What would you upgrade of this setup?

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

Soldato
Joined
2 May 2011
Posts
12,338
Location
Woking
Morning chaps,

So I'm running the following and (obviously) have been for a number of years without any major issues. I'm about to move it into a mini-ITX build, so as I'll have to get a new motherboard I need to consider what else might need upgrading.

CPU: Intel 2500K @ 4.4 GHz CPU
RAM: 16 GB DDR3 dual-channel @ 1600 Mhz
MB: Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H (soon to go)
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G (overclocked a bit, more when water cooled)
SSD 1: 120 GB (IIRC) Kingston thing
SSD 2: 240 GB (IIRC) OCZ Agility

My first inclination is to upgrade the CPU, but I did a little bit of digging last night and if I stick with the LGA1155 socket, I'm not really going to get much more power for my money. Nor am I sure that I need it as I really just use my PC for gaming.

I know I can't afford to upgrade the GPU, so that's staying.

I am finding my storage quite annoying. I might actually change to a large M.2 drive (maybe 1 TB) and stop running two SSDs. I was also running an HDD for a while which had loads of stuff on it, and that seems to have perished, so I'd quite like to replace that.

So, any thoughts?

EDIT: just seen that this might be better off in the Upgrade section. Could a mod move it please?
 
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orbitalwalsh said:
What is your monitor resolution and Hz ?

What games are your key ones.. like say wanting to play new Flight sim which doesn't take advantage of more cores... Or new assassin's creed games which do eat up cores.

Straight away, 1TB SSD. M.2 also helps keep an ITX neat
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Monitor resolution is 1920 x 1080 and 60 Hz. Main games I suppose are Warzone right now, but in more normal times Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Skyrim, some other RPGs are mostly what I play.

Agreed, I think the M.2 has to be on there.
 
orbitalwalsh said:
Depends on your budget ?... Able to stretch to 8 core ryzen or 6 cores on intel with high overclock then should last you a long time .
GPU, would wait till Xmas for rest of range to be released and see how pricing comes around with current gen cards .
Intel still has lead with 1080p gaming but news if 11th Gen drops beginning of Sept .
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Budget is low. At a glance the M.2 is going to cost maybe £100, and a motherboard I could get second hand but I think it's still going to be £50-100. I

I'll also need a new PSU to fit into a tiny case, plus rads, fittings, tubing, pump, CPU block. I have the GPU block.

I'll be able to recover some money by selling what I have, but I reckon that'll only be in the order of £100-150.

What sort of price would I be looking at for either of those? Frankly, when I go and look for CPUs I have no idea what all the new stuff is. I'm still in 2011!
 
mickyflinn said:
What case do you have does it need a sfx psu ?

Why watercool ? Put the money to components.

3600 £180
16gb 3200mhz teamgroup ram £56
MSI B450I GAMING PLUS AC (SOCKET AM4) MINI-ITX MOTHERBOARD £110
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Interesting. I want to water cool to squeeze more out of the components I do have, particularly the GPU. I'm less fussed by the CPU as this seems to meet my needs.

I don't have a case yet but due to space in my "office", I want a much smaller computer. That in itself isn't expensive.

So you're suggesting I keep the GPU as-is, and upgrade more or less everything else. Seems like it would cost a similar amount....interesting.

Which CPU would you go for? I know you say 3600 but I believe there are quite a few different ones?
 
You may be right. What would you guys recommend for an M-ITX build then? I'm probably going to use the Ghost S1 and then try and cram some water cooling in somehow as well.

I guess I'll need a CPU, MB , RAM, PSU, M.2 drive, and a GPU. Ignoring the case...

I know it's the most sensible thing to do but I can't help but see the price just rocketing up into £6-800 which I definitely don't have. If I just change my motherboard and go small form factor with the watercooling, I can continue as I am with very little investment. Maybe just an M.2 drive and the watercooling kit for the GPU only.
 
chroniclard said:
Personally I think it all needs upgrading so you either do it bit by bit or save up and build a new rig. :)

Water cooling is a total waste money in this scenario for very little, if any, gains.
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I think I can get more out of my GPU though.

I know what you mean...initially I could just upgrade the MB and CPU I suppose, but that's still £300 and I might get £100 for my existing stuff.
 
So, my block arrived on Saturday. It seems fine but I can't test it yet as I don't have anything other than the block.

