Building a whole new rig

[The VCR King]

My current PC has enough problems as it is and it has essentially become a money pit with it's issues and the upgrades it needs. I need a new power supply, a new GPU, and those parts cost about as much as the PC is worth, so I might as well build a new one.

Is it possible to clone my hard drive so that in my soon-to-be-built replacement rig, all my games, documents, files, etc. are where they were at on The Blue Beast? How would I transfer everything? Can I put my current HDD into the new PC and do a new Windows install and then move everything from the Windows.old to where they belong?

 

[Geoff]

Just because you need a new power supply and GPU, doesn't mean your computer is worthless. You realize that instead of spending $400 on a quality power supply and video card, you'd now have to spend over $1000 to build a new PC right? There is nothing wrong with your motherboard, CPU, case, RAM, or optical drive.

It's like saying "My car needs new brakes and an oil change, so I'll just get a new car".

 

[spirit]

Is it possible to clone my hard drive so that in my soon-to-be-built replacement rig, all my games, documents, files, etc. are where they were at on The Blue Beast? How would I transfer everything? Can I put my current HDD into the new PC and do a new Windows install and then move everything from the Windows.old to where they belong?

No you'll need to do a fresh install of Windows and apps on the new PC. You can't simply swap or clone disks between PCs I'm afraid. It's because the hardware is completely different.

You can however back up your Steam games library and transfer that.

Just because you need a new power supply and GPU, doesn't mean your computer is worthless. You realize that instead of spending $400 on a quality power supply and video card, you'd now have to spend over $1000 to build a new PC right? There is nothing wrong with your motherboard, CPU, case, RAM, or optical drive.

Let's face it Geoff - he has an AM3 setup at the moment. It's a dead socket and he has an X6 in it which is the highest-end AM3 CPU and he has a 6950 which was a mid-range card when it was new about 5 years ago. Let's not forget that the power supply is on its way out too. I think if you had his setup and wanted to upgrade we'd probably just tell you build a new PC or at least replace the CPU, board, RAM and GPU given that the CPU socket is dead, you already have the best CPU you can put in it, you're using previous generation RAM and the GPU is 5 years old and wasn't even the fastest when it was new.

You could reuse the case and maybe the RAM but you'd probably want to go with DDR4 if you were doing a new build and move away from DDR3. Certainly all of the high-end Intel boards only support DDR4 and whilst AMD don't currently have any performance CPUs or boards that support DDR4 it is almost certain that their next generation performance platform, which should be coming out this year, will. Or rather it *has* to support DDR4 else they won't be competitive. At the moment the Intel Skylake CPUs work with DDR3 or DDR4 but the next generation will likely be DDR4 only, so by the time he has the money the CPUs and boards from Intel and AMD may be DDR4 only.

 

[Geoff]

I know the 6950 is an old video card, which is why I'm suggesting he just replace the video card and power supply. You said yourself, he has the highest end AM3 CPU there is, which while not the best out there, is still more than capable. If he has money to buy a $1,500 Intel i7 build then have at it, but buying a new PSU and GPU alone isn't a waste since he could port those over to a new build later this year if he decides to. AMD is also releasing their new processors and socket this year, so he could wait for that and just replace those two components to start.

 

[beers]

and just replace those two components to start.

This, just buy the PSU and GPU you ultimately want, and then upgrade the rest of the platform when the new parts drop. At that point you'll still be using the PSU and GPU and the build will have a similar net budget.

It's a dead socket and he has an X6 in it which is the highest-end AM3 CPU

There were a few boards where the FX line fit/worked for AM3 in 890FX boards, it looks like the 8150 is 'officially supported', although it wouldn't be much of an upgrade lol.

 

[spirit]

There were a few boards where the FX line fit/worked for AM3 in 890FX boards, it looks like the 8150 is 'officially supported', although it wouldn't be much of an upgrade lol.

Not worth it. The 8150 was rubbish anyway.

