Question Time to renew system

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Salty25

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May 4, 2021
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I was given help on here about 3.5 years ago with a new build. Since then I have upgraded the CPU a couple times. I mostly run FPS games and just do searches for stuff online. Right now, my games are running sluggish and I'm getting indications of a CPU that is barely within specs and that my memory is too low.

Here is what I have:
ASUS ROG B560-A
i5-11400
Win 11 X64
Hyper 212 Cooler Master CPU Cooler
16G Corsair DDR4-3200
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB)
800W PS (HG-X800)
SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB (C:)
2TB (E:)
120GB (F:)

I'm thinking I should replace one of my drives with another SSD. The 2TB is an old spinning drive so that one is the one that will go. I don't remember the brand of the 120GB but it is an SSD.

I'd like to keep the build under $1,000 if possible. I'm not opposed to a full system if it can be upgraded later when needed. I have a mid size tower, from an old Cyberpower, right now but I'm sure there a full size out in the garage. Also, if anyone knows of a place in the Austin, TX area that the items can be purchased from at a good price I can go pick them up. As a retiree I have nothing but time on my hands.

Thanks for any help and suggestions.
 
Solution
logainofhades
Salty25 said:
I checked the ASUS website and it does show a lot of processors that I could change to. I have BIOS 2001 loaded already, which is the latest I saw available.

It may be cheaper for me to just upgrade the CPU again and get more RAM. I could just get two sticks of 16 to get to the 32.

Which CPU and RAM would you suggest?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Get a brand new 2x32gb DDR4 3200 cl16 kit. You can get them for less than $50 these days. Mixing two 2x16gb kits, even with same model number, can lead to instability. I do not think a new CPU will do much for you on the same platform. To get a meaningfull upgrade, CPU side, you need to get on a new platform...
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16G Corsair DDR4-3200
in 2024, 16GB is too low. You should be on 32GB or higher. You can add ram to your build but I'm suspecting your rams are from the Vengeance series from Corsair. Corsair is the only brand out there that sources ram IC's from multiple vendors which is why they have a PCB revision on their ram kits. If you end up getting what visually looks like the same ram but different PCB revisions, will result in your system's instability. I'd advise on a 2x16GB DDR4-3200MHz, tight latency ram kit.

800W PS (HG-X800)
You sure you mentioned the make and model of your PSU correctly?

I'm thinking I should replace one of my drives with another SSD. The 2TB is an old spinning drive so that one is the one that will go.
Most people have moved away from mechanical hard drives, in favor of SSD's. I tend to do build with a small capacity SSD(500GB) as the boot, app's and launchers drive. Then a larger capacity SSD(2TB+) that's faster as the game library drive. Then an HDD(2TB+) in case you want to keep mission critical data or perhaps finalized content(in case you 're a streamer).

Please stylize your thread with info asked of in this thread;

*How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice*

How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice First off, respect where respect is due - this is an adaptation of the Animal's *How To Ask For New Build Advice* Sticky. I created this because there's a lot of posts nowadays asking for upgrade advice both on here and on the CPU forums, and I feel...
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
and the community can chime in with worthwhile suggestions.

my games are running sluggish
Including the titles would be helpful, maybe your system's resource usages to identify your platform's limitations.
 
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Lutfij said:
16G Corsair DDR4-3200
My original thought was to add extra RAM. But I wasn't sure if I would be getting the correct one to match the two sticks I have. This RAM was purchased back in 2021 I think from a suggestion thread like this one.

800W PS (HG-X800)
You're right, I typed the model wrong. It is XG-H800.

I'm thinking I should replace one of my drives with another SSD. The 2TB is an old spinning drive so that one is the one that will go.
That's what I did. After building this system I bought the 1TB SSD to make the boot drive. I use the 120 GB drive just to store pics and videos. The 2TB drive was the original boot drive but it pretty much just sits there now.

