[SOLVED] Need a new system as the old one is slowly dying on me.

[LordPM]

My old computer is in the state of dying on me any weeks now. There was quite a few power surges lately and some parts just seem to be malfonctioning from time to time so i figured it was time to change the system a bit since this one dates back to 2013.
When is it the best time usually to buy the GPU, motherboard,CPU and RAM, is it black friday or i better try to wait till boxing day?
What would you guys recommend for the parts? I asked about two months ago and people told me to wait until the companies released their new hardwares, which i believe they did last month if i am not mistaken?
I don't want a really high end computer, just something that i can play some of the stuff that's coming out, doesn't need to be all on ultra settings either. Best bang for the buck that'll last at least 4-5 years would be great. I just changed my PSU lately with this one here. I've no company preferences really. I used to go with nvidia but if you guys tell me the best bang for the buck is Radeon then so be it. I just want my money to be well spent. I use my systems until they die on me so resell value is of no importance, only performance for the bucks is.

Im planning on changing the motherboard, cpu, gpu and ram. Pretty much everything but the PSU i guess. The monitor is an old model but it will eventually be changed so don't mind it for now. But i'll buy a decent one in the future. Right now it's an old 24 inch monitor that is probably 12 years old. Im a casual gamer that wants to be able to try some of the stuff that comes out but i have 3 kids so i don't play more than let say 10 hours a week at the most. I know... i know, console gaming would be cheaper... but i can't play half the games i like with a controller for the life of me! I like First person shooters and im an old Call of duty 1, United Offensive player, i just can't play FPS games with a controller.... So i'd say for those 4 parts, between 700 and 1000 if it's realistic? If you got ideas that are a bit above but much better feel free to pitch them in, we never know. Im in Canada for those that asked.

Thanks a lot guys.

 

[Darkbreeze]

My recommendation is to use the M.2 PCIe NVME drive for the OS and installed applications, and have a secondary drive (Preferably like a 1 or 2TB 2.5" SSD, or another NVME SSD, but could also be a HDD if the budget doesn't allow you to do another SSD of that size) for backing up important documents, storing game files, etc. Also a good idea to have a third, or external drive to backup any important files backed up to your secondary drive in case that drive dies, if they are not already backed up to some other third location. Having only one copy backed up of anything important is simply BEGGING to lose that data because there is only ONE hard fast rule when it comes to storage devices. They WILL fail. It's not a question of IF only of WHEN.

What size is your SATA SSD? How old is it? No, a SATA SSD is NOT too slow for storing game files or backups on. In real world usage, the NVME M.2 drives are only way faster when we're talking about large sequential file transfers. In normal usage it's only going to be moderately faster than a standard SATA SSD. Still, considering prices are getting pretty close to equal on 1TB or larger NVME and SATA drives, it doesn't make that much sense to look at only SATA unless there is at least a moderate cost savings OR if you don't have enough M.2 drives to add another one.

Exactly which motherboard did you buy? Or are going to buy?

 

[LordPM]

Ok!
This is my SSD Drive that i have in the computer right now. It's about 1 year old i'd say. This is my second hard drive that i have all my steam games and applications installed (about 600 GB of stuff). This one is about 3 or 4 years old i'd say.

This is the motherboard i bought in the end.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So that board has TWO M.2 slots which both support both SATA and NVME PCIe M.2 drives. One gets it's lanes from the chipset while the other gets it's PCIe lanes through the CPU. That is probably more than you need to know, but suffice to say you can use TWO M.2 drives in that motherboard just fine. Generally if you use the M.2 slots you want to use the M2_1 slot for any drive with the OS on it IF you use an M.2 drive for the OS. It is not a requirement by any means, but it definitely cuts down on the amount of required cabling you need to run inside the case since you eliminate one drives worth of SATA power and data cables, and is generally much faster so long as you make sure to buy a PCIe NVME M.2 drive and not a SATA M.2 drive since the SATA M.2 drive will have the same limitations as a 2.5" SATA SSD.

