Need help planning a pseudo-upgrade for my computer tower
Pseudo because upgrading some of the parts might have a knock-on effect for other parts. Might end up leading to an upgrade of the whole system, idk. So here's a list of parts that I've already acquired. I was originally going to use some of them to fill out the Framework laptop that I pre-ordered... but I had an expensive couple of months earlier this year and figured I could wait on it. :(
| Part |
|---|
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700x |
| Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD |
| (2) 16GB GSkill Flare X5 DDR5 6000 RAM |
| $50 Microcenter gift card |
Now here's what I have in my tower currently.
| Part |
|---|
| Rosewill Thor V2 ATX Full tower case |
| Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670K CPU |
| (2) 8GB GSkill DDR3 RAM |
| Rosewill 650W 80 Plus Gold PSU |
| MSI Z97-GD65 MOBO |
| Gigabyte Nvidia 970x Windforce GPU |
| 1 SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD 250GB |
| 1 Seagate HDD 1TB |
I'm looking to keep the tower at the very least and reuse it for new components. Right now, I know that the mobo will absolutely need to be replaced IF I'm throwing the ryzen chip in. And with knock-on effect, probably the psu as well since these components are drawing more power. The goal is to get a solid 60 fps on Helldivers (which I can't do at the moment, even on the lowest graphical settings) since it's the most intensive game that I play. With this goal in mind, does it make sense to start using the components I have from the first list, or might it be cheaper to keep them for the framework and get older (still compatible) parts that would fit right in to the system as it stands?
If your current mobo supports it, I would throw the new RAM in just because you might as well.
The bottleneck for the helldivers FPS is likely your GPU, and maybe the CPU.
Since you have a new CPU, it might make sense to just upgrade the Mobo, GPU, CPU and RAM.
I don’t have time to check right now, but I’d look at https://pcpartpicker.com/ and fill in your components to check for wattage draw, because your PSU might be OK even with a new GPU and the new CPU, but it probably depends on the GPU you end up with.
Unfortunately, a new GPU and Mobo is probably going to run around $500 depending on if you can find sales or not. You probably don’t need a top of the line GPU, but something around an NVIDIA RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 6600 XT which are about double the performance of your current GPU.
It's looking like that's the case, barring the new gpu. I'll see if I can swap the mobo, install the new parts and then we'll see how well the games run. Thanks for the advice!
The 4XXX series Intel's are DDR3, the ryzen 7XXX only supports DDR5.
You cannot pop that new ram in and that old slow RAM probably isn't helping.
Even though the CPU is older, I'd bet your graphics card is the bottle neck for helldivers. Pull up the task manager while you're playing and check out the utilization charts. You should be able to tell what's the bottleneck by what is maxed out while the other is not.
I don't think you'll need a new PSU for those parts, but you can double check a calculator.
I don't think you'd be getting a good deal out of any CPU/RAM upgrades that are still available and compatible with that mobo.
actually turns out the cpu is at 100% at just the loading screen while gpu is showing anywhere from 50% to 85% usage. CPU upgrade it is.
Yea it does seem like that, I tried looking up some parts that would work and they're frankly the same ballpark as the current cpu
How’s the CPU during actual gameplay? My intuition would be that CPU usage might actually be higher on the loading screen due to it managing fetching data from disk and getting everything set up for the GPU to start doing its work.
Yeah that is going to be a high CPU usage scenario. Upgrading the CPU will help, but normally FPS is heavily GPU dependant. At 85% we are not seeing maximum usage, but are we running into temperature issues?
Edit, just double checked your hardware, is helldivers on your HDD or SSD? Cause HDD may actually be making more work for your CPU with longer load times. SSDs really do help a lot.
you've got a ~10 year old Haswell-era CPU, so your motherboard has an older CPU socket that isn't in use anymore. buying new parts that will work with it isn't really an option.
also, I'm not super familiar with Framework laptops, but the newer parts you have is a desktop-class CPU plus full-size DIMMs of RAM meant for a desktop case, so it's unlikely they would fit into a laptop (and if they did, the power draw would be extremely high, and battery life terrible). on the other hand, the NVMe drive should almost certainly fit, assuming the Framework accepts standard 2280 (22mm x 80mm) sized drives.
the bare minimum you'll need for the upgrade will be an AM5-compatible motherboard, see here for a list of options.
since it sounds like you want to do this on a tight budget, the least expensive option I think would be to upgrade the motherboard now, swapping in the new CPU and RAM and keeping all the other parts (upgrading from the SATA SSD to the NVMe one is an option, but not a requirement). then look for deals on a used graphics card, since a previous-gen card would still be a significant upgrade from your current 970.
you can use the system builder that site has to fill in your other parts (CPU and RAM) to get an estimate of the power draw of the entire system. the 650w PSU is probably fine until you upgrade the GPU, and then it may or may not be sufficient, depending on the wattage the new GPU draws.
I think this is what I'll be doing for the time being. I was originally concerned that the gpu wouldn't be supported by a new mobo.
I went through and made a parts list. Couldn't find the cpu cooler that came with the tower, but subbed in another. Seems like I have plenty of head room in the wattage even with the new components
the CPU cooler you have, since it came with a ~10 year old case (or perhaps included with your old CPU? cases with bundled CPU coolers are relatively uncommon), almost certainly won't be compatible with the mounting holes on AM5 motherboards. and the Ryzen 7700X is just a bare CPU with no fan included, so make sure to buy that or another CPU cooler as well.
the Cooler Master one you linked is perfectly cromulent. I'm a big fan (ha) of Noctua coolers, if it's in your budget the U12S is excellent. Noctua has a very good compatibility checker to make sure that the cooler fits physically with all your other parts, as well as providing enough cooling to actually cool the CPU. you can see here that several of Noctua's smaller coolers wouldn't be able to keep up with the 7700X at max load. your RAM is only 33mm high, which is good...tall RAM modules can often cause problems with CPU coolers. your case is an absolute unit so it looks like there shouldn't be any problem there.
If you can you should overclock the shit out of that CPU and RAM. Then get a better GPU. There should be capacity with your power supply to handle much more powerful modern cards.
Any one thing you improve will uncover a new bottleneck in another part, so if you want to play new games unencumbered you’ll need to replace everything but the case and power supply.
That's what I'm hoping. I have a lot of headroom currently with the substitutions that have been recommended, so I'm holding out hope on a good deal for a gpu
You're going to have to swap mobo's if you want to use that DDR5 RAM too. So for both CPU and RAM you're looking at a replacement mobo.
All the other stuff doesn't technically need replacement but it's getting up there in age.
Your real bottleneck will be the GPU, but graphical fidelity and the associated gpu costs are in a strange place at the moment where it's not necessarily a bad idea to look for a cheaper second hand from the previous generation (30xx series).
I just upgraded my PC from Micro Center recently and the RAM+CPU+MOBO combo. I didn't end up using the AM5 motherboard since it's ATX sized and was going for a mATX build. Never opened the box. It's a Gigabyte B650. Lmk if interested, I'm trying to get $70-90 for it + shipping (US).
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-b650-gaming-x-ax/p/N82E16813145449?item=N82E16813145449&nm_mc=knc-googleadwords&cm_mmc=knc-googleadwords-_-motherboards%20-%20amd-_-gigabyte-_-13145449&utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic+shopping&utm_campaign=knc-googleadwords-_-motherboards%20-%20amd-_-gigabyte-_-13145449&source=region