Q9550 upgrade for the next decade

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exe

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 4, 2005
Messages
292
Hello all, I have an old Q9550 @3.4ghz I need upgrading. My needs are not great. CPU is fast enough for me, but I am hampered with 8GB memory just running multiple windows/browser tabs. I keep getting low memory warnings. My 2TB storage drive just gave me a SMART failure warning as well.

Also paramount, I want my desktop to be quiet. Currently I have a Zalman(if I remember right) large CPU heatsink with large fan and 1 case fan. The GPU and power supply have fans on them. They are all nice and quiet.

I haven't logged on here in so long, I lost my previous credentials/password and had to make a new one.

Thanks all, once again.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Web browsing 95%. Lightroom 5% (or even less these days)

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 ish

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Tallahassee FL.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, MB, RAM (16GB?), replacement 2TB or larger HD.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Generic case, Enermax 425w power supply (Modu82+ v2.3), generic DVDRW drive, Crucial M4 128GB SSD boot drive. ATI Sapphire R9 200 series 2GB ram Video card (R9 270?), Windows 7 Ultimate. A few Scyth low speed 120mm fans (new from years past).

6) Will you be overclocking?
If it's free and easy.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
I have unique monitor(s). They are Viewsonic VP2290/IBM T221s. They are 4K from over 10 years ago. Mine is running via two single link DVI cables to drive one monitor, each DVI is driving 1920x2400. I have two of these monitors but am only hooked up to one at the moment. I want to hook the other one up as it is gathering dust.

Due to the dual DVI nature of my monitor(s), I have to stick with ATI to utilize eyefinity to generate one unified screen image per monitor.

I have tried together with one my my old 4K monitors, hooking up another normal HDMI driven 4K monitor, and it really bogged my computer down. I have since returned that HDMI 4 K monitor.

So Video card conclusion: I don't know if I can hook up both monitors to my R9 card, I have one HDMI and one DP free, I can get converters to convert to DVI, but if I remember right, the DP needs to have an active dongle attached to work(?). Another easy solution is to buy another video card to drive the other monitor via two DVI.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Soon to April.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Hmm, don't know.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.
 
Well passwords were recently updated/changed due to a forum software change. You can read more about it here. https://hardforum.com/threads/lost-account-access-and-passwords-changed.1887279/

As for the build. Prices and hardware change so fast that you really should come back when you're ready to purchase parts within' that week. Anything more and whatever is recommended to you will most likely be different due to price changes or new hardware releases. Since you mentioned as far as April when you'll be ready this should give you time to increase your budget by saving more money. Reasons.

1. If that PSU is that old is shouldn't be used again. PSUs aren't meant to last forever and after a few years (5+) they begin to degrade. Doesn't matter what kind it is or who makes it. It's highly, highly recommended that you replace that PSU.
2. If each monitor requires two DVI ports than you'll need a second video card. Due note that NVidia has Surround which is similar to AMD/ATI Eyefinity.
3. What case exactly? Chances are it has no cable management and thus can't properly cool a modern PC.
4. Since you go so long between upgrades you might as well get the highest tier CPU setup to extend the life. A 7700K CPU, motherboard capable of handling 2 GPUs and 16GB DDR4 is gonna cost in the neighborhood of $600 leaving you no budget for a HDD.

For the answer to number 9 you should have mentioned the possibility of Crossfire or SLI support. Since you did mention that you might need a second GPU you'll want a motherboard that has two full x16 PCI-e lanes. While that SSD is kind of old I am pretty sure it can still benefit from the faster SATA 6Gb/s ports as well.
 
at your price point I'd start with one of the $400 i5-6400 prebuilts (like this one) and throw in a video card (you'll need a molex to PCIe adapter to use your R9 270 on the stock PSU).
 
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Skillz, ok thanks for that. I can increase the budget no problem.

Case: it's a generic, don't know what name, has nothing special. I don't want to install lots of fan, I want the least amount of fans possible, because my pet peeve is noise. I would also like a case that I can put on my desk, I want to get a standing position desk.

Are there any MB that has 2 PCIe slots (x16 I am guessing I need) and is on the small side, or a MB/case combo that is on the smaller side.

Any recommendation of 2- 4 TB drives?

Is there any point in going SLI or Crossfire? I don't do anything intensive, plus I already have an R9 270. Wouldn't it be more economical to get another ATI or the same model or newer?

Should I keep Win7 64 or upgrade to 10?
 
Well define small? Fractal Design Refine R4 is a relatively small case sitting at less than 19" tall. It's also super quite. I have the R5 version (needed the HDD slots) I believe you can get it at Newegg for $80. Amazon might have it also, but not sure on price. It's basically the same as the R5, just a little smaller. I have 7 HDDs and all the original fans in it without any issues. I also have a Hybrid 1080 GTX inside it running at 100% load (folding) and sinec it's my NAS sitting in my living room I have all the LEDs unplugged (they're distracting) and I have to look in the back to see if the fans are spinning to determine if it's on or not.

