PC Upgrade questions

[Scouser]

I am thinking I will have to try to update my system before too long as it has become very sluggish now that it is nearly 12 years old.

I have always tried to build the highest spec I can reasonably afford that will also take into account some future proofing.

The items I will more than likely need will be a new Intel processor. I’m thinking possibly 14th Gen - DDR RAM 4 or 5 - and a new motherboard, all my ssd can be transferred.

The mobo is probably the item I need most advice with as many of them tend to be aimed at gamers, but given that I am going to upgrade, I might as well get some of the benefits of an upgrade things like Bluetooth and anything else that might be useful that I don’t currently have, they seem to be including things like Wi-Fi and various other things, so anything that saves buying extra PCI cards could be good. I also have various cards that perhaps might transfer across to a new system.

I also have a huge Noctua fan that would probably need to be taken into account as it is quite a lump and can in some instances depending upon the motherboard getting the way of things like memory slots. I know that cooling has moved on in recent years and perhaps I should look to consider other options, but I don’t want to spend a fortune on novelty cooling systems. But of course, if there is something out there that is reasonable and can do the job in a simple way then I would consider that.

It would be good to get some benchmark comparisons on my current set up in comparison to some of the suggestions above, but so far I’m struggling a little bit with that obviously I want to be completely sure that the upgrade is necessary. Having said that I have noticed, a considerable slowing down which is probably expected in a pc of this age.

[BWC]

It would be good to get some benchmark comparisons on my current set up in comparison to some of the suggestions above, but so far I’m struggling a little bit with that obviously I want to be completely sure that the upgrade is necessary. Having said that I have noticed, a considerable slowing down which is probably expected in a pc of this age.

...but you don't say what you're currently running (HW or SW), so it's difficult to advise on what's "necessary". How long since the OS was installed? Operating systems / software environments can get messy over that kind of time, and that can cause sluggishness.

As for finding the right components, I like to use PCPartPicker and there are other, similar, sites out there if that one doesn't suit you.

[merlyn]

There are motherboards aimed at creators, like the Asus Pro Art series. The Z790 model :

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-compo ... ator-wifi/

They do cost an arm and a leg. It has features like 10Gb internet. I doubt you'd need that, as all networking hardware has to be 10Gb for it to be of any use. With a motherboard, I think decide what features you want and which chipset is going to give you that.

A lot of the relevant differences in motherboards are how many PCIe lanes there are, what generation they are and how those lanes are divided up. E.g. the Pro Art board above has more M.2 slots, less SATA connectors.

PCs shouldn't really slow down. I fix people's Windows boxes and often find that they slow down because there is a ton of garbage loading at startup. You could check that.

[Scouser]

I'm running win 10 - RME babyface pro - Cubase 13 pro

Just spoken to scan and had a look at their DAW workstations

Guy there has suggested some parts. Fortunately some of the previous build can be salvaged Fractal Case - Silent PSU - SSD Drives -

Funnily enough i was looking at the Asus prime 790

[BWC]

I'm running win 10 - RME babyface pro - Cubase 13 pro

Good to know , but primarily, I meant the components you're thinking of replacing. What are they?

[Scouser]

I'm running win 10 - RME babyface pro - Cubase 13 pro

Good to know , but primarily, I meant the components you're thinking of replacing. What are they?

Mobo - Processor - RAM - All in one Cooler

[BWC]

I'm running win 10 - RME babyface pro - Cubase 13 pro

Good to know , but primarily, I meant the components you're thinking of replacing. What are they?

Mobo - Processor - RAM - All in one Cooler

...and they are? You were wondering whether an upgrade was even necessary, can't answer that without knowing what's in your system now.

[sonics]

Fortunately some of the previous build can be salvaged Fractal Case - Silent PSU - SSD Drives -

Reuse the case, but not the PSU (unless it's new...). Get a new one with a long warranty. Use the SSDs for secondary storage and run the OS from fast M.2.

As I said in a reply to your post on another thread, get a quality mobo, but don't bother with extras you don't need. It will smoke (as the youngsters say) the old machine, believe me. Unless you put a Celeron on it...

I've moved from Asus boards to MSI. Neither have ever failed on me.

[Scouser]

I will stick with psu as it is a very good quality and the guys at scan seemed to agree. The case has to go due to the new all in one cooling system. Are the m.2 much different to the Samsung evo standard ssd ? Im guessing they must be if that’s what you’re suggesting.

[sonics]

I will stick with psu as it is a very good quality and the guys at scan seemed to agree.

Well I hope it's not too old.

Are the m.2 much different to the Samsung evo standard ssd ? Im guessing they must be if that’s what you’re suggesting.

In a different league...

[BWC]

It will smoke (as the youngsters say) the old machine, believe me.

