[SOLVED] Argh - why does replacing one thing result in a million other changes?

James Blonde

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More a rant / moan than anything, sorry! But whyyyyyyy!!! 😂 Plug and play?? Yeh right!

Bought a rtx 3070ti without realising 3 things.

1 - my 750w PSU isn't going to be enough to power it
2 - it won't fit in my case with the drive cage installed.
3 - I've got too many hard drives not to have a drive cage

Which is all going to result in my having to take my pc to bits, take the PSU out, disassemble the case and completely rewire it, and figure out what to do with my hard drives.

And then you start questioning whether it would be easier just to buy a new system and sell this one or use it as a backup. I mean the GPU cost more than a new case, motherboard, processor and RAM put together, and an i7 9700k is a few years old now so.... 😂😭

And then there's my old pc.... The one I just put my old gtx 1070 in that's being replaced by the 3070ti. Do I also put my 750w PSU in that and take the old one out? Do I even need it now I've got a proper NAS? I mean all I effectively use it for now is as a print server and download server, so why even bother??

All for what I thought was going to be a 5 minute job. 😭
 
Solution
So I saw this
(The 1070 ...)

I'm not generally an AAA gamer, but when cities skylines is playing at 24fps and 14 when I open a menu, or transport fever 2 is crawling along at 12fps, on a 9700k with 64gb ram,
and then I saw this
I did have the radiator at the front pulling through and a single exhaust at the back
and I wonder if your problem was not GPU overheating? Because if it was, then 3070ti will have same problem but more so.
Another thing to consider is Skylines AFAIK is CPU bound game so exchanging GPU might not help at all with FPS. Really should have done the homework before going shopping (unless you got the GPU cheap, couldn't blame you for that).
More a rant / moan than anything, sorry! But whyyyyyyy!!! 😂 Plug and play?? Yeh right!

Bought a rtx 3070ti without realising 3 things.

1 - my 750w PSU isn't going to be enough to power it
2 - it won't fit in my case with the drive cage installed.
3 - I've got too many hard drives not to have a drive cage

Which is all going to result in my having to take my pc to bits, take the PSU out, disassemble the case and completely rewire it, and figure out what to do with my hard drives.

And then you start questioning whether it would be easier just to buy a new system and sell this one or use it as a backup. I mean the GPU cost more than a new case, motherboard, processor and RAM put together, and an i7 9700k is a few years old now so.... 😂😭

And then there's my old pc.... The one I just put my old gtx 1070 in that's being replaced by the 3070ti. Do I also put my 750w PSU in that and take the old one out? Do I even need it now I've got a proper NAS? I mean all I effectively use it for now is as a print server and download server, so why even bother??

All for what I thought was going to be a 5 minute job. 😭
That's what happens when you don't think well in advance.
Often overlooked PSU, not enough to be "750W" if it's of good make and model it should be good enough for that system.
If you looked at trends with GPUs, you'd see that they have grown in size mostly due to their cooling. Some are enormous.
PS.
No idea why you needed such "Gaming" GPU for nas and print server when it would do just as good with IGPU alone.
 

James Blonde

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PS.
No idea why you needed such "Gaming" GPU for nas and print server when it would do just as good with IGPU alone.

Doesn't need it, was more that I might as well put it in there until I decide what I'm doing. I do use that system to run my RIP software for my 24" printer and for a bit of photoshop sometimes, so does have a benefit, but yep - overkill! As is that whole PC....

And definitely not complaining about my new card, but so desperate to grab one that I didn't consider what I might mean for the rest of the system! 😂
 

chaoyang

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I guess if you really wanted to keep the GPU and not willing to swap a new cases, then you could try getting an external GPU slot. I'm not an expert on how those works or if it works on PC and not just laptops.

But I guess its worth some research if that is what you want.
 
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Doesn't need it, was more that I might as well put it in there until I decide what I'm doing. I do use that system to run my RIP software for my 24" printer and for a bit of photoshop sometimes, so does have a benefit, but yep - overkill! As is that whole PC....

And definitely not complaining about my new card, but so desperate to grab one that I didn't consider what I might mean for the rest of the system! 😂
In all probability you need only larger case.
 

James Blonde

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In all probability you need only larger case.

It's a Define R6, I should be able to reconfigure it to fit the card I think, though might have a hard drive left over to fit somewhere.