They do have Micro-ATX motherboards that have two 16x slots, but they're gonna be crammed. I recommend just going with a full size ATX board if you need two GPUs. You'll appreciate the extra breathing room with 2 GPUs.

I'm biased towards Western Digital HDDs. I had a really, really bad run in with Seagate drives a few years ago. Bought 8 120GB drives from them and had to return them ALL for RMA within' a 2 month span. This was around 2005 or so, but still left a bad taste in my mouth.

I am just tossing around the words SLI and Crossfire because motherboards that can support multiple GPUs will call it that. You do not need to run the cards in SLI/Crossfire to use them at the same time to power multiple monitors. You also don't have to run the same model/brand card either. Just whatever will support your monitor and toss it in there. Depending on what you're doing you could get away with a low end card that just has two DVI connections that support your monitors resolution.

That's your choice. I run Win7 still. I have a laptop that has Win10 on it and I'm not a fan of the new Windows. I'd rather jump on my Linux servers than deal with Win10. That's my personal opinion though. Up to you really.
 
I would highly recommend delaying a couple of weeks, if you can. The AMD Ryzen release is right around the corner, and if reviews are good, it might be worth your time to consider it. If nothing else, you might find some good deals in the FS/FT section around that time as well.
 
I'm happy with W7 myself, I don't really care to learn new stuff lol.

As for old cards, I have an older Nvidia 9600GT 512MB Ram, can the new software do the Eyefinity equivalent function? I don't do anything intensive with my computer, displaying stock charts, stock chart software, web pages, PDF files. Even my CPU utilization is low, almost always stay below teens percentage usage.

"Small". As small as I can get away with. I would agree ATX boards are more versatile, but I have minimal requirements. R4 is too big in my opinion. I don't need all those HD slots. Define C looks good. I 'm going to investigate if I can go smaller than ATX MB, which will translate to a smaller case as well.

Is there any reason to upgrade my SSD? I've had it a few years, but still only 1/2 full for a 128GB capacity drive. I do need a new SSD on my laptop as that one has 64GB total and I am running out of room as I download Youtube videos on it. I could either buy a new SSD for the desktop and use the old one on the laptop (can take 2 more drives).

mvmiller12, ya I heard something about that, I don't mind waiting a short while.
 
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Well the Define C is only like 2" smaller than the R4. Both can still hold an ATX motherboard. So if you want something smaller than that then you should go with a case that can't support ATX boards. Something like the Define Nano S which is a little over 13" tall and can support a dual slot GPU.

I'm not too familiar with Eyefinity, but the VisionTek RAdeon 7750 SFF has 4 DVI-D ports. It has a blower fan so I am not sure just how loud it would be, but I suspsect in a case such as the Nano S it'll be barely audible.

If nothing you're doing requires intensive CPU work then a low end quad core would be fine and save you some money. You might be able to fit everything into your current budget if your only limitation on your current rig is the Max RAM. Any newer quad core would crush a Q9550 in performance all around.

As for low noise you could go with an AIO cooler and/or a tower cooler.
 
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Here a preliminary build I put together using only Newegg as the retailer. I prefer to buy everything at the same location, but feel free to cross-check prices to see if you can find it cheaper else-where if you wish.

Do note that if you don't order this in the next couple days then don't bother ordering. Post here again and a new build will need to be put together as prices will change.

Total: $877.12 shipped

$45 - Fractal Design Define Nano S Black Silent Mini ITX Mini Tower Computer Case
$89 - WD RED 2TB NAS HDD
$45 - SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W
$180 - G.SKILL Aegis 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133
$90 - MSI B250I PRO LGA 1151 Intel B250 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
$35 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
$213 - Intel Intel Core i5-7500 Kaby Lake Quad-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 1151 65W
$177 - Visiontek Radeon 7750 SFF 1GB DDR3 5M VHDCI (4x DVI-D, miniDP)

The case is one I mentioned above. It's a little over 13" tall.

The hard drive is a "NAS" drive, but for the most part ignore marketing. It'll work fine as a storage drive on your computer.

The PSU is a Seasonic and scored really, really well with JonnyGuru.

I went with 32GB of RAM because that's the most your motherboard supports. RAM seems to be your limitation so why not get the maximum you can get on your new system right away.

Motherboard is a Micro-ITX board. Really small and will fit inside the above mentioned case.

This cooler is a popular cooler. It's 159mm tall and your case supports coolers up to 160mm. So it's got ~1mm to spare. The 120mm fan is quiet.

Quad core Kaby Lake processor. Much, much faster than your current Q9550.

That GPU is capable of 4 displays on 4x DVI-D ports. It's AMD/ATI so you should be familiar with Eyefinity.
 
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exe1 said:
Also paramount, I want my desktop to be quiet.
Click to expand...

Then I have good news for you. You can now get a totally silent CPU cooler, the Nofan CR-95. You can also get fanless PSUs, and a fanless RX 460 and GTX 1050 Ti. Slap all of those in a Silverstone FT02 or FT05, remove the case fans, and you'll have a completely silent system that will enable modest gaming at 1080p. You can use HDMI to DVI and DP to dual DVI converters to run your monitors. The RX 460 can even run in crossfire.

