Question 2023 upgrade...

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BoomerD

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Feb 26, 2006
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Because of all the problems I've been having with my current PC, i7-9700K/32gb Corsair DDR4/EVGA 3070 GPU, Seasonic Focus 750 PSU, I'm looking to MAYBE upgrade later this month.

I will re-use one of my 2 cases, either an IBuyPower POS mid-tower case, or an ancient Coolermaster HAF 932 which will require new case fans and the addition of a USB 3. front panel. The Coolermaster, being a MUCH larger case will give me much more room for expansion, would allow me to use a Noctua air cooler, but if I go with an AIO, then I'm limited to a 240mm unit same as the IPB case.

So...I just added the Corsair RAM a month ago, I could go with a 12th gen Intel CPU and keep that, but if I go with a 13th gen, then I might have to buy DDR5. (but depending on the motherboard, I MIGHT have to do with a 12th gen CPU.)

Recommendations for CPU/Motherboard? I'd prefer to stay with the "flagship" model of whichever generation I get. No I5 or I7 models unless the performance is so much better than the I9 variant.

I DO NOT need storage...I have a couple of good (1TB WD Black and 2 TB Seagate) spinner HDD's, 2 240GB SSD's, a 1TB NVMe and a 2TB NVMe.

I know we have lots of AMD supporters here, but my VERY LIMITED experience with AMD/ATi has been...disappointing to say the least. (most of those were FAR from being flagship models of CPU or GPU with the exception of the X850XT PE GPU I bought some 15 years ago.) As such, I'd prefer only Intel processor recommendations.

Thanks.

EDIT: This will be used for gaming, (mostly older FPS shooters) surfing and watching videos. No video encoding, no graphics work other than games. No CAD or anything similar.

EDIT.2
Turns out, both Z690 and Z790 boards are available in DDR4 and DDR5.

Now then, I'vever built with MSI. I seem to remember that about 20 years ago they were considered bottom tier. Don't know if that's changed. I've pretty much only ever used ASUS in my builds, but have been looking at Gigabyte as well...HOWEVER, the "exploding PSU" debacle from this past year has me second guessing that.
 
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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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It's probably more of the W7 being MBR and not UEFI/GPT.

It's a quick conversion if you slap it in the old system.


Then the issue becomes boot selections if neither Windows knew about the other it won't really dual boot unless you tinker with things like running a Linux boot USB and then use grub to enable dual boot as an option. Going this route though might involve more advanced options you might not be able to stomach if you're not familiar with how it works in Linux.

Man...that sounds like Chinese to me...:p

I had a dual boot system for a while...back in the 00's. WinXP and Win7. Worked pretty well at the time. I THINK I managed to get out of the drive what I wanted...<knock on wood> Formatting the drive as NTFS now. Once I get that and the restore partition formattedf, I'll use Disk Management to set it at EUFI or wtf ever it needs to be. Doing a FULL format on 250GB via USB is taking forever...but it's working.
 
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BoomerD

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Feb 26, 2006
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My WD Black 1TB drive worked just fine...until it didn't. I was sitting on the floor, plugged into the new system, sorting and harvesting stuff to keep, (it was in the Windows 7 machine) then I knocked it over and it unplugged. After that...nada. If I plug it in, via SATA or USB, it shows up in "This PC," but as soon as I try to open it...everything just locks up. I might have killed it when I knocked it over. :( I got the system working...more or less...still a few little details to figure out with the various case connectors...fan switch that connects to the fan control hub doesn't work...but the hub IS plugged into a PWM connection on the board. I haven't checked the BIOS to see how that's configured yet.
Got it all done earlier...one of the fans for the AIO cooler wasn't working. Turns out, it was unplugged somehow. (Arctic Cooling short fan leads) Then, one of the case fans wasn't working. STILL not sure why...but I finally got it going. Once I get all the little things done, I might play with some of the benchmark apps...maybe.
Gawd...this build made me feel like a newbie all over again. Granted, this is the first complete build I've done since...2011, but I've repaired and upgraded numerous PCs since then...for myself and others.
I DO NOT recommend the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Rev.2 case...biggest PITA case I've ever worked in...or on. Need to change one little thing...tear half the case apart to get to it. This one of the few times when having big "manly-man" hands is a drawback...
 
