What's my best option?

[Froody129]

Hiya

 

I'm trying to set up a cheapish build for my brother. Only gaming.

 

I had an i5 2300 system ready for him but massive GTX 680 doesn't fit in the motherboard and I want to give him that graphics card. 

 

My friend is selling an i7 930+X58 motherboard for pretty cheap and I would like to grab that hardware, and then eventually get a 6 core Xeon 

 

So my question is if it's worth going X58 in 2018 with all the Spectre and Meltdown updates going on. I have lots of RAM for the platform and the Xeons are cheap.

 

Otherwise of the gaming performance is okay I'll give him my i5 system and get myself the 6 core platform 

 

[Castdeath97]

The i7 930 might even do better the i5 2300, I'd say go for it. But how does the motherboard not fit the 680? Does it not have PCIe slots?

[Spotty]

5 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

I had an i5 2300 system ready for him but massive GTX 680 doesn't fit in the motherboard and I want to give him that graphics card.

What's stopping it from fitting?

Should still get decent enough performance on a 930. I know someone with a 920 who still runs with that as their primary rig. What games will he be playing?
Keep in mind the i7 930 is a very high TDP CPU (130W TDP), so if you do go that route you will need a beefy cooler to handle it, especially if you're planning on doing any overclocking to give it a bit of a boost.

Edit: Other things to keep in mind is that you will need triple channel memory, not dual channel, and there won't be any onboard graphics with that CPU, though if you're running with a discrete card anyway that shouldn't be an issue.

[Froody129]

Just now, Spotty said:

What's stopping it from fitting?

Should still get decent enough performance on a 930. I know someone with a 920 who still runs with that as their primary rig. What games will he be playing?
Keep in mind the i7 930 is a very high TDP CPU (130W TDP), so if you do go that route you will need a beefy cooler to handle it, especially if you're planning on doing any overclocking to give it a bit of a boost.

It comes with a stock cooler and if I use it for my personal rig I would get a huge air cooler for it. He'll be playing 1080p 60hz. Everything from CPU titles such CSGO and BeamNG to things like Far Cry 5. He plays everything. 

 

4 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

The i7 930 might even do better the i5 2300, I'd say go for it. But how does the motherboard not fit the 680? Does it not have PCIe slots?

I've kind of given up on the 2300 for my own use. The motherboard and CPU are actually from an old XPS system and there's a bloody huge capacitor right where the GPU goes. For anything else it would be fine but I have a triple slot DCu2 cooler and it sits close to the motherboard. I turned it on with the 680 in there and some smoke came out the card and I decided I wouldn't be trying that again (the card still works)  

 

 

Of course I could just buy a new GPU but I'm trying to not go crazy with price and I have the hardware anyway. 

[Castdeath97]

2 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

Of course I could just buy a new GPU but I'm trying to not go crazy with price and I have the hardware anyway. 

1

With that massive cap, I assume your options would be limited to used 750Tis and new 560s and 1050Ti which are expensive, so yeah switch platforms. 

[Spotty]

1 minute ago, Froody129 said:

I've kind of given up on the 2300 for my own use. The motherboard and CPU are actually from an old XPS system and there's a bloody huge capacitor right where the GPU goes.

You may be able to get a cheap 2nd hand motherboard off ebay for your 2300 system. I'm assuming replacing the motherboard with a 2nd hand one will be considerably cheaper than buying a different GPU that would fit.
Otherwise perhaps a PCIe riser cable with the GPU mounted away from the capacitor could work as an alternative solution.

If you have the option to go the X58+i7 930 for a reasonable price, then I'd go that route. I'd recommend for 3x4GB sticks giving you 12GB total RAM, as only 6GB (3x2GB) will probably not be enough for those games he is playing.
Also make sure your friends board has SATA III 6gbps support if you're planning on using a SSD in the build. It wouldn't matter much for HDDs if it's only SATA II 3gbps, but it will limit the speed of SATA based SSDs. IIRC X58 all had SATA III, but I remember when I had to replace my 55 series motherboard (i7 860) I had issues finding ones with SATA III.

[Froody129]

21 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

With that massive cap, I assume your options would be limited to used 750Tis and new 560s and 1050Ti which are expensive, so yeah switch platforms. 

Well yes this is the conclusion I reached. The 680 performs like a 1050ti which is why I don't want to get a new card with the stupid prices right now.

 

15 minutes ago, Spotty said:

You may be able to get a cheap 2nd hand motherboard off ebay for your 2300 system. I'm assuming replacing the motherboard with a 2nd hand one will be considerably cheaper than buying a different GPU that would fit.
Otherwise perhaps a PCIe riser cable with the GPU mounted away from the capacitor could work as an alternative solution.

If you have the option to go the X58+i7 930 for a reasonable price, then I'd go that route. I'd recommend for 3x4GB sticks giving you 12GB total RAM, as only 6GB (3x2GB) will probably not be enough for those games he is playing.
Also make sure your friends board has SATA III 6gbps support if you're planning on using a SSD in the build. It wouldn't matter much for HDDs if it's only SATA II 3gbps, but it will limit the speed of SATA based SSDs. IIRC X58 all had SATA III, but I remember when I had to replace my 55 series motherboard (i7 860) I had issues finding ones with SATA III.

Ahhhh the PCIe riser cable is a good idea. Hadn't thought of that at all. I think I'll try go for that.

 

The X58 board has 12GB already and I have 8gb in the 2300 system currently. So RAM isn't too much of an issue. 

 

I actually have a spare H110 motherboard. I've been trying to get a CPU for that but in store is still crap prices compared to just going Ryzen and the used market in my country doesn't seem to understand that you can't ask new prices for a CPU that's a few years old and performs like stuff that's half the price.

 

Edit: I think it's SATA 3 and USB 3 so I should be good there if I buy it.

 

So unless a better idea arises I'll try get a PCIe riser or grab the X58 system. Thanks bunches for your help, a PCIe riser just never occurred to me  

[dragonhart6505]

17 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

For anything else it would be fine but I have a triple slot DCu2 cooler and it sits close to the motherboard

Get an aftermarket dual-slot cooler for the 680. It can take a beating on heat, but something with a dual or triple fan setup would keep things under control with some decent TIM. Could also just throw some Noctua fans on a solid heatsink and make it quieter and keep it cooler

[dragonhart6505]

1 minute ago, Froody129 said:

the PCIe riser cable is a good idea. Hadn't thought of that at all. I think I'll try go for that.

Actually...thats a better/cheaper option than i suggested so long as there's a spot in the case to mount it

[Froody129]

2 minutes ago, dragonhart6505 said:

Get an aftermarket dual-slot cooler for the 680. It can take a beating on heat, but something with a dual or triple fan setup would keep things under control with some decent TIM. Could also just throw some Noctua fans on a solid heatsink and make it quieter and keep it cooler

Nahh, this triple slot cooler looks and sounds awesome (silent 200w card!) and by the time I've thrown the money at a cooler I would never use again I could've just ended up with a new card. 

[dragonhart6505]

3 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

the used market in my country doesn't seem to understand that you can't ask new prices for a CPU that's a few years old and performs like stuff that's half the price

Thats everywhere at the moment. Everyone wants their money back on their initial investment so they can upgrade. Used is used to me. If I can get it for 40-60% of its original price (how it should be amyway) that's a deal and a half. Not gonna happen most often unfortunately