Upgrade, restore and tips

[Christonn93]

Not sure it's the right place to post but I hope so

 

 

Budget (including currency): 1500 nok / 150 usd 

Country: Norway

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for:  Going to use the computer as I do today, programming websites and some gaming, usually play only one game, Arma 3, survival mod. 

 

What I have today is fine, could be better graphics but not super important at the moment. 

 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

 

My current specs is:  

- Os: Windows

- Board: EX-a320m-gaming (Asus)

- Cpu: AMD Athlon x4

- Ram: G.Skill TridentZ 16gb 2x8gb CL15

- Gpu: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050

- Storage: 1x hdd Seagate 1tb, 

2 x ssd pny cs900 120gb/480gb

- PS: RM 650x Corsair 

- Fans: 1 back fan, cpu cooler

- Case: no idea (image) 

 

And what I want is to make my computer run more silent, less maintenance when it comes to dust on the fans, want to set up one hdd for storage (maybe 1tb or up?)

would also like to  have one ssd (one of thoes i have now) setted up with linux, And a ssd, thought about m.2 drive but how big should it be? Where would the programs be installed?  

 

What fans would be good to have? 

Do I need to use water cooling or is it good enough with fans? (Rgb is not a must) 

 

I have one extra gpu laying around, not sure if it works, will I break something if I plug it in to my motherboard to check if it works? If so, how can I check it without breaking the board? 

 

I also want to restore a old work computer, it's currently locked to the Os and hooked up to a old work place. I have tried changing the ssd but some how it still starts up in in the same way, locked to the old company. 

 

That was a lot of questions and maybe a bit over the place, just ask if you need some more details:)

[mariushm]

43 minutes ago, Christonn93 said:

My current specs is:  

- Os: Windows

- Board: EX-a320m-gaming (Asus)

- Cpu: AMD Athlon x4

- Ram: G.Skill TridentZ 16gb 2x8gb CL15

- Gpu: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050

- Storage: 1x hdd Seagate 1tb, 

2 x ssd pny cs900 120gb/480gb

- PS: RM 650x Corsair 

- Fans: 1 back fan, cpu cooler

- Case: no idea (image)

 

You don't have an Athlon x4 - do you mean a quad core Ryzen or one of those pre-Ryzen CPUs (A10, A8)? 

 

The power supply is good. The memory is good, no need to replace or upgrade (unless we're talking really low frequency, like 2666 Mhz or less). 

The motherboard is basic, but can still handle 65w TDP processors just fine. Maybe even 95w TDP processors would work well, there is some basic heatsink on the VRM unlike most A320 chipset motherboards. 

So you could upgrade to a six core CPU, even a 8 core CPU.  If you have just a quad core, it would be an upgrade.

 

Video card could be upgraded as well, but video cards are expensive today. That 1050 should still be fine for 1080p low-medium quality gameplay.

 

As for that other system ... look in bios at boot order, worst case scenario pull the drive and move it in your other computer and format it and put it back in the old machine, then boot from a windows DVD / usb stick and install windows on that thing. 

 

[Christonn93]

3 hours ago, mariushm said:

 

You don't have an Athlon x4 - do you mean a quad core Ryzen or one of those pre-Ryzen CPUs (A10, A8)? 

 

The power supply is good. The memory is good, no need to replace or upgrade (unless we're talking really low frequency, like 2666 Mhz or less). 

The motherboard is basic, but can still handle 65w TDP processors just fine. Maybe even 95w TDP processors would work well, there is some basic heatsink on the VRM unlike most A320 chipset motherboards. 

So you could upgrade to a six core CPU, even a 8 core CPU.  If you have just a quad core, it would be an upgrade.

 

Video card could be upgraded as well, but video cards are expensive today. That 1050 should still be fine for 1080p low-medium quality gameplay.

 

As for that other system ... look in bios at boot order, worst case scenario pull the drive and move it in your other computer and format it and put it back in the old machine, then boot from a windows DVD / usb stick and install windows on that thing. 

 

I have this one: 

https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/7th-gen-amd-athlon-x4-950 

 

Thanks for the tips

[mariushm]

14 minutes ago, Christonn93 said:

I have this one: 

https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/7th-gen-amd-athlon-x4-950 

 

Thanks for the tips

Then you should definitely upgrade the CPU. 

