Question My PC is failing and want to upgrade Mobo and CPU

[MutantWizard]

My first post, intro and question. I am retired and spend a lot of time on my computer doing different stuff like surfing, watching and editing videos, gaming, crypto trading, shopping and who knows what else.

I had this PC for about 5 years and seems my mobo or CPU is probably failing. For the last year or so had a cooling issue. Previously the CPU was running at 40-60 Celsius while now depending on the load it runs from 60 at idle up to 100 degrees at full load. All sort of components occasionally showing consequential issues. Monitor flickering, keyboard stops working until re-plugged and sometimes backlight flickering, sound comes and goes partially depending on the boot, USB ports sometime work sometimes dont. Cleaned and reassembled it, remounted and repasted the cooler but no joy. Windows 10 is fully updated, ChckDsk runing occasionally. Using ZoneAlarm no infections and Wise registry cleaner. This is my current setup:

CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K
Mobo: ROG Maximus VIII Hero Alpha
Memory: Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3400 (4*8GB)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (*2 in SLI)
SSD: SanDisk Ultra II 480GB
HD: 2* 3TB and 2* 6TB
PSU: Corsair AX 860i
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 760T Full Tower Windowed Case

Since I am not really a hardcore gamer and the above has been performing more than adequately. Now time I am thinking to swap only the mobo and CPU to a generally well performing option and so I can reuse my case, CPU cooler GPUs, RAM, Hard Drives and all the rest of the stuff that is still working. The mobo and CPU I would like to use are:

CPU: Intel Core i5-11600K
Mobo: MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Plus

I am not too bright about what all the specs mean and dont want to buy something I cant use so my first question is whether the new CPU and mobo are fully compatible with each other and with all the other components listed above? Particularly if I will be able to reinstall the two GPUs in SLI as I have now and does this new mobo have the right forms and numbers to accommodate the SSD and 4 additional hard drives 2 * 3TB and 2 * 6TB. Speed for these hard drives isn't important just the ability to mount all of them.

The second question is how would this new system compare in performance with the existing one for productivity and for gaming?

Any suggestions alternative to the questions I asked are also very welcome. Thanx to all in advance.

 

[Tech Junky]

Cleaning and pasting should fix the temp issue unless your fans are jacked.

ADL aka 12xxx would allow reuse of all but the cooler. Prices are about the same as what you're looking for but have the pcie 5 slot and hybrid cores. If you use wifi then you also gain cnvio2 which gives you the option of an ax411 wifi card that can hit speeds of 1.5gbps for under $20.

As for performance you'll see a dramatic improvement. I use a z690 steel legend from ASRock on my system and have no complaints.

If you want to check compatibility use PCPartPicker.com to cross check things. For the cooler I'm using a se226 and they're cheap at $50 but keep the temps down. I use a graphite pad though instead of paste and put dual fans on the cooler instead of the single that comes with it.

 

[MutantWizard]

Cleaning and pasting should fix the temp issue unless your fans are jacked.

ADL aka 12xxx would allow reuse of all but the cooler. Prices are about the same as what you're looking for but have the pcie 5 slot and hybrid cores. If you use wifi then you also gain cnvio2 which gives you the option of an ax411 wifi card that can hit speeds of 1.5gbps for under $20.

As for performance you'll see a dramatic improvement. I use a z690 steel legend from ASRock on my system and have no complaints.

If you want to check compatibility use PCPartPicker.com to cross check things. For the cooler I'm using a se226 and they're cheap at $50 but keep the temps down. I use a graphite pad though instead of paste and put dual fans on the cooler instead of the single that comes with it.

Thnx for all the info. Very useful and prompted me to do more research.

Already cleaned the whole PC, have 7* 140mm fans on the case and 2 on the cooler. All fans are running fine but not having any impact on the temps.

Loved the idea of Z690 and a separate Wi-Fi card and when I looked into it came up with the following instead of my previous:
Intel Core i5-12600K, lga1700, GEN12
ASRock Steel Legend, Intel Z690, LGA1700, ATX, DDR4
Intel AX411 Double Connect WiFi 6E (Gig+) CNVio2 Tri Band 2.4/5/6GHz Wireless Adapter

The mobo has the right slots for the CPU, RAM and the AX411 but the AX411 comes solo without bracket or antennas. Does it work like that or do I need to find a complete desktop kit with card, bracket and antennas. All the desktop kits with bracket and antennas I found are AX210. If not too much of a hassle could you suggest an Amazon item to fulfil the requirement.

