Upgrading current rig

[dkvamme]

Im thinking that I want to upgrade my current pc.
It is a great running rig, but.... It really pumps out the heat. My office is small and has poor ventilation. All of my temps are in the normal operating range, and I am not overclocking.

I have a 2nd pc with an i5 3750 and it is a much cooler running rig so......



1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Gaming, streaming, productivity in that order. I want to run linux with steam, then run windows in a VM for windows apps. Im leaning towards Opensuse, but will probably end up going with Ubuntu because of the support available.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

I have 400 but I will be reusing many current parts, and need to recoup as much as possible. (If I can keep money in the bank … all the better.)

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

US

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

I want an Intel Xeon e3 or i5/i7 (who really cares if there is an onboard gpu? I have a video card.)


6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Case = Corsair 200R
Video = XFX R9-290 DD
PS = EVGA 600R
SSD = 240 Kingston
HD = 1TB Seagate, 750 GB Seagate

Currently have and will sell the following pieces to help offset price
Gigabyte 990fxa-ud3
AMD FX8350
Arctic Cooling ACFZ13 cpu cooler
G-Skill Sniper DDR3-2133 cas 9 1.65V 8GB memory (Can I reuse this?)



7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

No Overclocking

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

Multiple – 2ea 22” Hp LED and 1 Asus 24” LED 1080x1920 resolution

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
With in a week or two.

 

[Yuriman]

The best way to seriously cut down on heat is a complete overhaul, but you can definitely improve it incrementally. I'd recommend grabbing a Kill-A-Watt from Amazon so you can do a before and after comparison.

http://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU

CPU - FX chips idle pretty well already, but moving to a Haswell i3/i5/i7 will help a bit when idle and more than a bit during load.

Motherboad - not all boards are created equal, but this will be a pretty small percent of your total power draw / heat output. I believe Gigabyte and MSI generally have lower power usage, but you should check Anandtech's reviews if this matters to you. mATX and ITX will likely draw less too.

Video card - Maxwell is much more efficient than Hawaii (25-40%?), but this probably isn't a terribly cost effective upgrade. Personally, I have no plans to move beyond my ~110w card for heat reasons.

PSU - Moving to an 80+ Gold power supply could help. An i7 and 290 should work nicely on a quality 500w gold-rated unit. This should help quite a bit.

Since your monitors are already LED-based, there probably aren't large gains to be made there. I still use a CFL-lit 25" VA panel, which draws 70w while my wife's 27" LED panel only draws about 20.

 

[Termie]

The detailed breakdown above is very good, but it does seem that the OP has focused on the worst culprit, his very hot CPU. The FX-8350 just doesn't hold a candle to a Core i5 in terms of power use and heat production.

So, this is what I'd suggest:
(1) Keep RAM but lower speed to 1866 and drop voltage to 1.5V. That high voltage kit isn't great for use with Intel chipsets, and produces extra heat.
(2) Get a B85 or H97 board. MSI and ASRock have some of the best-priced options. Should run about $80-90.
(3) Buy a Core i5-4590 for $200.

You now have a great upgrade for under $300 that will give you better performance and vastly lower power use.

The R9 290 you have isn't great in terms of efficiency, but I assume that when you're gaming, you're OK with a bit more heat. Replacing it with a GTX 970 would blow your budget anyway.

 

[dkvamme]

How about these ?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157510

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117316

You think I can use my current memory with this ?

I have this memory... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231518

 

[Yuriman]

A Xeon-i7 is a great choice. The more expensive motherboards don't offer nearly as much on Intel's platforms as on AMD's, as even the cheapest boards offer plenty of power delivery. You're mostly paying for more USB ports and (compared with the very cheapest boards) 4 RAM slos vs 2, and an extra PCIe slot. Some more expensive boards have slightly improved onboard audio solutions, or integrated WiFi. $80 is pretty reasonable though.

I'm sure you can get your RAM to work. It probably has a 1.5v XMP profile you can use. 1.65v isn't good to pair with Intel chips, but plenty of people do anyway. Due to Intel's much more efficient memory controller, speeds beyond ~1600 don't really show improved performance.