Need Input on wether a friends old hardware is a good fit for me/makes sense to buy:
Intel Core i7 5930k
Asus X99 Deluxe (Sockel 2011-3, 8 DDR4 RAM-Slots
4x 8GB DDR4 2400 MHz CL15 (G.Skill Ripjaws Black)
CPU Cooler Prolimatech Genesis with 2x 140mm beQuiet! Silent Wings.
Price 300-350€
I would need to buy a Case and PSU (Recomendations welcome)
Ill keep my 1050ti till the madness is over and i’ve got my storage needs covered aswell.
Current system:
Asus OEM OfficePC
i5-4460
8gb ddr3
GTX 1050ti
250 and 500 gb Samsung Evo SSD (sata)
4tb and 8tb HDD (7200rpm)
Peripherals:
32inch 2560x1440 165hz
24inch 1920x1080
Mechanical Keyboard (Corsair K70 Lux)
Logitech G502
Location…
Germany, €
I dont have an exact budget, its more a case of not wanting to spend more than I have to.
How i Use my PC
I dualboot Pop!_OS (Ubuntu) and Windows
Linux is my Work OS. Having to reboot before starting a Game really helps me focus and i use a custom keyboard layout, Neo2 (neo-layout.org) Which is a constant pain in Windows. Especially UWP Apps.
Windows is for Gaming. Games I like(d): Cyberpunk 2077,Total War: Warhammer (2), Doom, Rise of the Tomb Raider, XCOM 2, Total War Shogun.
I want to run a Nextcloud from a Docker container to sync my files…
I will also run Windows in a VM sometimes to use MS Office when someone sends me a (.docx/.xlsx/.pptx) or other windows exclusive stuff.
In the Future, I want to experiment with GPU Passthrough after upgrading my Graphics card but that’ll be just for fun.
Why my Current Hardware isn’t cutting it anymore:
Productivity-Reasons to Upgrade: I need more CPU cores and more RAM to build my nextcloud server, play around with virtualization, make the pc more responsive in general.
Gaming-Reasons to Upgrade: The CPU is not always, but often the bottleneck. Especially when playing 1080p minimum Settings. I also have so close everything else, sometimes reboot to free up CPU and RAM usage.
I hope this is not way to Rambling/Detailed.
Thanks in advance.
PS/ Different Tangent. Is an ebay 6900x or Xeon e5-26… A realistic upgrade path mabe one year down the line?
That CPU and board should work just fine for GPU passthrough. x99 is a pretty decent platform for passthrough.
The 5930k has all 40 lanes, which is good.
Higher than I would pay, but not a completely terrible price. IDK what your local used market is like, it might be a great price compared to what else is avilable locally.
Yes, definitely for the 6900k, maybe for the Xeon.
Keep in mind that e5-26xx chips are not unlocked for overclocking (minus the all-core turbo unlock for v3 chips) and the cheap ones are often pretty slow on the single core speed, so I would only suggest upgrading to one of those if you are ok with lots of slow cores.
Compared to the US used price market, I probably could get each of those items used individually for a total price of ~350€ (at current convertion), and with a bundles I would expect the price to be a bit lower.
Since they are used, I don’t compare the price to the new price, I compare it to the standard used price.
But again, it might be great for where you live, I know the US often has lower prices on parts.
If you scroll through the graphs, it pretty much trades blows, depending on workload. And the 2600 draws less power than the 5930k does.
However, the 5930k does have a lot more PCIe lanes, which IMO is actually more important for passthrough and general server use than the performance difference.
You’re looking at 75 - 100 for case/psu these days unless you make an incredibly un-wise PSU purchase.
375 - 450 all in… assuming you can get 125 for your current system that’s still 250 - 325.
If you can hold out a year, it’s reasonable to assume that chip supply, etc. will change the economics quite a bit vs. current situation. AND with the potential for another genration of impressive improvements… you could be looking at considerably better bang for your buck in a year.
Are you feeling productivity strain? Literally running out of memory? Running computational tasks that are maxing out your current system? If so then I’ve gotta imagine the quality of life upgrade justifies the expense and then some. If not, then wait.
For gaming, your GPU is your bottle neck. So unless stuff falls off trucks often where you live, I’m guessing that upgrade aint happening any time soon. (I’m bad at geography – is Germany close to Jersey?)
TL;DR: Your friend’s deal isn’t a must buy. If your struggling with ram/cpu for productivity tasks, then it’s a decent upgrade. Otherwise, wait until you can actually get things like a GPU anyway.
Only Partially, but Yes. The cpu has no hyperthreading so any virtualization/server duty on the side is to much for it on top of the normal desktop strain. and my other old computer that was initially intended as the nextcloud server is just way to loud (crappy PSU fan) to keep running 24/7
I know it’s a bad time to buy Computer hardware but its the best time to be enjoying a nice PC since one can’t do anything else. And in the end who knows how much time i’ll spend infront of it in 2 Years or so when there’s finally something to do outside again.
You’d be surprised how strained this cpu gets when gaming. (1080p minimum Settings mind you)
I have to close every Browser window, notes app, chat app, Mail client before opening a game and even then, its usually above 90% utilization and sometimes pegged at 100.
Ram usage is also constantly at the limit with 2x4gb ddr3 and the PSU is relatively Loud and probably not really up to the extra strain of the graphics card.
Im constantly amazed how balanced this thrown together parts bin of a Computer is.
In the last few years i’ve spent more than 700 dollars on my 2 Monitors, Keyboard and Mouse while spending 70 bucks on a graphics card, another 70 bucks on an SSD and 150 on an 8tb HDD.