I'd recommend using a new NVME M.2 drive to install the OS on. Use the current Kingston SSD as a backup drive for OS backups or game files (Do this, backing up regularly, using something like Acronis true image or the free version of Macrium reflect to make periodic backups of your OS so that if something happens you can restore instantly to that point in time and not lose anything, I recommend at least weekly but more often if you've recently done something important and that data or files isn't already backed up to another location) or other important backups like personal documents, pictures, etc. that you can't bear to lose. Then, use the HDD as a place to backup whatever you put on the backup SSD so that if anything happens to that drive you don't instantly lose it. It would make some sense to also, if your budget it allows it either now or later, to get like a 1TB SSD to put you game files and saves on, and then also back them up to the HDD so if that drive fails or is corrupted somehow, you have a copy. Everything that is important no matter what it is should always be in more than one place so that if one fails you have it on another.

That includes all personal files and folders, pictures, the OS image which should be replaced with a fresh copy of the current configuration every so often (I prefer to do this once a week, but more or less often is up to you), game files and saves, movies, music and anything else that would break your heart if you lost it because you had only had it in one place. It can be another secondary internal drive, an external drive, cloud storage, optical disks (DVD, Blu ray) or whatever, but always have multiple copies on different locations of anything that is not replaceable.

 

[LordPM]

So that board has TWO M.2 slots which both support both SATA and NVME PCIe M.2 drives. One gets it's lanes from the chipset while the other gets it's PCIe lanes through the CPU. That is probably more than you need to know, but suffice to say you can use TWO M.2 drives in that motherboard just fine. Generally if you use the M.2 slots you want to use the M2_1 slot for any drive with the OS on it IF you use an M.2 drive for the OS. It is not a requirement by any means, but it definitely cuts down on the amount of required cabling you need to run inside the case since you eliminate one drives worth of SATA power and data cables, and is generally much faster so long as you make sure to buy a PCIe NVME M.2 drive and not a SATA M.2 drive since the SATA M.2 drive will have the same limitations as a 2.5" SATA SSD.

I'd recommend using a new NVME M.2 drive to install the OS on. Use the current Kingston SSD as a backup drive for OS backups or game files (Do this, backing up regularly, using something like Acronis true image or the free version of Macrium reflect to make periodic backups of your OS so that if something happens you can restore instantly to that point in time and not lose anything, I recommend at least weekly but more often if you've recently done something important and that data or files isn't already backed up to another location) or other important backups like personal documents, pictures, etc. that you can't bear to lose. Then, use the HDD as a place to backup whatever you put on the backup SSD so that if anything happens to that drive you don't instantly lose it. It would make some sense to also, if your budget it allows it either now or later, to get like a 1TB SSD to put you game files and saves on, and then also back them up to the HDD so if that drive fails or is corrupted somehow, you have a copy. Everything that is important no matter what it is should always be in more than one place so that if one fails you have it on another.

That includes all personal files and folders, pictures, the OS image which should be replaced with a fresh copy of the current configuration every so often (I prefer to do this once a week, but more or less often is up to you), game files and saves, movies, music and anything else that would break your heart if you lost it because you had only had it in one place. It can be another secondary internal drive, an external drive, cloud storage, optical disks (DVD, Blu ray) or whatever, but always have multiple copies on different locations of anything that is not replaceable.

Thanks for the thorough explanation. I bought this NVME SSD hard drive for now. Hopefully it'll work nicely for the OS hard drive. I will buy a new 1TB one in the future so that everything is at it's max speed. I'll just use my kingston ssd for holding the game files in the meantime.

Thank you very much for all the time you took to explain everything to an outdated PC enthusiast like me. Especially considering english isn't my main language, i imagine it wasn't always easy to understand what i was saying / asking. It's very appreciated.

 

[Darkbreeze]

My pleasure. No problem at all. That's why we do this, as we are all volunteers here.

 

[Darkbreeze]

And actually, the drive you went with is just a little better than the one I had included in the build, so that's a plus. Good luck man and if you have more questions later don't hesitate to ask.