[SOLVED] Do one dare to put new expensive GFX card into old PC that freezes up once in a while?

[humbe]

My current system looks like this: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/knvWnL

My PC is ~8 years old, but still works pretty well. Though sometimes when I use a lot of memory, possibly when the system has been powered on for many days, I get a crash where everything is just static including mouse pointer and I have to shut the computer down by cutting power. I've been thinking there might be some issue that has come with my memory chips, or possibly timing related to memory/CPU/MB, but I dunno..

I need a GFX card update to be able to play on the new 3440x1440 screen, and I got a Radeon RX 6600 XT card, which at least is way better than what I had.. But after a month of use my system froze up (possibly a bit different than usual), and after that my computer was not able to detect the graphics card being installed anymore..

Now I'm wondering, could my system have damaged the GFX card somehow? Or more likely it had an issue?

Seems I might get reimbursed for that card as it's no longer in stock where I got it, so wondering about buying a 3070 or something to enable 1440p gaming at better quality.. But pondering whether I dare put such an expensive card into my existing setup..

Also, why PC part picker says expected wattage is 447W with a Geforce 3070 card, and looks ok with my 600W PSU, do I trust that to be enough? Could I damage hardware if PSU isn't able to deliver enough power?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[USAFRet]

PSU - Green label CX600

Don't do this. Do not put that new 3070 in there.

 

[jacob249358]

My current system looks like this: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/knvWnL

My PC is ~8 years old, but still works pretty well. Though sometimes when I use a lot of memory, possibly when the system has been powered on for many days, I get a crash where everything is just static including mouse pointer and I have to shut the computer down by cutting power. I've been thinking there might be some issue that has come with my memory chips, or possibly timing related to memory/CPU/MB, but I dunno..

I need a GFX card update to be able to play on the new 3440x1440 screen, and I got a Radeon RX 6600 XT card, which at least is way better than what I had.. But after a month of use my system froze up (possibly a bit different than usual), and after that my computer was not able to detect the graphics card being installed anymore..

Now I'm wondering, could my system have damaged the GFX card somehow? Or more likely it had an issue?

Seems I might get reimbursed for that card as it's no longer in stock where I got it, so wondering about buying a 3070 or something to enable 1440p gaming at better quality.. But pondering whether I dare put such an expensive card into my existing setup..

Also, why PC part picker says expected wattage is 447W with a Geforce 3070 card, and looks ok with my 600W PSU, do I trust that to be enough? Could I damage hardware if PSU isn't able to deliver enough power?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

You are also kind of due for a cpu upgrade if you wanna push 1440p 144hz. Depending on your budget 12600k or the 12400 with a b660 expected in mid january

 

[humbe]

PSU - Green label CX600

Don't do this. Do not put that new 3070 in there.

Due to my crashes, radeon card breaking, my PSU, just that my system is old in general or all of the above? Yeah.. I'm a bit sceptic myself.. Especially as those GFX cards are so overpriced now too..

You are also kind of due for a cpu upgrade if you wanna push 1440p 144hz. Depending on your budget 12600k or the 12400 with a b660 expected in mid january

I guess after all those years, I can afford upgrading more bits, but CPU/memory seems to still do the job well for me.. If I switch more than GFX card, I guess new motherboard and memory comes together with new CPU.

If there's new hardware in January and it'll actually be in stock, I guess that might be a good time to upgrade if I go for more than GFX card.. Been looking for a card for a few years, but hopeless to find one that isn't ridiculously priced :/

 

[USAFRet]

Due to my crashes, radeon card breaking, my PSU, just that my system is old in general or all of the above? Yeah.. I'm a bit sceptic myself.. Especially as those GFX cards are so overpriced now too..

For the GTX 3070, a good quality 550PSU is the minimum recommended.
The Corsair green label CX600 is NOT good quality.

I had one. It smoked itself, killing the motherboard in the process.

I absolutely would NOT pair that GPU with that PSU. Ever.

 

[humbe]

Hmm.. It's actually a CX600M, but I guess the modular one is equally bad.. And here I thought I bought a good PSU to begin with My local shop here seems to sell a lot of corsair PSUs and users there have rated them well.. What are quality PSU's nowadays? Does cooler master or bequiet make good ones.. I want it to be quiet anyhow, so maybe a 700 W "be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 80 Plus gold" would be good.. I'll check out some PSU reviews..