But if you really don't need to game, look at the Intel NUC systems, though you'll have to change your monitors.

Due to the dual DVI nature of my monitor(s), I have to stick with ATI to utilize eyefinity to generate one unified screen image per monitor.
Click to expand...

This is no longer true. Nvidia cards can cope with 2x1 monitors.
 
Skillz said:
Total: $877.12 shipped

$45 - Fractal Design Define Nano S Black Silent Mini ITX Mini Tower Computer Case
$89 - WD RED 2TB NAS HDD
$45 - SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W
$180 - G.SKILL Aegis 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133
$90 - MSI B250I PRO LGA 1151 Intel B250 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
$35 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
$213 - Intel Intel Core i5-7500 Kaby Lake Quad-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 1151 65W
$177 - Visiontek Radeon 7750 SFF 1GB DDR3 5M VHDCI (4x DVI-D, miniDP)

[snip]

This cooler is a popular cooler. It's 159mm tall and your case supports coolers up to 160mm. So it's got ~1mm to spare. The 120mm fan is quiet.
Click to expand...

I recommend a different CPU cooler that works just as well but is a bit shorter:

$35 - CRYORIG H7 tower cooler (with 120mm fan)

The CRYORIG H7 is 145mm tall and is designed to not block the RAM slots.

That said, it's a minor nitpick. Skillz's build is quite good for your budget.
 
That cooler isn't any quieter than the stock HSF. So he should just stick with the stock one and save the money.
 
Should I bpick the WD in other sizes, I assume they are all the same? I'm thinking 3-4TB.

I am leaning towards mATX in a non Fractal Designed case (not compact enough) using my existing card, and adding on another one, so dual GPU. I have found H170M chipset that supports x16 and x4 electrical lanes. I am thinking for my use, it should suffice.
 
Alright you need to figure out what you want here. You mentioned the Define C was more in-line with the size you wanted sitting in around 15.5" tall and I recommended a case that's 13" tall and it's not compact enough? The 13" tall case only supports ITX motherboards which are smaller than mATX. So what size case do you want? Because anything smaller and an mATX motherboard most likely wont fit.

I am trying to keep things somewhat close to your budget as possible. Yes all the drives are relatively the same so if you have the money for a larger drive then by all means get it.

Why use dual GPUs when a single GPU will do what you need? Your current GPU wont support both your monitors and a cheap solution is the single 7750 that has quad DVI-D ports. Everything you need. One GPU. Even less space for your compact design.
 
I mentioned the Define C until I looked at the spec and it is only about 1.5 inch shorter, that is not what I want. So my goal is, mATX in as small a case as possible, which means to me no Fractal Design cases as they are all big for any given MB size. What is 'as small a case as possible', I don't know, I will have to look around a bit, but to me smaller is better.

Isn't going from R9 270 to a 7750 going backward? I don't need performance. But I am curious, is it going to let me combine DVI 1 and 2 into a unified screen and then DVI 3 and 4 into another unified screen? I do not want DVI 1+2+3+4 unified into one screen. Spending another $170 on the card isn't going to be any more or less than buying a second GPU, which would cost around the same no? On top of this, I have an Nvidia 9600GT with at least two DVI, if the Nvidia software of today is usable with the card to unify the two DVI output, I can just drop that in and additional cost is $0.

Are there any good Ethernet over poweline products?

Thanks for the replies and input.
 
Using two GPUs will cost more than just buying that $170 GPU. You'll need a board that supports two full sized 16x slots. mAXT isn't all that small. ITX (the board and case I recommended) is smaller than mATX specifications. While the Nano S is a little on the larger side of ITX it's still smaller than most mATX cases. 13" is pretty dang small for mATX.

Comparison of the motherboard sizes.
atx-microatx-mini-itx.jpg


As you can see. mATX isn't that much smaller than a standard ATX board. ITX, on the other hand, is a lot smaller.

Check out the Fractal Core 500 case. It's only 8" tall. Uses ITX motherboards only so only 1 PCI-e slot will be available.

As for the 7750 being an older card than the 270 that is correct. The 270 is a lot more GPU than the 7750, but their isn't a new GPU that has 4x DVI-D ports. Non that I could find at least. While most do have 4 connections of some sort you'll be stuck buying, in most cases, expensive adapters to get it to work. This is a plug-n-play solution that works. I also have no idea about AMD/ATI so I don't know how their software works with doing 1 monitor to 2 DVI ports, twice.

I'm not sure the newer software/drivers would let you unify a single display with two ports on older Nvidia cards. I know the newer 5xx series and newer will. Actually I think the 4xx series will also.

I use ethernet over powerline and can say they all basically suck. I'm on a 1/1Gbps connection and the powerline adapter, while rated at like 500Mbps can barely reach 30Mbps speeds in real world conditions. I only use them for my folding farms up stairs so throughput isn't as important. They're relatively reliable as I've only had to reboot/restart them once since I've had them for around a year now.
 
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