Upgrading an HP xw8600

[TyranusD]

I've got an HP xw8600. Even though it was built in 2007, the performance is still pretty decent, it's pretty close to a MacBook Air or Surface Pro 3 built in 2014. No doubt this is because it was very expensive when it was new, and because the wattage requirements are very high. More detailed specs:

Intel Xeon X5450 @ 3.00GHz Quad core
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 1GB (upgraded in 2009 from the original Quadro card)
8GB DDR2-667 ECC Memory
High Definition Integrated Realtek ALC262 Audio
7 USB 2.0 ports
800W PSU

I'm a gamer, but I tend to play the kinds of games that don't require monster computers -- Civilization V, Kerbal Space Program, Portal 2, and Broken Age all run just fine on my computer. But I basically have light laptop-level performance with a power requirement of 180W at rest, and 300-400W when gaming. Plus the internal temperature can get very hot when gaming, I've seen 90 degrees Celsius when I haven't cleaned the fans in a while (I try to clean them before this happens). So I'm thinking about upgrading, but I don't know the answers to a few questions, thus I turn to the community:

1) Is there a motherboard I can buy that will fit in my existing case? Yes, I could buy a new case, but it's a really nice case, and I already have it.

2) Will a new motherboard automatically upgrade my front-facing USB ports to 3.0?

3) Is there a good reason to buy new RAM sticks? Will they be significantly faster?

4) There's no reason to replace my existing PSU, right?

5) How much money, approximately, would I have to spend to get equal performance with lower power usage? How much money to double the performance with lower power usage?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

1) from the look, I'm not sure a non-server board will work there, but a regular atx board might fit.
2) No, it won't
3) yes there is a reason to replace. your current RAM sticks are 2 generations of RAM behind (DDR2, while DDR4 has just come out and is the standard for the future)
4) yes, there is a reason to replace. your existing PSU is _9_ years old. even the highest quality PSUs are wearing out by that age
5) top end power usage is, on average lower (90 w CPUs, 300 W GPUs at the top end, but mid-range GPUs (using 150-200W) and i5 CPU (using 65w) that give whole system power use well under 400W are easy to make. and will crush that older system.

whats your budget?

 

[bambiboom]

I've got an HP xw8600. Even though it was built in 2007, the performance is still pretty decent, it's pretty close to a MacBook Air or Surface Pro 3 built in 2014. No doubt this is because it was very expensive when it was new, and because the wattage requirements are very high. More detailed specs:

Intel Xeon X5450 @ 3.00GHz Quad core
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 1GB (upgraded in 2009 from the original Quadro card)
8GB DDR2-667 ECC Memory
High Definition Integrated Realtek ALC262 Audio
7 USB 2.0 ports
800W PSU

I'm a gamer, but I tend to play the kinds of games that don't require monster computers -- Civilization V, Kerbal Space Program, Portal 2, and Broken Age all run just fine on my computer. But I basically have light laptop-level performance with a power requirement of 180W at rest, and 300-400W when gaming. Plus the internal temperature can get very hot when gaming, I've seen 90 degrees Celsius when I haven't cleaned the fans in a while (I try to clean them before this happens). So I'm thinking about upgrading, but I don't know the answers to a few questions, thus I turn to the community:

1) Is there a motherboard I can buy that will fit in my existing case? Yes, I could buy a new case, but it's a really nice case, and I already have it.

2) Will a new motherboard automatically upgrade my front-facing USB ports to 3.0?

3) Is there a good reason to buy new RAM sticks? Will they be significantly faster?

4) There's no reason to replace my existing PSU, right?

5) How much money, approximately, would I have to spend to get equal performance with lower power usage? How much money to double the performance with lower power usage?

Thanks in advance for your help.

TyranusD,

I'm a big fan of old workstations and still have a Dell Precision T5400 (2X Xeon X5460) which is the contemporary to the HP xw8600.

The thing is, while that technology is still very useful for workstation /server use, for gaming and 3D, my suggestion would be to sell the HP xw8600 and take the budget for a new motherboard CPU, etc, and buy something like this:

Dell OptiPlex 990 Desktop | 3.4GHz Core i7 2600 | 16gb PC3-10600 | DVDRW > Sold for best offer under $140.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiPlex-990-Desktop-3-4GHz-Core-i7-2600-16gb-PC3-10600-DVDRW-/311510063469?hash=item488772596d%3Ag%3AxxkAAOSwZ1lWecm6&nma=true&si=TScHE246o9sBKA6gzxZRZHqRCyI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

With a 2nd generation i7 @ 3.4 /3.8, DDR3 1333 RAM- which runs much cooler than DDR2 800 and can have latency as low as 7, that system with a good GPU- I'd suggest a GTX 750 Ti, that system could fly in a way the HP never could. The one problem is the power supply is limited- 265W in the Mini-tower, but it might- not sure- be changed for one of the Precision 525W ones or a new one. And there's so much fuss. Changing the motherboard in a system is a pain.