That CPU is not based on Zen cores (the cores used in Ryzen computers) but older generations of AMD processors, which are quite slow. 

That x4 950 scores around 3600 points in a certain cpu benchmark,  while even the oldest Ryzen 1200 (only 4 cores, no hyperthreading) scores 6300 points. 

In fact it's so weak and slow and low single thread performance it may even hold back that video card.

 

Look at what you can afford and aim for at least a 6 core Ryzen .. 1600 scores around 12k points, 2600 scores around 14k points, 3600 goes to 17k points, 5500 to 20k and 5600 to 21k 

 

[Christonn93]

On 6/3/2022 at 12:14 PM, mariushm said:

Then you should definitely upgrade the CPU. 

That CPU is not based on Zen cores (the cores used in Ryzen computers) but older generations of AMD processors, which are quite slow. 

That x4 950 scores around 3600 points in a certain cpu benchmark,  while even the oldest Ryzen 1200 (only 4 cores, no hyperthreading) scores 6300 points. 

In fact it's so weak and slow and low single thread performance it may even hold back that video card.

 

Look at what you can afford and aim for at least a 6 core Ryzen .. 1600 scores around 12k points, 2600 scores around 14k points, 3600 goes to 17k points, 5500 to 20k and 5600 to 21k 

 

Yeah, the processor is one place where I look to upgrade. I bought the computer off Finn(similart to Craigslist) for around 1500 nok/ 158 usd. 

 

I'm in process now to buy a Ryzen 3 1200, it's also from Finn, for around 50 usd. 

 

But it have not been a priority to change the CPU because I don't do much gaming, mostly studies in front end dev that I have been doing and it have worked fine for that

 

Does the Ryzen 3 1200 have integrated graphics so I can use the onboard ports on the motherboard? Why I ask this is because I'm currently only working on 2 screens, but will soon be working on 4 screens and my card only have 2 outputs for screens. 

[mariushm]

No, the 1200 doesn't have integrated graphics.  And 50 dollars is kind of a bad deal for a Ryzen 1200... if you're willing to wait up to a month or so for it, Ryzen 1400 can be bought for 55$ from China : https://www.ebay.com/itm/133926790033?hash=item1f2ea8a391:g:3O4AAOSwI-1hhuDs or https://www.ebay.com/itm/174729335426?hash=item28aeae1282:g:7bwAAOSwoDxgdBz7

Also 1500x is 66$, worth the extra 16$ over the 1200 again, if you're willing to wait to arrive : https://www.ebay.com/itm/174760805338?hash=item28b08e43da:g:kJUAAOSwNzNhCQhs

 

At least you get 4 cores, 8 threads, and 100 mhz extra, so it's a bit of a boost, over 1200 ... 1200 is really the lowest quality dies that aren't stable at Ryzen 1400 frequencies or too little overclocking room, or consumed too much power to be sold as Ryzen 1400.  

 

SOME motherboards won't let you run both integrated and dedicated video cards in parallel, they'll disable the onboard video card automatically when you have dedicated. But most would work just fine, as long as there's at least one monitor connected to the integrated card they'll leave the integrated graphics enabled. 

 

For integrated graphics, look maybe at 2200g, 2400g  but they're expensive for the performance they have..  there's also 3000g cheaper but it's only 2 cores, not worth it. 

 

It would be easier to spend 10-20$ on a 2nd dedicated video card just for 2 extra monitor outputs (a cheap video card is good enough for 2D on those monitors, assume you don't mean playing games on 4 monitors)

 

For example an AMD HD 7570 would have 2 outputs and is available in normal height and low profile for around 12-15$ : https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=amd+hd+7570&_sop=15

.. and it's still recent enough and sold in dell / hp / etc computers so there should even be built in basic drivers in Windows 10  if you don't install the AMD drivers.

 

Another example ... nvidia 210 ... a turd of a video card, but can drive 2-3 monitors showing 2D stuff just fine and it's 11$ :  https://www.ebay.com/itm/125348025171?epid=109589825&hash=item1d2f531353:g:nK8AAOSwVFdimQFf

The Windows 10 support is barely there though, may or may not work well. 

 

Quadro cards are also an option .. ex nvidia quadro 4000