So glad to hear about performance improvement.

 

[aigomorla]

SLI is mostly broken and does not work in any modern game.
As for CPU and Motherboard do you live near a microcenter?
I would give the 5600X3D a big first recommendation, if not i would see if you can find a 5800X3D.
You want a X3D that is the key, these are AMD Ryzen CPU's.
The board i would recommend is a B550, although X570's are not that much more expensive, and i would highly recommend that instead if your budget is a bit flexable.

I would also consider thinking about changing your video card as well.
For your boot drive, you want a nVME.
I would look at Gen4's with about 1TB of capacity, as i realized that is more then enough storage for general stuff.

I do not like putting storage drives like that on the same system i am using, and having a NAS would allow you to share the drives to any PC on your network. What are your spinners for and are they in Raid Config?

I am guessing you have either Raid-0 or Raid-1.
Is it for media / storage? or you using it as a game drive?
A single SSD will be faster then 3 spinners on Raid-0.
A Raid-0 with 2 x SSD will give you a nice improvement in game loadup.
A Raid-0 with 3 x SSD's will max out the SATA 6G bandwidth.

If your using the spinners for a game drive, i would recommend 3 x 1TB SSD's in Raid-0 if budget allows, or 2TB if its more flexable.

And again, SLI is dead. Nvidia no longer supports SLI.
6750XT can be bought fairly cheap at a decient price, and so can the Arc 770, both GPU's will put the 1070 to shame as they have almost 3-4x the VRAM.

 

[igor_kavinski]

6750XT can be bought fairly cheap at a decient price, and so can the Arc 770, both GPU's will put the 1070 to shame as they have almost 3-4x the VRAM.

I think you mean performance. They have double the 1070's VRAM.

 

[igor_kavinski]

One thing to consider about the Ryzen X3D CPUs is, will the mobo work with them out of the box or will they need a BIOS update? If buying from Microcenter, I think they should already be updated. Otherwise, it can be a headache.

 

[aigomorla]

I think you mean performance. They have double the 1070's VRAM.

ack your right... i was tripping it had 4-6gb ... but that was the 1060...

 

[MutantWizard]

thnx guys, i dont have a rational reason for it but im kinda comfortable with intel systems. Would have to do a load of research to consider switching over to AMD and at the moment am not spending an additional 500$ for a GPU. A new GPU maybe one day in the future as an upgrade to the new system I will build.

Right now for a minimal expense mobo and CPU are the only things I am looking at changing.

I used to have my spinners in RAID but ran out of space so now no RAID. Like I said for the pinners speed isnt important and the media stored on them (mostly movies and old clip edits) I can afford to lose.

Also not needing to up the performance in a significant way. When I built it 5 years ago it was an overkill to last me for a long time. Without the failing issues I have been experiencing it would still be more than satisfactory and I wouldnt have considered upgrading for the time being.

 

[aigomorla]

The GPU is more like 380ish... but if your tight on budget there is nothing much you can do.
Your not going to get any noticeable benefit on the second card in SLI tho unless your playing very old games and your using older drivers.

As for the motherboard and cpu combo, i still recommend you going AMD route, as its a better cpu until you get to 13th generation intel processor, and even then, id still consider it trading blows.

As for a nVME, that is pretty much mandatory i feel in all builds now, and it will not break your budget too much for a 1tb.
So bare min i would recommend is X3D CPU + Board + nVME.

479.99 for board and Cpu.

Amazon.com

If your budget is really tight... even a 5800X regular is still highly recommended over the Alder Lake Cpu.
369.99

Amazon.com

As for the nVME..
Samsung 980 Pro always get my vote and its at 59.99

Amazon.com

If that is still is too much, then i just recommend you get a new board for your 7700X, which you will be looking for a Z270.
You can probably get a nice refurbished one on Ebay or newegg.
Make sure it says sold and shipped by newegg.

I do not recommend a 11th gen intel processor if your budget is that tight, unless someone is literally donating it to you.
Again your far better off with the 5800X then even a 12th gen alder lake.

 

[igor_kavinski]

If you can sell the two 1070s for a good price, it could afford you a nice upgrade to a 6700 XT or a 3060 12GB (3060 Ti has only 8GB so it would become a bottleneck sooner, despite paying more for it than the 3060 12GB).