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In2Photos

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Mar 21, 2007
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My WD Black 1TB drive worked just fine...until it didn't. I was sitting on the floor, plugged into the new system, sorting and harvesting stuff to keep, (it was in the Windows 7 machine) then I knocked it over and it unplugged. After that...nada. If I plug it in, via SATA or USB, it shows up in "This PC," but as soon as I try to open it...everything just locks up. I might have killed it when I knocked it over. :( I got the system working...more or less...still a few little details to figure out with the various case connectors...fan switch that connects to the fan control hub doesn't work...but the hub IS plugged into a PWM connection on the board. I haven't checked the BIOS to see how that's configured yet.
Got it all done earlier...one of the fans for the AIO cooler wasn't working. Turns out, it was unplugged somehow. (Arctic Cooling short fan leads) Then, one of the case fans wasn't working. STILL not sure why...but I finally got it going. Once I get all the little things done, I might play with some of the benchmark apps...maybe.
Gawd...this build made me feel like a newbie all over again. Granted, this is the first complete build I've done since...2011, but I've repaired and upgraded numerous PCs since then...for myself and others.
I DO NOT recommend the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Rev.2 case...biggest PITA case I've ever worked in...or on. Need to change one little thing...tear half the case apart to get to it. This one of the few times when having big "manly-man" hands is a drawback...
Oh man that stinks! You probably damaged the head when the HDD got knocked over. Is it under warranty perhaps or too old?

According to the manual if the slider switch on the hub is set to "O' it will operate via the PWM header. Otherwise if it is set to "J" it will work in manual mode via the fan stepper switch on the case. Do you just have the 5 fans? And they are all plugged into the fan hub? Are they all the same fan (I'm guessing 3 are the Silent Wings that came with the case and the other 2 are the Artic that came with the AIO)? Sometimes when mixing fans and controlling via PWM you might not be sending enough voltage to get the fan started. You can increase the minimum fan speed on the fan curve in the BIOS. Sorry the case is being difficult. That can take the fun out of a new build.
 
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It's interesting that BoomerD inadvertently selected a difficult case and QueBert purposely selected a different difficult one. I guess some people here are prone to challenging themselves.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,678
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Oh man that stinks! You probably damaged the head when the HDD got knocked over. Is it under warranty perhaps or too old?

According to the manual if the slider switch on the hub is set to "O' it will operate via the PWM header. Otherwise if it is set to "J" it will work in manual mode via the fan stepper switch on the case. Do you just have the 5 fans? And they are all plugged into the fan hub? Are they all the same fan (I'm guessing 3 are the Silent Wings that came with the case and the other 2 are the Artic that came with the AIO)? Sometimes when mixing fans and controlling via PWM you might not be sending enough voltage to get the fan started. You can increase the minimum fan speed on the fan curve in the BIOS. Sorry the case is being difficult. That can take the fun out of a new build.

Yeah, the drive is about 10 years old...probably toast. I can feel the platters spinning up, but no workie.
The case has the 3 Silent Wings 3 140mm fans, all connected to the fan hub. The Arctic pump/fans are connected to the fan/pump header, the case fan hub is connected to...a different 4 pin header. I'll get this figured out...sooner or later. :rolleyes:

It's interesting that BoomerD inadvertently selected a difficult case and QueBert purposely selected a different difficult one. I guess some people here are prone to challenging themselves.

I watched a couple of videos on the case before I got it. Sure looked easy enough...:p
 
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In2Photos

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Mar 21, 2007
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Yeah, the drive is about 10 years old...probably toast. I can feel the platters spinning up, but no workie.
The case has the 3 Silent Wings 3 140mm fans, all connected to the fan hub. The Arctic pump/fans are connected to the fan/pump header, the case fan hub is connected to...a different 4 pin header. I'll get this figured out...sooner or later. :rolleyes:
That sounds reasonable. You should be able to configure separate fan profiles for each output then. You can use the BIOS or software to control them. I believe MSI control has the ability. There is also a Fan Control, an open source software that allows more flexibility if you need it, like being able to control the fans based on GPU temps instead of CPU temps or a combination of the two. https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases
 
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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,678
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That sounds reasonable. You should be able to configure separate fan profiles for each output then. You can use the BIOS or software to control them. I believe MSI control has the ability. There is also a Fan Control, an open source software that allows more flexibility if you need it, like being able to control the fans based on GPU temps instead of CPU temps or a combination of the two. https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases

I'd have to plug the fans directly into the motherboard for the MSI BIOS to control the fans. They don't even register in the BIOS.
 

