it used to be quite simple but they now have so many features, and the cost can be £50 to £400, so quite a lot of variety. Other than endless scrolling at spec's is there a good way to find a motherboard to use?
 
Your old pc is worrh quite a lot especially the Gpu so potentially a cheap upgrade .

Ddr5 for AMD wont be till 2022, Alderlake intel will be later this year with ddr5 . So really depends if your upgrading for work or gaming if gaming then your old system is fine .
 
Not sure i would trust DDR5 being stable for the first 1-2 years of its release. I recall both DDR3 and DDR4 not being great at the initial release, and the price was high.
 
I run a different PC for games, so can understand your reasoning, but as an upgrade it doesn't hugely excite me. Will be more significant if you're running the CPU at stock.
 
I run a different PC for games, so can understand your reasoning, but as an upgrade it doesn't hugely excite me. Will be more significant if you're running the CPU at stock.

Its at stock now (3.2Ghz), but it was running around 4.0Ghz if I recall, then I reset the bios and lost the settings. I should go back in and push it up again, just not got around to it.

I suppose a 3rd option, is just to return the 3080TI and wait another 2 years.
 
With Alderlake coming towards the end of this year and rumoured to be 25% faster single core over ryzen 5000 and AM5 supposedly the first half of next year which should be as fast if not faster than Alderlake then there isn't to long to wait.
 
With Alderlake coming towards the end of this year and rumoured to be 25% faster single core over ryzen 5000 and AM5 supposedly the first half of next year which should be as fast if not faster than Alderlake then there isn't to long to wait.

And that was my plan initially, but I managed to get a gpu yesterday which arrived this morning. I'm not going to leave it boxed up unused for more than a month.

As above, one option is to say, now's not the right time, send it back and wait. But there is always something around the corner. New GPU is every 2-3 years, CPUs every 12 months, etc. And DDR5 will take atleast 2 years to settle down.
 
#1 - Just fit the GPU into the current build, and wait 2 years for DDR5 to settle down and upgrade then, taking the GPU with me.

This. You still have a good CPU. You'll need a waterblock specific to your card. You've paid over £1,000 for your card so if you're not confident of fitting it yourself, just pay someone to do it for you. Waterblocks tend to have their holes in the same place so it should be a straightforward swap.

I guess you drain the system (not sure how),

You really should have refreshed the fluid sometime in the past 7 years. All sorts of gunk has probably built up. Take the opportunity to have the loop flushed and cleaned.

The drawback of upgrading, is if I somehow knacker the water cooling, I won't have a PC to use for work, which is problematic.

Ah, read-ahead mode was off! If your PC is business-critical that changes everything. Your proposed build is fine and will leave you with your old PC as a hot spare. You should still have the old PC's loop flushed and cleaned once your new PC is up and running.
 
This. You still have a good CPU. You'll need a waterblock specific to your card. You've paid over £1,000 for your card so if you're not confident of fitting it yourself, just pay someone to do it for you. Waterblocks tend to have their holes in the same place so it should be a straightforward swap.

You really should have refreshed the fluid sometime in the past 7 years. All sorts of gunk has probably built up. Take the opportunity to have the loop flushed and cleaned.

Ah, read-ahead mode was off! If your PC is business-critical that changes everything. Your proposed build is fine and will leave you with your old PC as a hot spare. You should still have the old PC's loop flushed and cleaned once your new PC is up and running.

The last GPU I dismantled was a GeForce 6xxx ultra, from somewhere before 2010 I think. It was fiddly, but it didn't bother me. Brought down my temps from 115 to 70, due to dust clogged in the heatsink.

I wasn't aware the loop needed a flush, just looking online several people do it every 6 months, and I'm currently running at 84 months without a flush/refill. As much as I like water cooling, the faff of it is why I went down the pre-built route, but without the experience, I chose not to touch it. The liquid in it is still as white as it was the day it was made, and its probably only dropped 1cm in water level within the reservoir.

If the PC stopped working, I could fall back to a laptop as a crutch, but realistically I would be looking to losing £300-600 a day until it was fixed.
In the last 7 years, I've only had to (well choose to) format the PC once, which I did in the evening to avoid downtime. I can write off the upgrade as a business expense anyway.

Sounds like a new build is probably better, and use the old one as a means to learn about how to maintain the water cooling, should I do it myself in the future.
 