I've decided to go ahead with water cooling the GPU for now. I figure that I'll want to do it anyway with whatever system I build, whether it's the GPU, CPU, or just one of the two. At the moment I have an AIO for the CPU so I'll stick with that. But I will then have the basic kit for water cooling the whole system anyway, so I'm happy with that.

I bought one of these from eBay, a Magicool DCP450 pump and reservoir for £30. I'm planning to get the following plus hose clamps to complete the set up next month - buying bit by bit. I'm quite happy using hose clamps btw. I had a bad experience with the compression fittings in the past and they're rather expensive.

It's very confusing that a lot of these brands (or maybe it's just Magicool and EK) are using Imperial and others are using Metric for the fittings.

So this is what else I'm looking to order next month (sans hose clamps). Anything stupid here?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £61.58 (includes shipping: £9.90)​
​
 
XSPC G1/4" to 1/2" Barb Fitting (Matte Black)
WC-42B-XS
£2 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
XSPC FLX Tubing 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD (19/13mm) - 2m Clear
WC-46L-XS
£8 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Mayhems - PC Coolant - Ultra Pure H2O - High Purity, Low Electrical Conductivity, 1 Litre
WC-12R-MH
£10 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
hlennie said:
@dirtychinchlla 2nd hand rads bang some vinegar in them leave for a couple of hours flush with water check for leaks then leave to dry. to be honest all the stuff I have brought off the members market has been like new guys on here really look after their stuff. As to the fittings as long as they are G1/4 thread you should be all good.

Don't mix fittings, if u can, try and use the same make that's not to say that u can't but it looks nicer and less problems if one make is slightly loose or tight.

Forgot to mention msi afterburner can clock the 970 about 10% faster
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Will do, thanks for the tips. I have it overclocked already actually, but I'm not very happy with the temps.

LeMson said:
Forget the water cooling if your on a budget, you already have an AIO, ok

Cost of a 970 plus £60 on watercooling above you could have bought or nearly bought a 980ti. Your about 6 years late wcing a 970, and even then it was a daft idea as 980 was top card

Not sure what your gonna bios flash it to?
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The AIO is on the CPU. What you're forgetting is that I already have the 970. I think I've had it for about 4 years, so I'm not just going to buy a 980ti.

I found some info on how to BIOS flash this card, but it looks like mods may have edited it out as it's vanished. I won't post it again.

In my mind, it's worth the effort to be able to run the card at max, and also to be able to have the kit for when I do upgrade the whole system later this year. I'm keen to see the prices of the new 3000 series GPUs.
 
Plec said:
If you haven't seen them already:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/buy/

But no date/price for 3060 yet (not unusual for staggered release). But there will be high demand across range due to pricing and performance. But, there should be a glut of 2070/2080s soon second hand.
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Thanks for that. I somehow think I might be looking at the second hand releases! I guess it might be too early to tell, but would I be bottle necking my PC if I ran one of these cards with my old 2500k?
 
Plec said:
Yes, considerably, given the speed bump across the range (e.g. 3070 faster than a 2080Ti - so the 3060 'could' be on a par with the 2080 Super)

A second hand 2070 would be a sensible option when they start to hit the MM once the 3070 is released in October. Even that will be bottle necked but you won't notice - plus the hope is that the second hand price will be very competitive with so many users off loading at the same time. You may get yourself a real bargain and a card more power balanced for your system than a 30XX which would have a lot of power/money left on the table when in use.
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Awesome, thanks for the advice. In time, I want to upgrade the whole system so I don't know what the best route will be. My budget constraints are temporary, so part of me thinks I'll wait it out and get the lowest price of these new cards, and then in time replace my CPU and everything involved in that. But, that could be uber expensive.

I just don't want to upgrade and then still be sitting way below the current standard.
 
Plec said:
Sensible, but ideally, when you eventually upgrade, you would do so from the ground up - having looked over your spec. The 2500K has been a monster of a CPU - but if buying new components ideally start with a new chipset, CPU etc and then spend money on new GPU and a monitor if needed.

