Need advice on upgrading my desktop.

[Rubbervampire]

Hi everyone. i need some advice on how to upgrade my 3 year old desktop. i have include some information about my desktop.

 

Currently I'm a packaging graphics designer. UI uses illustrator for my design job. I also uses Photoshop for creating 3d design using layer +effects & lightroom. Once in a blue moon I would use a 3d Modeling program.

 

I also uses this PC to play games such as the AOE2 Definitive Edition, Diablo 3, Watchdog 2, etc.

 

Currently my Ram stands at one piece of 8GB . Hence my thoughts is to upgrade to 16 GB. I checked with my local retailer that they have (Kingston DDR4-2133 8GB for SGD $ 40. (I have attached their price list for your reference)

I also wondering if other possible upgrade options are also applicable as well. (Do take a look at the attachments)

 

I  Hope to make my desktop run more efficiently and last for more years down the road.

 

Thank you guys for pouring in your advice in advance.

 

local price list.pdf

[berberries]

all I'd say you'll need right now is the ram upgrade. In general nowadays, 8gb of ram ain't enough for much especially graphic design and 3d (both of which i do). 16gb should really be the minimum ram in your system, ideally 32gb. imo its kinda not worth it to get 2133 ram nowadays, if im not wrong a 2x8gb kit of 3000mhz corsair vengeance should go for about 100 SGD. If you feel that export or render times are taking a little too much time or your pc is getting hung up alot while working on your files, maybe upgrade to a i7-6700 which you can probably get used on carousell for about 200 SGD

 

Personally I'd say don't buy from bizgram. go to dynacore, make fine computer, or fuwell instead. Staff at Bizgram were extremely rude to me and some of my friends when they visited. prices arent the best either. They will try to upsell you as much as possible. They also lost a near 3k sgd sale from me as they basically told me not to waste their time when i was enquiring to buy a 9900k system a few months back. I then proceeded to go to another store a few units over to purchase it and walked past bizgram afterward, held up the beautiful 9900k cpu box for the staff at bizgram to see how they just lost a customer due to rude staff

 

 

[Rubbervampire]

Hi Berberries,

 

This PC rig was bought through Aftershock year end expo, 3 yrs back. I think I won’t be changing my mother board.

 

I check the book it says can support up to 2133 ram. Errmm....Im not sure I can go over 2133 for the 3000mhz you mention.
 

Hahahhaz.. so I guess either up my chip to.. i7 or up my ram to 16GB - 64GB.

 

Bizgram was just for Price reference only. I did email them to ask but their reply was very weird which I totally don’t understand.

Yeah I know Fuwell too. But I check their price list I did not see any 2133 ram. Is it getting more obsolete.just wondering...~
 

Cheers.

[upgradability]

What's your storage solution? 

[SavageNeo]

56 minutes ago, Rubbervampire said:

Hi Berberries,

 

This PC rig was bought through Aftershock year end expo, 3 yrs back. I think I won’t be changing my mother board.

 

I check the book it says can support up to 2133 ram. Errmm....Im not sure I can go over 2133 for the 3000mhz you mention.
 

Hahahhaz.. so I guess either up my chip to.. i7 or up my ram to 16GB - 64GB.

 

Bizgram was just for Price reference only. I did email them to ask but their reply was very weird which I totally don’t understand.

Yeah I know Fuwell too. But I check their price list I did not see any 2133 ram. Is it getting more obsolete.just wondering...~
 

Cheers.

Buy 2400 mhz memory since you have 8gb, buy 16gb stick to other slot or buy 2x8gb and put them on your slots. Since your processor supports 2133mhz stable, you should manually oc yoyr ram to 2400mhz

[Rubbervampire]

26 minutes ago, SavageNeo said:

Buy 2400 mhz memory since you have 8gb, buy 16gb stick to other slot or buy 2x8gb and put them on your slots. Since your processor supports 2133mhz stable, you should manually oc yoyr ram to 2400mhz

Is overclock easy to do? I look up for the webpage regarding this model overclocking. I seems easy. But I have no idea how to do it. What are the things I should take note of if I where to do OC base on one 8/16 GB ram.

 

Cheers.

 

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Rubbervampire said:

Hi Berberries,

 

This PC rig was bought through Aftershock year end expo, 3 yrs back. I think I won’t be changing my mother board.

 

I check the book it says can support up to 2133 ram. Errmm....Im not sure I can go over 2133 for the 3000mhz you mention.
 

Hahahhaz.. so I guess either up my chip to.. i7 or up my ram to 16GB - 64GB.

 

Bizgram was just for Price reference only. I did email them to ask but their reply was very weird which I totally don’t understand.

Yeah I know Fuwell too. But I check their price list I did not see any 2133 ram. Is it getting more obsolete.just wondering...~
 

Cheers.

Fast ram can run more slowly than its max speed.  There are ways often to make a mobo accept and run ram faster than its normally rated for as well.  

[1van]

10 hours ago, Rubbervampire said:

H170M PLUS

Hello, check this out. It should be fine running something like i7-8700 non-K or a similar TDP CPU after the modification.

I run an i7-8700 in an ASUS H270 board no problem. Btw, after the mod these boards support up to 2666MHz DDR4.

Edited November 16, 2019 by 1van

[berberries]

5 hours ago, Rubbervampire said:

Hi Berberries,

 

This PC rig was bought through Aftershock year end expo, 3 yrs back. I think I won’t be changing my mother board.

