Bad Idea Check: 10th Gen Rebuild/Refresh

Hey everyone,

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to read this.

My current build is as follows:

i7-10700
Gigabyte H470 AORUS PRO AX
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-2933 CL16
TEAMGROUP MP34 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME
EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV

The build itself has been… meh. I’ve built several machines before, and this one has had the most gremlins out of all of them as the system frequently hangs or freezes, which I have been unable to pin down to a specific cause despite fairly extensive testing. Long story short, I really want to scrap it and move to an upgraded SFF build.

It seems like I’m sort of in a shit place in terms of the current hardware cycle. I am not really sold on 12th gen intel due to the socket pressure issue, AM5 is a few months out, and we’re now transitioning away from DDR4. While I love the value proposition AMD brings, I use Quicksync quite a bit on my main machine for software like Plex and BlueIris despite having a GPU.

Can anyone offer some insight into the pros/cons of rebuilding now vs. later? I have specced out like 6 systems in pcpartpicker and feel like there’s really no clear or obvious path forward. Further, is there a reason I should reconsider ITX? I have had some seriously large systems in the past (up to and including a TX10-D from Caselabs), and really want some of my desk space back.

Case-wise, I’ve been eying the Phantex Evolv Shift XT. I would honestly rather build with mATX, but there aren’t any solid cases that match the Shift XT in size. Even the Torrent Nano is a bit bigger than I really want to go (though I’d consider it if it was mATX…)).

What about using your current board for Plex/Blueiris and making your new build AMD?

I just offload stuff like that to a server rather than run it on my main desktop.

Honestly, I may roll the processor over and replace the Unraid 10400 for the extra cores. The biggest problem is I have yet to get Blue Iris really stable and reliable on a VM, which is admittedly a me problem.

What’s your PSU

Seasonic Focus 650

Take a look at frigate or shinobi, blue iris is long in the tooth.

Will do!

Pure guessing here, but from the symptoms it looks like it could be one of three things. I put together your build over at PCPartPicker, which leads me to one of three possibilities:

  1. Your CPU cooler fails to keep the CPU cool enough (check your temps)
  2. PSU is just not quite good enough to keep up (10700 max draw ~215W, 3060 Ti max draw ~315W, rest of system draws ~140W, 215 + 315 + 140 = 670W)
  3. Broken motherboard / CPU unit

Which one is it? No idea. Could also be something completely different. But that’s the main culprits I can see.

It all depends on what your upgrade plans look like. 13th gen Intel is coming in a few months, as do AM5 and Zen 4. The LGA1700 socket is DDR5+DDR4, while Ryzen is DDR5 only. Still, AM5 will need a few months before the worst quirks are stomped out - Which makes Mars-April next year the ideal time to upgrade. DDR5 will be cheap-ish (10-25% more expensive than DDR4) and you also have most next gen quirks ironed out by then.

That said, your options, if your goal is to run on what you have right now, are:

  1. Keep what you have now, wait until October, and get Gen 13/AM5 new platform. Buy entire new computer and sell the old one as a unit.
  2. If you need something now to carry you over, get a Core i7 11700 for ~$300 to last you until 2023. You only need to swap the CPU (do upgrade BIOS before you do it).
  3. Switch to AMD and the 5700X + B550 motherboard combo for around $400. Also a sidegrade and a bit more expensive, but your PC will be fine for another 2 years. Not great, but fine.
  4. If you are going to hold off the switch to AM5 / Intel equivalent at least 18 months, also upgrade RAM to a 3600 kit for another $100-$150. This buys you some time to wait for the next upgrade.

You are correct that a completely new system doesn’t make much sense right now, unless you really need to buy one now (as in, it broke, period).

The nicest thing about AM5 though, which is making me leaning heavily towards it, is the future proofing. Theoretically a good X670 board should be able to last you the life of the socket, which might span 4-5 generations even!

Personally I see few reasons to stay away from ITX, There are quite a few good boutique cases out there, and larger brands are finally catching on too - like the Phantek Evolv Shift XT you mention. You really do not need any thing more fancy for a gaming PC or even most workstations, these days. One x16 port and two m.2 expansion ports is, truly, pretty much all you need for most tasks - and this could theoretically be expanded to 4 m.2 slots, if you remove legacy ports such as USB 2.0, USB 3.0, (in favor of USB-C) and SATA. Add an m.2 expansion card to bring those ports back.

That said, I don’t think the world is quite ready for such forward thinking. Which is why I think, in your case, the Sliger Cerberus might be precisely what you’re looking for. As wide as the Evolv Shift, but taller and slightly shorter, it should take up about the same footprint but add 10-15 cm to the height. And it does support mATX, to boot.

I think within 5-10 years, we will be gaming more on dGPUs than anything else, especially if they are going to keep charging $700+ for the mid-range cards. So, it might be time to reconsider if you really need a discrete GPU in five to ten years. Until 2025 though? Yes, you do.

Thank you for your thoughtful post. It does seem like waiting for AM5 makes the most sense. I could, in the meantime, get a larger PSU and see if that resolves the mystery issues.

AM5 really does make the most sense, even though you wont get quicksync. Plex can work with other GPU’s for encode/decode so if you can get away from Blueiris for your NVR you can free yourself from the Intel/Nvidia solution and get back to best of breed.

All the leaks/rumours look like Intel is going to keep tripping into the next 2 generation of CPU’s where as AMD is expected to have ~20% YoY improvements within the same power envelope (65-90w).

I’m looking at the other solutions you posted to see if I can move from BI, which would help. Plex runs on a server with a separate Intel CPU that can handle HW transcoding, so I may be off the hook there as well.

I really appreciate everyone’s help. The few responses I’ve got here have been extremely helpful!

Zen4 on AM5 is coming with a small iGPU, and IIRC it was going to have decode/encode support built in.

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