The Top rated HP xw8600 /single X5450:

[Passmark system rating = 1997, CPU = 4577 / 2D= 486 (Firepro V5900 / 3D=16519 / Mem= 669 (4GB) / Disk=2722 (OCZ Vertex 4)]

Ihe top 3D in the HP is 6771 with a GTX 980.

In Passmark, the top rated Optiplex 990 / i7-2600 /GTX 750Ti:

[Passmark system rating = 3895, CPU = 8715 / 2D= 768 / 3D=3749 / Mem= 2110 (8GB) / Disk=2699 (ADATA Premer PRo SP900 128GB)]

The single-threaded performance of the Xeon X5450 is 1264 and for the i7-2600 it's 1920)

Even better, there are also the contemporary Dell Precisions, like a T3500- which does have a 525W PSU and can use up to the Xeon X5687 4-core @ 3.6 /3.83GHz. In that case, you should buy a low specification one and add the CPU separately.

Purchased for $53 + $24 shipping 12.12.15:

Precision T3500 (2011) (Original) Xeon W3530 4-core @ 2.8 /3.06GHz > 4GB (2X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > GeForce 9800 GT (1GB)> WD Black 500GB
[Passmark system rating = 1963, CPU = 4482 / 2D= 609 / 3D=805 / Mem= 1409 / Disk=1048]

This system was nearly good enough to use for the backup system as received. However, to give it 3D modeling and some rendering speed, I purchased:

CPU: $60
RAM: $43

This used the Quadro and PERC 6/i RAID controller and drives that had arrived in a $171 Precision T5500 I upgraded last February with the results of my $185 system being:

Precision T3500 (2011) (Rev 2) Xeon X5677 4-core @ 3.47 / 3.73GHz > 12GB (6X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > Quadro 4000 (2GB) > PERC 6/i +Seagate 300GB 15K SAS ST3300657SS + WD Black 500GB > 525W PSU> Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell 19" LCD
[Passmark system rating = 2751, CPU = 7236 / 2D= 658 / 3D=2020 / Mem= 1875 / Disk=1221]

The T3500 can use up to a W3690 6-core @ 3.47 /3.73GHz. the highest score in each parameter for a T3500 :

Rating: 4155 (X5690)
CPU: 9821 (W3690) (Highest 4-core score: 7610 with Xeon X5687- single threaded performance is 1577)
2D:706 (Quadro K600)
3D: 8462 (GTX 970)
Mem: 1954 (24GB)
Disk: 6455 (ROG RAIDR Express PCIe SSD) (2nd is 4244 from a Samsung 850 PRO 256GB)

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6 -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3500 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)

 

[TyranusD]

2) No, it won't

Do you think the plug from the front of the case into the motherboard won't fit, or do you think the wires or ports are incompatible with USB 3.0?

4) yes, there is a reason to replace. your existing PSU is _9_ years old. even the highest quality PSUs are wearing out by that age

It has not been used continually for all 9 of those years. Does an old PSU exhibit any symptoms of wear before it gets to the stage of "will not turn on?" I have this device, which is how I know my wattage used: http://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU

whats your budget?

I think I'm willing to spend about $800 between:

• 
  Motherboard
  CPU
  GPU
  RAM
  Possibly a new case and fans
  Possibly a new PSU

Do not need new:

• 
  HDD
  OS
  Monitor
  Optical Drive
  Keyboard & Mouse

If I re-use the case, fans, and PSU, that should give me more money to spend on the other things. But will that choice get me stuck in a trap where I have to compromise on the rest?

And BambiBoom, thanks for the comparisons in price, Passmark, single-threaded performance, and watts, that's very helpful.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

Are the HDD and Optical drive SATA or IDE?

and whats your goal for this system?

 

[TyranusD]

Are the HDD and Optical drive SATA or IDE?

and whats your goal for this system?

They're both SATA. And my goals are:

• 
  Good for web development and Unity3D game development
  Decent for playing games
  Fast application start-up times
  Can run VMs occasionally (not 24-hour VM server usage)
  Medium power usage and heat (definitely do not want a 250W GPU, regardless of price, and not interested in overclocking)
  Will hopefully last me for another 9 years (who knows what the future will bring, but another high-quality long-lasting computer would be nice)

 

[ScrewySqrl]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock B150M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card ($193.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill Line-M MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $790.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-09 18:54 EST-0500

 

[TyranusD]

Why an ASUS Radeon and not an NVIDIA GeForce? And if I were going to get an NVIDIA, which one would you recommend?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

you can use an r9 380 or gtx 960, similar prices, similar performance