 

[MutantWizard]

So far I built 3, all 3 Intel based and all 3 served me as expected. This 3rd is the first one I'm partially upgrading but retired income isnt as comfortable as before. The longer the discussion the larger the total in my shopping cart gets. In any case thanx guys, I will consider all the mentioned options and eventually come up with a final solution.

U now got me at least reading up on AMD and comparisons with Intel.

 

[MutantWizard]

Again your far better off with the 5800X then even a 12th gen alder lake.

I looked at a couple benchmarks and some reviews and this benchmark is reasonable representation of what is out there. In essence the benchmarks represents Intel Core i5-12600K as outperforming either 5600X3D or 5800X.

UserBenchmark: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D vs Intel Core i5-12600K

Even if that is not the case, for my limited gaming, significantly more productivity and eyesight I probably wouldnt notice the difference. So not seeing a reason to experiment with AMD which I know very little about as opposed to going with Intel which I already tried and it worked (not that I know much). To top it all off the Intel solution is slightly cheaper.

If you can sell the two 1070s for a good price, it could afford you a nice upgrade to a 6700 XT or a 3060 12GB (3060 Ti has only 8GB so it would become a bottleneck sooner, despite paying more for it than the 3060 12GB).

that is probably not a bad idea. will have a look at trying to sell my GPUs for a better replacement.


Thnx to both of U.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My advice:

Crank the RAM down to 3200, replace 1070 SLI with a used 3090/ti.

Uninstall Zone Alarm, stop using registry "cleaners", and install Win10 w/Defender.

 

[Tech Junky]

@MutantWizard

There's a wifi version of the board that has the antennas and card included and then you can swap the 411 into the spot.

It's not difficult to do on the non wifi version though either just not as convenient. There is an Intel kit though that makes it easy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XNBN7TT

Then just route the cable into the holes of the backplate or use the bracket and run it out the back of the pcie slot. I had antennas already though and just got some mhf4 pigtails to extend under the IO shield.

 

[MutantWizard]

@Tech Junky

U mean to combine the backplate and antennas from your link and the AX411 card from below link into the M.2 slot on the ASRock Steel Legend Z690?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B6XTJ74X/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3JL11ZY31HUQD&psc=1

 

[Tech Junky]

@Tech Junky

U mean to combine the backplate and antennas from your link and the AX411 card from below link into the M.2 slot on the ASRock Steel Legend Z690?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B6XTJ74X

Yes, or order the wifi version of the mobo and swap to the ax411.

 

[MutantWizard]

Yes, or order the wifi version of the mobo and swap to the ax411.

Thanx but couldn't find the wifi version available on Amazon.

 

[Tech Junky]

Thanx but couldn't find the wifi version available on Amazon.

Amazon isn't a preferred partner for ASR. Makes sense it wouldn't show up there.

https://www.mouser.com/c/?q=AX411 - This is cheaper for the AX411 though. I'm using the NV model which is $18.75

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/RPYmP6,m9Fbt6/

$170 - no wifi
$185 - wifi https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813162026 // Amazon has it listed for $122 https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Z690-6E-LGA1700-Motherboard/dp/B09HHMNFKF (USED)

IIRC it's using the AX211 on the wifi version which is fine and will still get you above 1gbps for speeds if your router/AP support it. I use an AP with a 2.5ge port so, that might make a difference in your speeds. The AX2xx card though can hit 1.2gbps.

 

[MutantWizard]

@Tech Junky

Found the kit without the back bracket on Lazada for about $25. It will do well enough.

For Intel AX411 WiFi Card+8DB Antenna WiFi 6E CNVio2 BT 5.3 Tri-Band 5374Mbps WiFi Adapter for Laptop/PC Win10/11-64Bit​

The mobo without wifi is a much better deal for me. if I go for wifi (where I am now) the price goes into customs duty range and that makes it quite a bit more expensive. I have the same issue with the i5-12600K. Its just into customs duty range costing me $60+ on top of listed price. I would go for i5-12400K to avoid it but on Amazon I can find only i5-12400F. And the reason I buy on Amazon is free shipping on $50+ orders. Now looking for a way to get around this issue but doubt it. Never mind even with the cost of duty its still cheaper than buying it locally. I guess I'll just have to spend that $60 extra on it.