For immediate GPU gratification for your present system - the secondhand market will hopefully be your friend very soon, as mentioned. This will be the one component that dates the fastest - so unless you plan to do a wholesale system upgrade very soon i would get the best pound : performance card balanced for your present system and then sell it on again once you have new foundation to build on. Although, if you were to get a 2070 Super, on the cheap, and game at 1080p you would probably be able to sit with it for a while even in your new planned system.
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My plan right now is to get this GPU water cooled. Then look at upgrading the chipset and running the 970 for a bit longer, eventually getting a new GPU. But given the potential flood of 20xx cards maybe that's the wrong way to do it?

LeMson said:
The 20xx series was where this fell apart, they didn't supply the founders editions with blower coolers. So all the day 1 buyers (lulz as no bugger bought the 2080 or 2070) weren't forced to choose between a blower and gimp performance and going deaf or water. Hence all the wait for AIB's comments we used to get - not so much now!! last time the AIBs were more expensive than nvidia.

I don't like selling hardware so understand if you wouldn't want to too, but selling your 970 and £60 on top must bring you near secondhand 980ti money. Presuming your PSU can handle it
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I'm completely lost on what you're saying here, sorry! Bear in mind my computer knowledge is about 8 years out of date.

I would definitely sell the 970 at some point, but not to get the 980.

I will also need a new monitor at some point. I guess you don't really notice when you use it everyday, but my monitor is old and crap.
 
LeMson said:
You should be looking at the 980ti, a very different beast to the 980. They are around £110 on ebay, get one with a dual or triple-fan cooler, not the reference single fan design.

In the days of the 970 (and current AMD lol) the nvidia/amd reference cards came first, they had crappy blower style coolers, hot and loud. So the people jumping on the new card sales, a lot went with water cooling to mitigate the hot (or suboptimal) and loud cooler. But people were doing it on the top card at the time the 980. it made no sense really to get a 970 and water cool it with a block, just spend the money on a better card to begin with.

It was sensible for 980 owners as it gave more perf on the best card, and got rid of the crappy cooler. Contrast with the 20xx cards shipped with decent dual fan coolers from the getgo, as will the new 30xx series, the coolers these days don't need fixing. The gfx card forum isn't full of people going water on the new cards, reviews pending on the new cooler but it should be decent cooling and not noisy, water just doesn't make sense.

I run a 970 in my second PC, so not hating the 970, but at this point your polishing a turd water cooling it, it's 6 years old. Less so if you are doing it ghetto with bits you have already, but if your spending money buying a block etc well they tend to be card specific. Will be hard to move on and get money back on.
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That was very comprehensive, thanks very much. I'm just going to run the 970 for now and do the water cooling - I have the block and it cost me £15 so no major complaints, and the rest of the kit I'll be able to use to cool the CPU when I upgrade. Obviously with the correct water block.

I had a better look at the 30xx cards and they are just monsters, and that's not for me. Nor do I have anything in 8k, and my monitor currently doesn't even do 4k. But, I'd upgrade to 4k at some point. It's hilarious not knowing what you could be using! Monitor really hadn't occured to me this whole time.
 
Plec said:
You can pick up the standard 3600 ~£180 and is far superior value than the X which has negligible gains.

Do you need memory too within that £350?


If you don't need the memory the MSI B550M with cashback works out ~£100 - and has added advantage of PCIe 4.0 and priority Zen3 support (for possible upgrades) over the B450 although the MSI B450M is great value @ £85 and will have Zen3 support in January.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Click to expand...

Would I need to get memory? I thought I’d just use what I have already, which is DDR3. No idea if it’s back compatible. I’d upgrade this in due course either way.

I also don’t know what the X means...I’d appreciate suggestions on best overall bag for my buck with or without memory.

Bouton Aide said:
My setups less than that and it’s still fast, the main question is what is it you use it for or what is it you are having issues with that you thing it needs an upgrade? Or are you wanting to upgrade because everyone else is?
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Just gaming. The PC I have is alright but I’m finding tougher to play the games in enjoy at decent frame rates. I’ve got the money to start upgrading now so I’m going ahead with it.

orbitalwalsh said:
b550 aorus with free £110 512 M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD ;)

but you lack the wifi
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Wow that’s good! I use Ethernet all the time anyway. Where can I find this??

Plec said:
Yep... :D (he may not need it though).

...and lesser VRMs. I actually prefer MSI with the cashback. Not sure why they held back on the Elite mITX version.
Click to expand...

too many options!
 
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