[SOLVED] Want to upgrade my Mini-ITX System..

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Tomytoby

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Apr 19, 2017
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I recently bought a custom built ITX pc system from someone, which has a Asrock Z270m 1151 socket motherboard, but the CPU cooler is so wide that I can only use one of the DDR4 slots (I have an 8GB card in use).

I was also thinking about upgrading either my i5-6402P or my Gigabyte RX 480 G1 4gb. Will upgrading one and not the other cause bottleneck, and will that stop the PC from running better at all?

I was also considering replacing the ITX mobo to an ATX or micro-ATX, but then I would also need to buy a new case, so I figured that was unnecessary.

I appreciate any feedback on how to upgrade my current build, thank you!
 
Solution
tennis2
No. I was answering multiple questions.
The GTX1660Ti is a new Nvidia graphics card that will have the same performance as the existing GTX1070. Neither of them has anything to do with your RX480 except that they're slightly faster. You can't "flash your RX480 BIOS" to a GTX1660Ti BIOS. I wouldn't recommend flashing your RX480 BIOS in the first place.
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You could get the Noctua Low Profile NH-L9i CPU Cooler. It is only 35 mm high including the fan and will not overhang the CPU cooler. It can even handle a core i7 processor and you can look it up on YouTube. Noctua are one of the best CPU cooler manufacturers for air cooling and that CPU cooler is bound to fit into ANY ITX computer case. It will not interfere with the ram either. You shouldn't need to upgrade your RX 480 because someone found a way to flash the BIOS of the RX 400 graphics cards and essentially turn them into RX 500 graphics cards which is the best bang for your buck out there. You should definitely get dual channel ram though and if you get low profile ram it would work with your current CPU cooler but the NH L9i would be amazing for an ITX pc. But if you look up on YouTube about how to flash an RX 400 GPU BIOS it will tell you all you need to know and isn't as hard as it sounds. It's basically a free mod that essentially gives you an RX 580 for free since unlocks the performance of the RX 480 that was locked by AMD for some reason.
 
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Before we go recommending cooler downgrades, what cooler do you have?
What RAM do you have (does it have tall heatsinks)?
What case?

Also, I can run my RX480 @ RX580 speeds without flashing the BIOS. All that does is open up even higher voltages which is even further away from the ~950mV sweet spot of the GloFo 14nm process.

I think dual channel ram is a good place to start. Would recommend wait for RX30xx in ~May before you do anything with GPU.
 
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^ I don't think I there is any confirmation regarding the RX30XX series release date.

And I have a gut feeling that we would be seeing the next gtx series from Nvidia before the Radeon Navi....

OP, in what way do you feel that your current setup is bottlenecking the performance? Cuz the 6tg gen i5 and Rx480 is a great choice for 1080p 60fps gaming.

But yes, dual channel memory will give you significant boost.
 
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I would start by posting here exactly what cooler you have. I personally haven't heard of any modern coolers that block memory slots anymore. (maybe the person who installed mounted it incorrectly.)

Running dual channel would be the place to start. Maybe all you need to do is re-mount the current cooler or spend a few dollars and get a new one so you can use the extra stick of memory you have.
 
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After playing around with the cooler, I got it to free up space for the second RAM slot, yay!
 
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I'm not very experienced with custom pc's, but I would love to get more performance out of my 480, is there a way to do it now, or is your advice to wait until May? Thats quite a long time..
 
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I just wanted more performance out of my setup, as I recently got an Oculus Rift and wanted to get the best experience out of it.
 
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Your current motherboard can support up to an i7 7700k which is still a very strong CPU. The problem is the ones that are one the market for sale are overpriced.

https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/Z270M-ITXac/index.asp#CPU

If you REALLY want to stay with the current setup and just upgrade the CPU, I would recommend looking for an i7 6700k. It's withing 3-5% in performance of the 7700k and will be cheaper.

If not I would look at an AMD Ryzen CPU and motherboard (like a Ryzen 2600x and motherboard). You could re-use everything else you already have.
 
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Shoot, after removing the RAM and putting it into the other slot, the monitor doesn't find a signal, and I tried putting it in both slots. Did I damage the ram while installing it somehow? Is there any way to check
 
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GTX1660Ti launch date Feb15. Should be approximately equal to the GTX1070.

RX30xx launch date of Q2 is still valid last I heard. That is supposedly going to upset the current 3 year long price/perf curve. 3 months isn't that long.

On OCing and/ or undervolting, you'll find everything you need in AMD Settings -> WattMan.
I put together a brief undervolting write up here. I've been meaning to add/improve that article for a while now, but it's enough to get you started.
 
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so this "GTX1660Ti" software would allow my RX480 to have equivalent power to a GTX 1070?? Why is this not widely used by like, everyone out there?
 
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No. I was answering multiple questions.
The GTX1660Ti is a new Nvidia graphics card that will have the same performance as the existing GTX1070. Neither of them has anything to do with your RX480 except that they're slightly faster. You can't "flash your RX480 BIOS" to a GTX1660Ti BIOS. I wouldn't recommend flashing your RX480 BIOS in the first place.
 
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