Please stylize your thread with info asked of in this thread;

*How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice*

How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice First off, respect where respect is due - this is an adaptation of the Animal's *How To Ask For New Build Advice* Sticky. I created this because there's a lot of posts nowadays asking for upgrade advice both on here and on the CPU forums, and I feel...
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
and the community can chime in with worthwhile suggestions.

my games are running sluggish
Right now I'm playing Grazy Zone Warfare, that one is giving me the most issues with frame rates down to 40s and 50s. It is also the one that I'm told I need more RAM and the CPU is barely fast enough; that is based on the CanURunIt site. The other game I am running is BlackOps6.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply Lutfij. I think I answered all your questions and will look at the link you suggested.
 
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Here is my resubmission based on Lutfij's suggestion:

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: Within the next few weeks

Budget Range: $1,000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Playing games, right now I'm playing Grazy Zone Warfare and Black Ops 6

Are you buying a monitor: No; I have an LG 32 in monitor

Parts to Upgrade: CPU, MB, RAM. I think my GPU is good but I am open to suggestions.

Do you need to buy OS: No; if I do need an OS I can purchase one

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preference

Location: City, State/Region, Country - I'm in the North Austin, TX area

Parts Preferences: by brand or type: No preference; I've used Intel and AMD in the past

Overclocking: No; I won't be doing any overclocking

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 2560X1080 @ 75Hz

Additional Comments: None

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: GZW running sluggish. Did a check on CanURunIt and was indicating the CPU is borderline and the RAM is too low.
 
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Salty25 said:
I'm getting 40s to 50s in Grazy Zone Warfare right now. I'm not sure what I'm getting in Black Ops 6.

This MB is maxed out on the CPU; which is why I was just thinking of a new build.
Click to expand...
The 11400 is near the bottom of the i5 product line for that motherboard. There are several i5s above it, as well as an entire line of i7s and i9s.

But I have NO idea if you would have BIOS issues if you tried to move up in the 11000 line. And maybe the performance improvement wouldn't meet your expectations.....in which case you'd be forced to a new motherboard that could accept more recent CPUs.

Are your performance issues a recent development? Was there ever a time when this hardware performed well on your typical tasks?

I wouldn't necessarily conclude that your issues are CPU related.

Maybe you'd benefit considerably in gaming with a better GPU?

Depends on how much you are willing to spend. You could of course "blow it all up" if budget permits, rather than speculate on which of your squeaky wheels should get the grease.
 
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If your games are on that HDD, that could be part of why they feel sluggish, assuming the load times are why you mean by sluggish. You are a bit below recommended for system requirements. What case do you have? I would recommend reusing it, if good on airflow, and your SSD storage, to save on costs. This is a little over budget, but gives you an actual upgrade path.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($86.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: ASRock Challenger OC Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card ($489.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 TT Premium 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1025.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-12-11 10:37 EST-0500
 
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Lafong said:
Maybe you'd benefit considerably in gaming with a better GPU?
Click to expand...
Agree to this.
Upgrade ram to 32GB and get a better graphics card.
This should give ~2x FPS.

PCPartPicker Part List

Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($45.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: ASRock Phantom Gaming OC Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB Video Card ($749.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $795.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-12-11 11:32 EST-0500
 
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Lafong said:
The 11400 is near the bottom of the i5 product line for that motherboard. There are several i5s above it, as well as an entire line of i7s and i9s.

But I have NO idea if you would have BIOS issues if you tried to move up in the 11000 line. And maybe the performance improvement wouldn't meet your expectations.....in which case you'd be forced to a new motherboard that could accept more recent CPUs.

Are your performance issues a recent development? Was there ever a time when this hardware performed well on your typical tasks?

I wouldn't necessarily conclude that your issues are CPU related.

Maybe you'd benefit considerably in gaming with a better GPU?

Depends on how much you are willing to spend. You could of course "blow it all up" if budget permits, rather than speculate on which of your squeaky wheels should get the grease.
Click to expand...

I checked the ASUS website and it does show a lot of processors that I could change to. I have BIOS 2001 loaded already, which is the latest I saw available.