But again, if I need a new case, it's another reason to question whether I'd be as well to buy a new system completely and just start again.

There's a degree of tongue-in-cheek to what I'm saying - not entirely serious, though it is exactly what I've done and the problems I've created for myself and am having to fix. 😂
 
It's a Define R6, I should be able to reconfigure it to fit the card I think, though might have a hard drive left over to fit somewhere.

But again, if I need a new case, it's another reason to question whether I'd be as well to buy a new system completely and just start again.

There's a degree of tongue-in-cheek to what I'm saying - not entirely serious, though it is exactly what I've done and the problems I've created for myself and am having to fix. 😂
Let's se, hmmmm... just case change or whole new system...... does not compute unless you have money to throw around.
With addition of 3070Ti you have great system able to play any new AAA games let alone for what you are doing now.
 
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James Blonde

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Oh don't worry, I use my primary PC for gaming, and heavier photo processing, video and audio editing - the new card is going to be earning its keep! 😂

(The 1070 has gone into my second / backup pc, a 3570k which is the print server, and I have to process for print locally as I've had too many print failures transferring across my network - 100% success when done locally)

I'm not generally an AAA gamer, but when cities skylines is playing at 24fps and 14 when I open a menu, or transport fever 2 is crawling along at 12fps, on a 9700k with 64gb ram, I need to start throwing things at my pc in the hope it helps! New graphics card seemed a good place to start.

And it's also partly why my brain starts getting into new system territory rather than just new case, or new PSU, or whatever. It's not that I've got money to throw around, but I'm throwing money at things I didn't think I needed to throw money at anyway, when it might be cleaner, easier, and more successful to start again. I'm not going to, but the number of changes I've made over the last few months to make a few years old system better maybe would have been better invested.
 
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James Blonde

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To add insult to injury, one of the screw heads on the hard drive cage has threaded so I can't get it out! Until I do, that graphics card is not going into this system!

And it seems I had to take the front mounted radiator for my 115i out as well, so this pretty much is me starting from scratch and rebuilding! 😢

If I'm having to do this, anyone got any thoughts on best fan layout?? I did have the radiator at the front pulling through and a single exhaust at the back. Suspecting that probably is best but thought I'd double check.... Been having problems keeping my m2 drive cool, and likely to be installing another to replace the hard drive I'm losing....
 
To add insult to injury, one of the screw heads on the hard drive cage has threaded so I can't get it out! Until I do, that graphics card is not going into this system!

And it seems I had to take the front mounted radiator for my 115i out as well, so this pretty much is me starting from scratch and rebuilding! 😢

If I'm having to do this, anyone got any thoughts on best fan layout?? I did have the radiator at the front pulling through and a single exhaust at the back. Suspecting that probably is best but thought I'd double check.... Been having problems keeping my m2 drive cool, and likely to be installing another to replace the hard drive I'm losing....
Front rad as intake is best for CPU temps, it of course should be matched by exhaust fans.
 
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So I saw this
(The 1070 ...)

I'm not generally an AAA gamer, but when cities skylines is playing at 24fps and 14 when I open a menu, or transport fever 2 is crawling along at 12fps, on a 9700k with 64gb ram,
and then I saw this
I did have the radiator at the front pulling through and a single exhaust at the back
and I wonder if your problem was not GPU overheating? Because if it was, then 3070ti will have same problem but more so.
Another thing to consider is Skylines AFAIK is CPU bound game so exchanging GPU might not help at all with FPS. Really should have done the homework before going shopping (unless you got the GPU cheap, couldn't blame you for that).
 
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Solution

James Blonde

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Got the GPU relatively cheaply, been looking for a while anyway so snapped it up when I saw the price, without thinking of the concequences! 😂

You're right, my expectations on the GPU are probably too high for the gaming aspect of what I do. Gta 5 was as AAA as I got and got on fine with that. still haven't played Red Dead 2! But I would have thought the 9700k would have coped well with cities skylines (given how old it is now) and well enough with transport fever 2 (which I think is also more cpu bound but has had well known performance issues), so hope the GPU would at least help.... 9700k doesn't feel old enough to upgrade, where the 1070 did (if that makes sense?)

My hopes for improvements are probably better aimed at the video / photo editing.