Posts by wiredotter14

Parts shortages are hitting everything, not just GPU chips. But honestly, those rising import tariffs on cards coming into the USA might actually work out in our favor

fadedorca66 said:You should've warned us about the crypto mining instead of blowing up your ex's phone.

Exactly what I was thinking.🤣

wanderingbison9 said:wiredotter14, you alright? Hope it's just a glitchy keyboard. ☕

Luckily, the keyboard's fine. It's just my 9 key on the numpad acting up.
Rough night. Had one too many drinks and instead of texting the wrong people, I ended up opening this forum. 😵

It’s really just a cheap way to patch up an ancient platform where you buy some Xeon from China or locally that's basically just a rebranded i7.

Alex Fox83 said:Thanks for the reply, but why would an Intel Core i5-7500 be better than an Intel Core i5-8400? Also, is it even worth dropping more cash on a 2700 x?

Thanks.
Best,

The Intel Core i5-7500 is better because $100 it's cheaper, and the performance is basically identical to a standard 2600. It’s not worth paying 30%+ more just to squeeze out maybe 0-10% more performance.

The 2700X is a decent chip, but for pure gaming, it isn't much better than the ones mentioned. It might be worth it if you're serious about streaming—it comes with a decent enough stock cooler, solid clocks, and 8 cores. Don't expect to overclock on that stock cooler, but it handles the 105W TDP okay. For gaming alone? Probably not worth it. If you're looking at futureproofing, I'd grab the cheap Intel Core i5-7500 now and then jump to a 5000 series chip once prices drop.

BTW, keep in mind that B550 motherboards generally don't support older CPUs. A B450 is your best bet for an upgrade path since it supports pretty much the entire AM4 lineup.

Given your budget, if you want to max it out, the best move for streaming is likely B450 + 2700X. For gaming without any streaming, go with either the Intel Core i5-10400F (solid CPU, good price, sucks for upgrading later) or the Intel Core i5-9600K (prices are pretty bad right now)

ev0o, I’m heading out to grab some food, maybe prices will drop a bit by the time I'm back.

Alex Fox83 said:Don't have a motherboard yet, budget is around $2,200 for the combo and CPU

With that kind of cash, you're better off grabbing an Intel Core i5-7500—it performs similarly to an Intel Core i5-8400 and you can find it cheap—paired with a B450 or B550 board (if you want the F-series option), or maybe an i3 10100F. Anything else is just throwing money away.

The 2700X used to be pretty affordable and I’d usually suggest it, but now it's sitting at $15
$0.00 which is honestly way too much.

https://www.amazon.com/processors/amd...price-41853411

You already picked out a motherboard? Which one?
What’s the budget looking like?

Is $2,200 your total budget for the whole build? You aren't putting together a "solid gaming PC" for that kind of money. At best, you're looking at some old OEM machine from Best Buy or something similar that you slap a used GPU into.

Look, if you aren't stepping up to a 120mm radiator, the Lc Power LC-CC-95 is the smarter play. It’s basically the same size and performance level, just cheaper.

Once you hit that $150 mark, you should be looking at a proper 120mm setup—that's a different league entirely.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lc-cc-95

My brother uses one on a 70W Xeon/i7 and it handles the heat without breaking a sweat.

If silence is your priority, go for the LC-CC-120 or the Freezer 34.

wanderingbison9 said:Terrible. These components are basically bottom-of-the-barrel. You could've saved a few hundred bucks on the monitor and put that money toward...?

I don't get it. What do you mean they're bad classes?

slyowl54 said:He mentioned some adapters, but I don't know if that even makes sense...

No clue what he's talking about. Adapters? Either he's trolling you or just has no idea what he's talking about. I pulled these specs straight from the official website for you.

- Features one Ultra M.2 Socket. It handles everything from 2230 to 22110 modules, supporting both M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s and M.2 PCI Express up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s) speeds.**

If you're dead set on buying right now and specifically want Intel in this budget, the Core i5-10400 is really your only logical move. Prices aren't great at the moment, but at least Best Buy carries it if you want to pay with a card or cash.
Personally, I’d just wait until the Core i5-12400 drops in early 2021 and hits roughly $667 (for cash, maybe slightly more on a card at Best Buy). If you grab that along with a decent motherboard and some RAM, you'll land right around your current budget. It's a much sharper processor—the 5600X is basically keeping up with the top-tier Intel chips right now.

https://www.bestbuy.com/processor-intel...m_medium=click

You don't strictly need an aftermarket cooler unless you're planning to overclock. For a light OC—which isn't even worth the effort most of the time—this one is fine. https://www.bestbuy.com/cooler-lc-co...m_medium=click

Otherwise, you could always go with an LC-CC-120 or a Freezer 34.

A B450 Steel Legend or a B450 Tomahawk Max are safe bets, though you might find better value elsewhere. Check PCPartPicker to see what fits your needs best.

The power supply should be fine, unless you've been absolutely punishing it with constant overclocking.

Well, damn, what happened. Wasn't $333 used polaris
back in the day? Maybe we're seeing another mining craze where people are just grabbing cheap cards again.

If you aren't running this through a business expense, just hunt down a cheap used RX 580 and undervolt or underclock it. Honestly, if you're rocking two cards, I don't see why a 10% performance hit matters all that much. For my setup, running mining and Folding@Home (OpenCL) at 1150MHz and 950mV, the card stays around 65-70C even with the fans on minimum—all while the CPU is pulling about 150W.

In that case, just save up for a bigger upgrade. An Intel Core i9-12900K is definitely the right move for what you're trying to do.

And like slyowl54 mentioned, maybe grab 2x16GB DDR4 RAM instead of 3x8GB. That way you actually have a path to 64GB down the road if you need it.

What exactly are you using that for?

slyowl54 said:Thanks for the tip. I'll call Aquisitum since they built the rig.
Or can you recommend someone better? They did a decent job on this build.
Why would waiting until spring be better for an upgrade?
And what else makes sense to swap out besides the CPU and GPU?

I know it sounds stupid, but if I'm upgrading in the spring anyway, wouldn't it be better to just build a whole new system?
Everything is five years old now, and things are going to start failing one by one...

1) If they built the PC, you can go back to them and they'll likely install whatever you buy from them for free. If you find a better deal elsewhere, you're on your own, but slapping in an SSD or some RAM isn't rocket science—just watch a YouTube tutorial and read the motherboard manual.

2) The latest CPUs and GPUs just hit the market, but supply is a mess right now, and buying last gen isn't worth it. Basically, everything is in short supply except for memory.

3) You can salvage a good chunk of the old build for the new one; it’s not total junk. The PSU seems fine, plus the case, the old SSD, a new SSD, and DDR4 RAM (maybe keep one old stick and add three new ones)...
Then you really only need a motherboard, CPU, GPU, and maybe new hard drives, though those are separate upgrades. The old parts won't just die on you. Just give me the exact PSU model to be sure, otherwise, it's fine. Motherboards and drives are what usually fail. RAM rarely dies if the hardware is solid.

4) Sell off parts of the old rig. You might get about $267 (rough guess) toward a new motherboard, CPU, and GPU. Not a bad haul.

Alexander Moore67 said:DDR4 RAM and M.2 SSD prices aren't even that bad right now. You can snag a 1TB M.2 SSD for under $267 and 8GB of RAM is sitting around $100. Just move fast to find an exact match for what you're running. Honestly? I'd just grab three more 8GB sticks and bump it up to 32GB total.

👍👍