In2Photos

Golden Member
Mar 21, 2007
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I'd have to plug the fans directly into the motherboard for the MSI BIOS to control the fans. They don't even register in the BIOS.
OK, let's try this again. AIO pump goes to PUMP_FAN1 header on motherboard, correct? The AIO fans go to CPU_FAN1 header on the motherboard, correct? You said that the fan hub (case hub) was connected to a header and the AIO fans were connected to a different header, correct?
z790.png
Case fans, 3 Silent Wings, plugged into the case fan hub(Port B in the diagram), correct? There is a PWM connector on the hub (A in the diagram) that connects to the motherboard (Sys_Fan6 header pictured above).

900.png

Both sets of fans should then be visible in the BIOS.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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OK, let's try this again. AIO pump goes to PUMP_FAN1 header on motherboard, correct? The AIO fans go to CPU_FAN1 header on the motherboard, correct? You said that the fan hub (case hub) was connected to a header and the AIO fans were connected to a different header, correct?
View attachment 74947
Case fans, 3 Silent Wings, plugged into the case fan hub(Port B in the diagram), correct? There is a PWM connector on the hub (A in the diagram) that connects to the motherboard (Sys_Fan6 header pictured above).

View attachment 74946

Both sets of fans should then be visible in the BIOS.


Arctic Cooling does things a bit different. The AIO fans connect to a cable that's under the coolant tube sleeving, then one connector to the motherboard for pump and fans.

Here's what I get in the BIOS:

abi.sized.jpg


Wait ..what do those "buttons" do?

Ah...that's better.

abj.sized.jpg
 

In2Photos

Golden Member
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He's right in that those bare pins are powered as long as the hub is connected to the motherboard...it REALLY SHOULD have something like an acrylic cover...
PCs have been this way since they first existed. If this were problematic I'm sure they would have changed things.
Arctic Cooling does things a bit different. The AIO fans connect to a cable that's under the coolant tube sleeving, then one connector to the motherboard for pump and fans.

Here's what I get in the BIOS:

abi.sized.jpg


Wait ..what do those "buttons" do?

Ah...that's better.

abj.sized.jpg
OK, so you just have one connector for the AIO. That just means that the pump and AIO fans will all adjust together. So the case fan hub is connected to SYS_FAN3? That doesn't look like what I'd expect from a PWM connection. Click on the cog button and see how it is set up.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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PCs have been this way since they first existed. If this were problematic I'm sure they would have changed things.

OK, so you just have one connector for the AIO. That just means that the pump and AIO fans will all adjust together. So the case fan hub is connected to SYS_FAN3? That doesn't look like what I'd expect from a PWM connection. Click on the cog button and see how it is set up.
abl.sized.jpg



Apparently, the motheboard only registers the AIO pump speed since the fans and pump are daisy chained. (not this pic)
 
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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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That looks better. The curve seems a little aggressive. If the fans are a little loud you could always pull those dots down some. Don't be afraid to play around to suit your needs. I typically set mine up more like this one to keep noise down.


View attachment 74950

Yeah, I haven't messed with that yet. The Silent Wings 3 fans are much quieter than the Arctic Cooling ones. Surprising to me.
 

BoomerD

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Feb 26, 2006
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So far, I'm kind of disappointed in the Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer II 280mm AIO. Seems like it SHOULD do a better job than this:

abm.png


Surfing various websites...including <gasp> Facebook...and running a Windows Defender scan in the background. (keeps picking up a warning from something in one of the old drives I had connected...but is no longer.)
 
Jul 27, 2020
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Yeah. I think BoomerD is expecting the Arctic cooling to give him Arctic temperatures :p

But seriously, experiment with undervolting a bit. I think your performance and temps could both improve nicely.