So its time to stop being a cheap ass and buy a decent CPU, MoBo, RAM, PSU and Case.
The final reason is that there’s less Risk involved as we know each other.
Thanks again for your Comments, Making me write it all down and being forced to think about the drawbacks has helped my confidence in the decision quite a bit.
For 350 Euro I reckon you could build something brand new that will be faster? It would be close, anyway. Close enough that I don’t think going with old hardware is “worth it”.
Given you’re already needing to buy case/psu/video/storage… you’re looking at a 350 euro budget for motherboard/ram/cpu
Anything above say, a r5-3600 on b550 will be faster than that, have warranty, etc. Plus you’ll be on modern DDR4, PCIe4, etc.
Sure, on b550 you’ll give up some PCIe lanes, but you’ll have gen4 which at 8x will be similar speed to PCIe 3 x16 for your video in pass-through if you do end up going down that route with a Ryzen box. Plus your future upgrade path is better.
As above, I’d say that deal definitely isn’t a must buy, not even close, and its a dead end no warranty platform with known security vulnerabilities in the processors (like for like comparison security wise, you need to turn hyper threading OFF on that generation of intel box). I personally wouldn’t go there unless it was 1/2-2/3 that price.
Unless your friend is willing to warranty the gear up front (and even then), this is more likely trouble than any sort of beneficial arrangement
I try to not buy/sell things to friends to avoid the potential for relationship strain if things don’t work out as expected (e.g., you buy the gear, he spends the money, it breaks…).
I’m not buying a Video card or storage, i’ve already got that.
a r5-3600 is already faster than the 5930x but much more expensive.
I’m Paying 325€ all together
a R5-3600 is 210€
A decent b550 mobo is 100€ and has nowhere near the features the x99 has.
So please find me 32gb of ram and A good Air cooler for 15€ or for 115€ for that matter.
I can use the cooler and ram for years, so i recon that im spending no more than 180€ on the CPU and MoBo. But just for fun, lets call it 200€ I couldn’t find anything with better Performance for the Price but mabe you can. Good luck
Sorry I should have said “provide”. As in you are using your own - you are not getting those components included for 350 euro, so all the 350 euro is getting you is basically board/cpu/ram - correct?
I.e., if you can buy a board/cpu/ram for competitive price/performance, and new - its a no brainer.
I’m not saying that you can get r5-3600 + mobo plus 32 GB for 350 euro, but I’m saying its close enough that the future upgrade path, warranty, etc. means that in my opinion I’d not touch that x99 system unless it was 1/2 to 2/3 of the price.
Whilst X99 has some features B550 does not, B550 also has features that X99 does not such as USB type C, PCIe 4 and a future upgrade path up to 16 cores @ 4ghz+. Today.
R5-3600 includes a decent air cooler.
I can get R5-3600 plus a B550 motherboard for around 600 AUD here. Sure I’d need RAM, but to get equivalent speed to ddr4-2400 for 32 GB you’re getting, new that’s another 200 AUD.
So sure, I’m at ~500 odd euro in total (based on local Aussie pricing which is pretty savage and not shopping around), but its a brand new system (not 5 years old) with warranty, upgrade path and better performance.
That’s only €90 extra from what you’re paying for brand new, current-gen parts with upgrade path to current bleeding edge (e.g. 5950X, PCIe 4, DDR4, better security…) should you want it.
€350 is still a decent deal, but it all comes down to how long you plan on keeping the system. Your friends system will only hold up for another two years at the most, after that it will feel really old for games, as the latest games will probably require a fairly modern NVMe+8-core setup due to latest gen consoles.
Then again, he is your friend, so there is also the social aspect of it to consider. Depends on how important a friend he is.
AND that’s for a WAY faster set of ram. And those components are currently “overpriced” compared to what one could purchase them for this time last year.
This just highlights that this is truly not a good deal (unless you REALLY need that productivity).
Remember: your gaming experience is going to look close to exactly the same with the GPU bottle neck unless you just civ all day.
That indeed looks pretty good aswell.
Only Time will tell wether I made the right Decision or if i was to “Geizig” (cheap, stingy)
I want/need more cpu cores and more memory now. On a side note, the PSU fan of my current office pc is really annoyingly whiny aswell and I can’t upgrade it.
Future Proofing was not really a concern for me because I have no idea how much and for what im gonna use my Desktop in 3 Years.
It could be that I’ll build a Ryzen 7 7800 x770 RTX 4080 System then or that i’ve only upgraded to a gtx 1070 and hardly have the time to play games anymore.
That coupled with the expensive Hardware Market lead me to my decision to spend as little as possible.
Because the less I spend, the less it hurts when my circumstances and needs change.
From a future proofing standpoint, the current B550 / x570 motherboards are the end of the line, so it is a much better bet to wait until second gen AM5 from that standpoint. There is literally no point in buying B550 or X570 now, if future proofing is your goal.
So, the X99 isn’t a great deal - but so what, it’s still a decent deal, and you earned friendship points. Noone can decide for you what decisions you make, we can only give advice and then hope things work out for the best.
LGA-2011 chips will be flooding market soon enough, as enterprise goes through thorough changeups. So some CPU replacement / upgrades, for that X99 board, can be at relative ease
Well, If you really want/need more cores, the E2697 V2 is fairly cheap for 12 cores (like $130 on eBay). That’s X79 though. My main concern would be, what do you do if that old board fails before you’re ready to replace it. I never see old workstation boards for cheap. Occassionally you can find X79 generation server boards for a decent price, or even a full system, like… well, I’ll DM an example. Then maybe just a 4770 or 4790 for your current system, and just have both, change monitor input or whatever.
