Question Upgrading GPU - additional costs

[Mantrid-Drone]

I bought a great used but apparently excellent condition MSI RX480 8GB to upgrade from a HIS HD7850 1GB a few weeks ago thinking I'd be fine for both case and PSU.

It is about 28cm long and as such exceeds the 25cm maximum 'recommended' GPU size of my CoolerMaster 330 case. That came with a 550W PSU which, on paper, should be OK as I'm not intending to push the GPU that hard.

As regards the size that 25cm maximum seemed only to apply if you were using a full rack of HDDs.I'm not and I was pretty confident, and correct, that there would be plenty of room to accommodate it. But what I had not considered was the cable routing and try as did I could not get the SATA and PSU cables (situated at the top of the case) ie. everything above the GPU to bend around it without fouling something else. It could be done with extensions and cable ties but I'd have to take the whole thing apart to do it.

The main problem though was the 550W generic PSU. Apart from the the question of its suitability for such a GPU requiring a stated 500W I discovered that I needed an 8 pin PC-I connector as that only has a six pin one.

I know there are adapters but compromising and risking the MB and other components even just to test whether I could get it to work is stupid.

Result of both problems is that I've now shelled out for a new, decent brand certified 600W PSU, modular too, unlike the current one and a new case.

I could not make my mind up about that, I looked at ones from CoolerMaster, Fractal, BitFenix and Corsair. Eventually I did what I had said I was not going to do and that is buy a Corsair Carbide 200R.

The 'daily' PC I built uses one and the space available is huge for a mid-tower case and just what you need for the GPU and cooler.

Only downer for me is that the damned HDD/SSD rack is made of plastic and when you have two HDDs (as I do) they resonate when spun up together. Individually they're fine but when both are on they cause vibrations I've never completely cured.

So it turns out that my 'cheap' new used GPU has actually cost me nearer £200/$250 and I'm going to have rebuild virtually the whole PC to be able to use it.

 

[Mac29]

Look at it this way, you're way ahead of the game vs. in the future when you suddenly decide you"need" an upgrade. Personally I can fit my new ryzen parts in my old tower, and it is a cool case, but it's so big, and a lot of plastic so I'm deciding on a downsized case. The bummer is a used case is much less marketable vs. something else. But you can always find some rubber grommets or something to better insulate those HDDs.

Also never discount the value of investing in a good PSU. The starting pt of any system.

 

[Mantrid-Drone]

Using grommets is exactly what I intend to do. I bought them three years ago for the other PC but as I had to rush that into service when my laptop died I never fitted them. To fit them now would be a faff that I've already gone through once when I first noticed the vibration problem.

I screwed in the HDDs rather than use the suspect 'easy release' retaining clamps which do not hold the them firmly enough, adding to vibration. But to do that you have to take out the whole rack which requires access via the front of the case which means prising it off. That is the other suspect design feature of this case: doing that is not easy. It is secured by a number of plastic lugs just asking to break if you use too much force.

Otherwise the Corsair Carbide 200R case is an excellent budget choice particularly if you're using all SSDs where vibration is not an issue. You can remove the HDD rack entirely in those circumstances and free up even more space to help with the cooling which, unlike some reviews I'd read which say the narrow, filtered front intakes are an issue. They are not, at least not if you fit another fan in the second, optional, front intake position.

The generic 550W GPU fitted in the CoolerMaster case mentioned has, for as long as I've used it, which admittedly is not long, proven fine. Even grossly over-estimating the maximum consumption it cannot be using >320W and it has never been anywhere near stressed to full whack.

But I agree about the PSU; in the long run it would have been better and cheaper if I'd gone for a sightly more expensive, more powerful certified unit suitable for running an upgraded replacement GPU. But at the time I was not thinking about that and it was/is more than good enough. As the budget was limited I spent the money I might have used for a better PSU on a 120GB SSD primary drive not originally budgetted for in the build and extra RAM instead.

 

[Mac29]

Yeah I'll go all SSD sometime, but right now I have at least 4 drives w/lots of time left on them. Prob build something to BU data and put all of them to use. Only using my latest, 1TB, in my new build. Funny to even say that. Haven't built anything since Phenom days. Refuse to give $ to Intel, or any company that colludes.

They say PSUs run/work best at 50% capacity. Right about what my 650W should pull. It sucks when you think 1 part will solve an issue only to find you have to spend again on something else. I've got my fingers crossed no issues now or down the line with the pieces to this Ryzen box.

Speaking of which, damn tired of working on this POS someone threw out on the curb. Still worth ~$200, w/I get to part out and use towards a new card + LCD in just a few months ; - )

Gonna luv 16GB...