 

[drewthebrave]

A poorly made or underpowered PSU can cause lots of problems. When I worked tech support I saw lots of motherboards, GPUs, and HDDs get fried because of a cheap PSU in a "mid-tier" build. Your power supply isn't necessarily "bad", but with each passing year, you're facing greater risk of failure.

I have an 8 year old PC with i7 4930k that was running fine with a GTX 760 for the first 5 years, then dual GTX 780s for the past few years. One of the 780s recently burned out, so I started shopping. I managed to snag a 3060Ti, which gave a MASSIVE upgrade in performance. You can put an upgraded GPU in your current system and get a big jump in performance, but I STRONGLY recommend getting a new PSU if that's your plan.

Even after seeing the big improvements of the GPU, I'm finally ready to upgrade since the 8-generation old CPU and 8GB of DDR3 RAM are holding the GPU back a bit. I was hoping to get an AMD 5600X, but the $149 sale of the i7 10700k was too good to pass up. Now I'm rebuilding with all the modern upgrades that it entails: new Mobo, DDR4 RAM, M.2 SSD, and so on.

My old PSU is a 1000w Thermaltake that -- at 8 years old -- is probably nearing the end of its useful life. Despite it having plenty of wattage for my build, I made the judgment call to buy a new EVGA G6 850W PSU for this build. The G6 is well made, and 850W is plenty of power for the 3060Ti, while still supporting a potential GPU upgrade a few years down the line.

 

[Dean0919]

First of all, yes, your system is old, but it's still powerful and shouldn't give you problems. It's i7 all in all with 4 cores and 8 threads. Yeah, sure, new i7s or even i5s would be better, but your CPU is still fine. It's your PSU that I don't like in your system. Bad/weak PSU can damage components in your system (though I never experienced it in my life, thank god). Could your PSU damage your card? It's possibility, but I'm not sure. Did you check your graphics card in other computer? Did other computers detect it?

Regardless you fix your current GPU or buy new 3070, I recommend you to upgrade your PSU. Go with better model with more watts for a safe more room, just in case, it won't hurt. It's better to have more wattage even if you won't need it, than have less and stress your system. I personally have XFX PRO1050W Black Edition (80+ Gold) which I bought ages ago, and it still rocks even nowadays. It's one of the top notch PSUs. Of course your don't need 1050 watts PSU, but something like 850watts would be good enough for you, in my opinion and obviously from a well known brands. Don't buy some unknown brand risky PSU. Try Seasonic brand, it' a well known, pioneer brand in manufacturing power supplies. If you want to dig more into this field, check this list: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...er-list-rev-14-8-final-update-jul-21.3624094/

 

[humbe]

Thanks a lot for the advices.. I'll consider whether to upgrade PSU + GFX card now, or delay and upgrade all the major components soonish.. EVGA PSUs are at least something I find in webshops I use. Tempting to go for GFX+PSU first, as I suspect that would make my system good enough for what I'm using it for now...

 

[MJS WARLORD]

With all due respect i would not waste any money on upgrading an 8 year old pc , i would only replace a faulty part with the same item. The problem is , upgrading an old machine usually means changing more than 1 item and can turn an old pc into a cash cow.

Get a new pc if you can afford one and do a complete reinstall of widows on your old pc then just use it as a spare or a test rig.
I always test things on an old pc before i put them on my latest purchase

 

[humbe]

I went for a full upgrade.. The graphic card is so expensive, that it'll be half the cost anyhow.. Created another thread in system with specs I'm looking at.. Terribly expensive to buy new stuff nowadays with covid19 and damn cryptominers wasting the environment to fuel ransomware.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Dean0919]

I went for a full upgrade.. The graphic card is so expensive anyhow, that it'll be half the cost anyhow.. Created another thread in system with specs I'm looking at.. Terribly expensive to buy new stuff nowadays with covid19 and damn cryptominers wasting the environment to fuel ransomware.

Thanks for the input.

I feel you. I feel exactly same - frustrated and upset because of neaseuting prices because of mining and scalpers. Non rich gamers are stuck with old cards. I'm myself stuck with GTX 1070 and can't upgrade my card because of damn prices. Worse thing is that we don't even know when this situation will be fixed.