Suspect PSU & General Upgrade Musings

Associate
Joined
22 Aug 2003
Posts
766
Location
Bucks
Hi everyone, I have an ancient 2500k system as in my signature. It's been overclocked to 4.5Ghz pretty much since the day I put it together about 9 or 10 years ago, so I guess it's probably done it's job.

I had loads of blue screens in the summer, ran mem test and after about 36 hours of fault-free testing, it suddenly threw up loads of memory errors. So I replaced the ram.

It then started giving me disk errors recently, running incredibly sluggishly, insisting on disk-checking for consistency on startup etc. So I replaced the main hard drive. This has not improved anything and I've been having more disk errors since trying (unsuccessfully) to get windows up & running properly over the last couple of days.

I've just noticed that my truly ancient dvd drive, as well as not spinning up when it should, is making the odd, very faint, fizzing sound occasionally (sounds like electrical fizzing lol). This is obviously not good if it is what I suspect it is!

So I'm now thinking my system issues could be down to a worn out PSU...?

Question 1
If I upgrade to a new pc I'll have to buy a new PSU anyway. Will a modern PSU work with my old pos system? If so, is there one you'd recommend to replace my Corsair 650W yet that would still give me complete system upgrade options in case I need to bite the bullet?

Question 2
Would a budget somewhere in the region of £1200 - 1500 fund an upgrade to something capable of driving my Quest 2?
I would need everything except mouse & keyboard. I could reuse my monitor but it's old and quite low resolution by modern standards.
My recently acquired 860 evo SSD could be used as a spare storage drive perhaps. I know there's much quicker SSDs that I could use for the OS.
The budget could possibly increase slightly to include a decent monitor (not fussed about 4k).
Will need WiFi in there too.

Any advice would be most greatfully received
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Nov 2007
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7,925
Location
Deepest Darkest Essex!!
OK, buy this.

R5 3600 is a good CPU for its price right now. don't delay buying one, at that price as OCUK has priced it as high as £230. Others will say get the 5600x but its another £150. I'm not paying that for another 20% odd performance increase.
B550 motherboards will take all the 3rd & 4th gen Ryzen CPU's available now with good cooling. (I've put a good price performance cooler in)
Keep the GTX 970 for now as new GFX cards you have to wait for or get scalped elsewhere.
PSU should set you up for another 10 years unless you want a new top end GFX card.


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £587.01 (includes shipping: £11.10)​
 
Associate
OP
Joined
22 Aug 2003
Posts
766
Location
Bucks
Thanks Grimley

Quick question before I start ordering -would those components you spec'd form the basis of a system that could power my Quest 2 later down the line (I know my gpu is hopelessly out of date for that), or would you tweak anything there now for future VR compatibility?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
22 Jun 2006
Posts
11,387
Question 1
If I upgrade to a new pc I'll have to buy a new PSU anyway. Will a modern PSU work with my old pos system? If so, is there one you'd recommend to replace my Corsair 650W yet that would still give me complete system upgrade options in case I need to bite the bullet?
It'll work fine. If you're planning to go high-end for the GPU (which you might be, at the top of your budget) I'd get a bigger one than what you have now.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2008
Posts
11,616
Location
Finland
While breaking up motherboard could start giving errors everywhere, I'm not sure if it could make DVD drive do those noises.
Guess some erroneous communication could cause drive to try to do something crazy.
Everything with mechanical moving parts like motors is natively capable to generating sounds:
http://silent.org.pl/home/2016/07/06/return-of-the-floppies/


OK so something like an 850W Corsair TX-850M or an ASUS ROG STRIX 850W?
Corsair TX is kinda mid level paltform with semi modular cabling and 7 year warranty.
Asus again adds clear gaming hype overprice.
For example Phanteks would be clearly better priced.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phan...old-modular-power-combo-supply-ca-08a-pt.html
 
Associate
OP
Joined
22 Aug 2003
Posts
766
Location
Bucks
Thanks everyone for your input. I went with Grimley's spec but decided to go for the overpriced ASUS ROG psu (only because it appears to be in stock here).

I also treated myself to a new Phantek P400 Air case -my Antec's about 20 years old!
I'm wondering if it's going to be a bit "blingy" & noisy for me but it'll do for now I guess....
 
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