Upgrading some or all?

revrondo

revrondo

revrondo

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Joined
26 May 2004
Posts
237
Location
Mansfield UK
Do I upgrade some or all of this PC, Its getting a little sluggish with many things and wont play many games very good. I dont intend to play loads but would would at least like the option to. I need an HDMI 2.1 card because its hooked up to a 65 inch Samsung Neo QLED and I'm having problems with video on some films/youtube and I think its becuase its only an HDMI 2.0 GPU. I need the optical drive to work buts its a non replaceable HP one. Ive also just bought a Fractal Design Define R6 case to house everything in.

What are my options with £850-£1500 to throw at it please?

Specs atm

i5-7400 CPU
2x8GB 2400MHz RAM
GTX 1060 GPU
Samsung 961 128GB NVMe HDD plus storage HDD
All on some HP branded crappy Mobo with few options
Stuck in some crappy dust magnet case with a broken Optical drive.

Cheers Steve
 
Depends entirely on how much you want to spend, what your issue is with the Samsung 65 inch, and what your plans are going forward?

1. To solve the optical drive problem, you can get a slimline usb DVD drive for £30, this will work with your current PC, and could be carried forward to a new PC/case (as most "good" cases these days don't have internal optical drive bays)

2. You could get a new graphics card that supports HDMI2.1, but if your not a big gamer or you only play older/less demanding titles your 1060 may still be fine (especially if it's a 6GB model rather than 3GB)
In which case ...

3. A new processor (and consequently motherboard), can give you the option to use onboard graphics that support HDMI 2.1.
Even if you did want a newer graphics card, it's likely the i5-7400 would be a bit of a bottleneck (with only 4 cores/4 threads), so I've specced a 6 Core/12 Thread CPU below. A new processor may help with the slow performance depending on what games you are playing, as some are now moving beyond 4 threads.

4. You will need a new PSU, as the HP one will likely be proprietary, and if not probably isn't high enough wattage for a decent graphics card. I've specced a 750W model below with a 10 year warranty, so should be good for a while.

5. You would need to pick a nvme drive (capacity depending on budget), a case (personal preference), and ideally an aftermarket cpu cooler, but you could retain your existing DDR4 RAM (and replace with a faster 32GB kit at a later date)/Graphics card (replace at a later date if required) and maybe hard drive.




My basket at OcUK:

Total: £467.05 (includes delivery: £11.10)​






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I'm having problems with video on some films/youtube
Click to expand...
What issues exactly?

Could be a bad HDMI cable but I doubt it if you’ve got a very decent TV.

Would you make use of any encoding or decoding that would keep you on Nvidia?

I like the 12400 build above, I’d just add new ram (might as well with the price of ram being so low) and an Nvidia 3060.

I’m surprised you don’t want an ITX build since it’s next to a TV.
 
JollyJamma said:
What issues exactly?

Could be a bad HDMI cable but I doubt it if you’ve got a very decent TV.

Would you make use of any encoding or decoding that would keep you on Nvidia?

I like the 12400 build above, I’d just add new ram (might as well with the price of ram being so low) and an Nvidia 3060.

I’m surprised you don’t want an ITX build since it’s next
Click to expand...
Armageus said:
Depends entirely on how much you want to spend, what your issue is with the Samsung 65 inch, and what your plans are going forward?

1. To solve the optical drive problem, you can get a slimline usb DVD drive for £30, this will work with your current PC, and could be carried forward to a new PC/case (as most "good" cases these days don't have internal optical drive bays)

2. You could get a new graphics card that supports HDMI2.1, but if your not a big gamer or you only play older/less demanding titles your 1060 may still be fine (especially if it's a 6GB model rather than 3GB)
In which case ...

3. A new processor (and consequently motherboard), can give you the option to use onboard graphics that support HDMI 2.1.
Even if you did want a newer graphics card, it's likely the i5-7400 would be a bit of a bottleneck (with only 4 cores/4 threads), so I've specced a 6 Core/12 Thread CPU below. A new processor may help with the slow performance depending on what games you are playing, as some are now moving beyond 4 threads.

4. You will need a new PSU, as the HP one will likely be proprietary, and if not probably isn't high enough wattage for a decent graphics card. I've specced a 750W model below with a 10 year warranty, so should be good for a while.

5. You would need to pick a nvme drive (capacity depending on budget), a case (personal preference), and ideally an aftermarket cpu cooler, but you could retain your existing DDR4 RAM (and replace with a faster 32GB kit at a later date)/Graphics card (replace at a later date if required) and maybe hard drive.




My basket at OcUK:

Total: £467.05 (includes delivery: £11.10)​

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Click to expand...
TV has specific settings for PC's that limit options ....it only gives Entertain and Graphics mode, the fix is to trick it and label the input as something else and then I get Movie mode and Filmmaker mode but this causes the juddering and as far as I can tell its the 2.0 not being able to cope with bandwidth. Cable is certified 2.1 plus tried other certified.

Just personal preference over the yrs with Nvidia. No other reason.

Prefer bigger cases and have just got this Fractal Design Define R6 and absolutely love it, especially the filters all around and this does have an optical drive bay too.

Yeah do need a bigger NVMe drive as this one is only 128
 
Switched to a 12400F CPU because you won't in integrated graphics.

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £1,040.94 (includes delivery: £11.10)​









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Thank for the replies so far. This is what ive decided so far. Im going to get an i7 with onboard GPU and want a Z690 board mainly because I want as many USB on the back as I can get (9 +), unless I can find a decent 660 board with 9+ . cheers Steve :)
 
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Why are people advising slim optical external drives when you have a superb Fractal Define R6 case with a full size optic bay allowing you to buy a superior internal optic drive. The mind boggles.

Also not seeing a lot of detail on actual use, so far its Netflix and Youtube and some movies with light casual gaming and not sure why so many, but 9 usb ports?


You can get a USB hub if its charging a phone collection. If it is 9 devices you PC runs I see the point.

So far though not seen much needing more than an i3 with 16gb of memory utilising a 650w psu and up to an RTX 3060. Plus a real optic drive.
 
sastusbulbas said:
Why are people advising slim optical external drives when you have a superb Fractal Define R6 case with a full size optic bay allowing you to buy a superior internal optic drive. The mind boggles.
Click to expand...

Because I didn't bother to check that that case had an optical drive bay (given that 99% don't now), and a usb option would also work for his current PC
 
usage would be photoshop/editing, casual gaming, newsgroup downloading, plex and server, lots of file transfers to friends, office stuff, multitask browsing. But do want to play more games soon. Yeah I thought that with the optical drive, since i mentioned the drive bay, I want the USB ports because I've quite a few usb hdd's plus friends bring theirs too a few times a week and I just dont want a hub if i can get away without one. The i7 cos Ive never gone lower than i5 and just cant do it. i know i would regret an i3.
 
revrondo said:
The i7 cos Ive never gone lower than i5 and just cant do it. i know i would regret an i3.
Click to expand...
Latest i3 12100 has 4cores/8 threads and is 30% quicker than your i5 :)

Personally I'd stick with the i5 12400, it has 12 threads which will be ideal for some of your use case, and there is little benefit to the i7 unless your gaming heavily.
 
revrondo said:
and want a Z690 board mainly because I want as many USB on the back as I can get (9 +),
Click to expand...

I was the same a decade or more ago but realised that this is a mistake. Get yourself a hub or two instead. This will reduce wear on the motherboard ports and make organising your peripherals much easier. You will then have one USB cable going to the hub on your monitor, one going to your UPS, and one to a multiport USB hub like this one.
 
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