At this stage his parts are 5 or 6 years old. It's time to wave goodbye to the X6 and move on. I'd save and build a new PC at this point rather than upgrading this bit by bit. Don't look at parts yet or buy anything for it (apart from that PSU so you can use your current system and move it into the new system) and buy what's good when you have the money. With AMD reentering the performance market this year or next things things could be shaken up a bit!

 

[Laquer Head]

OP..How do you go from ignoring advice (multiple times) to get a new PSU, then boasting about running Prime95 on a stock system, ask about overclocking, with zero knowledge, to I guess I'm gonna build a new PC within 24 hours.

I guess I'd like to understand how this thought process works, cause honestly, you seem like a 15 year old kid, who has no money or knowledge but just enjoys wasting peoples time.

Sorry to be a jerk but your threads are crazy bizarre 95% of the time..

 

[spirit]

I know the 6950 is an old video card, which is why I'm suggesting he just replace the video card and power supply. You said yourself, he has the highest end AM3 CPU there is, which while not the best out there, is still more than capable. If he has money to buy a $1,500 Intel i7 build then have at it, but buying a new PSU and GPU alone isn't a waste since he could port those over to a new build later this year if he decides to. AMD is also releasing their new processors and socket this year, so he could wait for that and just replace those two components to start.

I get replacing the PSU because he needs one and they don't really go out of date. I think it's hard to suggest he goes and buys a new GPU without knowing how much money he has now, which I guess is not a lot of money. I reckon if he bought a new card now it'd be mid-range and by the time he replaced his board and CPU the card would be a bit weak and old. He'd need to spend a lot on something like a 970 or a 390 to make it worthwhile so that when he gets the new parts (which could be in a year or two!) he still has a decent GPU, even if it is a generation or two old. But on the other hand he'd have a higher-end GPU sooner and yeah he'd see better performance now but not necessarily in the future which may mean he'd want to upgrade again.

It depends if he wants to live with what he's got until he can afford a new CPU, board, RAM (maybe) and GPU or whether he can wait and buy the very best he can afford when the time comes.

@The VCR King what monitor do you have? What resolution is it?

 

[beers]

Not worth it. The 8150 was rubbish anyway.

That's the point I was making, although just extra tidbits of knowledge as a FYI.

 

[The VCR King]

I get replacing the PSU because he needs one and they don't really go out of date. I think it's hard to suggest he goes and buys a new GPU without knowing how much money he has now, which I guess is not a lot of money. I reckon if he bought a new card now it'd be mid-range and by the time he replaced his board and CPU the card would be a bit weak and old. He'd need to spend a lot on something like a 970 or a 390 to make it worthwhile so that when he gets the new parts (which could be in a year or two!) he still has a decent GPU, even if it is a generation or two old. But on the other hand he'd have a higher-end GPU sooner and yeah he'd see better performance now but not necessarily in the future which may mean he'd want to upgrade again.

It depends if he wants to live with what he's got until he can afford a new CPU, board, RAM (maybe) and GPU or whether he can wait and buy the very best he can afford when the time comes.

@The VCR King what monitor do you have? What resolution is it?

It's a Samsung syncmaster 1680x1050

Just because you need a new power supply and GPU, doesn't mean your computer is worthless. You realize that instead of spending $400 on a quality power supply and video card, you'd now have to spend over $1000 to build a new PC right? There is nothing wrong with your motherboard, CPU, case, RAM, or optical drive.

It's like saying "My car needs new brakes and an oil change, so I'll just get a new car".

I know but I want a newer computer anyways. My current rig really struggles with fallout 4 even on lowest settings and I want something more current

Not worth it. The 8150 was rubbish anyway.

At this stage his parts are 5 or 6 years old. It's time to wave goodbye to the X6 and move on. I'd save and build a new PC at this point rather than upgrading this bit by bit. Don't look at parts yet or buy anything for it (apart from that PSU so you can use your current system and move it into the new system) and buy what's good when you have the money. With AMD reentering the performance market this year or next things things could be shaken up a bit!

