Making a bad computer.......better (and reliable)

[mn_leaf_fan]

Budget (including currency): $500

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Web browsing, media streaming, home file server, light gaming (Forza 7) 

Other details I have a 4-5 year old Alienware Aurora R7 (i7-8700, 32GB,  Optane + 1.8TB HDD, GeForce GTX 1070) that is dying a slow death. 

A year ago I replaced the power supply (Seasonic Focus GM-650) and added a CPU cooler (Corsair H60) and now the internet connection (both the Killer e2500 ethernet and Wireless adaptor) have started hanging every hour or so.  I have to reboot to get it started again. I updated all the drivers and it's still happening.  After some searching it seems that this is a common issue with Aurora R7/8 machines.

The current performance is ok, so I was wondering if it would make any sense to re-use some of the parts I have and just get a new motherboard/case/CPU? 

Add a SSD and reuse the HDD as secondary storage? 

Is the CPU, 2666 memory and graphics card still viable?

What would you do?

 

Thanks

Dan

 

 

[bmx6454]

that cpu is still more than enough imo for what you need it to do. i would just go with new case, motherboard, and ssd, and just swap all the rest of the parts over.

[Jonathan Lee]

Try getting a new SSD. Your current hardware doesn't sound that bad

[vladtepes]

Absolutely the first thing I'd spend money on if I were you - a decent SSD. 

It'll be chalk and cheese for you. You'll love it.

[GeorgeMKane]

I would recommend cpu, motherboard, and case upgrade. Add a solid M.2 NVME SSD in there for sure too.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bXFjyK

[mn_leaf_fan]

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

So consensus on the SSD.

 

Seems to be differing opinions on the CPU/motherboard swap. Any recommendations on motherboards that would work with my i7-8700 or am I better upgrading both (if I decide to replace the motherboard)?

 

Either way I will need a replacement ethernet network card.  Any advice on a solid replacement to the on-board KIller e2500 solution?

[Jonathan Lee]

If you want to switch motherboards, I would go with a full platform upgrade. Going with a new mobo doesn't really improve performance unless it's a really bad one. I would say the best value right now is i7-12700 with DDR4 B660 or H670 so you can use your current ram. Example:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700F 2.1 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($312.96 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: ASRock H670 Steel Legend ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($169.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S7 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $572.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-03-15 11:44 EDT-0400

 

Threw in a nice premium gen 3 nvme drive with dram cache. It's a pretty good price right now