This is the guts of the new system and quite happy with the cost to benefit ration. When I can (maybe a year or so) will move on to upgrading stuff like graphics and storage.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ngbqLs

 

[Tech Junky]

Customs is just another cash grab by the govt. Looks like a good deal for the parts though. Even less than. I was thinking with a 12700k in mind. Free shipping does help offset things even if the part is marked up a tad than other sources. Adding wifi later is cheaper to do with the customs. It's only a few screws to remove the heat shield over the vrm to run pigtails out the back to conserve pci slots.

Just get the card / pigtails / antennas for about $50 and free shipping.

 

[Tech Junky]

pigtails - $7

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0894CWLZN

ax411 - $30

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09YQN5T2C

antennas - $6-8
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B097RBV9M9

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6GO584

So, not quite $50 but, leaves room for a small add on you might want / need.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BL3SCWH - graphite pad I'm using

 

[MutantWizard]

Just get the card / pigtails / antennas for about $50 and free shipping.

Lazada for this. Shipping just a tiny bit over $1. Total about $26. Quite a bit cheaper than the Amazon 2 or 3 item combo at just short of $50.

For Intel AX411 WiFi Card+8DB Antenna WiFi 6E CNVio2 BT 5.3 Tri-Band 5374Mbps WiFi Adapter for Laptop/PC Win10/11-64Bit | Lazada PH

logitech g512 keyboard. tp link deco xe75. tin hifi p1 max. powkiddy x28

www.lazada.com.ph

Lazada for the CPU cooler. Shipping just a tiny bit over $3. Total about $49. Slightly cheaper than Amazon at $55.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition Air Cooler Silencio Fan RR-212S-20PK-R2 | Lazada PH

Cooler Master. acer predator helios 300 lcd cable. cooler master sickleflow 120 argb. cooler master liquid ml240l. geekvape aegis legend l200. inplay rgb fan with remote

www.lazada.com.ph

Amazon for mobo. No customs, no shipping. Cheaper than locally or anywhere else with shipping and customs.
Amazon for CPU. No shipping, have to add customs but even so cheaper than locally or anywhere else with customs and shipping.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BL3SCWH - graphite pad I'm using

Is the pad the right size? Couldnt find the CPU dimensions but seems the surface of the CPU and cooler are bigger and rectangular.

 

[Tech Junky]

Is the pad the right size?

Fits perfectly and you have a spare or find a single pack. It's more economical for the two pack though as the single usually sells for $10.

The older CPU would use a 30*30 but the ADL is 40*40.

Definitely worth shopping around these days with prices jumping around on tech items. I was scrolling through my save lists on Amazon and 4tb drives are now under $200 which is over half off what they were a little while ago.

 

[MutantWizard]

Definitely worth shopping around these days with prices jumping around on tech items. I was scrolling through my save lists on Amazon and 4tb drives are now under $200 which is over half off what they were a little while ago.

In March 2016 I got 2 of HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5-Inch 6TB 7200RPM SATA III, for $272 each. Both are almost full and still running very well. Pretty much the same HGST 8TB drive is now $245 but there are many others same sized ones from $150 to $180. Considering the 7 year stretch i think I got a pretty good deal back then.

 

[Tech Junky]

I picked up 4 x 8TB WD Reds back then around $150/ea.

I was saying the NVME 4TB drive snot spinners though. Just a couple of months or so ago they were ~$400+.

Looking to trim some weight off the server and speed things up at the same time. Even SATA SSD's would accomplish the same thing but, they're still lofty in terms of price. It's just something in the back of my mind since I've had the drives running 6-7 years now 24/7. My other though is to bump the capacity to 18-20TB and trim down to 2 HDD's for the same capacity but also slightly slower. Maybe do an 8TB Raid 0 (4+4) and then have it synch to a spinner. Not like I really need the speed other than on rare occasions I decide to blow away my laptop drive and purge windows and reload it. If you're creative there's a few different ways to make it work. Right now I'm running 5*8TB in R10 but if I can resist hoarding data trimming that down to a usable of 8TB would suffice. Ideally switching to 2*8TB in R1 would save on space / weight but, M2's @ 8TB are still floating around $1K/ea. I suppose could gamble a bit with a single drive in the server and keep a single HDD in there as a backup destination.