The last GPU I dismantled was a GeForce 6xxx ultra, from somewhere before 2010 I think. It was fiddly, but it didn't bother me. Brought down my temps from 115 to 70, due to dust clogged in the heatsink.

I wasn't aware the loop needed a flush, just looking online several people do it every 6 months, and I'm currently running at 84 months without a flush/refill. As much as I like water cooling, the faff of it is why I went down the pre-built route, but without the experience, I chose not to touch it. The liquid in it is still as white as it was the day it was made, and its probably only dropped 1cm in water level within the reservoir.

If the PC stopped working, I could fall back to a laptop as a crutch, but realistically I would be looking to losing £300-600 a day until it was fixed.
In the last 7 years, I've only had to (well choose to) format the PC once, which I did in the evening to avoid downtime. I can write off the upgrade as a business expense anyway.

Sounds like a new build is probably better, and use the old one as a means to learn about how to maintain the water cooling, should I do it myself in the future.
£300-£600 a day? And the new PC costs £1300? Seems hardly worth a debate to me, you could do with a decent spare anyway.
 
£300-£600 a day? And the new PC costs £1300? Seems hardly worth a debate to me, you could do with a decent spare anyway.

Yeah, in times of Covid, I use my own equipment 100% of the time, rather than say 10% of the time. As a crutch I can work on laptop (I have 2, + 1 personal), and dock it, so can still use a bigger screen but will slow me down compared to dedicated equipment.
 
Thank you for the advice.

Just noticed the 750D case is quite old. Its also massive, but I already have it, so size isn't an issue.

Did some digging and came up with these.

https://pangoly.com/en/compare/case...a5b6f281,984be17e-ee00-eb11-828e-12c3a5b6f281

  • Corsair 750D
  • Corsair 5000D Airflow
  • Fractal Meshify 2
  • Lian Li LanCool 2 Mesh

I'm thinking the Fractual Meshify 2 is a good choice, with the HDD caddy removed, will fit a 3080 without an issue, and leave room for a 3rd front fan.
 
If the PC stopped working, I could fall back to a laptop as a crutch, but realistically I would be looking to losing £300-600 a day until it was fixed.
If downtime costs that much, you should definitely have PC without "which part starts misbehaving first from age and wear" risk.
Especially that waterpipe cooler is extra risk over usual aging of parts:
In heatpipe coolers only part which can fail is fan, whose failure doesn't cause complete 100% loss of cooling.
In waterpipe cooler most failure modes lead to total loss of cooling.


Just noticed the 750D case is quite old.
Would rank it better than pretty much all current cases raped by fashion.
5.25" bays give upgrading choises for new connectors etc.
Also without functionally useless compartments installing parts is easy on big open space.
 
I would imagine the sale of your current PC would offset the cost of your new build quite nicely. Recent times have been great for used PC values.
 
If downtime costs that much, you should definitely have PC without "which part starts misbehaving first from age and wear" risk.
Especially that waterpipe cooler is extra risk over usual aging of parts:
In heatpipe coolers only part which can fail is fan, whose failure doesn't cause complete 100% loss of cooling.
In waterpipe cooler most failure modes lead to total loss of cooling.


Would rank it better than pretty much all current cases raped by fashion.
5.25" bays give upgrading choises for new connectors etc.
Also without functionally useless compartments installing parts is easy on big open space.

The downtime cost has only been since covid, as I work from home full time, it makes sense to have a backup and something that's quick to repair. I did add a soundcard at one point and it took way longer than expected due to water cooling pipes in the way.

Interesting what you say about cases. Foolishly I assumed newer cases would be better, as they have over time added useful features like removable trays, dust collectors, modern usb c connectors.

I certainly like a big case to give it good airflow and room to work.
 
Interesting what you say about cases. Foolishly I assumed newer cases would be better, as they have over time added useful features like removable trays, dust collectors, modern usb c connectors.
Marketroids have been only taking away flexibility and upgradability.
I myself have 13 years old case (Lian Li PC-A71B) and looks like I'll be stuck on it, because every new cas has had too many negatives.
(already weight would be lot higher in cases with similar room, because of no more Alu cases)

It's this easy to add USB-C even to 20 years old case if it just has 5.25" bay:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/akas...-front-bay-for-usb-2.0-3.0-3.1-hd-059-ak.html
Pretty sure there are other similar devices available.
 
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