Maybe, but I still don't know what sort of CPU / MB is in the old box. I thought it was a simple question , but...

[Scouser]

It will smoke (as the youngsters say) the old machine, believe me.

Maybe, but I still don't know what sort of CPU / MB is in the old box. I thought it was a simple question , but...

Sorry

CPU - i7 4770 - 3.40GHz - Mobo - Asus Z87-K

[merlyn]

Where you'll notice that M.2 PCIe NVMe drives are faster is copying or moving files within the machine. Moving or copying e.g. a big video file is faster. Booting is slightly faster with an M.2 compared to a SATA SSD.

I wouldn't think it's worth copying your existing data from SATA SSDs to NVMe. Your existing data can be used as is.

PCIe is at generation 5. Gen 5 is still quite new and gen 5 M.2 PCIe SSDs are still not that common and expensive. At the moment, I wouldn't think it's worth getting a PCIe 5 SSD. M.2 slots are backwards compatible, so if the motherboard has PCIe 5 slots, it will still take PCIe 4 SSDs but they'll run at PCIe 4 speeds. SATA's top speed is 600MB/s. PCIe 4 is more than ten times that, so PCIe 4 is fast enough at the moment.

[Scouser]

So here is a list of the parts I am currently considering:

Fractal Design Define 7

Be quiet! Silent Loop 2 RGB All In One 360mm Intel/AMD CPU Water Cooler

Corsair Vengeance Black 64GB 6800MHz DDR5

Intel 24 Core i9 14900K Raptor Lake Refresh

ASUS PRIME Z790-A WIFI DDR5 PCIe 5.0 ATX Motherboard

[merlyn]

Would you save some money if you dropped the RGB on the cooler? Unless you're going for the disco effect. I've built a few RGB machines, and it is pretty cool, but I wouldn't have one myself.

[Scouser]

Yeh I will certainly look to drop RGB

[merlyn]

If anything it's overkill. Using DDR5 means that you lose one of the advantages of Intel, which is the 14th generation chips can use DDR4 or DDR5. If you're going to use DDR5 then it's worth looking at the equivalent AMD Ryzen system.

[Scouser]

If anything it's overkill. Using DDR5 means that you lose one of the advantages of Intel, which is the 14th generation chips can use DDR4 or DDR5. If you're going to use DDR5 then it's worth looking at the equivalent AMD Ryzen system.

What you mean the RAM being overkill ? Ok well that's worth knowing

Like I mentioned these are just parts up for consideration, nothing finalised. So I'm all ears, if people here think there are better options.

From experience when I built my last system, I went for highest spec I could reasonably justify and it has given me around 12 years of good service, which in this day and age isn't bad, it also meant it has kept up over the years and wasn't quickly outdated.

[merlyn]

A 14900K is one of the most powerful chips around. AMD and Intel compete, and Intel made this chip competitive by using a lot of power which means it needs more cooling. If you want to compare the chip you have with a 14900K, I find cpu benchmark gives a ballpark measure.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/19 ... -i9-14900K

It's nearly ten times more powerful. I simply want to make you aware of the options.

A 14900K is a refresh, so it's not that much more powerful than a 13900K, which may be cheaper.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/19 ... -i9-13900K

[Scouser]

Yep I think the 13900K is more than sufficient and saves £100

[wireman]

I have a 14700K and it can peak to a crazy power consumption if you run something like the Cinebench test on it. Ended up upgrading my UPS because of the peak power consumption of my new system (GPU added a lot of course).

[Scouser]

As already mentioned I am hoping that my current PSU will do the job

Be Quiet! BN200 Dark Power Pro 10 Power Supply (550 Watts) 80 Plus Gold ?

[Scouser]

One thing I’m not totally sure I understand is that the i9 k cpu have on board graphics, would that suffice in a daw ( non gaming ) situation or is a graphics card required ?

[merlyn]

Yes, the onboard graphics should be fine. As BWC said above, you can put your proposed system together in PC Part Picker and it will tell you any compatibility issues, power consumption ...

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/

[Scouser]

Just wanted to refresh this post as it is a year old and I still haven’t upgraded. PC has now died and the rebuild has to happen so given tech moves at a silly pace, should I be revising my proposed build ?

From some subsequent posts it seems I should be considering AMD ? If I could lose the proposed cooling system and re use my Noctua that would be another saving.

I have given above all the details of old system and proposed system and wondered what the essentials are. As I see it mobo & processor, ram, I have bought a new corsair gold 850 psu as I thought that’s why pc died ( it clearly wasn’t ) I have 3 Samsung evo ssd I’m hoping will suffice or are the M.2 PCIe NVMe drives much faster and worth considering for master drive ?

Anything I’ve forgot ?

Thanks