This is my point. Instead of throwing money at an old computer, make a newer and better one. And I'm not looking at paths yet I'm just brainstorming things

 

[voyagerfan99]

This is my point. Instead of throwing money at an old computer, make a newer and better one. And I'm not looking at paths yet I'm just brainstorming things

I still say go Geoff's route. It's the most logical if you're not gonna shell out lots of $$ for everything new right now.

Buy a higher end GPU like a GTX 970 and a 600W PSU. Then upgrade CPU/Mobo/RAM when you have more money.

 

[Geoff]

This is my point. Instead of throwing money at an old computer, make a newer and better one. And I'm not looking at paths yet I'm just brainstorming things

How much money do you have to spend on this? If you can afford to spend $1,500 on a new computer, then I would agree that a completely new build could be worthwhile. From your past posts though, you don't have a whole lot of money, so how can you afford to build an entirely new PC?

If you don't have much money, posting a thread tomorrow saying "Build me the best gaming PC for $500" would be idiotic. Spend that small amount of money you have on a new PSU and video card. You aren't throwing money at an old machine, since both these parts would be perfectly capable of being used in your existing machine or a brand new PC later this year.

 

[spirit]

This is my point. Instead of throwing money at an old computer, make a newer and better one. And I'm not looking at paths yet I'm just brainstorming things

Yeah the way you do this really depends on when you want the performance and what your financial situations and plans are.

If you want to see a big performance improvement in games right now then you need to buy a new PSU and GPU and be prepared to spend a lot of money. You'd want to buy something high-end like a GTX 980 because when you get around to replacing the board, CPU and RAM (which you will want to do!) your GPU may be older than the current generation available at the time, but it won't be too much slower than the current generation for reasons I'll explain later. If you bought a GTX 960 or equivalent tomorrow it's true that you'd see the improvement from the 6950, but when you upgrade the rest of your system in a year or two you may find that your GPU is being a bit of a bottleneck and actually you want something faster.

However if you think you can live with your system for a bit longer and you are going to be prepared to save then I'd wait and build a completely brand new system using all of the latest generation components.

It also really depends on your finances. You need to sit down and think about this: how much do I want to spend overall AND more importantly how am I going to get this money and how long will it take me to get it?

If you have $500 to spend now and want to see an immediate improvement it'd be daft to build a new $500 system because for the same money you could buy a GTX 970 or 980 and a new PSU, put those in your current system and have a gaming PC that outperforms any $500 system you could build new. But if you think you want to spend $1,000 or more on it and you think you can save up relatively quickly (maybe in a year) then I would wait and build a $1,000 system when the time comes. The graphics card generation performance changes with every generation. The GTX 680 of 2012 performs the same as the GTX 770 of 2013 and the GTX 780 Ti of 2013 performs about the same as the GTX 970 of 2014 or 2015. It's true for AMD too: the high-end 5870 of 2009 performs the same as the more mid-range 6870 of 2010. Do you see that the high-end cards of one generation are equivalent to the more mid-range cards of the next? So if you saved $1,000 over the course of a year or so then by the time you are looking to buy a completely new PC you will more than likely be able to buy a card with GTX 980 performance for less than the price of a brand new GTX 980 today, meaning that it wouldn't really matter if you didn't buy a GTX 980 today with the intention of 'also using it in a future build' because you'll be able to get that same performance (or better!) for less money in the future when you are building a new PC using the current generation components.

So it really depends if you want to see an immediate gain or if you're prepared to wait. It depends how much you want to spend. It depends how much you think you can save and also how long you think it will take you to have the money to spend on a PC.

Whilst you are saving you will need to be so rigourous and not spend money on 'little things here and there' - all (or the vast, vast majority) of your money will need to put aside to fund this. If you are going to build something brand new then you want to spend the most money you can lay your hands on so that you can build the best PC you can afford, or think of it as 'the PC that will satisfy you'. Take myself as an example. When I was 12 I started saving for my first PC and money just falls through my hands like a sieve - it did back then and it still does today, to some extent. But by saving hard and not buying things I eventually built my first PC and it was a fairly high-end machine for its time and I was very happy with it. Right now I really want to buy a car and have driving lessons, but there's also a new camera I'm interested in and other things too. But I have decided I want the car and the driving lessons so I am not spending my money on anything other than that. You will need to be focused and see the end. But if you think you may be tempted to spend a bit here and there or only want to spend about $500 then I would suggest getting a new PSU and GPU is the way to go instead.