 

I check the book it says can support up to 2133 ram. Errmm....Im not sure I can go over 2133 for the 3000mhz you mention.
 

Hahahhaz.. so I guess either up my chip to.. i7 or up my ram to 16GB - 64GB.

 

Bizgram was just for Price reference only. I did email them to ask but their reply was very weird which I totally don’t understand.

Yeah I know Fuwell too. But I check their price list I did not see any 2133 ram. Is it getting more obsolete.just wondering...~
 

Cheers.

hey, do use the "quote" function in the forum so i will see your reply faster (only saw it when i was closing my tabs lol) you can buy 3000MHz ram and run it at 2133MHz.

 

2133MHz ram is kinda hard to find now, aftershock used to really use very cheap parts, and overcharge alot. their new systems use much better parts and are much more competitive in prices haha. 

 

I think the easiest speed of ram you can pick up cheaply locally in Singapore right now is 2666MHz. Most shops still have them, should be less than 50 bucks.

 

If you are planning to upgrade your CPU, imo don't go to a skylake i7. Buy a Ryzen 2600/3600 and a B450 board, get a 16GB kit of fast ram (maybe 3200, ryzen loves fast ram). Should run you around 500SGD total brand new in the case of a 3600 or about a hundred dollars cheaper for the 2600. you can probably sell your CPU/mobo/ram combo for about 200-250SGD.

 

If you want to get better prices, go down to stores like dynacore or fuwell at SLS, and ask them for their prices in person. The staff there are all happy to talk to you and advise you. If you don't really know how to build a system yourself, you can bring the tower with you, they can help you do the upgrade. If they are not that busy and you can talk your way through it, they may do it for free. If not it's a $40-50 fee to help you assemble and troubleshoot any issues. But if I will be honest, you will get lower prices at Dynacore. I only go to Fuwell if Dynacore is out of stock as it is generally a little more expensive.

[Rubbervampire]

On 11/17/2019 at 2:13 AM, berberries said:

On 11/16/2019 at 8:09 PM, Rubbervampire said:

 

hey, do use the "quote" function in the forum so i will see your reply faster (only saw it when i was closing my tabs lol) you can buy 3000MHz ram and run it at 2133MHz.

 

2133MHz ram is kinda hard to find now, aftershock used to really use very cheap parts, and overcharge alot. their new systems use much better parts and are much more competitive in prices haha. 

 

I think the easiest speed of ram you can pick up cheaply locally in Singapore right now is 2666MHz. Most shops still have them, should be less than 50 bucks.

 

If you are planning to upgrade your CPU, imo don't go to a skylake i7. Buy a Ryzen 2600/3600 and a B450 board, get a 16GB kit of fast ram (maybe 3200, ryzen loves fast ram). Should run you around 500SGD total brand new in the case of a 3600 or about a hundred dollars cheaper for the 2600. you can probably sell your CPU/mobo/ram combo for about 200-250SGD.

 

If you want to get better prices, go down to stores like dynacore or fuwell at SLS, and ask them for their prices in person. The staff there are all happy to talk to you and advise you. If you don't really know how to build a system yourself, you can bring the tower with you, they can help you do the upgrade. If they are not that busy and you can talk your way through it, they may do it for free. If not it's a $40-50 fee to help you assemble and troubleshoot any issues. But if I will be honest, you will get lower prices at Dynacore. I only go to Fuwell if Dynacore is out of stock as it is generally a little more expensive.

very new to forum. Just found out how to use quote. 
 

so I search at carousell. Someone is selling 2400 & 2666 MHz ram. As I’m am very new to OC. The selling told me I can set my bios to auto detect the ram or I could manually adjust it on my own. So I’m wonder is it plausible to do auto adjustments for both 2400 and 2666.

 

Thank You.

[berberries]

On 11/21/2019 at 7:02 PM, Rubbervampire said:

very new to forum. Just found out how to use quote. 
 

so I search at carousell. Someone is selling 2400 & 2666 MHz ram. As I’m am very new to OC. The selling told me I can set my bios to auto detect the ram or I could manually adjust it on my own. So I’m wonder is it plausible to do auto adjustments for both 2400 and 2666.

 

Thank You.

usually theres an "XMP Profile" you can set. put your lowest speed ram in slot 2 and the faster one in slot 4, you should be able to automatically select the slower "XMP Profile"

[Rubbervampire]

3 hours ago, berberries said:

usually theres an "XMP Profile" you can set. put your lowest speed ram in slot 2 and the faster one in slot 4, you should be able to automatically select the slower "XMP Profile"

Currently, my XMP is disabled, which is the only option I get.

[berberries]

right, because its a 2133MHz stick of ram. I believe DDR4 base speed is 2133, therefore i dont think it needs xmp.

[Rubbervampire]

12 hours ago, berberries said:

right, because its a 2133MHz stick of ram. I believe DDR4 base speed is 2133, therefore i dont think it needs xmp

So it means I could get either 2400 or 2666 ram for my desktop. But eventually it will just run at 2133 only. Am I correct?

 

Happy weekend!

[1van]

1 hour ago, Rubbervampire said:

But eventually it will just run at 2133 only. Am I correct?

 

Happy weekend!

The picture from the motherboard manual in your first post says exactly this

 

Skylake Non-Z - 2133 MHz, Kaby Lake non-Z - 2400 MHz, Coffee Lake non-Z - 2400 MHz for i3 and below, and 2666 MHz for i5 and higher, IMO.