3yr to 4yr old refresh

[robbiec]

Case = 8yr old Lian-Li A70
Psu = be-quiet 650W Dark Power P8 (2011?)
Asus Sabertooth FX990 r2.0
CPU = AMD FX8350 replaced by FX8320E
EK Supremacy top
GPU = AMD 7870LE replaced by AMD R9 290
EK R9 290X DIRECTCU II top
RAM = 8Gb Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz replaced by GSkill TridentX F3 16Gb 1600 CL7
RAID Controller = IBM M1015 replaced by IBM M5016
4 x Samsung 840 Evo 120GB in RAID 0
4 x Samsung 1TB F3 in RAID 10
Dual DDC 18W under EK Dual DDC V2 with EK 250 Res V2
XSPX RX 360 & 240 radiators
11 x Noiseblocker PL2 fans

Costs after selling older stuff on
CPU = £25
GPU = £100 + £80 for cooling
RAM = £40
RAID card = £125
Icy dock in lieu of a Lian-Li 5.25 Bay for SSD = £40

I'm hoping new RAM and CPU will get me to the 5Ghz mark, topped out at 4.84 with the 8350. R9 is a nice step up from the LE for the games I use (Elite Dangerous, IL2 Sturmovik COD & BOS, Metro Last Light @ 1920*1200) M5015 is a rebranded LSI9265CV which is dual core, has 1GB cache and is much stronger in parity RAID than the M1015 so expecting to hit over 2GB/s read & write for the SSDs and I can think about RAID 5 for the mechanical s which will free up another TB or so while costing pennies on the pound in comparison.

[Bonebreaker777]

Sounds like a well thought plan. Any chance we may see some pictures of the project too? We love pictures

[shaithis]

Prices look a little off to me, are you sure you can get the prices you expect second-hand?

The GPU upgrade is well worth it, the rest seems marginal for the money, time and hassle to me....and reading your post it sounds like your spending money to hit some arbitrary numbers you have in your mind.

[Bonebreaker777]

Prices look a little off to me, are you sure you can get the prices you expect second-hand?

The GPU upgrade is well worth it, the rest seems marginal for the money, time and hassle to me....and reading your post it sounds like your spending money to hit some arbitrary numbers you have in your mind.

Think he posted the prices for the 'new' components after he sold his old ones. [Price of the new] minus [profit from selling old] = posted price/number.

[robbiec]

Sounds like a well thought plan. Any chance we may see some pictures of the project too? We love pictures

They always look nice partially built. Power and data wiring sorted:


Out with the old:


Look what happened to the Indigo-Xtreme, a metal teardrop of TIM


In with the New:


Burning in, it is effectively what you need to do to get the TIM to change phase. CPU, Indigo-Extreme, Block on, Power up and get the temps to 75C +


Leak Testing:

[robbiec]

Prices look a little off to me, are you sure you can get the prices you expect second-hand?

The GPU upgrade is well worth it, the rest seems marginal for the money, time and hassle to me....and reading your post it sounds like your spending money to hit some arbitrary numbers you have in your mind.

Market is a whole lot smaller in Ireland and compared to a PC World I offer very good value for 2nd hand kit. Compared to the UK, my prices might raise an eyebrow or two but it is the way of the capitalist system we run

Yep, I've numbers in mind which I've yet to reach TBH but they are not arbitrary. I can now boot into Win 10 Desktop @ 5.2 but it is not stable as of yet. I managed to brick the M5016 attempting a firmware update but I did see R/W scores about 2.5/2GBs for the 4 SSDs. I've spent about €475 give my PC a refresh and strip down, that will not be opened again for another 12 months or so and basically covers all my performance needs and I got to play for a week tinkering about

How do WD RED 2TBs compare to my old Samsung F3's?

[Bonebreaker777]

Good pictures! Very nice and clean build. Like the tidiness

WD RED vs Samsung F3? All modern (consumable) HDDs which is designed to run 24/7 are better than any of the old.

What thermal compound are you using?

[robbiec]

Alloy based TIM