Hopefully this is helpful insight for you. Without trying to sound like your father, I'm trying to help you and I want you to spend your money in the best way possible.

 

[The VCR King]

Yeah the way you do this really depends on when you want the performance.

If you want to see a big performance improvement in games right now then you need to buy a new PSU and GPU and be prepared to spend a lot of money. You'd want to buy something high-end like a GTX 980 because when you get around to replacing the board, CPU and RAM (which you will want to do!) your GPU may be older than the current generation available at the time, but it won't be too much slower than the current generation for reasons I'll explain later. If you bought a GTX 960 or equivalent tomorrow it's true that you'd see the improvement from the 6950, but when you upgrade the rest of your system in a year or two you may find that your GPU is being a bit of a bottleneck and actually you want something faster.

However if you think you can live with your system for a bit longer and you are going to be prepared to save then I'd wait and build a completely brand new system using all of the latest generation components.

It also really depends on your finances. You need to sit down and think about this: how much do I want to spend overall AND more importantly how am I going to get this money and how long will it take me to get it?

If you have $500 to spend now and want to see an immediate improvement it'd be daft to build a new $500 system because for the same money you could buy a GTX 970 or 980 and a new PSU, put those in your current system and have a gaming PC that outperforms any $500 system you could build new. But if you think you want to spend $1,000 or more on it and you think you can save up relatively quickly (maybe in a year) then I would wait and build a $1,000 system when the time comes. The graphics card generation performance changes with every generation. The GTX 680 of 2012 performs the same as the GTX 770 of 2013 and the GTX 780 Ti of 2013 performs about the same as the GTX 970 of 2014 or 2015. It's true for AMD too: the high-end 5870 of 2009 performs the same as the more mid-range 6870 of 2010. Do you see that the high-end cards of one generation are equivalent to the more mid-range cards of the next? So if you saved $1,000 over the course of a year or so then by the time you are looking to buy a completely new PC you will more than likely be able to buy a card with GTX 980 performance for less than the price of a brand new GTX 980 today, meaning that it wouldn't really matter if you didn't buy a GTX 980 today with the intention of 'also using it in a future build' because you'll be able to get that same performance (or better!) for less money in the future when you are building a new PC using the current generation components.

So it really depends if you want to see an immediate gain or if you're prepared to wait. It depends how much you want to spend. It depends how much you think you can save and also how long you think it will take you to have the money to spend on a PC.

Whilst you are saving you will need to be so rigourous and not spend money on 'little things here and there' - all (or the vast, vast majority) of your money will need to put aside to fund this. If you are going to build something brand new then you want to spend the most money you can lay your hands on so that you can build the best PC you can afford, or think of it as 'the PC that will satisfy you'. Take myself as an example. When I was 12 I started saving for my first PC and money just falls through my hands like a sieve - it did back then and it still does today, to some extent. But by saving hard and not buying things I eventually built my first PC and it was a fairly high-end machine for its time and I was very happy with it. Right now I really want to buy a car and have driving lessons, but there's also a new camera I'm interested in and other things too. But I have decided I want the car and the driving lessons so I am not spending my money on anything other than that. You will need to be focused and see the end. But if you think you may be tempted to spend a bit here and there or only want to spend about $500 then I would suggest getting a new PSU and GPU is the way to go instead.

Hopefully this is helpful insight for you. Without trying to sound like your father, I'm trying to help you and I want you to spend your money in the best way possible.

I'll probably save up for a new rig instead of throwing money at my updated one, but I know I'll be reusing the case, RAM, and my Zalman cooler and TV tuner, and I'll probably keep all the other parts as spare bits or sell them

 

[voyagerfan99]

I'll probably save up for a new rig instead of throwing money at my updated one, but I know I'll be reusing the case, RAM, and my Zalman cooler and TV tuner, and I'll probably keep all the other parts as spare bits or sell them

Start now with a PSU and GPU.