It may be cheaper for me to just upgrade the CPU again and get more RAM. I could just get two sticks of 16 to get to the 32.

Which CPU and RAM would you suggest?

Thank you.
 
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You could possibly get by with your current CPU, for Gray Zone Warfare. You need ram and GPU though, based on system requirements. I would recommend a new high quality PSU as well, regardless of new build or upgrade what you have.

gray-zone-warfare-system-requirements-image.jpg
 
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Salty25 said:
I checked the ASUS website and it does show a lot of processors that I could change to. I have BIOS 2001 loaded already, which is the latest I saw available.

It may be cheaper for me to just upgrade the CPU again and get more RAM. I could just get two sticks of 16 to get to the 32.

Which CPU and RAM would you suggest?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Get a brand new 2x32gb DDR4 3200 cl16 kit. You can get them for less than $50 these days. Mixing two 2x16gb kits, even with same model number, can lead to instability. I do not think a new CPU will do much for you on the same platform. To get a meaningfull upgrade, CPU side, you need to get on a new platform.

relative-performance-games-1920-1080.png
 
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Solution
Salty25 said:
OK, sorry about the confusion.

I have CPU-Z already loaded, ver 2.12.

I ran the test and it shows 538.9 single and 4258.0 multi.
Click to expand...
Salty25 said:
I checked the ASUS website and it does show a lot of processors that I could change to. I have BIOS 2001 loaded already, which is the latest I saw available.

It may be cheaper for me to just upgrade the CPU again and get more RAM. I could just get two sticks of 16 to get to the 32.

Which CPU and RAM would you suggest?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
Your CPU-Z test tells me that your i5-11400 is performing appropriately.

Try another test:
Run YOUR games, but reduce the quality settings and resolution.
This lets the gpu loaf.
If you get better performance, it suggest that your cpu is able to drive a stronger gpu.
OTOH, if results are not much changed, it confirms that your cpu is the limiting factor.
Without a motherboard change, your strongest upgrade option would be a I9-11900K which a good upgrade for multithreaded batch apps(200 used on ebay), but perhaps a 10% boost for gaming which depends mostly on single threaded performance.

You can buy 13/14th gen intel processors cheaply, due mostly to fear which is not warranted in my opinion.

Intel has found and fixed the root cause of 13/14th gen issues.
Here is their official update as of 9/25/2024:
https://community.intel.com/t5/Blog...sktop-Instability-Root-Cause/post/1633446#M40

The warranty on these products has been extended by 2 years.

A user only needs to verify that their motherboard includes the fixed bios.

That said, I have a hunch that the new ultra 5-245K and 7-265K processors will be well received.
 
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As others have stated, i would start with upgrading your ram to 32GB to see if that resolves your issue. After that I would upgrade the GPU. You should have some more GPU options in a month so you may want to wait on that purchase if the RAM upgrade doesn't work. If its still giving you issues, then you can upgrade the entire platform to AM5 at this point since you'll have an upgrade path until 2027 or so, and sell your old parts to recoup some costs. This way it lets you see if you've resolved the issue, and you can space out your purchases so you're not hit all at once, and you could potentially save a bit of money if you find some good deals, you don't have to replace everything all at once.
 
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Thanks everyone for the input and advise.

I think I'll get new RAM first, 2X32 DDR4s, and see how that helps out. I thought I had a good PSU but I'll find another one. I've had this one for a few years now.

geofelt:
I have played with the graphics settings and didn't see much of a change. I'll try it again after putting in the new RAM and see how that works.

Thanks again everyone.
 
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PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor ($149.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: *ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE 58 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *ASRock Z790 Lightning WiFi ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: *TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($86.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $405.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-12-11 17:58 EST-0500
 
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I put in the 64Gb of RAM. There is a big difference. I get a little over twice the FPS in GZW. Thanks for the info.

I'm going to get the new SSD and still thinking about an upgrade to the processor. I noticed the 1TB boot drive was almost full. So I moved a lot off of it. I think the new SSD will allow me to clear the C: drive and only have windows on it.
 
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