PC build thread

[Ziggy]

I've been debating for a few months if I should upgrade my CPU and mobo, or just max out my CPU on my current mobo.

Here's the thing: I don't really have a need to upgrade, but now is a good time depending on how you look at it.

I currently have an x58 mobo with an i7 920 (2.66Ghz, first gen i7) and DDR3 1600 RAM. I'm looking at mobo for current Intel sockets, and DDR3 1600 is still supported. So I'm thinking I could upgrade my mobo and CPU and keep everything else in my PC. Doing that would also upgrade all my mobo features. I have SATA 2.0, PCIe x16 2.0, and USB 2.0. A new mobo would upgrade that to SATA 3.0, PCIe 3.0, and USB 3.0 respectively.

I have 18GB of DDR3 1600 RAM, but since it's an x58 board that's tri channel. It's 3x 2GB sticks and 3x 4GB sticks. So, I would have to downgrade that to 12GB, but it's not like that would effect me.

My other option would be to just max out my CPU with the mobo I have now. I can get a used i7-975 (3.33Ghz, 6.4GT/s) on eBay for about $100. I can get an i7-965 (3.2Ghz, 6.4GT/s) for maybe around $80. This is compared to my 920, which is 2.66Ghz, 4.8GT/s. Although I heard the transfers per second wouldn't have a noticeable effect, the higher clock speed would. Especially if I overclock it.

Again, I really don't even need an upgrade. USB 3.0 would be nice, but I'm not missing it. Maybe I would see an improvement with 6Gb/s SATA. And I'm not even sure what the benefits of PCIe 3.1 or 4.0 are over 2.0, but I assume it's some sort of performance increase.

Mainly I was interested in the CPU upgrade. I've been getting back into PC gaming a little, and I've been noticing the recommended CPU for a lot of newer games bests my 920. That, and the extra clock speed would be nice for stuff like higan.

[isiolia]

Far as I've seen, most Skylake stuff is more oriented towards DDR4, which has come down in price (16GB kit for the machine I build for my brother a month ago was $70 or so).

While the CPU performance is definitely better now, I think it really would come down to all the other parts. USB 3.0 is a big upgrade in spec, and very noticeable if you're copying things to external drives and such. It's also needed for things like VR headsets. 'course, you can also get an add-in card for it.
The SATA upgrade would be relevant if you have (or will get) a newer SSD, as SATA models are
coming close to saturating 3.0, much less 2.0. If you want even higher performance, m.2 slots are fairly common on new boards, though NVMe SSDs to really take advantage of that are pretty pricey still.

Personally, I would look at getting into a newer architecture, if you're spending any significant amount of money. X58 stuff is a workhorse for sure - friend is still using my old i7 950 setup - but so many parts of it are behind the curve now.

[Ziggy]

USB 3.0 would be cool, but I don't actually need it right now. My multi card reader is USB 3.0, but all of my other USB devices are 2.0. Most of the time I'm transferring files over USB they're small in size, so 2.0 hasn't bothered me. I figured if I ever get something that requires 3.0 then I'll get an add-on card, but I wont use USB 3.0 as a deciding factor to upgrade my mobo.

I do have a SSD, so I was thinking the faster SATA transfer rate would probably be noticeable.

A quick look at the Wiki page for PCIe shows that each successive revision improves the transfer speed. So would that mean better graphics card performance? I'm thinking it probably will.

I forgot to mention that the only real reason I was considering upgrading the mobo and CPU is because I'd be able to get away with keeping the RAM and everything else. It was a cost thing. But I guess you're right, I think I'll wait and eventually just do a complete rebuild. My original plan was to wait until Win7 is no longer supported, then build a new PC with a new OS at that point. I can max out my CPU for my x58 build for $100 or less, so maybe I'll just do that to hold me over.

[dsheinem]

I put in a request for my department to buy me either a gtx 1070 or a gtx 1080 (their choice) with some of the leftover budget monies for the FY. Fingers crossed...

[noiseredux]

I put in a request for my department to buy me either a gtx 1070 or a gtx 1080 (their choice) with some of the leftover budget monies for the FY. Fingers crossed...

that might be overkill for PS1 emulation.

[Jmustang1968]

Emulation is quite demanding...

[Xeogred]

noob question since I've only built one PC for myself, but when you upgrade your CPU and motherboard, is there a chance the OS ties itself to that motherboard? I swear I thought that was a potential case, but maybe I'm totally wrong. It's just always seemed daunting to upgrade the CPU to me, which requires a motherboard, which is essentially most of the work haha.

I didn't get a Win7 disc with my PC so that's always been the scary thing, it was a one time install only. So I can't really simply install it again or anything.

[emwearz]

noob question since I've only built one PC for myself, but when you upgrade your CPU and motherboard, is there a chance the OS ties itself to that motherboard? I swear I thought that was a potential case, but maybe I'm totally wrong. It's just always seemed daunting to upgrade the CPU to me, which requires a motherboard, which is essentially most of the work haha.

I didn't get a Win7 disc with my PC so that's always been the scary thing, it was a one time install only. So I can't really simply install it again or anything.

Windows 8/10 tie the registration to the UEFI of your motherboard. When changing motherboards with Windows 8, I had a stack of issues with registering Windows, in the end I had to call MS to get my copy registered. I recently did the same thing with a Windows 10 PC and had no issues what so ever, it booted first time with my Windows account signed in and was registered without any issues.

With Windows 7 you should be fine, if you have the CD Key for it (you can find it out, use google) then you can just create a USB installer for Windows 7 if worse comes to worse and install off that (with your valid CD Key).

[isiolia]

With Windows 7 you should be fine, if you have the CD Key for it (you can find it out, use google) then you can just create a USB installer for Windows 7 if worse comes to worse and install off that (with your valid CD Key).

Can be slightly more annoying if the PC is from a big brand like Dell, ASUS, HP, etc. For those, typically the key in use is a bulk license one for the brand. Even if they include a disc, it may just do a BIOS check before it'll install to verify brand, and then not need a code/activation key after.

While most of those will have a Windows key on a sticker somewhere, if you use generic media and plug that code in, often it's inactive - should still work, but may need manual activation.

noob question since I've only built one PC for myself, but when you upgrade your CPU and motherboard, is there a chance the OS ties itself to that motherboard?

Depends on what license the OS has. While any single seat license only activates on one machine at a time, the full retail license can be transferred. An OEM one technically is bound to the hardware it was sold with, though you can always try manual activation or a support call to shift it. Far as I've seen, MS is fairly lenient on that, since you may be swapping in a different board due to failure or something.

You can often find the generic Windows 7 ISOs via Google anway. Windows 8 and on, MS has a utility to make installation media.

[emwearz]

^ This is a good point. I have never had an OEM machine so never hit those problems.