And remember if you plan on going with a Skylake CPU you'll be buying new RAM.

 

[spirit]

I'll probably save up for a new rig instead of throwing money at my updated one, but I know I'll be reusing the case, RAM, and my Zalman cooler and TV tuner, and I'll probably keep all the other parts as spare bits or sell them

OK that sounds like an idea. Reusing those parts will save you money and it will leave you more money to spend on the CPU or the GPU later on.

I would however suggest that you buy a new PSU so that you can use your existing system whilst you save and then you can simply move your new PSU into the new build when you build it. The Corsair CX600M or CX750M would be a good option for now and for the future. Buying that now would be good because you are buying it for the future and unlike GPUs and CPUs and most other components, power supplies don't go out of date or get replaced for a long time!

 

[Geoff]

I'll probably save up for a new rig instead of throwing money at my updated one, but I know I'll be reusing the case, RAM, and my Zalman cooler and TV tuner, and I'll probably keep all the other parts as spare bits or sell them

Most new systems use DDR4 so you'll likely want/need to get new RAM too.

If you can't even play games now, as Travis and I told you already you can get a new PSU and GPU now, use it in your old one, then swap it over when you get enough for a new build.

 

[spirit]

Most new systems use DDR4 so you'll likely want/need to get new RAM too.

If you can't even play games now, as Travis and I told you already you can get a new PSU and GPU now, use it in your old one, then swap it over when you get enough for a new build.

Yeah @The VCR King like I said earlier you'll likely need DDR4 and when you build the system it's likely that both the current AMD and Intel platforms at the time will only work with DDR4. I know right now that Skylake works with both DDR3 and DDR4 but if you look at the high-end boards (the Z170 boards, the kind of chipset you'd want if you're going to go with Intel) most only support DDR4.

I think a 6950 should be able to still play games at 1680x1050 though obviously not the newer titles on higher settings. Do you have a 1GB or a 2GB 6950? The 1GB ones may struggle a little but the 2GB ones should be OK, though 1680x1050 isn't a particularly high resolution at all.

 

[The VCR King]

Yeah @The VCR King like I said earlier you'll likely need DDR4 and when you build the system it's likely that both the current AMD and Intel platforms at the time will only work with DDR4. I know right now that Skylake works with both DDR3 and DDR4 but if you look at the high-end boards (the Z170 boards, the kind of chipset you'd want if you're going to go with Intel) most only support DDR4.

I think a 6950 should be able to still play games at 1680x1050 though obviously not the newer titles on higher settings. Do you have a 1GB or a 2GB 6950? The 1GB ones may struggle a little but the 2GB ones should be OK, though 1680x1050 isn't a particularly high resolution at all.

Oh... swap it into the new build. Duh! I'm stupid... And I don't really want all larger screen. 1680x1050 is fine for me right now.

Edit: and my 6950 is 2GB

 

[spirit]

Oh... swap it into the new build. Duh! I'm stupid... And I don't really want all larger screen. 1680x1050 is fine for me right now.

Edit: and my 6950 is 2GB

I'm not suggesting you get a larger screen I'm just pointing out that the 6950 should still be OK for 1680x1050 (settings depending on the game) especially given yours is a 2GB one. 2GB of VRAM should be enough for 1680x1050 for older games but yeah maybe the newer titles might struggle a bit given that JC3 maxed out on my GTX 760 4GB at 1080p consumes about 3-3.5GB VRAM and 3 or 4 years ago we always thought that 2GB was enough for 1080p and even 1GB was fine at the time, but I guess newer games consume more RAM regardless of the resolution really. Could you download GPU-Z, run it, click on the 'Sensors' tab then play a newer game (eg Fallout 4) and let me know how much VRAM it's using? I'd be interested to see.

If the performance in the GPU department does turn into a problem and you find that you absolutely must upgrade then maybe think about buying a new GPU but make sure it's a high-end one like a GTX 980 so that you don't lose out on performance in the future.