Stop Gap Upgrade for Old PC Assistance

[MarkAnthony121]

I'm looking to do a super cheap upgrade of my brother in law's pc until he get a fully new one.

The specs are:

i7-6700K

GTX 980

MSI B150 PC Mate (https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/B150-PC-MATE)

32GB DDR4 2133

400W PSU

2TB HD

 

Honestly the best value update I can see is replacing the HD with an SSD. I saw the specs on the motherboard and it has an m.2 (sata mode) slot. Should we bother with an m.2 or just a regular SSD, not sure if the m.2 will be faster since it's "sata mode" whatever that means. Other than this and a clean install of windows 10 I don't see any other changes that would be worthwhile for the money. For $200 I feel it would breathe new life into it until a new computer is bought. Any suggestions for a good value m.2 or SDD (1TB) would be appreciated. I believe something like a Samsung 980 pro for example would be wasted speed on that motherboard.

 

[jaslion]

Your m.2 slot is keyed for sata so only msata drives will work which aren't really used in modern boards anymore. So I'd just get a mx500 1tb.

 

Realistically speaking tho good luck finding a difference between a good sata drive like a mx500 vs a 980pro in general use and games.

 

Also what psu is that? Must be a good unit to keep trucking with a system like this and only being 400w.

 

Also keep in mind this computer is a SOLID mid ranger in todays market.

[MarkAnthony121]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Your m.2 slot is keyed for sata so only msata drives will work which aren't really used in modern boards anymore. So I'd just get a mx500 1tb.

 

Realistically speaking tho good luck finding a difference between a good sata drive like a mx500 vs a 980pro in general use and games.

 

Also what psu is that? Must be a good unit to keep trucking with a system like this and only being 400w.

 

Also keep in mind this computer is a SOLID mid ranger in todays market.

That's what I told him. That this machine definitely still has life for light use cases. However he's a pilot and wants to edit 4K go pro videos of his flights so it's starting to show its age a little with that. Thanks for confirming that a 980 Pro is overkill. And I'll have to investigate the PSU. On his iBUYPOWER spec sheet it says "400W PSU 80 Plus Bronze , free upgrade to 800W" I'll have to ask if he took that upgrade because 400W is right at the edge in my opinion. 

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, MarkAnthony121 said:

That's what I told him. That this machine definitely still has life for light use cases. However he's a pilot and wants to edit 4K go pro videos of his flights so it's starting to show its age a little with that. Thanks for confirming that a 980 Pro is overkill. And I'll have to investigate the PSU. On his iBUYPOWER spec sheet it says "400W PSU 80 Plus Bronze , free upgrade to 800W" I'll have to ask if he took that upgrade because 400W is right at the edge in my opinion. 

And it's ibuypower sooooo wth did they put in there :p.

 

As for editing yeah thats a bit rough but really all your friend would need is a better cpu and a bit more ram. i5 12600 + 32gb ram and call it a day.

 

980pro won't even work in the board it won't fit. The slot is not m.2 nvme it's the sata one.

[MarkAnthony121]

3 minutes ago, jaslion said:

And it's ibuypower sooooo wth did they put in there :p.

 

As for editing yeah thats a bit rough but really all your friend would need is a better cpu and a bit more ram. i5 12600 + 32gb ram and call it a day.

 

980pro won't even work in the board it won't fit. The slot is not m.2 nvme it's the sata one.

Would a Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe work? It's cheaper than the crucial and no cables to deal with? Not sure though if it's going to use up lanes that would be otherwise used by the video card or anything like that

 

And yes I'll have him take pictures of the PSU for me later. I might throw in a fresh 550W PSU for stability. 

[yamileon]

21 minutes ago, MarkAnthony121 said:

snip

Would a Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe work? 
short answer no,

 

sata and nvme are protocols, the mobo only supports sata

m.2 is the physical connector 

 

pc part picker has filters to make it easier to find a compatible drive ( the link below should be filtered to what's needed )

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#D=0&i=83&sort=price

 

(someone correct me if im wrong) 

[MarkAnthony121]

9 minutes ago, yamileon said:

Would a Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe work? 
short answer no,

 

sata and nvme are protocols, the mobo only supports sata

m.2 is the physical connector 

 

pc part picker has filters to make it easier to find a compatible drive ( the link below should be filtered to what's needed )

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#D=0&i=83&sort=price

 

(someone correct me if im wrong) 

Crap sorry I incorrectly listed an NVME. I know SATA M.2 drives are old tech. Do you think I'm better off getting a modern SSD like jaslion mentioned above? My theory for getting a compatible m.2 was to avoid cables as long as the performance would be the same. Also like I mentioned I don't know if using an m.2 here would take away pcie lanes that the gpu might be using

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, MarkAnthony121 said:

Would a Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe work? It's cheaper than the crucial and no cables to deal with? Not sure though if it's going to use up lanes that would be otherwise used by the video card or anything like that

 

And yes I'll have him take pictures of the PSU for me later. I might throw in a fresh 550W PSU for stability. 

No. It's not an msata drive. It literally will NOT fit.

[yamileon]

37 minutes ago, MarkAnthony121 said:

snip

jaslion answer below just go with that

 

performance should be the same, 

as for pcie lanes dont think that would effect gpu,

the m.2 slot might disable a sata port when in use

 

other than that its just dealing with cables

thou one thing to consider its a slot easier to pull out sata drives for support reasons than an m.2

Edited April 2, 2022 by yamileon

[jaslion]

34 minutes ago, MarkAnthony121 said:

Crap sorry I incorrectly listed an NVME. I know SATA M.2 drives are old tech. Do you think I'm better off getting a modern SSD like jaslion mentioned above? My theory for getting a compatible m.2 was to avoid cables as long as the performance would be the same. Also like I mentioned I don't know if using an m.2 here would take away pcie lanes that the gpu might be using

Just get a standard run of the mill sata one NOT MSATA so you can reuse it later on and call it a day. No worries about pcie lanes either but again your board seem to just use the sata controller for the msata slot anyway.

[MarkAnthony121]

5 hours ago, jaslion said:

Just get a standard run of the mill sata one NOT MSATA so you can reuse it later on and call it a day. No worries about pcie lanes either but again your board seem to just use the sata controller for the msata slot anyway.

Fair enough, I'll do that! Thanks for the help!